It’s about time that our Congress pass this administration’s key legislation to make growth more inclusive.
The Prime Minister, on the other hand, upon receiving the Japanese Emperor’s award of the Order of the Rising Sun, credited his colleagues at the DoF. Ninong Vic was the steady and reliable hand for PM, managing and nurturing the DoF Planning Service into a center of excellence supporting the tremendous demands on PM Virata, particularly when he was National Treasurer during the very trying debt crisis years that hit the Philippines in the early ’80s.
He was the youngest undersecretary appointed during his time ( and certainly the best looking according to one First Lady), one of a handful in government who was asked to continue as Usec even after the tumultuous change in administration with the EDSA revolution.
I was privileged to have started my professional career under his mentorship. My then girlfriend Amina (who was a Researcher in the Planning Service), realizing that I was better suited for the DoF, arranged for an interview. Vic and I hit it off and I have not regretted a single minute of my career with the DoF. Vic nurtured and mentored us, his staff: current Usecs National Treasurer Lea de Leon, former NEDA Sec. Manny Esguerra, former Philguarantee COO Jane Tambanillo, Banking Executive Cynthia Paras- Santos, my better half Amina, and many many others.
Together with former Rey Palmiery ( later GSIS COO) and Nitz Amatong ( later DoF Sec and member of the Monetary Board), Vic ran a Planning Service which was the envy of many of the Prime Minister’s colleagues.
As proof, successive Finance secretaries have accepted the DoF technical staff, grateful for their committed service. I remember the late Jimmy Ongpin remarking to me that he never realized how good government people were until he became Finance secretary and got to know his technical team. Vic, and later Finance Secretary Ernest Leung, were his trusted undersecretaries.
His influence extended to our counterparts in BSP, NEDA, DBM, line agencies. Many of them, young technicians at that time, have risen to Cabinet and sub cabinet levels (Gov. Say Tetangco, Sec. Emy Boncodin, to name just two.)
Vic invested in us. He made sure that we got scholarships abroad to hone our skills. He also invested in us emotionally, such that several of us asked him and Remy to be our ninong and ninang when we got married. Our ties did not end when we left the service. Ninong Vic would invite us for get-togethers regularly.
I’ve come to appreciate the enormous influence he’s had on my own career. His standards were high. Ninong Vic set a high bar in dedication, integrity, simplicity, and modesty in public service, a standard he shares with Prime Minister Virata and Ninang Remy. Values he brought with him in retirement. Thus, after he retired from government, he was much sought after as a director of major corporations.
I had the privilege of working with him on a couple of projects recently. I was not surprised that none of his sharpness, putting 100% on any task, enthusiasm, and yes, sense of humor, had been diluted with the passage of years.
He has taken to hosting us every Christmas, all of his young boys and girls, now senior citizens ourselves. This Christmas will be a most sad one.