Innovative Marikina

In the evening of 17 July 2009, the hard-bound 100-page book, "The Will To Change: Marikina and Its Innovations," was launched at the Ayala Museum, Makati City. Its three chapters were written by Dr. Rufo Mendoza, Anna Felicia Sanchez and Carl Javier, edited by Dr. Dennis Gonzalez, and jointly published by the Marikina City Government and the Ateneo School of Government.

The book was designed by award-winning designer Francisco 'Dopy' Doplon of ArtOne Design & Communications with several pieces from professional photographer Jay Alonzo.

A multi-awarded Filipino and English writer and critic, Dr. Isagani Cruz, offered a review of the book during the launch, and said that its content and design have achieved successfully the purpose of being able to inform, instruct, and inspire. The book is intended for public servants, teachers, students and conscientious citizens interested in local governance.

The book opens with a Foreword each from Sen. Francis 'Kiko' Pangilinan and Dean Antonio G.M. La Viña, JSD. The whole book with its high-resolution photos is freely downloadable in 4 parts by visiting www.asg.ateneo.edu and clicking Resources and then Research Papers & Publications.

Below is the Introduction by Carl Javier, a young writer of fiction and non-fiction and a teacher in creative writing at the University of the Philippines and Miriam College in Quezon City.

"Marikina and Its Innovations: Introduction"
In Marikina City Hall, as in any other city hall, there are always visitors. But its visitors in the morning when we started our interviews for this book were special. We were accustomed to seeing people filing all manner of paperwork, people asking officials to settle disputes, people showing up asking for handouts. What we had that particular morning was a class of children on a field trip.

The children, perhaps in kindergarten or first grade, were brought to the city hall so they could witness how government works. In that act many things were accomplished. The children saw the cleanliness, orderliness, and activeness of a government center. At this point in their young lives, they took in images, sights and sounds of what they should expect from a public agency, why public service is desirable, and why city hall and its workers are valuable.

Much like the many visible and invisible influences and interactions in that field trip, many of Marikina’s governance practices and innovations have worked on multiple levels. Its innovations have worked up passions and emotions, advanced personal and public values, improved the delivery of city services, and yielded intended and unintended fruits.

In producing a book about the city’s innovations, there were difficulties faced. Chief among them was deciding which among the many innovations were to be adequately described and which to be merely mentioned. With the city amassing awards and accolades for its accomplishments, one can end up with a thick tome in describing and analyzing them.

The next major difficulty was deciding how much technical information to exclude in order to make the book accessible to both busy local officials and conscientious citizens who are willing to read and learn new things about local governance.

The book’s first chapter describes the social engineering and culture change that the Marikina city government has practiced and preached. The next chapter describes the financial growth and economic management that accompanied and supported the change in social behavior and practices.

The last chapter looks at the city hall bureaucracy and how it has been professionalized and turned into an efficient, well-oiled machine that eases and pleases people. These chapters are products primarily of interviews with selected city hall officials and personnel, local entrepreneurs, and ordinary residents, young and old.

The changes to the city did not just happen. There was much that needed to be overcome such as insufficient resources, the ingrained bureaucratic culture of mediocrity and inefficiency, and popular skepticism, resistance and anger. To overcome them took not only careful planning and implementation, but more so political will, the will to change.

Like the children brought to Marikina City Hall, we can learn much in turning our attention to the city and its governance practices and innovations. This book serves as that tour for readers interested in finding out what has been done to make Marikina the successful city that it is. Hopefully, readers will find a similar will to change things around them and within them for the better and the best.

A Businessman's Morning Prayer

Dear God, I celebrate your presence with thanksgiving, and with my whole heart praise You this morning. I greet You with love, Creator of the universe, Spirit who strives with the chaos of the world. The power of your love & wisdom reaches so far that nothing & no one is beyond your help & healing.

Help me to listen to your voice, soften my heart & open my mind morning after morning. When I listen to your voice deep within me, I shall know the wisdom & mercy of your love. I shall see You as rest, relief & upliftment for many people who suffer from poverty, inequality, injustice & indifference in my country & throughout the world.

You are the giver of life & the owner of the earth, entrusting managers & investors with treasures, talents & time, holding us accountable for our actions & decisions, judging us all in your faithfulness, quelling our envy & greed.

Strengthen my commitment to the practice of building the nation, equalizing opportunity & creating long-term value for society. May your Spirit inspire me to pursue & preserve fellowship & friendship with socially responsible mentors & peers in the world of business, trade & industry. I ask this with trust in your fidelity & mercy. Amen.

Oscar S. Villadolid: He Dared To Dream Big

The piece below was written by my wife, Hilda ‘Deeda’ Villadolid Gonzalez, a masteral graduate of the National University of Singapore and the eighth of nine children of Oscar and Alice Villadolid. This is a slightly edited version of the introduction to the chapter of her father in the book, "How To Make It in PR: PR Veterans Tell Their Stories," edited by Romeo Virtusio and published in San Juan, Metro-Manila, in 2007. Deeda wrote:

If you want to live an exciting life, dare to dream big and then work hard to make it come true. It was Oscar S. Villadolid who, when I was fresh out of college, first showed me the validity of this philosophy in pursuing a successful career.

While my father had built a reputation in journalism, corporate communications and public relations, guided by such a truism, it was his stint as Philippine ambassador to the Holy See at the Vatican where it was tested as applied in diplomacy.

In 1991 when my father began his tour of duty, the social plight of Filipino overseas workers was an issue unfolding at the margins of Philippine diplomacy. While the OFW’s presence in Italy had significantly increased since the 1970s, the priorities of Philippine foreign affairs were naturally anchored on the bilateral and multilateral representation of the country in politics and economics.

Early in his five-year stint, however, my father focused on the OFW’s social welfare. His goal was to place their spiritual and social needs and aspirations on the foreign affairs agenda, given their sizable presence and their contribution not only to the Philippines but also to Italy and the Vatican. He joined them on Sundays, when they would congregate for mass and social activities, and listened to their issues. He designed initiatives around these issues. He actively supported the effort of the Filipino community, Jaime Cardinal Sin, and Bishop Ramon Arguelles to establish a Filipino Chaplaincy, leading to the designation by the Vatican of the Basilica of Sta. Pudenziana in Rome as the “spiritual home” of Filipino migrants.

While his framework was considered to be “against the grain” and met with some skepticism at the time, he kept to his trademark approach--boldness in ideas and tenacity in implementation. Towards the end of his stint, his approach proved prophetic when His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, proclaimed the Filipinos in Italy as the “new evangelizers” - bringing by their example the message of Christianity to Italian families. The worthiness of placing the OFWs at the center could not be more valid than what we see today when they are keeping the economy on solid footing.

When I became a parent in 2004, my first thoughts were of my parents, Oscar Villadolid and Alice Colet, for the steadfastness they displayed, as they raised a family of nine children while building successful careers. Our childhood was a collage of stimulating memories. There were the conversations around our long dinner table, where my mom and dad would share with us the latest news in politics and society and then encourage us to pitch in our opinions or ask questions. Older siblings took care of younger ones, and everyone had chores.

In grade school, my first responsibility at 5 am every weekday was to awaken everyone for school. Afternoons were spent playing patintero or doctor-doctor in the yard while mom, who like dad never stopped working, typed away on her telex to beat the deadline for The New York Times. Books were handed down from the eldest to the youngest. Despite their busy schedules, dad and mom brought us every summer to the Hundred Islands with the Villadolid cousins, while parties were spent with the Colets.

Looking back and marveling at how our parents managed to raise 9 children, I attribute it to a confluence of sacrifice, boldness and faith. As his family was growing, dad set aside his passion for journalism and joined San Miguel Corporation, building a career of 25 years to eventually retire as senior vice president.

Even as she directed our upbringing, mom built a career in journalism--becoming the Manila correspondent for The New York Times and Newsweek--and public service, as Press Undersecretary under the Aquino administration. She would again be asked to balance two responsibilities when dad served as the Ambassador to the Vatican where she helped him render diplomatic duties after which she would shuttle back to Manila to manage the affairs of the Philippine Press Institute as its Executive Director. Throughout these busy years, they still managed to help us navigate the challenges in our young lives with equanimity and firm guidance based on values and faith.

Today that filial fabric woven in one generation remains sturdy. We have sought to give back to our parents by following their example, not in the number of children, but in mirroring their hard work and in maintaining the strong fabric of closeness despite the pull from different locations.

Deoji, the eldest, owns and manages a successful distribution and trading company after years in San Miguel in Manila and Hong Kong. Osee has been a globe-trotter, advising companies worldwide on IT solutions as a director for Asia of a multinational company. Having graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines and proceeding to earn a masteral degree in communications from the University of Michigan, Tessa has since raised a family and built a career in marketing in that most exciting of cities, New York.

It was Joey and Anna who inherited the artistic genes. Joey melded entrepreneurship and the arts, successfully establishing his own professional photography studio in Manila and now practicing his craft in San Francisco. And what more can be said of Anna, whose ballet career began in Manila and culminated as a principal soloist of the Munich Ballet, where even mom and dad are introduced as “her parents!”

Tina spent years in the country’s biggest corporate foundation and applied her graduate units from New York University in an international philanthropic organization. Paula has built throughout 17 years a solid career as a Training and Organizational Development expert. Lynn, another globe-trotter, holds an MBA from Harvard University and advises entrepreneurial start-ups in London. As for me, I followed my parents’ interest in the social sciences, starting in journalism and then spending years in public governance and development consulting.

Deeda Villadolid-Gonzalez

Gender and Sex in Genesis 2-3

What do chapters 2-3 of the Book of Genesis say about gender relations and the deep human hunger for emotional and sexual intimacy? What was the serpent that lured the woman to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Is there something wrong with “knowing good and evil”?

In Genesis 4:1, “Adam knew (yada’) his wife Eve, and she became pregnant.” The knowledge that leads to pregnancy is knowledge in practice and not just in theory. Here, knowing is inseparable from doing. In the case of marriage, ideally it is intimate knowledge that is gained from shared activities not just in the bedroom, and it goes beyond the shallow knowledge from casual sexual encounters, where many people choose to remain nameless or to give false identities. Truly intimate knowledge among spouses raises marriage to sanctity rather than promiscuity in contrast to the animal that mates with any partner out of instinct.

Similar to knowing one’s spouse, knowing good and evil in Genesis is primarily practical knowledge, which is gained from doing and not just from thinking. Furthermore, the expression “good and evil,” like “light and darkness” and “heaven and earth,” can refer to a scale or a continuum of everything in which the two terms are the extremes. Thus, “knowing good and evil” can mean doing everything or at least being capable of doing everything.

God told the man: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die (or you are doomed to die many times)” (Gen 2:17). The desire to do everything or to be able to do everything has brought death and destruction to human beings across many generations.

The serpent told the woman, “The moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods (Elohim) who know good and evil” (Gen 3:5). “Elohim” can be translated also as “rulers” or “mighty ones,” and thus the message could be: “you will be like (absolute) rulers who attempt to do everything.”

In society, no individual, family, or group should be given the ways and means to do everything they want. Absolute rule by anybody or any group should be avoided, and an effective system of accountability, check and balance and the review and oversight of the decisions and actions of rulers should be put in place. The exercise of power without accountability will arouse greed, envy, lust and other base instincts that will cause death and destruction to oneself and others possibly from one generation to the next.

The principle of check and balance can be discerned even in God’s choice of a helper for the human creature. “The Lord God said: ‘It is not good for the human to be alone. I will make for him a helper (ezer) as in front of him’” (Gen 2:18). What is “a helper as in front of him,” which is usually translated as “a suitable helper” or “a fitting partner”? None of the wild animals that God formed and brought to the human proved to be such a helper (Gen 2:19-20).

God formed the fitting helper, the woman, from the tsela’ (Hebrew for rib or side) of the human creature. While most biblical translations choose “rib,” it is possible to translate tsela’ as “side” especially if one brings into the picture what some ancient peoples especially ancient Greeks believed: the original human creature had four arms, four legs, two faces, and two sexes like twins joined at their backs or like Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man with four arms and four legs in a square and a circle.

The original human creature was lonely in the absence of a familiar face, and did not see such familiar face in any of the wild animals that God brought to be “a helper as in front of him.” Finally, the man recognized the familiar face in the woman that God took from his side. For German rabbi, Samson Hirsch (1808-1888), “woman was created from man to show that only in partnership do the two form a complete human being.”

A superior partnership can be formed where there is face-to-face interaction and where the partners can freely unite or separate from each other, unlike in the original human creature where male and female had no choice in the back-to-back conjunction. “Man needs to live face-to-face with the Other, dancing to the choreography of his own freedom” (Avivah Zornberg). The complete human being entails a face-to-face partnership into which the sexes should freely enter.

“A helper as in front of him” can also mean “a helper against him.” The medieval French rabbi, Rashi (1040-1105), says: “If man is worthy, the woman will be ‘a helper;’ if he proves to be unworthy she shall be against him.” Thus, for man, the woman is "katapat" (Filipino): “an equal who can face him as worthy confidant or worthy opponent.” No animal can be a worthy or effective opponent of man when he chooses to be cruel or oppressive.

What about the crafty serpent that deceived the woman to eat the forbidden fruit? Many religious teachers have considered that serpent to be the devil and the real opponent of humankind.

For most biblical scholars, the serpent is a multivalent symbol of cunning, life, and the ancient fertility cults. The serpent is a symbol of cunning because it can move quietly and secretly before it makes a deadly strike. It can symbolize life because it seems to regenerate itself whenever it sheds its skin. It also resembles the phallus, the erect penis.

It is suggested in Genesis 3 that the serpent used to stand erect, for the punishment for its deception was “on your belly shall you crawl” (Gen 3:14). Some religious teachers have concluded that the fault of the woman was lust, for she decided to set aside God’s prohibition as she attended to and interacted with an erect serpent.

Biblical scholar, Bernhard Anderson, describes the ancient fertility cults involving the god or Baal in Canaan, where the Israelites settled, as follows: “The Baal of a region is the ‘lord’ or ‘owner’ of the land…The astonishing revival of nature [after winter] was due to sexual intercourse between Baal and his partner...Farmers were not mere spectators of the sacred marriage...Human pairs, by imitating the action of Baal and his partner, could bring the divine pair together in fertilizing union.” Thus, there were temple prostitutes with whom worshippers could imitate the sexual action of the gods in order to revive and preserve the fertility of both the land and the people.

The God of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and David is a God who understands the very human desire for sexual intimacy, but is a God who does not require the sexual act whether to achieve emotional intimacy between human beings or to achieve a sacred union between the divine and the human. God can be so close to us as one who chooses to dirty his hands in forming the human creature from the humus of the ground (Gen 2:7) or to act like the father of the bride who leads the woman to her man (Gen 2:22). Yet God is free from the human condition in which sexual self-discipline has been a perennial challenge especially for men in authority.

After the woman and the man ate the forbidden fruit, they began to feel the desire to do everything including the desire to dominate, and concomitantly they felt fear and shame about their nakedness, which makes one vulnerable to domination by another. The couple lost great trust in each other, became ashamed of their bodies, and thus underwent their first “death.”

After their offence, they hid from God, who sought them out and asked questions like a wise parent who apparently knew already the problem (Gen 3:8-11). “God opened the dialogue to give the man the opportunity to acknowledge his sin and be pardoned. Instead he hurled against God the very kindness that God had shown him, the gift of the woman.” (Midrash Aggadah)

A blame game begins: the man blames the woman, “whom You put here with me” (Gen 3:12), while the woman blames the serpent, an animal God had made. The worsening offence damages the relationship among human beings, the rest of creation, and the Creator. Alienation or estrangement among them is a state of sin, and the sacred writer describes the disorder of such a state (Gen 3:14-19).

Sin turns the partnership of man and woman into a relationship of domination: “I will increase your labor and your pregnancies; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your desire shall follow that of your husband, and he shall be above you.” (3:16)

In ancient or traditional communities, “women would be facing up to 8 pregnancies and would understandably be unwilling at times to be sexual” (Carol Meyers), but husbands would insist on sex and expect to have their way, whenever they desire sex. Sin denies or obscures a woman’s right to have equal say on the times for sex, the manner or style of sex, and the frequency of pregnancy.

A relationship of domination of the husband over the wife greatly increases the woman’s pain in bringing up children, as she is usually expected to be solely or primarily responsible for child-rearing. Thus she will experience more pain than her husband will, as the child grows into a distinct individual and begins to detach from her with the attitude that, while woman is to be loved or cared for, she has to be kept subordinate.

Among the lessons of Genesis 2-3 is the following: God’s original vision of gender relations involves equality and mutuality and not domination among the sexes even in the realm of the satisfaction of the natural hunger for sexual intimacy. Equality and mutuality among spouses in our communities have national consequences in the long run. The authoritarian and undemocratic tendencies of many of our political, economic, and religious leaders can be partly but firmly traced to the examples of their parents and the way they were brought up as children.

Prayer for Oscar S. Villadolid (1929-2009)

God our Creator,
Your love and power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by your wisdom we return to dust.

Lord, those who die still live in your presence.
Their lives change but do not end.
We pray in hope for Oscar Villadolid,
husband, father, grandfather,
journalist, corporate executive, and diplomat,
and for all the dead known to You alone.

In the Spirit of Christ,
who died and now lives,
may those who have left this world
rejoice in their home with You,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Unite us together again in one family,
in the new heaven and the new earth
to live in holiness, peace, and joy
forever and ever. Amen.

Institutional Reform

The Ateneo School of Government with support from the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung has launched the Institutional Reform (IR) Paper Series, which showcases 8 handy, balanced and well-researched papers intended to provide decision-makers, opinion-makers, and conscientious citizens with resource materials on issues concerning the performance of constitutional institutions and the impact of key constitutional concepts such as: dynamic economic productivity, local autonomy, extraordinary executive powers, bicameralism, modes of changing the Constitution, and the party-list system.

The IR Paper Series presents perspectives on re-examining the institutional arrangements of the Philippine State, and tackles topics from a spectrum of issues that periodically emerge in constitutional discussions. The IR Papers can be downloaded through the School website www.asg.ateneo.edu under the heading Resources and then Research Papers & Publications.

The initial offering of the IR Paper Series consists of 8 papers that can be categorized according to the following themes: legislative issues, economic issues, executive powers, and religious-political proposal.

The IR Papers on legislative issues: “Is there a Party in the House?” by Dr. Edna E.A. Co describes and analyzes the party-list conundrum and argues for the development of party-list groups into full-fledged political parties that are capable of competing in mainstream politics; “Are Two Better than One?” by Dr. Nereus ‘Neric’ Acosta argues that Bicameralism offers greater assurance of legislative oversight of executive decisions and actions in a Soft State with a tendency towards a heavy-handed presidency; “Initiating Change? People’s Initiative as a Mode of Changing the 1987 Constitution” by Joy Aceron and Francis Isaac explores the pros and cons of a people’s initiative by revisiting the attempts of PIRMA and Sigaw ng Bayan and examining the barriers to making operational and practicable this mode of Charter Change.

The IR Papers on economic issues: “The Impact of Restrictions to Ownership in Public Utilities” by Dr. Alvin P. Ang argues that the available data do not show conclusively that the constitutional restriction is a major reason for limited foreign investment in the public utilities sector; “Digital Convergence: An Argument for Constitutional Reform” by Novel Bangsal describes the insufficient flexibility of the institutional environment to respond to and maximize the benefits of the multi-media convergence process worldwide; “Globalized Services: Towards Liberalization of Professional and Educational Services in the Philippines” by Jaime Singson contends that the liberalization of professional and educational services will enhance the economic competitiveness of the country in the medium to long terms.

The IR Paper on executive powers, “Extraordinary Measures: Constitutional Powers in Times of Crisis” by Dr. Antonio G.M. La Viña, Anna Su, and Edgar Bonto, reviews the recourse to emergency powers by four presidencies and examines their intended and unintended consequences.

The IR Paper on a religious-political proposal, “Islam and the Shariâ in a Proposed Bangsamoro Federal Islamic State” by Anna Liza Su, shows that Islamic tradition can permit a Bangsamoro Federal Islamic State within a secular democratic system.

Legislators and policy-makers are urged to engage the academe more closely in studying any particular institutional reform question or idea. Many political and policy questions and proposals in the past and present have been discussed by public officials and media commentators on the basis of mere opinions and impressions; the Philippine citizenry and the State will benefit much more from research-based and data-driven institutional development and policy-making.

Governance & Lifestyle Lessons from Genesis 1

1. The creative word is superior to the violent action in establishing order and clarity especially in a situation or state of meaningless chaos.

2. Creative governance is both consultative and decisive.

3. As image of God, human beings, male and female, have inalienable responsibilities and rights such as the responsibility to govern wildlife & other fellow creatures on earth and the right to rest and recreation.

4. Vegetarianism is ideal for the attainment of great harmony between humankind and the earth.

The 1^st creation story (Gen 1:1 - 2:4) was written during the Exile period (587-537 BCE) after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and its temple on Mount Zion, and deported the most talented persons and families of Judah to become exiles in Babylon. The exiles felt that their world had been swept away into meaningless chaos, as expressed in Psalm 137:

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand wither…”

In a foreign land, the exiles did not simply surrender to their captors but continued their resistance in peaceful and creative ways even though from the depths of their grief some prayed: “O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us—he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks” (Ps 137:8-9).

Many of the exiles must have wondered whether or not their captivity showed that Babylonian culture and religion was superior to their faith in Yahweh, the God of Abraham and Sarah, Moses, and David. Was Marduk, the god of their captors, superior? In the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, the universe is created from the fiery battle between Marduk and Tiamat, the dragon of watery chaos. Was a violent event the beginning of the world? If violence were the original principle of the world, would it not imply that “might makes right” in social life?

The faith of the exiles resisted and insisted that, “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” out of a meaningless and formless chaos through clear and effective words: “Let there be light…Let there be an expanse between the waters…Let dry ground appear…” (Gen 1:1-26). Creation is a movement from chaos to order and harmony.

Unlike the pagan gods, the biblical God creates without any mythological struggle. God does so through the creative word, which is superior to the violent action in establishing order and clarity.

“Let us make humankind in our image, in our likeness” (1:26). The Creator of heaven and earth consults the divine council of angels and other heavenly beings. God shows humility in consulting the divine council.

“God created humankind in the divine image, in the image of God they were created; male and female God created them” (1:27). As image of God, humankind possesses inalienable dignity as a co-creator, God’s partner and representative in exercising governance on earth and its wildlife. The Creator governs the universe wisely and benevolently, and humankind ought to govern fellow creatures on earth in like manner.

God blessed the creatures of the sea and air, and directed them to “be fruitful and increase in number” (1:22). Thus, where humankind acts cruelly toward other species or exterminates them by destroying their habitats owing to greed and gluttony, our humanity as image of God is degraded or disgraced.

Just as God is a wise worker who rests on the 7^th day (2:2-3), all creatures need periodic rest. Thus, among the inalienable rights of humankind is the right to rest and recreation, and upright people permit adequate rest for their workers and work animals.

The creation story in Genesis 1 expresses an ideal that God wanted from the beginning: great harmony of God, humankind, and the rest of creation.

In this story’s vision of harmony, no human or animal should have to destroy life for food, as God gives to people and beasts “every seed-bearing plant on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it…every green plant for food” (1:29-30). Vegetation was seen as being part of the earth and thus with no life of its own.

Vegetarianism is ideal for the attainment of great harmony between humankind and the earth. Excessive meat consumption is unhealthy and unsustainable, and contributes to climate change, as more wildlife habitats are destroyed and more parcels of land are used for the industrial raising of swine, cattle, and poultry. The industrial ways of raising livestock can even be cruel to the animals, and the unnaturally cramped conditions in such farms plus greater human exposure to these densely packed animals make it easier for viruses to jump the species barrier.