WE MUST CHOOSE A ROLE MODEL LEADER TO LEAD US WHERE WE MUST GO

 “Pharmally scandal: When middlemen profit even during a pandemic” - Headline

A newly-formed company, Pharmally was the “middlemen” that bagged fraudulent contracts amounting to some P11.5 billion for the supply of personal protective equipment, face masks and shields, and Covid-19 test kits, among others. Sen. Richard Gordon said a “grand conspiracy” has surrounded the deal that goes all the way up to PRRD. Further, he asserted, “We found that those involved prioritized their profits, commissions or kickbacks, instead of coming up with the right way to quell the pandemic.”

What would have been the right way?

I recall as a practicing civil engineer managing construction projects many years ago, we prequalified prospective contractors based on Presidential Decree No. 1594. It requires contractors to meet (besides legal and technical) the financial requirements: net worth and liquid assets that would enable the winning contractor to satisfactorily carry out the contracted work. Just as the spirit of PD 1594 applies to construction management, so the same applies in a large-scale procurement contract, like in Pharmally case.

Let’s untangle the situation above using a familiar illustration.

I decided to repair my house. I hired a stranger (no track record) to buy the construction materials I need. He has nothing to show me he can do the job: he has no money (625,000 negligible vs. 11.5 billion) and no experience (newly-formed company). Later, I got wind he’s cheating me. I called him up to ask him about the matter. I couldn’t find him anymore. I got a sniff of a fraud.

“What’s wrong with you?” is the question I predict you will throw at me. Looking at the big picture, the Pharmally scandal is the microcosm of PH: where we are now as a people. If we cut that big picture into small pieces of thumbnail images to form a sort of a collage, each thumbnail image represents a negative Filipino trait. If you Google “negative Filipino traits,” you’ll get lots of articles that list such traits ranging from “crab mentality” to “Filipino time.” One striking negative trait that has taken hold of the Pharmally scandal: Pinoys’ “general disregard for rules.”

Let’s go into the details of such a thumbnail trait. As the saying goes: “the devil is in the details.”

How come we see Pinoys crossing the road amid the traffic turning a blind eye to the “No Jaywalking” sign or walking on a restricted area along a high-rise building under construction brushing aside the “Watch Out for Falling Debris” sign, or throwing thrashes anywhere shrugging off a garbage can provided in one corner? But, not so fast, these are typical Filipino negative traits one observes – only in the Philippines. However, abroad, Pinoys have shown the other side of the coin – the Filipino positive traits. Interviewed in Philstar’s article “How disciplined are Filipinos?” fellow Pinoys’ answers to the question give us a glimpse of who we are as a people.

“Pinoys are only disciplined when they are in another country, especially in the Middle East, because they implement their laws there. Otherwise, most Pinoys are undisciplined as our laws here can be broken because those implementing them are just as corrupt.” (J.R. Mondonedo Jr., Paranaque City)

“Here in our country, Pinoys are too concerned about their rights, never mind others or the law. This is true especially for the rich who can hire corrupt lawyers.” (Ed Alawi, Davao City)

“Filipinos are intrinsically disciplined people. Offshore, Filipinos manifest discipline, leading to an improved life. In the Philippines, however, Filipinos tend to forget discipline due to the fact that public officials and law enforcers show undisciplined behavior. We lack ROLE MODELS (underscoring mine) that we can emulate and that can serve as the standard of discipline. (Edwin Monares, Rizal)

Even foreigners have been impressed by Filipinos living abroad.

“Everywhere they settled, Filipinos outworked their Asian counterparts, with women migrants heavily concentrated in nursing and related medical fields.” (Excerpted from the book “The Other Americans by Joel Millman)

Here’s one news item that can present us with the key to unlocking the PH plight where we are now and points us to where we must go.

NBC News reported that more than 4 million Filipino-Americans live in the United States, according to U.S. Census data, more than 1.6 million in California. But despite making up 1 percent of the U.S. population and the community’s centuries-long history in the U.S., the group’s representation in Congress has been sparse.

Specializing in Asian-American politics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor Pei-te Lien, in that same report said, “she and her colleagues have continuously wondered why the [Filipino-American’s] political power hasn’t followed the growth of its population.”

“[Filipino-Americans] could do a lot more in terms of visibility in mainstream politics, but you need some ROLE MODELS (underscoring mine)…” Lien said.

At this point, the question “Where are we now?” was answered by the discussion above as exemplified by the Pharmally scandal. The next question to be tackled: “Where are we going?” (“Quo Vadis?” in Latin). We need a leader to lead us where we must go -- that leader must be a role model.

Amid our digital age of weaponized social media, here’s the basic quality of a role model: he or she lives a life so decent that any bad comment about him or her, is always deemed outright by the public as a lie and the commenter a liar.

The question of the hour: Who is a role model among the presidential candidates we must choose to lead us?

The role model criterion is a “must” in choosing our leader. It means that a candidate who fails to meet this criterion is deemed unqualified. Period.

Finally, one simple test is found in the classic poem “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum excerpted and underscored below:

Share everything.

PLAY FAIR.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

DON’T TAKE THINGS THAT AREN’T YOURS.

If a candidate cannot even follow as easy as the kindergarten rules, what do we expect from such a candidate in following complex ones?

A leader who is a role model is our only hope to get us out from where we are now and lead us to where we must go.