Tsinelas Leadership and our Mayor’s Leather Shoes

Secretary Jesse’s death opened the eyes of the many to the most humble way of leading others. Spreading online are his pictures walking barefoot during a Peñafrancia parade, sitting on the streets with the masses, roaming around Naga with no security guards and wearing shorts and t-shirt, as if he was no one special. This, according to DOE Sec. Almendras, is what we call the Tsinelas type of leadership.

As he described its metaphorical characteristics, I was shaking my head, imagining clearly the opposite of what he’s been saying-- I pictured our municipal Mayor wearing a shiny black leather shoes.

Going where you normally don’t go

Tsinelas leadership, Sec. Almendras defined, “is to be willing to go where you normally do not go—to the remote areas, just to be with the most disadvantaged people.”

Ever since I’d been an active community leader, I have heard lots of stories from the people, particularly the marginalized, saying “hindi man lang kami mapuntahan ni Mayor dito”. I usually hear those sentiments in times of calamity and disasters. Yes, he sends relief, and yes he sends some of his people to distribute the relief. And recently, he sends his wife too not just in reliefs but in many other social gatherings where she can introduce herself as Mayora, the Mayor’s wife. But where is he? On my term as SK, I only saw the Mayor in Lupang Arenda (a depressed area in our barangay) whenever the governor is arriving or if a VIP would go visit. But since I’m not omniscient, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt, that maybe, without me knowing, he did some visits and spent time to listen and talk to the people there. And I really hope he did.

Breaking the barriers

The second characteristic of Tsinelas leadership is being able to break down barriers between the leaders and the people they serve.

The municipal hall is supposedly the place where people can go freely, where they are welcomed and where they can communicate and consult with their public officials. It is supposed to be a neutral ground. Year 2009, the Mayor transferred the municipal hall inside a private subdivision where no public transportations were available. It’s either you bring a private vehicle, or you walk. Sadly, the decision of putting the public hall in that area wasn’t the people’s decision too. It was not consulted and neither a feasibility study was presented. This act did not just hinder the ordinary people to go to the municipality-- it also impeded a lot of people into participating in the decision making process of the government, thinking that our officials won’t listen to them anyway and that those in power will just do whatever they think is right.

A casual leader

A tsinelas leader according to Sec. Almendras “must be casual with the people they serve so that they can listen, hear, and empathize with the people they serve.”  

When I started being aware of the politics here in our place, I’m always happy to see public figures walking around our neighbourhood, riding a motorcycle, wearing big farmer’s hat. It is only when this current municipal mayor sat in position that I was able to see a public official with security guards around him, in front of his house and even at his office. When he goes out, his vehicles have convoys. No wonder why his 2009 COA report shows that his budget for security is a lot bigger than the budget allocated for the local Emergency Hospital.

And speaking of this COA report, it also projects that the Mayor is paying for seven cellphone lines that he uses. That is more than the number of networks here in the country.

Addressing the grassroots

Tsinelas Leadership is about addressing the base of the pyramid or what Sec. Almendras called the base-level transformation.

After graduating college, I worked for our barangay, and in this work that I realized the importance of the grassroots in the bigger picture of nation building. It also makes the load of the municipal mayor lighter since barangays are autonomous themselves, but it is also where I witnessed how the head of the LGU may use its power to manipulate, to take control, to threaten and to weaken barangays by his authority and by the people working for him.

This is the kind of attack our leader has been doing in the grassroots, especially if you do not agree to what he wants-- if you’re an oppositionist. For him, those who are at the base of the pyramid are puppets. (See related story here:)

Working with the basics

Lastly, Sec. Almendras described his metaphor of Tsinelas Leadership as “working with the basics—no frills, no kaartehan.”

I really admire how Sec. Jesse told his family that he doesn’t want to get used to the frills of his position because he is fully aware that it might ignite this greedy feeling of staying in position and having power. He rides the bus if possible, he doesn’t wear signature clothes and he’s not particularly comfortable with fine dining. In short, he lived a simple life.

Then I remember again, the number of cars our mayor have, how no one ever saw him riding public transpos, how he’s always seen having lunch at luxurious restaurants and how he travels to Las Vegas every time Manny Paquiao has a fight, while the rest of us feels contented to be watching on a big screen on a jam packed gym.

I’m not saying that he’s always like that or that he has not done any good. I do not see his every move and I am not as well aware of the purity of his intentions. But as a conscious and involved constituent, this is what I see and this is what I hear from the ordinary people who speak of how they feel neglected by their government.

May Sec. Jesse’s example of Tsinelas leadership be a model to our politicians, not for PR’s sake, but for them to really get a feel of being one with the people that they serve. You cannot empathize with a man whose wearing slippers or no slippers at all while you’re comfortable with your socks and your shiny leather shoes.

Dear Mayor, take off your shoes; get a feel of the same ground majority of us are stepping on.

Sec. Jesse Robredo’s Wish

I only met this man twice, but this limited chance made me admire how good a government official he is, with  his feet firmly on the ground. With his sudden death, I can’t help but treasure these moments as I try to gather inspiration so that in my own little ways, I may be able to help Sec. Jesse achieve his dream not for himself, but for us and this nation.

Our first meeting was scheduled at 9am at the DILG office building. As we enter his office, he immediately stood up from his desk and shook our hands. He was wearing his usual semi-barong uniform, flashing a very warm and welcoming smile as if saying, ‘Come in. I am here and I am ready to listen.’ From that moment on, I knew, he was not your ordinary politician.

During that time, the President has already released a draft of the palace’s stand on SK abolition and it was DILG’s turn to make a stand by studying further if PNoy’s decision of just placing a youth representative in the barangays is most apt for the situation. Sec. Jesse, opened his office doors to us and listened to us with big ears. We laid down our proposal on how we think the Sangguniang Kabataan could be reformed and how it could serve its purpose best under the platform of transparency and accountability to the people that it serves.

We exchange thoughts, we shared experiences and views and we saw from our end how this man values the youth and how he trusted that the Sangguniang Kabataan--the youth representatives in the government, could still be a mechanism for bringing about positive change in our society. With that much trust, he ordered his secretary to draft a suggestion letter to the President, highlighting the reform measures that we were proposing. With his phone, he called a reporter and asked him if he could drop-by his office to interview us and to publish a press release regarding the DILG’s stand on SK reformation.

We were overwhelmed. While majority of the politicians were pointing out all the negative things they see about SK, Sec. Jesse saw even the smallest amount of goodness that’s left with SK, and he held on to it. He believed that those small amount of goodness could produce a ripple effect, given the right support and enough faith in the youth.

To all Sangguniang Kabataan officials, let us not disappoint Sec. Jesse. If not because of him and his trust with the youth, you might not be holding any positions right now. The Sangguniang Kabataan could just have been a piece of our country’s history, leaving a mark that it was the youth’s government that has not served its purpose. As we thank him for saving our niche in government service, let us make him proud that he had made the right decision. Do your best to serve your purpose of addressing youth concerns, of uplifting the lives of our fellowmen and of being of service to those who are in need. He would be smiling at us from heaven if we would be able to achieve local governments and SKs that are highly functioning, transparent and accountable to the people.

I felt lucky enough to have had that opportunity to meet and be listened to by a high ranking government official and an internationally recognized public servant, but after a few years, I recently got the chance to meet him again face to face as he represented the President was supposed to deliver the keynote address  at the closing ceremonies of the 9^th National Youth Parliament in Naga City last May. He read the President’s 7 minute speech and shared us a story of his own, of what turned out to be a challenge.

It was a story of his conversation with 3 grade six public school students whom he had a chance to speak with during his visit to a far flung school. He asked these students of their dreams; one student said that she would want to be a teacher someday so that she could teach children in their area so that they wouldn’t have to walk kilometres of distance to be able to study. The other student said he dream of becoming an engineer so that he could build infrastructures that are needed in their area and so that he could fix their roads to help people have easy transportation. The last student said that she would want to be a doctor so that she could attend to those sick people in their area who have no access to health services.

Sec. Jesse said that if we will look at it, the story seems to be shallow, but if we look at it deeply, these were dreams of poor students who want to be successful not for their own sake--these were dreams of poor kids who want to be successful because they wanted to serve others and those who are in greater need than them. Now that our priorities and dreams seem to be focused on ourselves, Sec. Jesse ended his speech with a wish: “Sana pag dumating ang panahon na kayo’y nagtagumpay na, maalala ninyo ang kwentong ito at maalala nyo nang nangangarap pa kayo, hindi kayo nangarap para sa inyong sarili, nangarap kayo para sa iba.”

I hope that his death would not remind us of a plane crash but instead, may his death remind us that once there was a man who has advocated good governance, who believed so much in the youth’s potential, who dreamed not for himself but for others and who have offered himself selflessly so that this country could say that a transparent and accountable government is possible, that we can change our paradigms and that we are indeed, a country of good Filipinos.

Cynic Says

This morning, I woke up very early for two important things—to run and to encourage others to run. And while endorphins are rushing throughout my whole body, I was happily distributing our flyers and registration sheets for the fun run we will be having this June 3 (on which I encourage you, dear reader, to join J). This run, entitled, ‘Run for Hope’, is organized by the Liga ng mga Barangay-Taytay Chapter, where I am a volunteer staff, the Mabuting Taytayeno Movement, a local group I co-founded and many other people’s organization and NGOs within the municipality.

The very concept of the run is to be able to sustain our “Box of Hope Project” (BHP) that our group has been doing for the past three years.  The BHP aims to give hope to the less privilege students in elementary public schools by providing them with school supplies that they need for school. To encourage community participation, we ask concerned individuals to donate even a single pencil,  notebook, paper or whatever school supply they could give, together with a message of hope to the would-be-recipient of their donation. All these are placed in a recycled shoebox and are distributed to the students at the beginning of the school year.

As I was completing my laps, I passed by a cluster of people probably at the age of 60s and above. I stopped and for the nth time, discussed the details of the run to persuade them to join the cause. Then a man, who seems to be the eldest among the group, asked me who the organizers are. As part of my spiel, I mentioned our group and the Liga ng mga Barangay, and upon hearing the word ‘barangay’ he waved his hand saying, ‘Ay barangay, di ako sasali dyan. Wala ng matino sa gobyerno ngayon. Dati maayos pa ang mga namumuno, ngayon wala na’.

That was such an unexpected response, but I manage to say, ‘Sir, I don’t think that you’re argument is right. There are still a lot of good people in the government and we can’t just generalize like that.’ He then argued, ‘Maniningil kayo, e kukunin lang yan ng barangay.’

On that point, I felt that I am on for a debate. I responded, ‘Sir, to assure you of the transparency of the project, we will be posting financial reports after the event. At kaya din po sumama kaming mga organizations sa pag-organize, e para ma-ensure na may patutunguhan ang pera. We even invite you to join us on the actual date of the distribution of the school supplies.’

Sure of his conviction he said, ‘Dapat yung grupo nyo na lang ang nag-organize, di nyo na sinama ang barangay’. I then argued that it is very important that people engage themselves in the government and that the civic society should be working hand in hand with their LGUs to make sure that their government are accountable and transparent.

As if not hearing my response, he said, ‘Wala na, wala ng pag-asa ang gobyerno na yan’. Now understanding how cynical he is, I tried ending the conversation by saying, ‘May pag-asa pa po. We are conducting this run for hope to show the people that there’s still a place to hope-- that through working together with the government, we could change the course of our politics. Kung di po natin kayang paniwalaan yun, e wala po talagang mababago.'

He just shook his head, signifying either his disagreement to what I said or it may be a sign that he realized he was wrong. I am still hoping that it was the latter. 

I find this conversation very alarming-- imagine how many of our people think like that? How many of us are becoming cynical that change is still possible? If a great number of us do, then our country is really doomed. 

I always believe that for our country to move forward, it should not be the effort of the government alone. Instead, we should be rowing our paddles together, duly synchronized with the government. If we have trust issues with our officials, then the more there is a need for us to talk to them, to engage our selves with them and to influence them to be good.

It's just a few weeks before our run and I am still hoping that more people would be supporting our cause-- that more hopeful people would be able to provide hope to those who need it badly.Cynics may argue, but hey, we're proving them wrong.

Immortal

As I lay on this cold, dark ground

my thoughts will linger.

Unstoppable. Viral.

My voice will be heard 

in every blow of the wind.

My heart will be felt 

by the warmth of the sun,

the waves of the sea and

by the embrace of everyone

I loved.

My eyes will be reflected

by glitters of joy on the face

of everyone I touched.

My music will forever reverberate,

as long as the birds chirp

and the rivers flow.

My hands will touch endless lives

by those whose heart I lit with fire.

How We Can All Be Heroes

“The decision to act heroically is a choice that many of us will be called upon at some point in time.”

~Dr. Philip Zimbardo

In a society where there is much of a need for desperate help and assistance, heroes emerged and showed the world that one may not be too small to make a difference.

For the CNN Heroes awarded the past few years, it was very noticeable that all of them had been aware that their respective communities are endowed with perennial problems that needed action. It was a point in time where they were left with a choice to do nothing to solve the problem or to step up and address the situation. All of them choose the later with a positive view that anyone could all be heroes if we choose to do what is right and if we choose to effect positive and lasting change despite the sacrifices it may bring along.

In 2008, Liz MaCartney saw how Hurricane Katrina devastated the lives of so many people so she gathered the people together for help. In 2009, Efren Penaflorida saw that there is an emerging need for education and good values with the growing number of children in the slums so he went on pushing his cart, bringing education to the kids in the slums. Year 2010, Anuradha Koirala saw that women should be empowered and respected by ending sex slavery in her country, and just recently, Robin Lim, a FilAm, saw that the 200,000 women who died a year due to pregnancy related problems, deserve to be protected and taken care of. They were all able to see that something was wrong or lacking and someone has to do something about it-- and in fact, they did.

Margaret Mead once said that we should “never believe that a few caring people can ever change the world, for in the end, that’s all who ever have.”

These people who made the decision to act heroically are the same people who change the world day by day through patches of hope that creates ripples of effect that may be able to reach all the ends of the earth. They are and they should be an inspiration that shall help others decide to do good deeds to the next person beside them and to the rest of the world.

I personally believe that all of us are heroes yet to be unleashed. With a dedicated heart and a positive spirit, we can all resolve to be heroes that shall uplift our country, who’s sadly in despair. We may not be able to heal millions of sick people or educate millions of out-of-school, but we, on our own little ways can at least be a less burden to the society by living a life of service through dwelling on our strengths and radiating its energy to a more productive endeavor.

There are millions of unrecognized heroes in all corners of the earth: a whistle blower who just had exposed a tremendous corruption anomaly, a taxi driver who had returned a bag with 50,000 cash, a government official who had refused to accept a bribe and a poor man who saved lives on fire. These are ordinary people who are caught up in extraordinary situations. They were left with a choice to be a hero or just to be someone of the norm-- and they choose what matters most.

The good news is that, we too can be heroes—and it’s just a matter of choice.