office design, location, program of work

Lot Situation as of Aug 8

Volunteers' Day

SUBIC COMMEMORATES VOLUNTEERS FOR CHANGING THE NAVAL BASE INTO A FREEPORT

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT — The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) honored the Freeport's outstanding workers and the Subic volunteers last Monday, November 24, to commemorate the turnover of this former US naval base to the Philippine government 16 years ago. The turnover ceremonies on November 24, 1992 not only marked the end of nearly a century of US military control of Subic Bay but also signaled the start of efforts to transform the former naval base into a Freeport. November 24 has since been observed as Volunteers Day in Subic Bay Freeport and the nearby city of Olongapo in grateful recognition for the indomitable spirit and sacrifice made by thousands of men and women who worked without pay to maintain and operate the facilities left behind by the Americans. "As one of the thousands-strong army of men and women who helped protect and preserve this former base land in 1992, I take immense pleasure in reliving with my fellow volunteers the years of toil and sacrifice that set the foundations for a progressive, sustainable and forward-looking Freeport," SBMA Administrator Armand C. Arreza said. "Today, as one of the thousands-strong army of SBMA employees, I also take enormous pride in announcing that our collective actions in the past have not been in vain as the Freeport continues in its unflagging march forward - breaking new records in investments, revenues and jobs, and seeking greater heights as a world-class service and logistics hub that we can all be proud of," he added. The awarding of the 10 Outstanding Freeport Workers for 2008 highlighted the event held at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center (SBECC). Now on its seventh year, this annual awards program - a joint project of the SBMA and the Subic Bay Workforce and Development Foundation, Inc.(SBWDFI) - gives due recognition to the crucial role of workers in the Freeport's rise as a premier investment and tourism hub. This year's awardees are Ma. Adoracion R. Celeste of the SBMA Human Resource Department; Levi D. Dalida and Paquito T. Torres, SBMA Intelligence and Investigation Office; Arleen B. Dulay, The Lighthouse Marina Resort; Diosdado E. Ednave, SBMA Law Enforcement Department; Severino T. Jovero of Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Ocean Adventure; Elizier Martin, SBMA Maintenance and Transportation Department; Vicente V. Salvador of Philippine Coastal Storage and Pipeline Corp.; Bernard D Sanchez of Nicera Philippines Inc.; and Jaime L. Villafuerte, Jr. of Wistron Infocomm. (Phils.), Corp. The search for the best among the 80,000-strong active work force in the Freeport began as early as August this year. Atty. Severo C. Pastor, SBWDFI Chairman and SBMA Labor Manager, said that the foundation received 50 nominees from the different business locators here and the SBMA, which participated for the first time. The SBWDFI was formed through the efforts of the SBMA and Freeport investors to provide a foundation that can provide a skills development program for thousands of workers here in the Freeport. The foundation has a Board of Trustees consisting of representatives from the Personnel Management Association of the Philippines, investors, Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce, SBMA-Labor Department and a representative of workers. The SBMA Volunteers' Day opened with the flag raising and wreath laying ceremonies in front of the administration building - at the very same spot where the formal turnover ceremonies were held 16 years ago. SBMA Chairman Feliciano G. Salonga and Administrator Arreza, himself a former volunteer, lead the flag raising, along with deputy administrators and former volunteers representing the different SBMA business units. A wreath was offered at the monument in the same area- that of the Children of the Sun Returning - which was built in 1996 by the first SBMA chairman and administrator, then Mayor Richard J. Gordon, and dedicated to Subic volunteers. The Olongapo city government also organized a grand reunion of Subic volunteers at a memorial built in their honor across the lagoon at The Bicentennial Park - the Volunteers' Shrine, where the Subic volunteers' names are engraved on granite panels. (30)

BAGUMBAYAN

“For Jose Rizal, Bagumbayan was not only the place of his own heroic martyrdom, but the very home and spirit of his dream of a free and prosperous Philippines... We now invoke that spirit in our quest for an even newer Bagumbayan… Bagumbayan is no longer just a place. It is we, the Filipino people, and all that we dream of being and becoming as a nation.”

THERE’S THE RUBBy Conrado de Quiros - Philippine Daily InquirerLast December 30, Rizal Day, I saw an interesting ad in this newspaper. It was a call for volunteers to join a “covenant for a new Philippines,” to be called Bagumbayan. It was signed by Richard Gordon and several public and private officials.

The Bagumbayan “manifesto” notes that this country has reached the utter pits: “Fear and helplessness have led many citizens to become inured to corruption and injustice” and “despair has driven many to hard and lonely work abroad... We need change on all levels of society -- not just of men, but in men… Above all we need to think, to feel, to act once again as one nation with one destiny, building on both our brightest prospects for the future and on the noblest traditions of our history.

“For Jose Rizal, Bagumbayan was not only the place of his own heroic martyrdom, but the very home and spirit of his dream of a free and prosperous Philippines... We now invoke that spirit in our quest for an even newer Bagumbayan… Bagumbayan is no longer just a place. It is we, the Filipino people, and all that we dream of being and becoming as a nation.”It’s not entirely new in its call for some kind of moral renewal or for new -- and young -- leaders to come forth and set this country aright, replacing despair with hope, replacing fear and helplessness with purpose and potency. Kapatiran is doing that already and has the added virtue of being a political party. Yes, virtue: Nandy Pacheco is right to say that politics is not a bad thing, it is a good thing.

It is how you use politics that makes it good or bad. It behooves every reasonable person to be more, rather than less, political because that is the only way to make politics serve the nation and not screw it.It is not original either in that it is has all the earmarks of a campaign vehicle, not unlike “Jeep ni Erap” [“Joseph Estrada’s jeepney”], which like the jeepney maker Sarao has pretty much disappeared from the face of the earth. Or which stalled long ago on a lonely road after being driven by a drunken driver and has been picked clean by the neighborhood.

Gordon at least has not been coy about his presidential ambitions.But Bagumbayan does have something new and meritorious, which is that it harks back to a storied past. Indeed, calls on Filipinos today to look back at that past and draw threads of continuity from it. I know a bit of where Gordon’s inspiration for Bagumbayan came from, and that is from the Light and Sound historical tableau offered to the public at Baluarte San Diego (a block or so away from San Agustin Church) in Intramuros.

I saw it some months back and was quite impressed by its insight as much as by its artistry.It offers the fantastic image of the Filipino struggle for liberty, or for a “bagong bayan” [new nation] (“bagumbayan” being a contraction of it), a new world, a free world, as one of breaking down walls. Not least literally, as Intramuros means Walled City. But as the tableau points out, Spanish rule did not just build physical walls, it built spiritual walls as well. The latter included the walls of social caste (the inert, or immutable, social structures of the time openly invites the word “caste”), with the “indios” [natives] occupying the lowest rung, impregnably barred from going up, and the walls of an engendered inferiority complex, which even more impregnably barred the indios from becoming free men.Rizal’s contributions to breaking down those walls were awesome, and you can’t help but feel a great sense of loss, and anger, as Rizal’s last moments on earth are reenacted -- or more than enacted, brought to life (and death) -- in that tableau.

That death, of course, brought life to this nation by giving it to glimpse what it could be, or what it could build, which was a bagong bayan, a new world, a free world. Truly, bagumbayan is more than just a place, it is vision. Truly it is more than a spot where a martyred hero died, it is a place where a nation was born.But here’s the part where I’m unhappy with the way the framers of Bagumbayan, the covenant, envision their cause, or have set their course about. It misses a great deal of what Rizal’s wall-breaking (or ball-breaking?) was all about.Rizal, of course, didn’t just fight Spanish tyranny by criticizing it, he fought it by proving that the indio was the equal of any Spaniard. At the time that was the most subversive thought that could ever be ventured and Rizal was doubly subversive not just by venturing the thought but by embodying it. Indeed, he was triply subversive by proving not just that he was the equal of the Spaniard overlord but was superior to him. It wasn’t entirely ironic that the Spaniards executed him for rocking their rule to the core. He did. Arguably more than even Andres Bonifacio with his Katipunan.But Rizal did also criticize tyranny, ferociously, resolutely, if also marvelously wittily and wisely. He was a satirist par excellence and wrote savagely about the friars, in particular, in his essays and novels. He arraigned ignorance and injustice and hypocrisy and fought them at every turn with every fiber of his being. You can’t build a new world on the rotting and rotten foundations of injustice and abuse. You can only do it by razing them down.The last is the part I don’t see in Bagumbayan, as well indeed as in other similar crusades or campaigns or movements that claim to be “positive” in presumed contrast to the “negative” one of being intolerant of intolerance.

Those two -- indicting injustice and abuse and discovering loftiness of purpose -- are not opposed; they are the two sides of the same coin. Leaders do not emerge by waiting for the old and cruel ones to die or go away so that they can replace them, leaders spring forth from the smithy of struggle.Rizal did. And so even in death birthed a bagong bayan.

Volunteerism in the Workplace: Beyond the Call of Duty

Volunteerism in the Workplace: Beyond the Call of Duty
By Jet Damazo - Newsbreak


Companies are increasingly getting their employees involved in their CSR programs. Find out why.

At the Intel factory in General Trias, Cavite, long weekends are the norm. With a compressed work-week system, most of Intel’s 4,000 employees spend longer hours on the factory floor, but go to work for only three or four days a week.

The rest of the days, though, are hardly spent lounging at home or vacationing in beaches; they’re usually spent teaching at local schools, conducting safety trainings, or doing any of Intel’s several other employee volunteer activities under its Intel Involved program.

“It’s a value at Intel,” says Chona Ignalaga, Intel's community relations and Intel Involved manager. Volunteerism has been so ingrained in the culture of Intel’s Philippine operations that about 80% of their employees—the highest participation rate among all Intel factories worldwide—do some form of volunteerism. In fact, one of the reasons for shifting to a compressed workweek in 2000 was the request of employees to spend more time with their families and for volunteering. Their volunteerism activities have become so massive that they now have their own “corporate structure” within the company.

That 80% of Intel’s employees spend most of their free time volunteering may be unusual, but among several large companies in the country, employee volunteerism is increasingly becoming a popular mode of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

With volunteerism as their form of CSR, Ignalaga says they establish a type of credibility within the community they operate in that cannot be achieved with the usual dole-outs. “Intel believes that it cannot exist without fostering positive relations with the community,” she says. It is a value—being an asset to their communities—that is printed at the back of their IDs.

“[Communities say], ’look at Intel’s employees, they are not even immediate residents of the community, but they are the ones helping.’ It softens the image of the company, especially as an American company operating in a Philippine setting,” Ignalaga explains.

“When we foster positive relations with the community, our operations run smoother. We can ask the barangay captain to help manage traffic in a certain area, so we get to deliver our chips for export on time. It goes back to a more efficient manufacturing process.”

Mark Watkinson, president and chief executive officer of HSBC Philippines, which is involved in education and environment issues, agrees that employee volunteerism makes for a more sincere CSR.

“As a potential customer, if I feel that one company is actually going a little bit further to really making a difference to the community in which they operate, then I might have a second thought about which company I put my business with,” he says. “It is very important that HSBC clearly shows that it is committed to change the world; that it is committed to change a particular area. So people can say that when it comes to environmental and education issues, HSBC is out there; it really believes in these areas. And it is not only putting money into these areas, but it is also encouraging its staff to get involved in its projects.”

Currently, about 150 HSBC employees take a paid half-day off each month to conduct reading programs in an elementary school in Pembo, Makati, and HSBC is looking for more partner schools to provide more volunteer opportunities for its people.

HSBC has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to create environmental education packs, which will be used by HSBC employees to teach 12,000 students in 240 schools next year.

Impact on Bottom Line?
For Manila Water, though, the very nature of their business and CSR programs practically requires employee participation. “Our CSR programs are tied to our core business,” explains Lyn Almario, Manila Water’s sustainability manager.

As a water utility, community involvement is necessary for Manila Water to not only deliver safe water, but to ensure that their infrastructure is protected from water thieves and the like. As such, territory managers are tasked to educate their respective communities and inform them of initiatives, such as Manila Water’s new sanitation program that aims to help provide decent toilets to urban poor communities. Almario makes it clear, though, that their employees are not evaluated against their CSR-related tasks.

“It’s not included in their evaluation, so whether they do it or not won’t affect their performance appraisal,” she explains, but adds that the positive results of their CSR programs attest to their employees’ active participation.

Naysayers may say that these benefits—community support, image-building, sustainability of business—all eventually hark back to the same thing companies have been criticized for: concern for the bottom line. This, however, is what sets employee volunteerism apart from other modes of CSR; volunteerism is also a human resource strategy whose primary beneficiaries are the employees themselves.

Proof of this is how none of the companies interviewed by Newsbreak measures the impact of employee volunteerism on the company’s bottom line. They have no figures to show for improved productivity or lower turnover, or studies to determine the relationship of volunteer hours to the brand’s value, which would justify why company resources are spent for such programs.

Leadership Roles
On the contrary, they measure the impact of their programs on the communities and on the employees themselves. A survey conducted by Intel in 2004 showed that they had happier employees because the Intel Involved program allows them to interact with coworkers better, expand their network, use other skills, take on leadership roles, and even engage their spouses and children in productive activities.

Cye Digma, for example, works as administrative assistant in Intel; but in Intel Involved, she’s a community manager. Raquel Orellana, on the other hand, treats volunteerism opportunities as family outings to which she regularly brings her three young children. “This way, I get to teach my children about the problems of society and show them how fortunate they are,” Orellana says.

What Ignalaga can say, though, in terms of volunteerism’s relationship with productivity is that, each year, about two to three volunteer leaders are named outstanding employees as well.

HSBC’s president gives an explanation for this. “If you provide people an opportunity to give back and to change the world, it leads to a much more fulfilled employee; somehow a much more fulfilled person,” Watkinson says. “It’s about individual growth. If you are living in a very comfortable world, and you never actually get close to some of the challenges it faces, then I think you lead quite a closeted existence. Whereas if we give the young people—remember our whole organization is pretty young—an opportunity to go and get involved, I think it really helps them grow as individuals.”

HSBC puts its money where its mouth is. A $10 million global HSBC project called Future First recently gave $75,000 to three local non-government organizations working for street children in the Philippines, and one of the main criteria for deciding who gets the grant was the opportunity for staff involvement. Intel has a Volunteer Matching Grant program, which donates $80 for every 20 hours an employee spends in volunteer work. In its recently completed third academic year, the program raised P37 million for 33 schools in Cavite.

Winners All
If you look at how these volunteer programs began, it would even seem that they were instituted primarily for the employees, and not for the benefit of the company.

The 10-year old Intel Involved program, for instance, is a formalized version of the culture of volunteerism already existing in the company for several years. “It used to be just managed by different employee groups. They gather themselves, pool money together, and go to orphanages and volunteer. Since we had nurses and doctors on-site because we’re a 24-hour manufacturing facility, they help out in medical missions. In 1997, the [Philippine] site manager realized that we already had a lot of community activities, and there was a clamor from employees to have opportunities for community service. So Intel organized a public affairs department and hired me,” recounts Ignalaga.

The same problem Intel faced in the late 1990s is true now for HSBC. “We don’t have a shortage of volunteers; the problem is finding good quality opportunities for them to volunteer for. So it is not a question of trying to find people; it is trying to find good quality, high impact projects for them to get involved in,” says Watkinson.

Of course, a natural consequence of all this are employees more satisfied with and loyal to their employers. “They also see that HSBC, as an employer and as member of the community, is serious about giving back to the community,” Watkinson adds. “It really helps if people feel that they are working with an employer who is not just there to maximize profit, but who actually gives something back to the community.”

So while critics call most other forms of CSR as superficial, with volunteerism, everybody wins—communities, employees, and, of course, the companies themselves.

The Battle of 229

The Battle of 229
By: Edwin J. Piano

For weeks, the volunteers were gallantly holding their position, but on this particular Sunday, the 26th of July 1998, while people are preparing themselves to hear the morning Mass, Building 229 was attacked!

Upon orders from Payumo and the Magsaysays, men who are supposed to protect and serve the people mercilessly attacked the volunteers, many of whom at the time were women and children.

Within minutes after the siege, we were at the scene, battle hardened personnel with guns, truncheons and riot shields have taken control of the battlefield and barricaded the streets leading to Building 229. The volunteers remaining in the area were being forcibly removed in a degrading manner.

I vividly remembered an old lady who was trying to pass over this barricade and trying to explain to Payumo’s men that she need to return to look for her necklace, Magsaysays men did not allow her and when she insisted, she was hit in the back by a riffle butt.

We told them that they don’t have to do that, and inform them that we ourselves need to enter Building 229 to assist those injured volunteers who are still trapped inside the building. We were ordered to leave.

As we look into the building from a distance, we could see brave volunteers who are still fighting it out, holding their positions to the death.

We really can’t just stand there and watch our comrades in the heat of battle.

Jimmy Mendoza, Joey Magrata, Leo Besas, Angie Layug, myself and few other volunteers who were negotiating with the oppressors realized that the situation can never be resolved by talking, the oppressors are firmly holding their line and armed-to-the- teeth. A counter attack has to be the solution in order to defend our rights and fight for the principles we hold dear.

We are about a dozen volunteers in that face-off with Magsaysays men, the rest of the battle weary volunteers were about twenty meters away waiting for whatever is going to happen next.

Joey and the group returned with a wooden plank about ten feet long, the volunteers agreed that we are all going to grab that wood and use it as create an opening in that rigid line of the oppressors.

As soon as we motioned to attack, Magsaysay’s ground commander ordered the firemen to shoot us with the water canon. This move by the oppressors triggered all the volunteers in the area to fight back with whatever material they could use . . . bricks . . . bottles , , , wood . . . stones are being thrown into the direction of Payumo and Magsaysay’s abusive men.

The battle was bloody but quick . . . the outcome clear . . . . .

The power of the volunteers, the righteous and the principled, who have sacrificed to make Subic a Success have again proven that the Sprit of the Volunteers can overcome even the most daunting challenge. . . . That the good will reign over evil. . . . And the resolve to “Fight On” will forever be in our hearths.

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!!!

Mabuhay ang Bagumbayan!! !

Isang paala-ala po sa kabayanihan ng Subic Volunteers!! ! Happy Volunteers’ Day

FOUR SUBIC VOLUNTEER STORIES

FOUR SUBIC VOLUNTEER STORIES
By: Jimmy L. Mendoza


Story #1

In my sixth month as volunteer Administrative Officer of the SBMA Public Works Group, I came home one night to find my wife in a bad mood. She confronted me with: “I have been packing your lunch and giving you transportation money for the past six months, including weekends. Ano ba ang pinakain ni Chairman Gordon sa iyo at ayaw mong tumigil? Dati-rati nung kalaban mo si Gordon ganoon na lang kung atakihin mo siya, ngayon lahat ng panahon mo ibinigay mo na sa kanya at wala namang bayad.”

I somehow already sensed this confrontation coming. My wife’s earnings as a market vendor have considerably diminished after the closure of the U.S. naval base, and with two kids going to college, she was having a hard time making both ends meet.

But having been married to her for twenty years, I knew exactly what would appease her. So I said, “You know the story of life. I have spent more than two decades as an activist, trying to ‘Serve the People’; and what have I accomplished in terms of improving their lives? Some of the people I recruited to our cause have even perished in it….. But Chairman Gordon, has given us another opportunity to ‘serve the people’; this time, with concrete results. ….We have already provided jobs to many people in the first few companies that have located in the Freeport. Their blessings should be enough consolation for our temporary sacrifices……. You should see the dedication and determination of all the other volunteers in trying to resuscitate our city’s dying economy. It is unbelievable the way Chairman Gordon has persuaded all these people to take a leap of faith and dedicate themselves to this great undertaking. This is history in the making and I have to be a part of it.”

Then the clincher: “At the pace things are going with the SBMA, and with so many investors set to start operations, our local economy will perk up sooner than later, and your earnings shall increase again. Besides, unlike in my previous activities, you don’t have to worry about my personal safety and security anymore.”

That did it! With my wife’s support, I was able to complete one year of volunteer work, and I stayed with the SBMA for as long as Richard Gordon was its Chairman and Administrator, a total of six years. It was a period of difficult challenges, extreme pressures, tension and aggravation. But yet, it was such a thrilling and productive six years that I felt I have done more in that period than in the past two decades of my life. And, more importantly to me, I know it was then that I have truly, selflessly served the people.

By the way, in the last few weeks when we were holding nightly vigils around Building 229 to resist President Estrada’s efforts to oust Chairman Gordon, my wife would bring us food in the evenings and join our group at the barricades. She would often catch some sleep on the couch in my office and leave us at four o’clock in the morning, just in time to open her store in the market. One particular evening, she sensed from my group’s conversations that the prospects of Gordon being retained were not good. With a worried look on her face, and talking to no one in particular, my wife sighed, “Dios ko, ano na kaya ang mangyayari sa SBMA kapag nawala si Gordon?”




Story #2

The phenomenon that has come to be widely known as “The Subic Miracle” is made up of countless, various miracles: big and small; some awesome, some funny, some inspiring, while others were just downright silly.

It seemed that in the SBMA under Chairman Dick Gordon, the order of the day was for everyone to perform his or her own miracle. The completion of the Subic International Airport in record, no make that “miracle” time, was one of them. The phenomenon of reckless drivers and traffic violators instantly converting into disciplined, safety-conscious citizens as soon as they enter the Freeport gates was considered a miracle, although some thought it was magic that did that.

But to me, one miracle stands out for the lessons in leadership that it had taught me. It is one that Chairman Gordon himself performed, and I privately think of it as “The Miracle of the Youth Volunteers’:

One of the things that first struck me when I joined the SBMA was the predominance of the young volunteers. I saw very few of Mayor Gordon’s (he was then both City Mayor and SBMA Chairman-Administrator) usual political leaders and they were assigned only minor tasks. Except for some former U.S. Naval Base workers, most of the more responsible positions in the organization were occupied by young volunteers – most of them fresh college graduates, many with very little or no job experience at all.

The SBMA was bubbling with youthful energy and idealistic enthusiasm. The demeanor and the look on the faces of those young people left no doubt as to their sincerity and determination. But to me then, that was no cause for comfort as I watched many of them fumble in their jobs, with their ‘hit-and-miss’ methods of work.

My concerns were aggravated when the young people who were handling the privatization of the water utility told me that they knew nothing about utility operations. I was particularly irked by this one young volunteer who could only answer, “Because that’s what Chairman Gordon wants”, every time I asked him why we should be doing this or that. Based on my experience, I thought most of the positions these “upstarts” were occupying required at least a couple of years on-the-job experience.

The question in my mind then was: ‘Does Dick Gordon know for certain that these are the guys that could help realize his vision for Subic, or is he just taking a gamble on them?’

As weeks and months passed, things started to become clearer me. I realized that the Chairman had opted for the education, youthful energy, dedication and enthusiasm of the young volunteers, rather than experience. Much was being said about Gordon’s micro-managing style then, but I thought he had to, given the inexperience of his staff.

The frequent meetings at the Command Center were most revealing of the Chairman’s style of leadership. They often consisted of a motivational speech – sometimes a reiteration of the common vision - then a scolding and criticism session, and then a detailed discussion of each Department’s tasks. The Chairman relentlessly exhorted every one to deliver more, better, and faster results, and anyone’s best effort was never enough.

“You don’t walk on the halls of this building; you strut!!,” he once barked at the flabbergasted youth.

It was as if the Chairman was trying to squeeze out to the very last bit, everything that was good and noble in all of us. I concluded then that Chairman Gordon hated mediocrity so much that he decided to wage an all out war against it.

What was amazing was that the volunteers took the scolding and criticism like a badge of honor. They so loved and respected the Chairman that they seemed to savor anything that the Chairman dished out to them, be it praise or criticism. Those who were not scolded actually felt they were less important to the Chairman.

At the Chairman’s constant prodding, more things did happen better and faster at the SBMA. Within a year, the “miracle” began to unravel. The airport and other important infrastructure were built; more investors located and more jobs were created; and the conversion of the former military base into a world class industrial and tourism complex was almost complete. Almost all of these major developments bore the imprint of the young volunteers.

But to me, the more interesting “miracle” was the professional maturity shown by the young volunteers by this time. The enthusiasm and determination was still there, but an added aura of confidence was obvious. The transformation from ‘bumbling greehorns’ to matured professionals in so short a time, was, to me, really amazing. I literally watched Pierre Ordonia grow from a clueless Head of Labor Disputes Office to a confident and effective Manager of the Labor Department. I marveled, as an initially confused Jasmine Santos successfully coordinated the smooth privatization of the water utility; and so with all the rest of the young volunteers – from negotiating with the big investors, to the drawing up of major contracts.

All of these was due to the dynamic and effective leadership of Chairman Gordon, with whom one year of association is worth ten years of experience.

I was left with nothing but a deep sense of gratitude, respect and admiration for those young volunteers, as I continue to marvel at the “miracle” that I’m sure deeply touched their lives, as it did mine.




Story #3


Malamig ang hangin sa gabing iyon noong Pebrero, 1996, subalit sa loob ng pabrika ay wala akong nararamdaman kundi init na nakakahilo. Magsasara ang Subic Star, ang pabrikang gumagawa ng sapatos na Reebok, at kami nila Atty. Manny Quijano at Pierre Ordona ay alalay kay Chairman Gordon habang siya’y nakikipag-negosasyon sa management upang mabigyan ng malaki-laking separation pay ang mga manggagawang mawawalan ng trabaho.

Tensiyonado at mahirap ang negosasyon. Natagalan bago napapayag ni Chairman Gordon ang management na dagdagan ang separation pay ng doble sa itinatakda ng batas.

Matapos naming pulungin ang mga manggagawa ay niyakag kami ni Chairman Gordon sa kanyang opisina upang pag-usapan ang pangkalahatang kalagayan ng paggawa sa Freeport. “Ano ba talaga ang mga problema natin sa labor?”, bungad kaagad ni Chairman pagkaupo namin sa paligid ng conference table.

Sumagot ako, “May mga kumpanya na minimum wage lang ay di yata kaya, o ayaw bayaran. Karamihan sa kanila ay tinuturing pa naman nating “pioneer investors”. Ako’y nagugulat at ngayon ko lang nalaman na mayroon palang foreign investors na ganyan.

Nagpaliwanag naman si Chairman: “Sino ba naman sa atin ang may karanasan sa ganitong gawain? Ako nga noong umpisa, sa kagustuhan kong magkaroon kaagad ng trabaho ang ating mga kababayan, ang tinatanong ko lang sa mga prospective investors ay kung ilan ang mabibigyan nila ng trabaho. Kapag halimbawa’y sinabing dalawang daan, pinapipili ko na kaagad kung saan gustong pumwesto. Kaya siguro may nakalusot na mga ganyang kumpanya.”

Nagpatuloy siya, “Pero tayo namang lahat ay natututo sa karanasan. Napansin niyo ba na simula nang pumasok ang Acer at Thompson Audio ay puro medyo malalaki na ang mga bagong investors? Di na kasi katulad noon na halos nagmamakaawa tayo para lang pumunta sila dito. Ngayon kilala na ang Subic. Marami na ang dumarating at pwede na tayong maging mapili sa mga investors.”

Si Manny Quijano naman ang bumulong sa akin, “Sabihin mo kay Chairman yung lagi mong sina-suggest sa akin.”

Nagsimula na naman ako, “Boss, ang isang problema natin, may pekeng union organizers at leaders sa labas na sinasamantala ang kalagayan sa ilang pabrika at sinusulsulan ang mga manggagawa na mag-unyon at labanan ang kanilang employers. Puspos at masugid ang kanilang pagtatangkang kontrolin ang mga manggagawa, at medyo nahihirapan kami sa pagkontra sa kanila. Iniisip ko Boss na unahan na lang natin sila sa pag-oorganisa ng mga unyon upang maiwas sa kapahamakan ang mga manggagawa, tutal ang pag-uunyon naman ay constitutional right ng mga manggagawa at palagay ko……..”

Biglag pinutol ni Chairman ang aking salita, “Don’t lecture me about workers’ rights, I’m a lawyer and I know all of that! Let me tell you about our predicament: When investors come here, one of their main concerns, next only to the costs of rentals, utilities, etc., is industrial peace. They are afraid of labor unions. So we have to guarantee that there will be industrial peace, otherwise the investors won’t locate here and all our efforts to create jobs will be wasted.”

Nag-isip sandali bago nagpatuloy si Chairman: “Alam naman natin Jimmy, na kaya nag-uunyon ang mga manggagawa ay mayroon silang mga problema at ang tingin nila ay ito ang solusyon. So the challenge is for us to create a situation where workers won’t feel the need to organize unions. Your office should act like a big brother to the workers, an office they can always rely on when they have problems. Just always maintain a proper balance between the interest of the workers and that of their employers.”

Medyo nag-isip ako ng malalim sa huling sinabi ni Chairman. Tumanda ako na naniniwalang ang tunggalian sa pagitan kapital at paggawa ay likas sa kanilang relasyon at irreconcilable. “Napagabigat na hamon,” naiusal ko sa aking sarili. Subali’t para sa amin noon, ang utos ni Chairman ay batas na dapat sundin kahit parang imposible.

Pagkatapos noon, talagang pinilit naming gawin ang gusto ni Chairman na panatilihin ang industrial peace habang sabay na pinangangahalagahan ang kapakanan ng mga manggagawa at ng kanilang mga employers. Iyon na yata ang pinakamahirap na balancing act na ginawa namin nina Pierre at Manny Q. Nandiyan yung palawigin namin ang mga gawain sa labor disputes conciliation- mediation, nandiyan yung mag-organisa kami ng mga Labor-Management Committees, masinsin na monitoring, at kung anu-ano pa.

Hindi madali ngunit nagawa naming panatilihin ang kapayapaan sa paggawa, sa buong panahong nandoon kami sa SBMA.

Ngayon, kapag nagkikita-kita kami nila Manny Q at Pierre, di namin maiwasan na masayang gunitain ang “six years of uninterrupted industrial peace” sa Freeport, at ang mga samut-saring naranasan namin mapairal lamang ito sa utos ni Chairman Gordon.




Story #4

“Langya kayo, bakit kayo lang ang di nasermunan ni Chairman”, ang pa-galit na kantyaw ni Delia Santiago ng Ecology Center sa aming dalawa ni Pierre Ordona, pagkatapos ng staff meeting habang palabas kami ng Command Center sa Building 229.

“Secret”, ang pilyong sagot naman ni Pierre.

Ang hindi alam ni Delia, kapag may mga tasks kami na pumapalpak, o kaya’y hindi namin magawa, kami na mismo ang nagrereport kay Chairman bago pa bago mag meeting at bago niya matuklasan ito, o mabalitaan sa iba. Pangkaraniwang ginagawa namin ito sa hatinggabi kapag patapos na ang araw ni Chairman at wala ng maraming tao sa sa kanyang opisina. Kung boboldyakin niya man kami, at least kami-kami na lang ang nandoon, at hindi sa meeting.

Kaya nga minsan, bandang alas dose ng hatinggabi ay nandoon na naman kami’t nakapila para kausapin si Chairman tungkol sa isang problema. Buhay na buhay ang paligid na para bang alas nuwebe pa lang ng umga. Mula sa aking kinauupuan ay natatanaw ko sa hallway ang mga young volunteers na mabilis na naglalakad, habang ay iba naman ay labas-masok sa mga opisinang nasa gawing kaliwa. Sa mismong harapan ko ay subsob sa trabaho sa kani-kanilang computers ang tatlo pang volunteers.

Alam kong wala namang graveyard shift dito, ngunit bakit ganoon na lang ka-busy at buhay na buhay ang lugar. Ang tingin ko tuloy ay napaka surreal ng eksena o kaya’y nalipat ako sa ibang dimension.

Kinalabit ko si Pierre, sabay tanong ko sa kanya, “Pierre, sa palagay mo kaya, mayroong iba pang opisina ng gobyerno sa buong Pilipinas sa oras na ito na kasing busy at buhay na buhay gaya dito?”

Lumabas na naman ang pilyong ngiti ni Pierre at ang sagot: “Tata Jim, sa palagay mo kaya, mayroon pang ibang Dick Gordon saan mang lugar sa Pilipinas sa oras na ito?”

Dick for president?

RICHARD GORDON has never been shy about his ambition to be one day President of the Philippine republic. Last week the brilliant, brash senator from Olongapo was in San Francisco to check out California’s automated voting system. He wants a similar system in the Philippines to preclude, among others, the possibility of another Hello Garci scandal in the future.

(I don’t know anything about automated voting because I have opted for the absentee ballot, which I find more convenient.)

Apparently Gordon was pleased with what he saw because he would occasionally interrupt our conversation to do a phone interview on the issue with radio shows in the Philippines. He was voluble about the merits of the automated voting system and wondered why there is so much opposition to it.

I wanted to butt in and say that it was not the technology that was being opposed, but rather the cynicism that is triggered among Filipinos whenever confronted with such ambitious and expensive projects. Putting it crudely, the first question that comes to mind of most Filipinos whenever such high-profile, cash-rich projects are brought up is whose pockets are going to be fattened with the purchase of this technology.

Dick Gordon has been in politics longer than I have been a journalist. He is known for his out-of-the-box thinking, the kind that made the former U.S. naval base in Subic, along with the city of Olongapo which has been ruled by his family since the Jurassic period, a paragon for economic planning and development in the Philippines. His courage is almost legend, and he brooks no nonsense. He could not have made it to where he is now had he neither the savvy nor the intestinal fortitude for politics as practiced in the Philippines. He is a gladhander, but won’t hesitate to bark in your face if you say something he thinks is wrong.

Which is why I can’t believe my ears when he says he does not understand the opposition to automated voting in the Philippines. Is he being naïve (what is the price of democracy? he asks) or is his idealism clouding his reality?

To me it seemed the latter. There were about half a dozen of us, community leaders kuno, around the table at the San Francisco consulate. Consul Anton Mandap organized the tete-a-tete to get Gordon more acquainted with the community. I understand a similar meeting had been organized with other FilAm folks earlier. Before our meeting, Gordon presided over the oath-taking of a group of new dual citizens.

It was at first a freewheeling discussion, when I decided to give it more direction and allow him to talk about the Philippine political situation. I threw him a softball that allowed him to talk about his plan to run for the presidency in “oh-ten.”

He spoke briefly of what ailed the motherland, which he used as an on-ramp to roll out his spiel about why he is the person that could turn things around. He spoke about his track record: about what he did at Subic (how he was able to convince Fedex to set up shop there), his stint as tourism secretary (Wow Philippines), his principled opposition to Marcos and Erap and disagreements with the policies of Cory and Gloria, etc.

A very impressive track record, indeed. And I told him that based on it, I would support him in a heartbeat, but that he would lose.

“Who cares about track record now?” I asked. “You yourself said earlier Filipinos cannot seem to see beyond their noses. You couldn’t win if you did have a retinue of actors and singers during a campaign.

His response, which included throwing up of his hands and swiveling his chair, indicated I may have touched a raw nerve. With such a cynical attitude, he said in so many words, then hope is lost.

I believe, he said, in the Filipinos’ ability to do the right thing. He believes that anytime soon, Filipinos will see through the shallowness and crassness of some of his fellow politicians and vote into office people who not only have the capability but also the will to serve.

Which is why he says he is launching a new political party he is calling Bagumbayan (new nation), referring to the place where Jose Rizal was shot. Brushing aside S.F. lawyer Rene Pascual’s wry remark that it could be called Bagumbayad (newly paid), Dick said it was the place where Filipinos found the courage to fight the Spaniards and end 400 years of subjugation.

We, too, would like to believe. Lito Gutierrez, Philippine News Online