AS the outbreak reached critical numbers, we are seeing the best and worst of leaders. Sadly, as we continue to feel the impact of the enhanced community quarantine, many leaders find themselves unprepared to carry the mantle. The first instinct of the good ones is typically to reassure people that everything is going to be fine. The bad ones are either hiding in the comforts of their homes or totally ignoring the crisis in the hope that if they don’t say anything or worse do nothing, others will ignore it as well. As a leader, taking the do-nothing route is not being honest to your mandate. It is clearly dereliction of duty, a law that sanctions public officials for their shameful failure to fulfill their obligation to their constituents. It is a crime and apathetic leaders can end up in jail when convicted.
Let us look back on the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. No one anticipated the nature and scale of the crisis but according to Rudy Giuliani, who served as mayor of New York City during that time, “the immediate response nonetheless drew upon months and years of careful planning and leadership.” Giuliani was praised for arriving on the scene within minutes of the second plane crash and coordinated rescue operations that saved as many as 20,000 lives. He emerged as the national voice of reassurance and consolation after boldly declaring to his constituents, “tomorrow New York is going to be here, and we’re going to rebuild and we’re going to be stronger than we were before.” Due in large part to his leadership in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Giuliani was praised by the media as “America’s Mayor” and became one of the most iconic mayors in the history of New York City.
Authentic public servants
Let us now compare Giuliani with our local leaders. Is there a correlation? Were our local leaders as responsive and decisive when the Covid-19 was first recorded in the country sometime late January? Did they activate a crisis management plan and put in place an implementation strategy? Was there a go-to-action team to disseminate the information among the population/constituents?
In a digital age where everyone has access to information from sources beyond the traditional platforms, the Covid-19 outbreak should have been anticipated months before the lockdown was ordered by the national government. Now that the novel coronavirus crisis has created an atmosphere of overwhelming fear and anxiety and grounded everyone, everything changed. Let us compare the mayors in Metro Manila. Out of the 17 cities under the National Capital Region, who among the mayors stood out? Naturally, it was Victor María Regis “Vico” Sotto of Pasig City. It was clear that this neophyte local executive came prepared, armed with a solid crisis management plan and went on to valiantly lead the charge.
How about in the Visayas? Two leaders were recognized for decisive action. One was Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and the other one was Jerry Trenas, the mayor of Iloilo City. These two seasoned politicians knew what they wanted...to mitigate the spread of infection and proactively sounded the call for help from all sectors. They then initiated preemptive moves by imposing curfew, closing their borders and declared a lockdown including a no fly-in zone in order to spare Cebu and Iloilo from imported infections. It was all about private, public partnerships, boldness and speed in decision making. With time against their side, these leaders had to act fast and did not have to wait for directives from the national government.
Facing this uncharted and unfamiliar event, the three local executives showed transparency, decisiveness and forcible action. They also prepared an overall plan for virus containment and specifically identified what needs to be done and where to put the local government’s focus. Garcia strictly enforced her stay-at-home order, set price ceilings for basic goods and mandated all local councils to adopt containment guidelines.
On the other hand, Trenas initiated aggressive sourcing of testing kits and led the way in disclosing the movements of those confirmed to be infected. Sotto sent out drones to disinfect hard to reach communities. They even went one step further by pursuing private funding and requested for supply donations.
To be continued...