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.