Neda's New Chief
By Michael Alan Hamlin
January 6, 2003

One thing stands out about the folks in government that I admire. And that is that they stay pretty much normal human beings despite the competition for their attention, the temptations, and the examples set by their peers. Suddenly finding that you have more friends than you ever dreamed of - full of advice, recommendations and requests - can be pretty heady stuff. The temptation of quickly earning your drop-dead money as a result of a careless signature or two is a real eye-opener. And, having red lights and sirens on your cars - the one you ride in and the two that lead and follow - choking with staff and peons is like having all the big-boy toys and servants you ever dreamed of in your weakest moments.

I've worked on and off - mostly off - with different government officials for around a decade and a half, which is not much considering that I've been in business about twice as long. And in my experience there are not many government officials who can - or want to - resist those temptations. But there are a few. One, in my view at least, is Department of Trade & Industry secretary Manuel A. Roxas II. While I don't always agree with his positions on trade, I consistently find myself leaving meetings - which are mostly informal - impressed. He's funny, down to earth, and smart.

I first met Roxas when he was speaking at an event my firm had organized for a client. After receiving a call that he was already at the venue for the event and sort of wondering why no one was around to greet him, I ran down expecting to find Roxas surrounded by security, staff, and admirers. Instead, I couldn't find him at all. Outside the venue, I did spot his security people, waiting patiently and as unobtrusively as they could manage. When I asked where the secretary was, they told me the coffee shop.

So in I ran to the coffee shop and there sat Roxas, hunched over a paper, sipping coffee - by himself. I introduced myself and by way of generating small talk noted that we had a number of friends in common. We got to talking and before long my associates were panicking because they thought we were both going to be late for the event. I came away from that first meeting feeling that Roxas had been genuinely interested in what I had to say about our friends-in-common. One of those mutual friends believes that the best politicians focus directly on the person they're talking to at a particular moment to make such an impression. Is that the case with Roxas? I don't know for sure of course, but he does seem genuine.

And it helps that the biggest criticism his detractors can hurl at him is that he's a "Momma's Boy." Come on. Even if that's true, anyone who deserves to be criticized deserves to be criticized for a better reason than that.

Last week a friend suggested a lunch with the new head of the National Economic & Development Agency (NEDA), Romulo Neri. Now, Neri and Roxas are two very different individuals. Roxas is urbane, sophisticated, and handsome. Neri is geeky, proudly pseudo-philosophical, and well, not so handsome. I would never think of suggesting that the two had anything in common other than being high-level government officials.

Except that they are both a lot alike when it comes to not letting circumstances and good fortune - if you can call government service good fortune - go to their heads. I won't tell you where Neri parked his security, but last Tuesday he strolled casually into the restaurant looking as casual, happy, and carefree as usual. And he was demonstrating the skill that kept him general director of the Congressional Planning and Budget Office (CPBO) - which is a political appointment - over four administrations: genuinely trying to help others look and feel good.

Neri had bumped into former senator Juan Ponce Enrile on the way up the escalator, and called everyone over to pay their respects (which was kind of hard not to do under the circumstances). You see, Neri has this unique talent of making everyone he meets feel that his principal mission in life is to help them out, regardless of political affiliation. That is precisely the quality that I had in mind when I first recommended him for the CPBO position, to the then and now late Speaker of the House, Ramon Mitra.

CPBO at that time was in crisis, having gone through a couple of leadership changes. I happened to be doing some consulting work for Mitra and was asked by the same friend that set up the lunch last Tuesday to nominate someone for the job. Mitra and his closest advisors felt that the CPBO could never be the strategic asset it was supposed to without professional management that could survive the political shenanigans that one much endure in government.

Neri and I were both professors at the Asian Institute of Management, and had done some work together. He immediately came to mind for a couple of reasons. First, he's a finance guy, so I felt that he would view development imperatives from a business perspective rather than a macro-economic perspective. Second, he comes from a political family. His father was some sort of politician, and Neri would tell me stories of his constituents lined up at the door for handouts every morning. He knew the territory.

Neri got the nod, and I was advised to notify him that he had the job. Still, he almost didn't get it. I received a call the week before Neri was supposed to go to work that Mitra had decided on someone else. Well, we had announced this appointment to the AIM administration for one thing, and second, I had made an authorized offer to Neri that he had accepted. If he wasn't to get the job, therefore, that was also the end of my association with Mitra, I responded.

It worked out somehow, and Neri did assume the position that he has held until a couple of weeks ago. Under his stewardship, CPBO has become a truly important, and frequently reported on, institution. More often than not, I've found myself agreeing with its positions, although I've wondered from time-to-time whether Neri's numbers are truly up to date, truth to tell. But on balance, he's been a huge success. And not because of his academic credentials or expertise in economics. He's worked out well because he managed to work within the political culture of the House successfully while staying true to his development philosophy.

A lot of folks are upset with Neri, mostly complaining that NEDA requires a real economist in charge. Others forget that he's been at CPBO for 12 years, and argue that he's a crony of current House speaker Jose de Venecia. None of that seems to bother Neri. In fact, when we mentioned it, he seemed honestly surprised to learn of the volume of criticism that's been directed at him.

Neri isn't going to win any Nobel prizes for his work at NEDA, or for what he's done at CPBO, for that matter. But if he keeps his head on straight, communicates the relevance of his programs in layman's language, and continues to manage relationships as well as he has in the past, then he'll survive. Of course, we should all hope he does more than that. We should hope that he is deliriously successful.

After all, we could use some success around here.

(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing director of consultancy TeamAsia and the author of three books on Asian economies and companies. His latest book is Marketing Asian Places, of which he is a co-author (Wiley, 2001). Write him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).

Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.

Media Archives