Femme Power

Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

The Philippines is on a 10-day mourning period.  Our well-loved former President Corazon Aquino (otherwise known as Cory or Tita Cory) peacefully passed away yesterday after more than a year of battling colon cancer.  She succumbed to cardio-respiratory arrest at 3:18 am. She was 76.

Yes, we just lost a national icon of democracy, a true leader instead of a politician, a woman of unquestionable character.  Not only did she help lead the country topple the Marcos dictatorship in 1986 but she also restored and upheld this country’s democracy despite the seven coup attempts that battled her administration.   Even after her term, she continued to serve the country as an ordinary citizen by actively participating in non-governmental organizations and rallying against unjust government practices.

She retained her popularity with us Filipinos until her final days.  She had once united us to fight the shackles of Martial Law and even in her last days, she united the nation once again.  People of different religions, ages, professions, social classes, political views and affiliations from all over the archipelago tied yellow ribbons wherever visible as a show of their support and love for Mrs. Aquino.  Even the Marcoses, whose family she ousted from Malacanang, prayed for her.

Tita Cory may have passed away but her legacy will be remembered forever.

(Note: This is a duplicate post of my original article at Femme.News.Views.)

I was one of the millions of Filipinos glued to their seats to watch President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo deliver her 9th and last SONA or State of the Nation Address over a local TV network. It was full of statistics to quantify the present administration’s achievements under Pres. Arroyo’s leadership. Figures that made me sigh in relief and silently applaud…for a while.

“The state of our nation is a good economy,” the President said. “Good news for our people, bad news for our critics,” she added. GMA took pride in enumerating her administration’s economic reforms, infrastructures, public service law, and many others.

Here are few of the highlights mentioned by the President:

“Good economy”

• $6B revenues and 600,000 jobs created by the BPO industry
• Tourism almost doubled to a $5B industry
• $165B-Micro Finance Loans helped 7M entrepreneurs
• Banking system improved
• Foreign reserves have grown by $3B.
• GDP growth highest in 43 years
• Poverty reduced by almost half
• 1M jobs generated every year
• Economy posted uninterrupted growth for 33 quarters since 2001
• Our average inflation is lowest since 1966.

Infrastructures

• The government’s housing programs benefited 1M families.
• 16 kms. of farm-to-market roads
• Construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway
• Built seaports and the RORO system
• Constructed international airports and upgraded domestic airports
• Automated elections (digital infrastructure)

Education and Health Care

• Recommends radical reforms in the country’s education system
• Will allot P1.5B budget for teacher training
• Built 95,000 rooms
• Hired 60,000 teachers
• Approval of the Cheaper Medicines Law
• Improving health care in the country that covers 86% of the population

GMA further stressed that foreign debts were tremendously slashed and debts of government corporations were reduced by almost half. She cited that the government will further improve collection on sin taxes. Also mentioned were the P1B budget for modern fish farming that benefits the indigenous people; the current ceasefire in war-torn areas in Mindanao, and Epira, the government’s answer to lower power rates.

Apart from her administration’s accomplishments, The President also chided her critics saying she did not become President to be popular. “Those who live in glass houses should not cast stones,those who should be in jail should not threaten it, especially if they have been there.” she retorted.

Honestly, I was rather impressed with the President’s SONA…because I was made to believe that the data given were all factual. A few hours later, news reports and editorials came out refuting The President’s “facts and figures.” Economists, people from the academe and the business sector were quick to challenge the veracity of the President’s statistics. They cited the country’s slow foreign trade, the low 0.4 growth of gross domestic product, among others.

One of those I watched on TV was Mareng Winnie Monsod, another woman I look up to for being so brainy, vocal, reputable, and vigilant. Monsod, a UP professor, is one of the country’s respectable and credible economists.

Monsod argued that basing on actual figures from the National Statistics Office, only 2.8 M jobs were created from 2004-2008, a far cry from the promised 1M jobs per year. She added that poverty rose by almost 50%.

Monsod further enumerated the following that remains unanswered:

1. The increase in corruption
2. The increase in human rights violations
3. The increase in bureaucracy and overall demoralization of the civil service

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, meanwhile, said in an article published on Business Mirror that “government statistics show that the number of poor Filipinos now total 27.6 million, or an increase of 2.7 million between 2000 and 2006. The number of poor families rose by 530,642 also during the same period, bringing the total to 4.7 million.”

Is the economy really doing good as the President confidently stressed? Or is the country’s economy just lucky to be sustained and fuelled by the OFW’s billion dollar remittances? Who among them are giving the real statistics and the real state of the nation? Are the figures reported by the President factual or are they, like what her critics say, merely works of fiction?

Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino.  The plain housewife of the late Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr. who was catapulted into Presidency in 1986 due to People Power Revolution. The 11th Philippine President.  Asia’s first female President.  A highly spiritual woman.  Well-loved by many around the globe.  These are but few of the many descriptions about Cory, a woman I so admire.

When she lost the 1986 Snap Presidential Elections against Marcos, the Filipino people cried electoral fraud and marched to the streets.  She was instrumental to the end of the Marcos Dictatorship and Martial Law.   She restored this country’s democracy.

It was during her term that the 1987 Constitution was approved in a national plebiscite.  It was also during her term when the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was enacted, among others.  However, her presidency was beset by several coup attempts mostly instigated by RAM (Reform the Armed Forces Movement), a group of middle-ranking military officers.  Still, she upheld democracy and didn’t go the Marcos way.

Twenty-three years after her first year in office as the country’s first woman President, Cory is now suffering from colon cancer and is clinging on to dear life.   Her cancer was on stage 4 when it was diagnosed, according to reports.   Healing Masses have been offered for her recovery by her friends, family, and supporters.  Even Pope Benedict XVI sent Cory a letter when The Pope heard about her condition.

Her youngest daughter and popular actress Kris Aquino said in reports that their mother is in pain.   Just a few minutes ago, I read an online article that says Cory called her family to her bedside in Makati Medical Center and that the former President was relaying messages to them through Kris.  Her message: Take care of each other.

No doubt, she’s a selfless and loving mom  - to her family and her countrymen.   Now in her toughest battle, she got the nation to kneel in prayers without her asking for it.  It’s because praying is one moral example that she has set all these years.  May we not only pray for Mrs. Aquino but for what she has helped us restore and protect - our own country’s democracy.

If US Pres. Barack Obama were Superman,

We better not be his kryptonite.

CHANGE.

YES, THE WHOLE WORLD CAN.

It was a day of hope, unity and jubilation.   Notwithstanding the freezing temperature, a   massive crowd of two million gathered in Washington’s National Mall to witness and celebrate the inauguration of the first black President in American history.   Barack Hussein Obama has finally taken oath.

“We have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord,” said Obama, 47, in his historic inaugural speech being the 44th president of the world’s most powerful nation.

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many.  They will not be met easily, or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.”   The former Illinois senator inherited enormous challenges from the Bush administration - the worst US economy since the Great Depression and two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among others.

Obama also enumerated the pressing concerns that his administration will address including the rising cost of health care, unemployment, terrorism, environmental issues and the staggering economy.

But in the midst of high hopes around the globe, news feeds say that share prices in Wall Street and some Asian Markets plunged on Obama’s first day of office.   Analysts say that investors may be wary of Obama’s lack of concrete plans in combatting the present economic downturn.

Expectations are high on the first African-American President of the the crisis-stricken US.   As the US economy sinks deep into recession, Pres. Obama called for a “new era of responsibility”

“Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to mark hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

Various leaders from around the world has expressed support over the new US leadership, including French Pres. Nicolas Sarkozy who said he is eager to work with Obama in “changing the world.”

How long will the Obama heat last and to what extent of goodwill will it lead the US and the rest of the world?

The whole world is watching.    The whole world is hopeful.

If you think only subordinates are being evaluated and graded, think again.

A lot of companies, like some of the ones I worked for in the past, are having their superiors rated by their subordinates. They call it 360 evaluation.

It’s a tool that some companies use to find out how their people on top are doing, from the point of view of those who do the “real” jobs down the line.

I chanced upon Dennis Carey: The 360 and it reminded me of the first time I came across this 360 thing. As a store manager, I had to evaluate my area manager’s performance basing on skills and behavioral competencies. Under skills were marketing management, operations management, finance management, inventory management, technical competency and people management. Most of them were quantitative hence they weren’t that hard to grade. But the qualitative parts took me a few minutes longer because it was a matter of personal perception - specially the behavioral competency. It wasn’t easy judging somebody especially your boss. I had to back up my “claims.”

In the end my boss got a fine evaluation from me.

I figured then that if, as a leader, you don’t exert an effort to even know your people, you’re not likely to win them whether consciously or subconsciously. Maybe, if my boss then had been apathetic about me, I would have given him a failing grade in the qualitative aspects. Luckily he was the type who listened to all the people in the organization, regardless of rank. He loved talking to us and it made us feel like he cared about us, our career, even our personal concerns. He made our communication lines open and he made us feel good about ourselves.

Considering this, I realized I had to do the same to my subordinates too. Not to get a good rating in 360. But to help make every one’s job easier and the workplace happier.