Lessons learned

First of all, a word of congratulations to Ambassador Marciano Paynor and his tireless team that made APEC 2015 as flawlessly executed as it was. Picking Amba Paynor out of retirement was an act of genius on the part of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, who was tasked to head the organizing committee.

Amba Paynor’s wealth of experience, in organizing and running international conferences, was key in the successful implementation of APEC 2015. His knowledge of diplomatic protocol was essential in handling almost two dozen heads of states and economies without a single faux pas.

The security arrangement, tough as it was given the threat of terrorism, surely boosted the public’s confidence in new PNP Chief Ricardo Marquez. The coordination with other security agencies as well as the security people of the visiting dignitaries is no small job.

Also impressive is how we showcased Philippine culture specially the MOA Arena dinner venue. It was totally impressive, thanks to the design genius of Kenneth Cobonpue. If Mar Roxas allowed Cobonpue to fix NAIA 1 in 2012, we would have a better looking terminal now.

Credit also is due to Intramuros Administrator Marco Sardillo for completing enough improvements to make the Old City impressive to our guests.

For someone who had been involved in organizing similar events in my past life, I can appreciate everything that was done. I know how it feels to worry about Murphy’s Law taking over. It seems Murphy stayed far away from APEC 2015.

But and this is a very big BUT… puede ba next time government embarks on something that will require a metro area of 20 million to practically shut down, to please not forget they have to inform people way in advance… Hindi puedeng bahala na unless we want a repeat of last week’s public woes.

We are not China where factories can be shut down for a month or so to enable Beijing to have blue skies on the days of the event. China can also close down a metro area as big as Beijing without seeking public consent because it is China and it doesn’t matter what people think.

We are the Philippines and our democracy is our pride and joy. We have to win over the people and get their consent for something as disturbing to their patterns of life as a weeklong holiday for an event.

The big mistake of this unfeeling administration is merely foisting everything, from airline flight cancellations to road closures and non working holidays, less than a month before the event. I have managed smaller undertakings in the course of my career but have taken greater effort to win the consent of affected people.

It is not possible to get everyone to agree but at least give people enough time to adjust their lives and their minds to the inevitable. Seeing all those people walk so many kilometers in the blazing sun due to blocked roads is no different from the daily MRT lines... sufferings government forces them to endure. Only a heartless government can make people suffer that way. It is not good to constantly abuse the people’s patience.

Next time, the effort to inform and win over the support of the people for a project or event should be on square one. This is not just PR but courtesy so essential in a democracy. I realize the hacienderos of the Liberal Party cannot understand this need but Jojo Ochoa should have.

One cannot be a prophet in his or her own household so I am not surprised Jojo failed to tap his sister Marlene to help in this project. I have known Marlene for over 30 years when she was working for Napocor and I was at PNOC. Marlene is fantastic in helping win over communities for a big project.
 Indeed, when I was involved in the rehabilitation of NLEX which included a significant rise in toll rates, we saw the need for a very serious community outreach effort from the start. We did the usual surveys and when the time to implement a program came, we tapped Marlene to run it.

It helped that we had a very professional head of the project in Ping de Jesus. In addition, Ping also had a good feel of the public pulse. He knew we needed to explain the unpalatable… a toll hike. People will appreciate the world class improvement of NLEX but will refuse to understand the toll hike.

The ground work for winning public understanding and consent was done by Marlene. Ping gave a lot of his time talking to everybody who wants to listen. And we listened to anyone who wanted to talk. By the time the project was operational, Ping and Marlene have covered all the towns in Bulacan and Pampanga affected by NLEX.

There were still some complaints about the increase in toll rates but in general, there was a good degree of public acceptance. The public is never really unreasonable. We gave them a world class tollway and eventually they understood we spent money to get it that way.

The principal lesson is to never take the public for granted. We are a democracy and this fact rings truer now in the age of social media. With APEC, there would have been a better acceptance of the sacrifices needed if they cued in the public way in advance. People need time to accept the idea and make alternative plans.

Still, one very positive result of our successful APEC hosting is, as Rajah Tours’ Aileen Clemente pointed out, the exposure our tourism and hospitality people got in managing a world class event. At the very least, it gave us confidence that we can do it.

Inclusion is a key word. It is unfortunate that this administration keeps on talking about inclusion but does not seem to understand the word. Inclusion is even the heart of the APEC theme.

Inclusion is needed to make people happy… impressive GDP growth or investment grade credit rating mean nothing unless the people are included in sharing the benefits. And include the people too when planning for events and not take their comfort and lives for granted.

Oh well… what can we expect from an administration devoid of empathy? The good news is that this administration has only seven months to go. And as the President said during APEC, a vote for Mar is a referendum on how well he and his Daang Matuwid have done. So the bad news is not inevitable… it is all up to us to use our vote to send our message.

One last thing… we have 20 years to modernize our public transport system until the next APEC. If we had a decent MRT last week, the oppressiveness of the metro lockdown wouldn’t have been as pronounced.

Si Obama pala

I was surprised it was the White House who invited Filipina scientist Aisa Mijeno to the APEC CEO Summit last week. Interviewed by Alvin Elchico of ABS-CBN News, Aisa said “White House po ang nag-invite sa akin. I was surprised. Akala ko prank call ang na-receive ko nung Monday!”

Mijeno said she had to be escorted by the US Secret Service to be able to enter the venue of the forum because she had no APEC ID.

Apparently, President Obama really wanted her to be in his panel to make a point about innovation and the need to match young innovators with angel investors. Obama practically asked Jack Ma of Alibaba to help Aisa move her innovative SALt lamp, a lamp that runs on saltwater reacting on a metal annode to produce light.

Aisa told ABS-CBNNews Jack Ma promised he will be getting in touch. “Expectation ko po is somebody locally, we will get support... though the government is trying to reach us now,” she added.

Mijeno said on dzMM they are now working on mass producing the SALt lamp, which they aim to sell for less than P1,000 per unit. The DOST has also contacted her after that proud moment at APEC with President Obama and Jack Ma.

All along I thought it was our government or maybe the local private business sector organizers who brought Aisa to APEC. Si Obama pala.

I wonder how many more Aisas are waiting for help from government or from our Forbes top ten listers? We need a good incubator system to nurture start-ups like Aisa’s. Between the Ayala and Henry Sy families, we shouldn’t need Jack Ma to jumpstart this project. Nakakahiya naman.

Our business elite must go out there and be angel investors to local start-ups with promising technology. Our DOST must do the same rather than do expensive experiments that end up as white elephants like that monorail thingy in UP.

Let’s not wait for Obama or Jack Ma to do our job for us.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.