A deeply felt need to transform
THE Philippine Army (PA) went through all four phases of the governance and transformation pathway — following the balanced-scorecardPerformance Governance System (PGS) framework — in record time. As the new administration had just taken office in 2010, the PA arranged to have a “visioning working session” and soon obtained “Initiated” status within the PGS governance pathway. It kept pushing itself really hard: it became “Compliant” in 2012; “Proficient” in 2013; and finally “Institutionalized” in 2014 (with a rare “gold trailblazer award given to it, upon being conferred “Institutionalized” status. The PA — in late 2015 — was one of only 12 public sector units that were presented as “Islands of Good Governance” on the strength of their having installed the essential good governance elements, their externally audited breakthrough performance result, and their exemplary record in pursuing an anti-corruption, good governance program.
What drioe the Army to work so hard in going through and finishing all four phases of the PGS governance pathway, and topping this off with an “Island of Good Governance” recognition before an APEC audience within a relatively short period? There can be many answers to this question; only a few may be cited here, and they are:
– A nudge from a memorandum order issued by the Office of the President encouraging a number of government agencies to adopt the balanced scorecard-PGS framework in pursuing a good governance program. The Philippine Army was specifically included in the second batch of government agencies so encouraged; it helped that in the list of this second batch, the AFP as a whole was also included, along with the Philippine Navy. The Navy had already gone ahead adopting the PGS framework in crafting and pursuing its Navy Sail Plan.
– A strong reaction to the publicly aired corruption cases perpetrated by high-ranking Army officers in the not-so-distant past. This had brought the Army’s standing before the general public down to the deepest pit: it certainly was not one of the proudest time for anyone to be an Army officer or for anyone to be in anyway associated with the PA.
– Perhaps the strongest reason of all came from a group of highly dedicated and deeply committed Army officers, who strongly believed that a serious and sustained adoption of a good governance program was the key to re-building the Army to which they have dedicated all of their working life: the PA had become the love of their life, and its transformation their passion for the remaining years they had in the military service.
It may have been a mixture of all these reasons and of a few others that cannot be mentioned in a short piece. For whatever mix of reasons, the PA made a good selection of officers from all levels of the organization, including non-commissioned officers, enlisted personnel and civilian employees, plus a few “external stakeholders.” There must have been close to one hundred asked to participate in that “visioning working session” in July 2010. No one was to wear a uniform; rank – to the extent possible within a military organization – was to be temporarily put in the background; and everyone was encouraged to be open and pro-active in their participation, all for the sake of the Army they wish to build in the foreseeable future.
After an initial warming-up period, the working sessions turned out to be passionate, noisy, and long, generally lasting to the wee hours of the morning. The gut feel, the frustrations, the ideals that still burned in many hearts and minds of the participants all were given free vent; and when some structure had to be imposed on where the discussion would go, and what it would produce and come up, it turned out that everyone wanted an Army they could all be proud of, and one that would give a sense of pride to the Filipino people. There was no doubt about the depth of commitment to go for the stars, and when the final draft of the dream they wanted to propose (and commit to pursue) for the Philippine Army, the word, “world class” came up. For the officers who were there as participants, nothing else would be good enough as a “stretch goal” for the Army they want to transform.