The biggest rock

The lesson of the big rocks is familiar in the speaker circuit. In his book, First Things First, Stephen Covey recounts how a brilliant lecturer taught overachievers about time management.

“He reached for a wide-mouthed gallon jar and set it beside a platter of fist-sized rocks. He asked, “How many of these rocks do you think we can get in the jar?”

After some guesses, he said, “Let’s find out.” He put one rock in, then another, then another— until no more rocks would fit. Then he asked, “Is the jar full?” Everyone shouted, “Yes!”

“Not so fast,” he cautioned. He lifted a bucket of gravel, poured it in and shook it. The gravel slid into all the little spaces between the big rocks. Smiling, he asked again, “Is the jar full?” A little wiser by now, the audience responded, “Probably not.”

“Good,” the teacher said. He brought up a bucket of sand and started dumping it in the jar. The sand filled in the little spaces left by the rocks and gravel. Once more he asked, “Now, is it full? “No,” everyone shouted.

“He then poured almost a quart of water from the pitcher. At last he said,” the jar is now full. Can anybody tell me the point of this exercise?” An eager participant replied, “If you really work at it, you can fit more in your life.”

“No,” the expert said. “ The point is this: if I hadn’t put those big rocks in first, I would never have gotten them in.”

Effective leaders know that setting the right priorities is a key factor of success. With 5 1/2 years more in office, P-Noy’s detractors have resorted to blowing-up gravel-and-sand lapses into big-rock blunders. The brouhaha over the color of the parrot’s beak and the location of Tubbataha Isles in the new peso bills were denounced like these were grave policy mistakes. By pelting P-Noy with a steady stream of attacks, they hope to distract him from addressing the humongous problems that his predecessor dumped on his lap. They wish that he would be perceived as impotent, so unlike the Strong Republic that loudly proclaimed its accomplishments in multi-million-peso campaigns. Alas, the hyperbole was disbelieved. She was consistently rated negatively, earning the dishonor of “worst performing president”.

Many of the big rocks that should be put in the jar first, have been identified correctly: poverty alleviation, education, healthcare, infrastructure, to name a few. The P1.65T national “Reform” budget reflects these priorities. Each peso is an instrument for Social Transformation. Filipinos can expect a brighter future in these areas.

But there is an urgent challenge, a boulder so hefty that it might even outsize the jar. Nonetheless it must be rectified, hopefully within his tenure. After nine years of bad example and poor governance, a culture of impunity has permeated institutions and society. Some thumb their noses at the oath they took as public servants and consider themselves exempt from the rule of law and immune from punishment.

These episodes bear this out.

Rep. Ronald Singson was arrested in Hong Kong last July 2010 on charges of trafficking in dangerous drugs. This was amended to a lesser charge of drug possession, and he is temporarily free on a HK$2M bail. Ironically, this solon once filed a bill “for the immediate disposal and destruction of confiscated, seized or surrendered dangerous drugs and paraphernalia”. His admonition: “Dangerous drugs are one of today’s most serious social ills.”

His father, Ilocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson, angered at suggestions that the House should expel his son, lashed out, “The reactions are premature and biased against my son. Why not try it first [on] Senator Lacson, who has a pending warrant of arrest?”  Chavit himself has beaten raps before. He was accused of mauling his live-in partner and her boyfriend in 2009. But despite media coverage and condemnation from women’s groups, the case fell through the cracks.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, charged with the Dacer-Corbito double-murder chose to hide rather than prove his innocence in a court-of-law. Although his distrust of the Judiciary may have merit, arguing his case on Facebook is hardly statesmanlike. Lacson swings from petulance, to self-pity and bravado.

He told the DOJ Secretary, “Don’t look for me. Look at the evidence. It’s right under your nose. It won’t cost you two centavos to fulfill your duty to provide justice to all concerned.” He taunted, “Thanks to De Lima’s repeated public announcements of my whereabouts, I had to go a notch deeper underground.”

He vowed, “I will only come out when justice is rightly served, or when I’m already dead”. Dramatic words from a lawmaker-turned-fugitive, AWOL from his job for one year now. What a disservice to his constituents.

But the grand prize for shamelessness goes to the recently released ex-AFP Comptroller, Major-General Carlos Garcia. His wife Clarita explained to the US Immigration and Customs how she and her sons could afford to smuggle US$100,000 on her husband’s salary. She identified four wealth sources: Three companies and her husband, who she believed was entitled to generous cash gifts from military contractors!

Excerpts from her signed statement:

“We are each given travel allowances by the proponents/host country. He is also given by his office stipend & allowances to be used at his discretion. I am also given ‘shopping money’ that I can use for my own discretion, no receipt of how we use the stipends are ever required.

Business class airfare/First class hotel accommodations and transportation are provided by the host/proponents …. meals, souvenirs and cost of visiting sites are also paid for by our host…. our allowances are not used and we are allowed to keep them …. my income from the resort and orchard from my parents inheritance, Philippine laws allow [that] even though the corporation made profits since its start of operations, we reported a loss the first two years”.

Self-entitlement, an amoral conscience, flouting the Rule of Law — fatal symptoms of the dreaded plague. Ending the culture of impunity is the biggest rock of all.

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