"It takes courage to grow and become who you really are." -- E. E. Cummings.
SO WHO are you? It yet brings me to another quote, still from E.E. Cummings. "To be nobody but yourself -- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you somebody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
President Rodrigo Duterte says that DA Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol is "talkative." Let me add yet another description, he also "writes a lot." Both are maybe true but our descriptions do not represent the real Manny Piñol as a person.
Here is what I have known about Secretary Piñol, so far. Let me begin with what he does. People are normally introduced, talked about and known by what they do.
So starting with the present and the obvious, Piñol was appointed by President Duterte as the secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA), a post which he occupied over the last three years.
Prior to his appointment, he was a journalist, governor for three terms, and vice governor of North Cotabato. He started his political career as mayor of his hometown, M'lang. But like his parents, he maintains a farm in his hometown where he goes home as a weekend farmer until today.
If you are searching from a fabric framework in which to fit your description of Secretary Piñol and his communication skills, all you need is to look at his employment history or what he has been doing over the years. These are posts that require a talking head, one who talks with sense.
But to know the guy well is not as simple as that even if you have taken the time to really know him, like lakay (old man) Raffy Panagan did, although he looks younger than I am. Raffy and Secretary Manny have known each other for more than 25 years, first as sports promoters and have since stuck to each other like brothers all these years.
Earlier this month, Secretary Piñol made time from his busy schedule to attend the wake of journalist Ramon Dacawi. As Cummings remarks on being ourselves in a world that is constantly trying to make us be somebody else, we must fight the hardest to be how we want our lives to be known. During the wake of Mondax (Mr. Dacawi), Secretary Piñol demonstrated that he cherishes his friends and he is loyal to them, "through thick and thin."
I add that label to his person because as a communicator, Secretary Piñol creates and generates lots of labels about his relationships with people and his work that actually says -- "I am this, and I am that."
To really know a man, complicated and mysterious to every other, we have to at least know his heart.
Think about the people who are close to you. Do you know all their secrets? Do you know all their relationships? What makes them truly happy, sad, or angry? What are their hobbies and why?
My point is this. Who decides who you are? Is it your diploma? Secretary Piñol has a Ph.D. in rural development but he does not seem to give much weight to that information. He uses it to tell his story instead.
His story reveals a caring character to his family, the farmers, and his friends as he is with them, hopefully.
That fuels his life, and his pace. As DA Secretary, he is everywhere. His fast pace sometimes creates problems. He is misunderstood. When you visit several places in a day to reach your constituents, you talk, and people pick up what you say and have it published on the internet. When you are everywhere and talking, people who do not know you and your constituents may think that you are just patronizing, or "pulling their legs."
The vast majority of the nation's farmers live in the countryside. Throughout the years, they feel left behind and abandoned.
The farmers need mentoring, coaching, and guidance to take on the new challenges that affect the production and marketing of their crops. They need somebody who understands their situation. They needed Secretary Piñol to walk and talk with them in their farms under the sun, their communities and meeting halls about practical things, not in the comforts of a conference hall with overhead projectors illustrating concepts and plans beyond their current realities. They need to hear from him about saving their current crop or livestock, about their need for irrigation and myriad of problems they are currently facing.
As many as he can handle, from Mindanao to the northern tip of Luzon, Secretary Piñol has been visiting the farmers where they are to talk about and introduce transitory measures to transform smallholder farmers into agri-entrepreneurs with increased capacities to handle and broaden their income opportunities.
These he did even as he challenged field operatives from the DA's regional offices and local government units (LGUs) to go beyond mere farmers meetings to mentoring, coaching, and guiding farmers on enterprise development and investment on top of the implementation of the agency's long-term programs that support a sustainable process of pro-poor economic growth and development.
An ancient philosopher once wrote this line. "If you ought to be a writer, write."
So who is Secretary Piñol? He alone can really tell you about himself. He is still not finished with his work. I write about him and for this story to be true in your mind, I must tell you that I wish had what he got to stay on conviction and belief that what he is doing is helping his constituents.
He believes so much. As he is with his family, friends, and the farmers, so he is to his President, even more so. Long before the President announced his decision to assign Secretary Piñol to the Mindanao Development Authority, a rumor was spread all over that he will be replaced anytime and soonest as DA Secretary. There was a post, now deleted, saying that his post is already vacant. It did not weaken his faith in the Presidency and his resolve to continue in the service.
I am a loyal soldier of the President and I serve in government at his pleasure, he said with conviction.
Secretary Piñol acts and crafts what he thinks and believes himself to be. So far, he is good. He is not in the service to become rich but to simply serve. In the last three years, he did not buy a car, improve his house or buy a property. The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) report indicated he is clean of corruption. He is a genuine character to me.