RP to weather crisis, says FVR

Former President Fidel V. Ramos has expressed confidence in the Filipino people's ability to weather the lingering effects of the Asian financial crisis, even as he praised President Estrada's efforts to keep faith with the masses that swept him to power.

Speaking before businessmen, the former Chief Executive also urged corporate leaders to share more of their experience and expertise with government. He stressed the need for public consensus in advancing development programs but acknowledged that vision and leadership are also required of national officials.

Discussing strategic leadership in business and government Ramos also underscored the difficulties of governing a democracy like the Philippines. While choosing democracy over authoritarianism -- as Filipinos did in the 1986 EDSA People Power revolt -- is easy, making democracy work is the man challenge facing the government, he added.

Ramos said his successor's efforts to take stock of the public pulse in critical moments are reflective of President Estrada's democratic nature. The former Chief Executive reminded Filipinos, however, that a leader might sometimes opt for the unpopular decision.

"Leaders do not accept constraints," he said. "Leaders see what followers cannot."

As long as Philippine leadership is tempered by moral rectitude, ramos said, the government would succeed in bringing out the best in the Filipino. It is integrity, he added, that would win the loyalty and trust of the people.

"Loyalty works both ways," Ramos said. "To deserve loyalty, one has to give it unstintingly. And, in the case of the presidency, that loyalty must be first of all, to the people and not to any special groups."

The former President also said top-notch aides would help President Estrada manage the national economy and politics, leaving him enough time and energy to home the art of leadership.

Presidents should be generalists backstopped by experts, Ramos pointed out. "The Cabinet should be a group of people of who know more than the President does about things within their individual areas of competence."

He likened Cabinet secretaries to line managers in big corporations, attending to daily matters within established policy and taking responsibilities for their decision.

"This arrangement enables the President to bridge the unavoidable gap between the experts, who look at a problem in largely technical terms -- and government's national constituency, the people, who may look at the same problem in moral terms and social benefits," Ramos noted.

Despite the raucous nature of Philippine democracy, Ramos said a good leader could motivate citizens into cohesive movement, without resorting to force and oppression against dissidents and the political opposition.

The former Chief Executive said the hard-won political stability in his six-year term of office was the result of constant efforts to negotiate "win-win" solutions. He quoted Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu's line, "to win without fighting is best," saying the lesson was rammed home by his years as infantry unit commander.

"I have had people under my command, young men in my care, killed in combat. And I know what Sun Tzu means," Ramos said.

While in war and business, confrontation is a zero-sum gain where one loses what the other party wins, Ramos emphasized that confrontation should be a last resort for the President.

"Squeeze plays and strong-arm methods tend to be subverted by the party who regards himself as having had the wore of the bargain," the former President warned. "Win-win outcomes are what democratic leaders strive for. And such outcomes I have always tried to arrange... not the least because such outcomes usually enforce themselves."

Ramos said his lifetime would see the Philippines building "one coherent and respected and competitive nation" out of a pluralist society." But this major challenge, he stressed, needs equal infusion of resources and energies from both government leaders and citizens.

"Citizenship is not a part-time job," the former Presiden t said. "It is not a hobby but an everyday obligation."

Emphasizing that Presidents alone do not make great countries, Ramos said Filipinos mush share -- and help advance -- the vision of their leader.