IN OUR preceding discussion, Sun Tzu demonstrated how dangerous it is for the officers not to be attentive to instructions, with the King's concubines as objects of experiment. By not taking the instructions seriously, the King's concubines were ordered beheaded.

Thus, for the chauvinists amongst us, this we say to you that, when your respective wives give you a clear instruction never to crossover left fences, you should take such an instruction very seriously, lest, you would be "beheaded", too, and life for you will be wholly miserable after that. We should all be good receivers of the message.

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Kidding aside, in communication, the responsibility does not only lie upon the shoulders of the conveyor of the message. He may employ various approaches to send in a message clearly to the receiver, but still, he cannot merit appropriate responses if the receiver fails to cooperate.

Communication, therefore, carries a reciprocal duty for both the messenger and the receiver.

It is for this reason that, now, many organizations adopt a system of reward and punishment and other organizational development programs to ensure the dynamic interactions between and among their respective officers and members.

Gestapu-type operations are used by tyrants as means to gather feedback -- we also call it intelligence information -- but, most of the time, these sorts of information are used to oppress the people and to repress dissent, rather than to strengthen the organization and attain its organizational objectives.

A good leader is one that formulates and adopts a system of feedback as a permanent part of his or her organizational development strategy. The system of feedback, aside from being a management tool, is an effective means of determining whether or not the people are appropriately responding to the imports of the message that was conveyed to them.

Of course, in an organization, the system of feedback, as a management tool, can also be formulated as a built-in component of a plan. By subjecting the implementation of this plan to constant monitoring and, eventually, to an assessment process, we can readily determine whether the receiver really understood the message or not.

Admittedly, conferences, consultations, dialogues and meetings remain to be effective as feedback mechanisms. They still remain to be very important not only in the tasks of transmitting messages but also in knowing how the recipients respond to the message sent. After all, there is no other effective way of knowing the accurate response to stimulus than by subjecting the same to collective discourses. (To be continued).

*****

By the way, what Lormelyn Claudio, then, Acting Regional Executive Director of DENR-Region 6 (Western Visayas) based in Iloilo City, and Mr. Warlito Alemania, of DENR-Antique, did to poverty-stricken family in Barangay Amparo, Patnongon, Antique is terribly repulsive to my conscience.

Candidly, I should have suffered grave depression had DENR Secretary Lito Atienza not came in the way to proclaim my family's justice. Even today, a mere thought of it could make me throw handles. There is a context for this.

I had spent a substantial portion of my productive life, defending the poor and the oppressed in many parts of the country, including its many dangerous areas. I stayed for a month in the Municipalities of Matanog, Buldon and Barira in Camp Abubakar, Maguindanao, after it was totally pulverized by the war.

There, I facilitated development planning and community organizing for the key leaders of the municipalities so that the inhabitants of the area may be able to serve their justice and aspirations amid the useless blood-letting.

I also had a long stint at a war-torn municipality of Ipil, Province of Zamboanga Sibugay, where I conducted poverty research as a prelude to interventions which may enable basic communities to take control of their community resources.

For so many times, I and the members of my team encountered dangers, but we did not falter in our resolve to work for justice and contribute in the development of basic communities.

I did not imagine, then, that the injustice that I have been fighting for is the very injustice that Lormelyn Claudio and Warlito Alemania would inflict on my hapless family in Antique.

This is the reason why until now the fire keeps on burning in my breast. Until when this would linger in me, I do not know.