(26th of ‘My Story’ Series)
I left Mindanao to take on a new job; one that would be relatively new, and quite frankly, intriguing and challenging to me. I had spent the previous years confronting guns, and later, learning how to silence them. I was now about to enter a place where words could be just as powerful – and sometimes even more dangerous.
Col Delfin Bangit, my classmate in PMA, had asked me to take over as the Senior Aide to the Vice President of the land, Madame Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Del was going to Australia to take on a schooling requirement for senior officers, hence he needed someone to take his place in the meantime. I was to keep his seat warm while he completed his schooling requirement.
During my first weeks on the job, I found out that GMA – as she was fondly called – always carried a full schedule. As VP and concurrent Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), she was perpetually in motion – meeting communities, visiting projects, listening to local and foreign leaders, and dishing out well-grounded questions that showed how thoroughly prepared she was on the issues at hand. Three junior aides were assigned to keep up with her, but she would exhaust them so fast, we had to rotate them quickly lest they end up in sick bay.
It was fascinating to witness those times when meetings or casual conversations would jump from economics to agriculture, from foreign affairs to poverty alleviation, and she would be equally comfortable discussing vital issues with scholars in each field.
What was particularly humbling to me personally was that she knew more about my home province than I did. She knew every town in my home province of Bohol, every mayor of each town, and which key issues these town mayors needed help with. I came from Bohol. I knew my province. Turns out, GMA knew my province better.
Also impressive was the fact that she knew more about the map of Mindanao – and of the entire country – than I did. One time, I was in the office, when my phone rang. GMA was mobile, and she needed me to draw a plan for a quick visit to certain parts of Mindanao. After 10 minutes or so, I got back to her to present my plan. She then made some suggestions taking certain routes. I look at the map, and sure enough, there’s that shortcut that would save us an hour or so of travel. I have a real detailed map with me, and she has a mental map on her head, and hers is more current than mine.
All these taught me to doublecheck my details, to tighten loose ends, and try to know more about current issues – political or otherwise- because GMA’s standards were simply up high. My experience with the Armed Forces and the Army Chiefs may have helped me anticipate the needs of the boss; but dealing with not just the military aspect of things, understanding the political, psycho-social and economic underpinnings behind the issues – these were all matters that I had only started to appreciate more clearly.
As a boss, GMA was a ‘tough love’ act. She took good care of us, but she expected nothing but the highest standards on the job. She used to be a college professor – in the prestigious Ateneo de Manila, no less – hence she could shoot out assignments to her staff real fast, and if these were not completed on time, she’d give us a quick tongue-lashing. And after that, she’d forget about it and move on with her day.
But she was not infallible, of course. She could be demanding, impatient and occasionally intimidating, but she was always willing to listen. If a point raised made sense, she could certainly change her mind.
One thing for sure she hated doing was taking chopper rides. Due to a previous experience surviving a helicopter crash, she would try to cut her air travel to less than an hour if possible. Going to Masbate from Manila, for instance. She would take a car trip to the edge of Batangas, to cut her air travel time in half. One time, I was home when I got a call from her. She asked me to look up at the skies, seeking my advice if she should proceed with a scheduled trip out of Manila by chopper. Looking out, I could see heavy, dark clouds, and knowing how she felt about it, I recommended that she reschedule her trip. She readily agreed, and I then instructed her junior aide to proceed back to the office.
All told, she was working diligently on all her requirements – and more. I saw this in her work with the VP’s office (OVP) and the DSWD, I saw this firsthand in her dealings with the people in need, I saw this in the sheer volume of issues she took time to understand. She worked that hard because she wanted to get things done. Because she genuinely cared.
Among the perks I enjoyed while working with GMA were the foreign trips I was privileged to take, though her schedules were truly punishing. We had numerous trips to Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Africa and America.
One time we were in China, after she retired late that evening. I had just finished reviewing with her the next day’s schedule. There was a Chinese officer waiting for me in front of my room. He then asked me to follow him to another room where there was a long table full of senior Chinese officers, some with their deputies. They had been waiting for more than an hour for a coordinating meeting with me – and presumably, other staff officers – on the next day’s sked. The apparent leader then introduced me to the people with him. One was aide, another was security, next was protocol, then logistics, then advance party head, then press chief, and more. He was expecting that each of these men would have a counterpart from our end, and I told him: “I am all of the above”. He was partly amused, partly exasperated, and totally in awe.
It was during one of those foreign trips that the world I had entered as GMA’s senior aide would suddenly change. In October of 2000, we were in Turkey, on our way to Rome, when GMA made a decision that would alter the course of Philippine politics – and, consequely, the course of my own journey with her. She would break ties with then President Joseph Estrada. The wheels of what would become EDSA 2 had begun to turn.
For more on this, you can read back on To Build Rather Than Destroy: A Journey of Trust and Transformation. (25th of My Story Series). Just click on the title.
Cover pic courtesy of China Daily. Other pics courtesy of BBC News, 150webs.com, ShutterStock, YouTube, China Daly, OVP, CBH Library. For a closer look, just click on the pics.
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