More About Heroes

A couple weeks ago in my last column I took the government of the Philippines to task for continually squandering the greatest national resource of the Philippines … it’s people.

Training an engineer, for example, up through college and then sending him off to costs the country a fortune.  A couple people misinterpreted this to mean the government itself paid for the education … which in most cases would be wrong, but the value and wealth of a nation is more than just the checks written during the course of a student’s life.  Even though I presented a case for how many billions and billions are going ‘out the door’ every year by the governement’s OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker “boosterism” many took my remarks about the official, government funded ‘heroism celebration’ of these folks … whose only help from the government is an ‘open door” (for a fee, of course) as a slam against the persons who have no choice but to seek work outside the country personally.  I apologize for any misconceptions.  You might like to read some of the excellent comments and responses to that article if you haven’t already done so.

OK, so I’m positive I don’t want to get into that controversy even further … which makes me positive that I want to be positive in this article.  So who are some real Filipino heroes that the government might better be holding up as examples for the citizens to emulate and for all of us, citizen and foreigner alike to hold in esteem?

Well here’s a fellow you might want to get familiar with.  A government employee/political appointee.  One of the crew of those that critics might want to run after and tear down.  A man in a position that could easily be abused.  A man that of nearly anyone in government has every excuse to do a less than outstanding job, because even the highest level of government and the majority of the Filipino media take apparent delight in advertising to the world that the Philippines is ‘backward’, perpetually ‘broke’ and undoubtedly ‘third-world’.

Margarito B. Teves. Don’t know him, eh?  He’s not a man who travels to Las Vegas to make his mark. He’s not a man who took his undoubtedly ample education and skills to the highest bidder overseas.  Instead he works (since 2005) for well under $1200 USD per month diligently rebuilding the image of the Philippines in the banking and investment community.  Just this past week the Philippine government successfully sold a huge world-wide issue of US-denominated government bonds … investors in a number of countries complained … they were not allocated all that they wanted to buy.  People in Europe and other Asian countries complaining they didn’t get to buy enough Philippine government bonds.  Note any countries complaining lately about not being able to buy enough US government bonds?

In particular Minister Teves came to my attention a few days ago when he was named Asia’s Finance Minister of the Year 2009, an award sponsored by the London-based magazine The Banker.  Not too shabby, eh?  The Banker could have picked men from countries like Singapore (likely they didn’t because the Philippine growth numbers for 2008 have exceeded Singapore’s).  They could have selected someone from China) oh, wait a minute, they are suffering badly under the loss of millions of jobs building second-rate products for Wal*Mart to peddle in the US in lieu of quality goods.

He was picked largely because of the many in which he has guided the Philippines resulting in the notable positioning of the Philippines in much better position to cope with thee probably ongoing financial crises than any other Asian country … and that’s not the Filipino viewpoint or my viewpoint but prestigious London-based bankers.  Pretty good for a ‘third-world’ country, I think.  Words uttered by President Arroyo on this national honor?  As far as I can see, zero.  Why isn’t Teves a “Philippine Hero”?

Want another example?  Again sticking close to the seat of power, how about an ‘old line (trapo) political family scion, Luis Ray­mund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr.

Here’s a young(ish) man, 39, who has all the advantages.  He could just lie on the beach in the day time, hob-nob with high society at night and let his personal wealth grow at the expense of his own province’s people and the rest of the citizens of the country.  That’s not the kind of guy L-Ray is, though.  He was educated in Manila at La Salle university and went and did his graduate work at Stanford (yes, that Stanford … you can’t get a good education in the Philippines, you know … just ask all the nay-sayers).  Married at 19, he and his wife, Lara,  set up a tiny (50,000 PhP, a little over $1,000 USD, three employee operation called Lara’s Gifts and Decor (LGD).  (You can’t make money in the Philippines, you know, especially with low-skill ‘promdi’ workers trying to sell into the international retail market, everyone knows that).  Today, LGD has 5,000 workers, over P400 million in assets, a four-hectare factory in Taguig, and showrooms in New York, Minneapolis and Hong Kong, supplying unique handicrafts (what he calls “technocrafts”) to upscale chain stores like Target, Pier One Imports, Linens ’n Things and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Just avoiding becoming a dissolute playboy and keeping over 5,000 Filipinos employed would be enough to be noteworthy I thought, but that was only LRay’s beginning.  he succeeded his father (actually very much against his father’s wishes and the political machine … you can’t run for office in the Philippines on your own, you know, another fact “everyone” knows) as the governor of Camarines Sur province.

Located in the heart of Bicol, the peninsula at the southern tip of the Philippines’ main island, Luzon, Camarines Sur is one of the country’s 40 poorest provinces.

About 40 percent of its 1.7 million population live below the poverty line, defined as earning $1 a day or less per person. (those who keep asking about “finding a job in the Philippines” would be well advices to re-read that last sentence … that’s not a misprint, $1 a day).

The governor is jumpstarting the Camarines Sur economy with a number of ventures that include tourism (sports and ecotourism) and information technology (such as call centers, business process outsourcing, English and Japanese language proficiency, medical transcription and 2D animation.

Most of these ventures are home-grown.  The governor doesn’t wait around “wishing” some foreign investor would come by and loan some money, the province has a 300 plus acre enterprise center where these ventures get set up by both private enterprise and government employees.

LRay drives his own modest car … no tax payer supported motorcades and entourages as he goes about his business for the people.  Perhaps alone among all provincial governors he took the simple step of telling government workers their hours were from 8 am to 5 pm and if they expect to get paid then they have to comply with the attendance rules.  I also noticed recently he had issued a directive to all government employees that if they carried a government-provided cell phone, they were to leave that cell phone turned on 24-7 … the needs of the people don’t disappear at 5 pm.

There’s more to the LRay story too, but I was particularly taken by the news he’s got a large provincially-managed oil plant operation started to renew agriculture and provide cheap alternative fuel … exactly what I frequently write about, the stuff that people know won’t work in the Philippines.

Is Governor LRay a Philippine hero?  Certainly seems like he might qualify to me … what about you?