50 years of working: Flashback and thanksgiving

Last Monday, March 18, marked the golden jubilee of my working life. On March 18, 1974, I reported for work as a personnel supervisor at Far East Bank and Trust Company (FEBTC) on Muralla street, Intramuros.

Today, my workplace is the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, also on Muralla Street, Intramuros – separated from the former FEBTC building by three higher education institutions, namely: Lyceum of the Philippines, Mapua University, and Colegio de San Juan de Letran.

In the intervening years between my first and present jobs, I have worked in business and industry, the academe and in government service.

Déjà vu, defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “the strange feeling that in some way you have already experienced what is happening now,” has manifested itself several times.

My first job was being editor of a bank’s employee magazine; today I am working with one of the country’s major newspapers. Previously, I had been writing a weekly column for a business newspaper for more than 20 years. When I look farther back, I realize that I have been a student editor, too, in high school, college and even in graduate school.

And when I served a full six-year term in the Cabinet of the late former President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III, it was as secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), a job that involved dealing with those working in media organizations.

Looking back, I realize how greatly indebted I am to my first employer, FEBTC, and my first boss, lawyer Wenceslao Agnir, Jr. – or Ninong Willy – who also stood as my wedding sponsor and became my lifelong mentor.

From my first day at work, he guided my career progress, sponsoring my participation in seminars offered by the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), later renamed as People Management Association of the Philippines, where he had served as director for many years. Following in his footsteps, I also became a PMAP Director before being elected as its President in 1988.

He also encouraged me to pursue an MBA degree, which, he pointed out, offered more auspicious career prospects than being a lawyer in the nascent phase of martial law. Getting an advanced degree in business management enabled me to pursue a second career in the academe when, in 1988 – a decade after I graduated from the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) – I began working as a professor. Excluding the two years of my graduate school studies, I had worked for 12 years when I began my second career as a teacher.

Like Far East Bank, the Asian Institute of Management, was another institution that paved my career pathways. Being a practitioner-oriented institution, AIM professors are expected to be steeped in praxis, “the process of using a theory or something that you have learned in a practical way.” One-third of my time could be allocated to serving as management consultant, including being a resource person to corporations, multilateral institutions (like USAID, ADB, and the Canadian International Development Agency). In this aspect, my concurrent stint with Joaquin Cunanan and Co./pricewaterhousecoopers proved to be a most beneficial and gratifying experience.

The government of the Republic of the Philippines was the third major institution in my career development and growth. I was privileged to have worked with three Presidents.

I served as head of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) and Deputy Executive Secretary of President Corazon C. Aquino in 1989 to 1991 following a brief stint as agrarian reform undersecretary to then DAR Secretary Miriam Defensor-santiago. My first stint in Malacañang was on account of my having served with Oscar Orbos at the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) before he was tapped to serve as Executive Secretary.

The highlight of my second stint in the DOTC in 1998-2000 was in being able to participate in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Assembly and Council meetings at which the importance of the Philippines as the primary provider of deck officers and sea farers to the global maritime trade was evident.

In March 2009, I completed my doctoral dissertation and earned by PH.D degree from the school for organization development of the Southeast Asian Inter-disciplinary Development Institute (SAIDI). This was after I went on a two-year work leave to serve in the Transnational Diversified Group (TDG) of J. Roberto C. Delgado. I resumed my work as an AIM Professor, looking forward to being able to devote more time to research and book-writing.

I felt a deep tinge of sadness when President Cory passed away on Sept. 1, 2009. When I turned in my resignation in mid-1991, she said she was not asking me to leave, and I could barely mutter, “Mrs. President, thank you for the opportunity to serve with you.” After her son Noynoy declared his candidacy, I volunteered to serve in his campaign’s media bureau, headed by Maria Montelibano, with home I had worked during President Cory’s administration.

In retrospect, working with President Noynoy from the first to the last day of his single, six-year term service as the country’s Chief Executive, was clearly the high point of my professional career. It’s best reckoned in terms of days – all told, 2,193 days – as each day offered a fresh set of tasks to be performed and challenges to be hurdled. If memory serves, I don’t recall having called in sick nor availing myself of a vacation leave.

I wish to honor the memory of an esteemed former colleague and fellow AIM professor Andre San Agustin who shared with me the following mantra that I affirmed while quietly meditating at the start of each working day:

“I am glad I am here” – to affirm that I value and cherish my work.

“I am glad you are here” – to affirm that I respect and honor all the people with whom I will work each day.

“I know that I know that I know” – to affirm and accept God’s gift of wisdom that enables me to do my work well.

“I care for you” – to manifest my beneficial intention toward all fellow human beings.

I thank God for the wonderful blessings of life and work — and the fellowship of lifelong friends.