Giuliani, Guiliani, what the heck!

Mea culpa! I did not know any better when I misspelled the family name of former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani that appeared in The STAR headline as “Guiliani.” Ironically, I double-checked whether his name is spelled with single or double “L.” What I failed to check were those vowels in his name. There was no excuse for this lapse on my part. Unfortunately, the error was not also spotted in the editing and final proof. The funny part was they, too, quibbled over the single or double “L” spelling of his family name.

Having said that, I must confess my ignorance of the correct spelling of the surname of a highly celebrated personality like Mr. Giuliani except knowing how to say his tongue-twisting family name. My deep apology goes to our readers as well. Even as I was writing about him again this time in my column, my fingers kept fumbling at the keyboards at every mention of his family name.

To solve this spelling dilemma, let me just allude to Mr. Giuliani as “he” or “him” or the ex-NYC mayor. Somebody suggested to just refer to him as “The Rock,” a moniker he earned for his rock-life resolve at the height of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist suicide plane crashes. The  9/11, as it is known for short, was the infamous al-Qaeda-authored terrorist attack that crumbled the World Trade Center, called as The Twin Towers that marked the skylines of New York City. His steady hands and firm control of the crisis situation during the 9/11 have endeared him to all Americans, not just his fellow New Yorkers.

Anyway, my unintended fumble of the man’s name would hopefully not detract the message I was able to elicit from him which became the headline of our newspaper the other day. It was a message he gave to the Filipino voters when I asked him what would be his advice to them in selecting our country’s new leaders in the coming May 2010 national elections.

This was during the exclusive interview I had with him because The STAR was one of the major sponsors and organizers of this Leadership Conference Series that was held last Tuesday at the Makati Shangri-la. The brief interview with the former New York City Mayor came after his almost an hour talk about “Leadership in Times of Crisis” as the theme of the conference series.

Sen. Richard Gordon was quoted as saying he found too expensive the fee just to see in person and listen to this inspirational talk from Mr. Giuliani. “Why pay P22,000 per seat when we have plenty of heroes here, leaders that (sic) are tried and tested in crisis?” Gordon reportedly asked. Taking note, the two of them have the same initials “R.G.,” Gordon noted their common ancestry. Gordon comes from Filipino-American family while Giuliani is of American-Italian descent.

Our artist and political satirist Rene Aranda captured the essence of Gordon’s sentiments in the lampoon that appeared in our front page yesterday. Our cartoonist made up a supposed quip from Gordon saying: “Besides, my name is easier to spell!” Rene’s funny cartoon hit me in the head.

Gordon went on to point out similar crisis situations they’ve handled very well while in office as mayors. Gordon served as Olongapo City mayor for so many years while he held office as NYC mayor for two consecutive terms. While he took charge of the 9/11 crisis, Gordon had his hands on attending to millions of those affected by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in July 1991.

If there is one common thing also between him and Gordon it was the fact that both of them once aspired for the presidency, but backed out even before the presidential elections could take place. Months before the May 1992 presidential elections, Gordon was among the early birds to declare his bid to get into the race. He, however, opted to drop out, citing principally his lack of logistics to push for his presidential aspiration.

Gordon is again bruited to be among the potential presidential timbers in the  May 2010 elections. That is why he could not just let go off Giuliani’s suggested “trust” criteria in picking the best candidate to elect into office. He was reacting to the advice I solicited from Giuliani during my exclusive interview with him on how Filipinos should elect their new leaders. The former NYC mayor replied: “The very best way to do this…figure out which one you can trust most for the future of your country. You probably not find one you gonna agree completely, but who do you trust the most? Who do you think is closest to what you want for the future of your country?”

Giuliani, though, was very careful in his comments that might intrude into purely internal politics in the Philippines when I pressed him to name any particular presidential candidates emerging to vie in the elections to succeed President Arroyo at the end of her term in June 2010.

Like Gordon, Giuliani entered, but later withdrew his bid in the presidential elections. After he tried but failed to get the Republican presidential nomination, he dropped from the primaries last January in favor of Arizona Sen. John McCain. Having lost the primaries to his “good friend” McCain, he vowed to support his partymate’s bid in the upcoming US Presidential elections this November.

Unaided by any script, Giuliani gave very spirited and enlightening discussions during the conference of the “six principles of leadership” he shared with his audience. Among those in the audience included former President Joseph Estrada and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay whose J.C. Binay Foundation co-sponsored the conference. Giuliani sat beside Mr. Estrada at the No.1 table while he was waiting for his turn to speak.

At the break of the conference, Mr. Estrada told me he first came to know Giuliani when he went to New York City to attend a Philippine Independence Day celebration while he was still San Juan mayor. Being a well-known action star, Estrada was naturally mobbed by the Filipino-American community in NYC. This, Estrada said, caught the attention of Giuliani who acknowledged his presence and told him “You must be popular in your country.” But being popular should be the least of concerns for a true leader, Giuliani repeatedly stressed during that conference.

But if you already have read his book entitled “Leadership,” you did not miss anything from that conference because it was all there. By the way, I bought a copy of his book at P718 each being sold at the conference venue and had it signed by the author himself. So before I started my brief interview with him at the sidelines of the conference, I made sure I had his autograph first. Obviously awe-struck, the book did not help me any from making this boo-boo over the spelling of Giuliani.