Gratitude

This is a good day to reflect on the good things and say thanks.

The year we close in a few days was not the best of years. But neither was it what the Romans call a horrible year.

It was one of those years when circumstances were largely unfavorable. But those circumstances were met with an equal measure of effort to produce order out of chaos, direction out of drift and productivity out of dry earth.

I have done my own reflection and arrived at the conclusion that this year I should be most grateful for the opportunity to play a role in development banking. That opportunity was opened when President Gloria appointed me to the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) shortly after she assumed office in 2001.

At the DBP, I found a unique institution staffed by competent professionals infused by a profound patriotism. It is a dynamic institution and one tasked with what seemed to be contradictory missions: on one hand, to support the riskiest development projects that private banks would not touch; on the other hand, to produce a profit for the Republic’s treasury.

When asked to speak at the DBP’s strategic planning workshop in 2001, I worked on the theme "Delta Force banking."

The Gordian Knot of undertaking high-risk investment while maintaining profitability can only be broken by raising the internal competence of the bank. Like the men of the Delta Force, we are sent on the most difficult missions and expected to survive. Like the men of the Delta Force, we must be optimally trained, totally dedicated and absolutely focused.

Development bankers cannot be mere bankers. They must understand the trajectory of our nation’s economic unfolding, spot opportunities for wealth creation in each locality, break the inertia of poverty or the blockade of wrong-headed policies and, generally, think out of the box.

The DBP’s work has been greatly enhanced when we were joined by Board Chairman Vitaliano Nanagas and President Simon Paterno. Both Lanny who worked with Citibank and Mon who gave up his huge pay at JP Morgan to work for a government bank were acutely trained in the tricky, creative field of investment banking.

They shared in the vision of quickly shifting the DBP’s paradigm from development banking to development financing. It is not enough, we thought, to lend out money to diverse and disconnected projects. We must catalyze financial flows from other banks, from ODA streams, from private investments, from national government expenditure and from the internal revenue allocation of local governments to produce a larger, more sustainable effect on our country’s development.

Mon and Lanny were supported by a motley, unlikely but surprisingly coherent Board composed of activists, intellectuals and NGO workers.

Toy Nepomuceno, who headed the private prosecutors during the Estrada impeachment trial and earlier fought the Marcos dictatorship with the group Sandigan, served as Undersecretary of Justice and sat on the board of the PNB. He the oldest member of the board, but the most activist.

Dan Songco headed CODE-NGO while Roy Oliveros headed the FFW. Jimmy de la Rosa worked with BPI, served on the boards of various GFIs and has been our auditing specialist. Eli Jimenez is a safety engineer and looks into the technical innards of many of the projects we support. Jerry Barican is a brilliant legal mind, always with a profound insight into a large universe of concerns. I have always understood my role in this talented team as the person to say no to the powerful when that is required to maintain the integrity of this institution’s work.

Earlier on, the DBP was awarded an ISO 14001 rating for its environmental concern and support for green technologies. It is the only bank to be awarded this rating.

A few months ago, the DBP received the Best Employer Award from the Management Association of the Philippines – the only government corporation to be so recognized.

Last month, in an Asia-wide survey, the DBP was rated the strongest Philippine bank. We bested the private banking behemoths, the large financial conglomerates, the most cautious and conservative institutions despite the nature of our mission. We are extremely proud of that.

Last year, we forked over P1 billion in dividends to the Republic. President Gloria honored us by going over to the DBP main office to receive the check herself.

This year, we will hand over P2 billion.

But that is not the best of it from where I stand. The truly rewarding thing for me is the opportunity to meet and work with so many Filipinos all over the archipelago who are willing and able to make things happen – and to work with the dedicated professionals in the Bank who are out there financing things that happen.

Things that happen like the ro-ro network that is opening up local economies and overcoming the natural limitations of an archipelagic economy. Things like buses running on compressed natural gas and Eng. Ben Santos’ globally patented invention that recycles toxic used oil with zero waste and zero pollution. Things like exportable new products from the heart of Masbate, the interior of Romblon and the hinterlands of Mindanao.

The people who make things happen are quite different from those who whine and gripe, those who carp and complain, who moan and groan – the sort of negative types who manage to buy their way into our front pages and win so much space in our bad news media. People who make things happen are bright-eyed and willing to work hard, take risks and get things going. Meeting so many of them from San Vicente at the northern tip of Luzon to General Santos City in Mindanao is an edifying thing.

Meeting them has been a tremendously educational thing for me too. It has expanded my own understanding of what is possible when visions, inventiveness and financing coalesce to fire up wealth-creation for our people.

The people at the DBP are barefoot bankers at heart. They love sloshing through mud to inspect a mini-hydro plant at the uplands of Bohol or clambering up precarious planks to check out the ro-ro port at Dapitan.

And as if development banking was not enough, every unit at the DBP main office and every branch appear to be supporting charities from sanctuaries for street children to homes for the elderly. These are charities supported from the pockets of our employees.

It is a great corporate culture anchored on excellence and compassion. All year round, the bank helps the poor climb out of poverty, enforcing the disciplines of enterprise and scrupulous work. And at Christmastime, the Bank’s personnel reach out farther to bring relief to the poorest, reinforcing the attitude of charity.

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This is a bank with so much to give.