Competent

It is never easy to attract top-notch executive talent from the private sector. They have to give up so much for the chance to serve the Republic.

We know how wide the pay disparity is at the upper echelons. The years contributed to public service translates into a lot of foregone income.

If the executive talent is a shareholder of a successful private company, he is obliged to divest his interests. Our laws have made it so hard to attract private sector talent into the government service.

Serving government is a challenge. There is a maze of regulations that get in the way of getting things done. There is often too much politics to endure. At the slightest excuse, one is bound to get dragged to the ombudsman – often by entrenched interests in the public agencies threatened by reform.

Because of the income-loss and the many hazards of serving government, our technocracy is often recruited from public universities. This is why many of our outstanding technocrats come from the University of the Philippines. They were receiving public sector pay to begin with and used to austere living.

I once had a conversation with Alberto Lina who had to go through the tedious process of divesting ownership of companies he founded just to serve a few months as Customs commissioner. He half-regretted doing that.

It is therefore remarkable, considering the odds, that President BBM managed to attract to government service two competent executives over the past several weeks: Francis Tiu Laurel Jr. and now Frederick Go.

Laurel grew Frabelle Corporation into one of the country’s largest companies, with interests in fishing fleets, food processing and property development. I knew BBM has been attracting Laurel to serve government and it took the latter much time to prepare his businesses for it.

There was some reflex protests from the usual suspects when his appointment was announced. In the end, however, everybody had to concede the man’s competence. He had built a towering business empire after all.

Like Laurel, Go has massive testimony of business acumen. At the time he accepted a full-time government appointment, he was involved in up to a hundred successful companies. He had