Leadership by compassion

Just recently, the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Manila North Tollways Corp. (MNTC) signed an agreement calling for the integration of toll collection systems of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX).

We all know what happened. The agreement was unacted upon for years by the BCDA for some unknown reason. Then December 26, 2015 came and Senate President Franklin Drilon was among those who had to endure a nine-hour ride from Manila to Baguio City. Reason for the traffic primarily was the volume of people who wanted to try out the newly opened Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX), the cold Baguio weather, the long weekend, and the drastic drop in fuel prices that made travelling by private vehicles affordable to more people. But adding to the woes of the Baguio-bound vacationers was the series of stops they had to make for each of the toll collection booths of NLEX, SCTEX, and TPLEX, with the lines going into the toll booths running as long as three kilometers.

Senator Drilon was of course pissed and vowed to make sure it would never happen again.

The agreement would later turn out to be no longer necessary because BCDA agreed to finally turn over SCTEX management and operation to MNTC after nobody showed up to challenge the latter’s offer.

According to BCDA, MNTC’s improved commercial offer includes an upfront cash payment of P3.5 billion, a 50-50 sharing of gross toll revenues, among others.

But the point of all this actually is, if only more of our government officials would get to experience what the non-privileged majority of us go through everyday, then this would probably be a better place to live in.

They should learn for instance how to survive on a minimum wage pay. Just like in Ateneo where students have to go through a community outreach program i.e. they get to live in the slum areas for a few days. Our government officials, including President Aquino, should feel what their constituents (who actually pay for their salaries and perks) feel. They should start commuting to work, live modest lives. They should be inspired by the example set by Uruguay President Jose Mujica who donates 90% of his salary to the poor, who lives on a farm with his wife and a dog, who drives an old 1987 Volkwagon Beetle, who doesn’t care about the way he looks, and who has a part-time job farming and growing and selling flowers grown on his farm.

Even though he is known as the poorest president, he strongly disagrees. He says, “I’m not the poorest president. The poorest is the one who needs a lot to live… My lifestyle is a consequence of my wounds. I’m the son of my history. There have been years when I would have been happy just to have a mattress.” (astoundable.com/worlds-poorest-president/)

“I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more… This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” he says. (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine)

Doubting Thomases

Philippine National Police (PNP) deputy chief for logistics Gen. Juanito B. Vaño Jr. has become the victim of trial by association. 

According to news reports, PNP chief General Alan Purisima, who recently resigned amid controversy in connection with the massacre of 44 Special Action Forces men at Mamasapano, has recommended Vaño for the position of PNP chief to than President Benigno Aquino, a close friend of Purisima.

And according to the same reports, there is brewing discontent among the PNP ranks that could result in mass resignation as a result of this.

Whoever is spreading such rumors is obviously banking on the current lack of trust in the President’s recent decisions, the besmirched name of Purisima, and the high suspicion of people regarding how big a role patronage politics plays in  government, to cast doubts on the integrity of another senior officer of the PNP.

That Purisima recommended Vaño’s appointment to the President is not a fact, but people already think it is.

General Vaño, at the least, deserves the benefit of the doubt.

Award-winning app

Amid glitzy product launches by tech giants in Barcelona, the proudly Pinoy app SPINNR held its own, winning Best Mobile Music App at the Mobile World Congress. The music service received the distinction from no less than the GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards, which is dubbed as the Oscars of the mobile industry.

Launched by Smart Communications in 2013, SPINNR was cited by the judges for its “bite-sized revenue model with carrier billing in a low credit card user base environment.” Smart says the locally developed app has changed the way Filipinos consume music, through affordable streaming packages that could be paid for via prepaid load deduction or postpaid bill charging.

The PLDT group has credited SPINNR and a suite of other content services as major contributors to the 63 percent growth in its mobile Internet revenues in the fourth quarter of 2014. In its latest disclosure, PLDT said mobile Internet usage shot up by a whopping 167 percent year-on-year.

Here’s hoping we would see more services like SPINNR, a Filipino contribution to global innovations that is affordable enough to enable more Filipinos to enjoy the benefits of technology. 

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