The humility he exuded even when he was president of the country’s flag carrier and vice chairman of the University of the East still emanates from Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Jaime “Jimmy” J. Bautista, even as he occupies a very important Cabinet post.
Bautista has a ready smile for those he meets — his eyes smile, too.
“His best friends now are the public transport drivers,” says his wife Joji proudly.
Bautista himself says that when he met with the drivers, one representative said it was the first time in 40 years that a transportation secretary has ever sat down with them to listen to their concerns.
A hands-on manager, he also monitors on-time and delayed landings at the three terminals of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. He looks forward to the opening of the new international airport in Bulacan and admires SMC president and vice chairman Ramon Ang for being “a visionary.”
Bautista has also another piece of good news up his sleeve — the subway project from north to south of Metro Manila that will decongest its arteries is on track. He is optimistic that the much-awaited project will be completed before 2028. “We already have the technology to safeguard against earthquakes, like in Japan, and floods. It can be done.”
“Maraming problema,” he acknowledged when I bumped into him after his appointment as DOTr Secretary, but this numbers guy (he is a Certified Public Accountant) always searches for the right equation that will add up to a solution.
Early this week, I asked him if a solution was forthcoming for the driver’s license card shortage and he nodded in the affirmative.
Bautista, who graduated magna cum laude from the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in 1977 with a degree in Commerce, major in Accounting, joined Sycip, Gorres Velayo & Co. when he was only 20 years old. He worked at Philippine Airlines for 25 years. He was its president for a combined 13 years before retiring for a second time in 2019.
Before becoming the top guy in PAL, Bautista was already part of the Lucio Tan Group, holding various positions and responsibilities in companies like Philippine National Bank, University of the East, Air Philippines and PAL Holdings. His first role for PAL was as its comptroller.
In an interview with PeopleAsia on PAL’s 75th anniversary, he described his leadership style.
“I am always fair to everyone. I can be accommodating but I’m firm with my decisions. It’s my job to look at the bigger picture and determine if we are on course to where we want to be. I try to figure out the strengths and capabilities of people. If there are differences, I do not immediately render judgment but ask for recommendations.”
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No one was more surprised than Bautista himself when he got a call from Malacañang shortly after the election of President Marcos.
“I did not participate in his campaign, I have always been apolitical,” he told me at a recent dinner where I was privileged to be seated next to him and his wife.
“I asked for my wife’s blessings to meet with the President. We agreed to listen first to what he had to say,” Bautista recalled, not wanting to be presumptuous of the reason behind the President’s call.
Indeed, it was an offer for him to be part of the Cabinet, as transportation secretary. “It was a big surprise for me. I never thought this would happen.”
Bautista, 66, was happily enjoying his retirement from corporate life, relishing trips with Joji to Singapore to visit their only daughter and their two grandchildren, their sun, their moon and their stars. Jimmy and Joji share a love for golf, too. They were financially secure. Most importantly, Jimmy retired with a solid reputation for his integrity. That was priceless for the couple.
Bautista requested the President for 24 hours to think about his offer. He consulted Joji and their daughter Jaime, who both initially resisted the thought of him taking on the demanding post.
And yet both husband and wife, after praying over it, realized it was an opportunity “to make a difference for our fellowmen.”
“It was this opportunity to serve that I couldn’t decline,” Bautista says. His daughter made him promise to always keep his good reputation as that would be his legacy to his grandchildren, and Bautista made an iron-clad promise that he would.
Bautista describes President Marcos as “very professional” aside from being “mabait.”
Their Cabinet meetings always promptly begin at 9 a.m. and end at noon, and the President, he shares, is always prompt for the meetings.
Though Bautista and the President weren’t close friends, the former remembers that Mr. Marcos, then senator, once sought his help when PAL shut down its operations in the Laoag International Airport. Then Senator Marcos said it would greatly affect trade and commerce in the region. Bautista, then PAL president, promptly brought up the issue to the PAL board, and after issues were ironed out, PAL flights resumed in the Ilocos capital. Perhaps the President saw the methodical, consensual and prompt response of Bautista to the problem.
Jimmy has a hectic daily schedule and makes sure he arrives an hour early for work as much as possible, especially during Mondays, when he leads the flag-raising ceremonies. Though he no longer has time for golf, he and his wife pray the rosary every night no matter how late he comes home from his engagements.
For Bautista, prayer is a big part of the equation in problem-solving — and multiplying happiness.
(You may e-mail me at joanneraeramirez@yahoo.com. Follow me on Instagram @joanneraeramirez.)