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TANSINGCO, Siguan, Balato. These are just some of the officers who joined the Bureau of Immigration (BI) from 2007 to 2010. Like these officers, there were other Immigration employees who either came from Region 8, or Eastern Samar, the same province as the appointing authority, then-Commissioner Marcelino C. Libanan. Tugade, Dominguez, Tulfo-Teo. These are the incoming Cabinet members under the Duterte administration for the departments of Transportation, Finance and Tourism, respectively. There are and will be so many others like Tugade, Dominguez and Tulfo-Teo who are either from Mindanao or have worked with President Rodrigo R. Duterte in the past.
Leaders understandably place much trust on people close to them, by way of past or present association in a community, organization or alma mater. In the case of P-Noy, he was severely criticized for appointing classmates, relatives, or fellow gun enthusiasts (KKK, or Kaklase, Kamag-anak, Kabarilan) to his Cabinet. President Duterte has appointed his classmates, fraternity brothers and former coworkers who served with him in the city government of Davao to key positions in his incoming administration. He has said that such appointments were warranted by the fact that he is a probinsyano who has a limited circle of people he knows and trusts. In this context, appointing one’s trusted friends to sensitive positions in government (assuming they are competent) is, indeed, the prudent thing to do.
When I entered the BI in 2011, I intentionally did not recruit any classmate or townmate to join me, and took the risk of working with people who were already in the agency. I did not personally know Tansingco, Siguan and Balato, who at that time had been working forthe bureau for several years. However, in the two years I spent as an associate commissioner, I saw that their experience and mastery of immigration matters were a valuable resource that had not been fully tapped. So when I became head of the agency in 2013, I placed my trust on these young people, and gave them positions of leadership and responsibility. A CPA-lawyer, Norman G. Tansingco was principally responsible for drafting and reviewing a number of significant policy guidelines and operations orders. He was my go-to guy when it came to research and liaison work with Congress and other agencies. Archimedes O. Siguan started out as a deputy in Clark International Airport but was eventually given the task of running and heading the border control operations in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3. Siguan and Floro C. Balato Jr. have been invited to several trainings both here and abroad as subject-matter experts on human trafficking. After his able stewardship in the Port Operations Division, Balato will soon start on his Masters’ degree program in the United States under a Fulbright scholarship. In any organization, a leader can only take his organization as far as his followers can help him. Trusted, empowered and inspired to do more, Tansingco, Siguan and Balato, and the rest of the key leaders of the bureau did just that.
President Duterte has rightfully placed his trust on people he personally knows. It is possible for one man to design a house, but it takes a team to build that house. A leader may have the vision for a better country, but it takes a team to actually implement this vision and, perhaps, even improve on such vision. Members of the team also serve as the leader’s eyes and ears on theground. When the team leader trusts his men, he empowers them to do positive and creative things. Stephen Covey, the best-selling author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, said that innovation is a product of initiative and empowerment. How can President Duterte promote innovation in fighting the pervasive problems of drugs, criminality and corruption in thePhilippines? Trust and empower team members like Tugade, Dominguez and Tulfo-Teo to do their assigned jobs. And that is exactly how Mayor Duterte ran Davao City for 20-plus years and how President Duterte plans to run the country in the next six years.
In the transportation sector, President Duterte has said: “Bahala na si Tugade dyan,” and recognizing the credentials of incoming Secretary Tugade, who built his own logistics company from the ground up, this trust does not appear to be in any way misplaced.
With President Duterte’s program of empowerment, our country will surely move faster toward true change and progress in the coming six years. William Shakespeare said, “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” In his early days, our Duterte is showing us he has the makings of a Shakespeare.