A DPWH veteran who stayed clean

LOS ANGELES — If you are like most Filipinos, mention Department of Public Works and Highways and you instantly conjure someone who is the epitome of corruption in the public service. I remember such known saints as Ting Jayme and Ting Paterno were once appointed as DPWH Secretaries in an attempt to clean up the image of the department. Neither of them got far because, as I remember it, they were overwhelmed by the stinky reputation of the agency and the fear that they could get tainted.

We look at the quality of our roads, specially the ones that vanish after a pouring rain or get pockmarked with car-killing potholes and we know some corrupt DPWH official in cahoots with some equally corrupt private sector contractor are responsible for the problem. Survey after survey put DPWH in competition with government’s revenue collection agencies for the dubious honor of being the most despised branch of government due to corruption. I wonder if Malacanang itself will now give them a run for their money.

But miracles do happen. I, for one, know that it is possible to have a lifetime career at DPWH and still come out of it after 30 years or so still the same person, still living with his mother-in-law in an old area of San Juan rather than in some posh village with rich retired generals with blood on their hands for purchasing substandard helmets and ammunition or even pocketing money meant to enable the field soldiers eat better.

If retiring from the DPWH poor is a crime, one of my high school classmates at UP Prep ought to be arrested. Those who know him call him EQ which has nothing to do with his real name: Mabini Fonacier Pablo, from the venerable Fonacier family of Ilocos.

EQ celebrated his 60th birthday the first day of December, a big momentous event I missed because it simply slipped my mind as I was already focused on my holiday vacation with my children in California. From what I heard from our classmates, it was a happy celebration of the life of an honest bureaucrat, normally a contradiction in terms if you didn’t happen to know about EQ’s career at DPWH.

They had a small program that touched on the various milestones in the life of EQ from his high school days, his college and fraternity days at UP with Alpha Sigma and his 30 years with DPWH. EQ entered government service from UP via a joint project of the UP Institute of Planning, the United Nations Development Program and the DPWH. As EQ recalls it, “DPWH was where I practically spent my entire public service life — more than 30 years. I served five Presidents. I worked under 10 Secretaries including Dr. Fiorello Estuar, Ping de Jesus, Col. Gregorio Vigilar. They are not just my mentors, they are my heroes.” Notice how EQ mentioned only the names of the secretaries who were known to be honest but also effective.

EQ continued: “I worked with Ted Encarnacion, Ed Mir, Manny Bonoan, Pye Yabut, Bobby Rasuman, and many more hardworking and unsung heroes in the DPWH. Yes, many remain unsung yet they do their jobs with zeal and passion.” Hearing it from EQ is reassuring for those of us who have all but given up this bunch of bureaucrats as hopelessly corrupt who can only deliver overpriced but substandard projects. Maybe, there are just not enough of them there because we see what we see in terms of roads, bridges and public infrastructure and we can still only sigh in resignation and indignation.

Anyway, going back to EQ, he recalls that in his early days at DPWH, he was like the young upstart, the youngest director, the youngest assistant secretary, the youngest undersecretary. After he retired and joined the Manila North Tollways, the first time in his life he was making real money, he found himself the second oldest in the organization after his former DPWH boss, Ping de Jesus. Now that Ping is in Meralco, he is the oldest. But EQ says being the oldest does not bother him. He finds pleasure in working with young people. And he sure does… because EQ had always been a fun person anyway.

The amazing thing with EQ is that he has managed a scandal-free stint at DPWH even if easy money was there for the picking given the nature of his work. EQ’s assignment was to be the department’s main coordinator with members of Congress. I guess he coordinated requests from members of Congress on how their pork funds would be spent, not the easiest of assignments for someone like EQ who is not himself a pork eater, if you know what I mean.

Or maybe that’s why EQ was well accepted by the congressmen and senators. He offered no competition and he wanted no part of it too, so they ended up with a bigger pie to divide. Some might say he abetted the rottenness of the system even if he kept himself clean. But I wouldn’t be that judgmental since I know the difficulties in the environment he operated in. It is enough for me that he got things done without getting himself dirty.

But that’s not too surprising with EQ. Throughout our high school days, from first year to senior year, he was always elected the treasurer of his class and every organization he joined. Everyone saw him as the fellow who could be trusted with money. It must have been his upbringing, which also helped him through his lifetime career at DPWH.

One other reason must be the way EQ practiced his Christian faith. This is a side of EQ I knew nothing about until a few weeks ago. He was apparently actively serving his Church, the Mt. Carmel Shrine Parish Church where he is a lector/ commentator for the Tuesday and Thursday 6 a.m. Masses. He is also an officer of the Carmelite Foundation for Scholastics. He was part of the team that supervised the construction of the St John of the Cross Seminary. He finds his regular contacts with the priests and fellow servants have brought him closer to God. Hmmm. That’s a side of EQ he didn’t share with his high school friends.

These days, our high school class depends on EQ to bring us all together now and then. Many members of our class have achieved financial success as bankers, doctors and entrepreneurs with impressive houses in exclusive communities but it is in the house of EQ’s mother-in-law, herself an outstanding public servant in the Judiciary, in old San Juan where we gather on EQ’s invitation.

Maybe EQ couldn’t have made it the way he did without his supportive wife Clem, who was the first female resident manager of the old Manila Hotel. What EQ achieved is as much his family’s victory as it is his. How many people say that a past president could have made this country great again if not for his wife? I doubt if it is fair to put all the blame on the wife, but family demands exert pressure on bureaucrats or anyone to remain true to themselves or give in to temptation.

In writing about EQ today, I thought I simply have to tell the story of this intelligent and honest bureaucrat as a way of boosting our morale in his season of hope. EQ showed it is possible pala to be at DPWH for as long as he had been and not get tainted. May his story inspire our young to follow his footsteps for heaven knows we need thousands of EQs to save our country from its destructive path.

Get the big picture

Atty Sonny Pulgar e-mailed this contribution.

A beautiful young Jewish girl comes home and says, “Ma, I got married.”

Her mother says, “Oy, that’s great.”

She says, “But, Ma, he’s an Arab.”

Her mother says, “Oy, that’s not so great.”

She says, “But, Ma, he’s an Arab sheik. He’s wealthy beyond your wildest dreams. You and Daddy are going to live in the lap of luxury for the rest of your lives.”

Six months later, she walks in the beautiful new house she bought for her parents and says, “Ma, I love my Arab sheik, but my God, all he wants to do is boff me in my ass. Day and night, that’s all he’ll do is bang me in my ass. When I got married, my asshole was the size of a dime...now it’s the size of a silver dollar.”

Her mother says, “So for ninety cents you’re going to make trouble?”

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. This and some past columns can also be viewed at www.boochanco.com