Out of my mind

This was my column on the date indicated above. This post is antedated. At noon today, Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino, or P-Noy as he prefers to be addressed, will take his solemn oath to defend the Constitution and uphold the laws of the land as the 15th President of the Republic of the Philippines. He will be the second second-generation President to occupy the highest seat of the land after Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the first unmarried person to become President. This particular juncture in the history of the country represents different things to different people. On one end of the continuum would be meanings captured by the words destiny, deliverance, and redemption. On the other end of the continuum would be words like disappointment, grudging acceptance, defiance. But I think it is safe to assume that everything converges on one prayer: Hope for better times ahead. Some people have expressed the wish that P-Noy’s assumption into the highest seat in the land would also signal ...

This was my column on the date indicated above. This post is antedated. People don’t have to be in P-Noy’s cabinet for them to be able to help this second Aquino administration and the nation in general. We are aware of course that many people are scrambling to get appointed to Cabinet positions for reasons that have nothing to do with helping government or the Filipino people in general; but that’s a topic for another column. The mood this week is upbeat and hopeful except for the general disdain for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, which the incoming administration obviously and naturally wants to continue to fuel because it makes it look noble in comparison. For as long as they can demonize someone else, they can continue to deodorize themselves. It’s three days to go before P-Noy’s formal inauguration and the official list of people who will be in that first Cabinet meeting immediately after the swearing-in at the Quirino Grandstand is still one of the most tightly-kept secret. So far thi...

This was my column on the date indicated above. This post is antedated. The President-elect said over the weekend that he would review the Department of Labor and Employment’s decision giving Philippine Airlines the go signal to outsource some of its non-core business functions. PAL had been bleeding heavily in the last few years on account of a combination of factors—most notably the drastic fluctuations on the prices of oil as well as cutthroat competition in the airline industry—and the decision to outsource some functions is widely seen as a last-ditch effort to keep the airline afloat. Incidentally, it’s not just PAL that is going through the same problems—many other airlines in the world, mostly national carriers, are weighed down by the same difficulties. Three other airlines in the country with lower overhead costs have been giving PAL management intense migraines. Cebu Pacific, for example, offers various promotional packages that give away tickets at ridiculously cheap price...

This was my column on the date indicated above. This post is antedated. There is a very strong possibility that Senator Noynoy Aquino will be proclaimed president-elect within this week, perhaps even within the day. When this is done, I hope we can then move on to the more pressing issues of the day such as the impending start of the new school year and the thousand and one problems of the educational sector, the onset of the rainy season and the predicted lash of La Niña, and the question of what to do with Kris Aquino and Boy Abunda. Hold off, fans; am just kidding about the last one. There will be half-hearted attempts by certain quarters to delay the proclamation under the guise of ensuring that the rule of law is upheld. Proclaiming Aquino president-elect will pretty much give the whole automation program a seal of approval. Everything —issues about the overall integrity of the process, doubts over the accuracy of the results, complaints about certain aspects of the whole automat...

This was my column on the date indicated above. This post is antedated. Each leader is distinguished for his or her leadership brand. There are many brands as there are leaders since a leadership brand is really a composite of the person’s competencies, experiences, personality traits, etc. One of the most popular topics of discussion among management circles in the last few weeks has been Noynoy Aquino’s presumed leadership brand. There’s a lot of speculative drivel being floated and tossed around on what kind of a leader Aquino is most likely going to be. I think it is a little too early for anyone to be able to make any kind of authoritative and definitive analysis on Aquino’s leadership brand; the guy has not even been officially proclaimed, much less sworn into office. Any attempt at dissecting his leadership competencies at this stage comes off as plain and simple nitpicking. This, however, has not stopped some people from already clucking their tongues and shaking their heads t...