Top managers join call for patriotism

Oriental astrologers call it the Year of the Red Fire Dog, western seers call it simply 2006, but all agree it would be one of optimism and harmony. Church leaders continue to pray for hope, but not ones to leave faith to fate, are quick to exhort men to work for it through unified service. Newfound hero Manny Pacquiao talks of unity every chance he gets, to the delight of Filipinos who know how good it feels from earlier victories at the Southeast Asian Games. And now the captains of industry buoyantly are chiming in with a "Call to Action: Country Above Self."

The rallying cry, unfurled by the Management Association of the Philippines’ first elected woman president Evelyn Singson, is significant. Filipinos generally follow their leaders. When their politicians fight, they too readily split into factions and attempt impeachments or "people power" in local governments, homeowners associations and campus groups. But when leaders show examples of good works, they also mimic the lessons in the home and workplace.

MAP does not call for upheaval to produce miracles. Country above self consists of seven little things top managers can do to improve Filipino life. It is based on the principles of Jim Collins, author of the book Good to Great, who attempted to pinpoint what major undertakings big companies did to account for their breakthroughs. He found none, Singson says, "they were simply working at improving on little things." And those little things are their best practices:

(1) Be punctual in all appointments with family or at work. Punctuality fosters self-discipline and respect for others’ time.

(2) Do more than 100 percent in anything, even if it means spending more time at work. Puwede na ‘yan (that’ll do) breeds careless waste; going the extra mile leads to excellence.

(3) Always take a positive outlook. Pessimism contagiously pushes people down; optimism infectiously pulls them up.

(4) Pay the right taxes; obey all government regulations. This may be an echo of Atty. Alex Lacson’s good-citizenship pamphlet, 12 Little Things We Can Do to Help Our Country, but it also highlights all the more the basics.

(5) Respect others and fall in line like everybody else. Imagine a land where everybody practices one-upmanship, ugh.

(6) Be patient on the road; follow all the road signs. One’s character behind the wheel of a car is one’s character at the helm of industry.

(7) Avoid all forms of corruption.

This last point Singson felt compelled to expound in her inaugural speech last week: "Let us test ourselves with these sample questions: Isn’t it easier to compromise on taxes even if we know the money will not go into the government coffers, because doing so will save us several thousand-pesos? Isn’t it easier to pay off the judge for a favorable decision than to let justice take its course? Isn’t it wiser to give a kickback to the approving officer than go through a fair bidding?"

Singson answered her own questions. Taking shortcuts is expedient, but costs more – as a country. And businessmen suffer along with it. Choosing country above self is difficult because it often entails pain and sacrifice. When pocket and bottom line are hurt, companies revert to the bad old mode of self-interest. But the overall result is that the Philippines will always be called the Sick Man of Asia.

By contrast, Filipinos have seen Ireland and Korea rise from below them in the ’70s and the ’80s, and now China, India and Vietnam overtaking them with economic strides labeled as that of tigers.

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Struck by statistics in my piece on air pollution (Gotcha, 20 Jan. 2006), a reader sent even scarier figures. I had written that the prevalence of lung ailments from diesel fumes is 33 percent among jeepney drivers and as much as 40 percent among street children. But parents who care so much for their schoolchildren had better check their school buses as well. For, the US-Environment Protection Agency has found that bus-riding kids have as much as 23-46 percent chance of getting lung cancer due to prolonged exposure to the bus’ diesel smoke. The US findings can be true for Filipinos.

The EPA installed emission counters in the aisle of a test bus and in a scout car ahead of it. The fumes, including toxic nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide, were alarmingly high yet often ignored. The EPA counted the number of hours the children spend in the bus, and how many days a year, and came up with the figure that they have 23-46 more chances to get hit by cancer than adults at risk.

The irony, says the EPA, is that "technology exists to refit diesel engines to make them as clean as natural-gas buses." To be sure, most states have filling stations that sell soybean biodiesel blended at least 20 percent with regular diesel for safer fumes.

In the Philippines, there’s coconut biodiesel in cans that can be mixed into regular diesel – one liter for every 50, or one-half percent – to instantly cut down emissions. Yet nobody’s paying heed. Oil companies refuse to sell blended biodiesel on the pretext that it might cause engine knock. Yet, in Europe, bus and truck owners routinely load up on biodiesel without having to refit their engines. Local users of coconut biodiesel also swear thir engines run smoother because of more efficient fuel burning.

Perhaps, a solution for worried Filipino parents is to switch their kids to air-conditioned buses. But that would also only shift the smog to the street children.

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