Lessons on presidential survival (and how I almost got impeached as Anvil president)

While the rest of the Philippines was entranced by the suspenseful high-stakes political warfare over President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s resignation or non-resignation last July 8 and 9, I almost had my own taste of impeachment or near resignation as president too. Whew!
I was this year elected by amnesia – not in absentia like President-elect Emilio Aguinaldo in the revolutionary era and hotly contested by Andres Bonifacio – by young business scions of the prestigious Anvil Business Club. Why election in amnesia? They must have forgotten that I’m just an ordinary small-time real estate entrepreneur, not like them who are mostly junior taipans of major industries who comprise majority of the vast Anvil membership. Oh well, I guess I have the luck and the charms of a Joseph Estrada or a Noli de Castro when it came to elections.

Success Is Best Revenge

How did the impeachment threat come about? It was only in jest, because I arranged for my former Ateneo economics professor and now embattled President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to be our inducting officer in a formal dinner reception held at the Rizal Hall of historic Malacañang Palace on July 5 amid the raging political turmoil. When I informed our 17-member board of directors – the talented members can comprise any revolutionary junta and would work wonders on the Philippine economy – there was literally an uproar similar to our fiery congress debates. Unlike the Makati Business Club (MBC), which seems to have been neatly split between the "Resign GMA" officers and its vocal pro-GMA bloc led by the Aboitiz/Yuchengco crowd, the Anvil board has 17 officers but often 18 different opinions on politics. If only the rest of the country knew how so hotly divided also is our business community. But the problem was so basic – the Anvil officers were so upset at me they jokingly threatened me with Erap-style impeachment, because July 5 was a Tuesday and our organization’s weekly badmintonTuesday sessions were considered sacrosanct. No kidding.
My survival advice to President GMA is to be always decisive but respect peers by asking their opinions and sincerely seeking their consensus. But the best leadership antidote to mutiny or grumblings? Boldness and performance. Be bold in your policies and projects, and silence all the rumor-mongering skeptics and the ever-present critics with solid performance.
Look at your Georgetown University schoolmate ex-President Bill Clinton. He was humiliated in the international media and the US Congress with the Lewinsky scandal, had to publicly apologize and was almost impeached, but he survived because he presided over a robust US economy. The best revenge on your foes is not sedition cases or political retribution, but your success. In politics, business or other aspects of life, success is the best revenge!
President GMA should cultivate the loyalty and enthusiasm of her officials by motivating them to work hard, by being honest to them and by properly acknowledging their contributions. Kick out the sycophants and useless PR guys in your cabinet, but give importance to your really talented key officials with substantive duties. Maybe ex-Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima just needed a pat in the back from GMA or be shown public approval, and he might not have turned a rebel.
During the Anvil reception at Malacañang, I almost quarreled with a high protocol officer when he rebuffed my repeated requests that President GMA personally hand our awards for seven outstanding Anvil Business Club officers. Due to my sheer intractable stubbornness, the protocol officer miraculously agreed and I was able to have President GMA help me honor seven outstanding Anvil officers before the crowd. An effective leader cannot be a Superman or Wonder Woman or Lone Ranger doing everything by himself only. We need help from loyal, motivated and able officials.

Puncture Oversized Egos And Laugh More

On the night of July 9, when the whole nation was reeling from the "Resign GMA" calls of her 10 ex-officials and ex-President Cory Aquino, and waiting in suspense whether the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines would do likewise, I was in a five-star hotel coffeeshop in Shanghai with a group of top business leaders trading stories on, what else, but Philippine politics. I and Anvil past chairman David Chua of Cathay Pacific Steel Corp. were the only young ones in that group of "young once" tycoons, when suddenly I got a text from our Anvil chairman George Siy. It said our board of directors was then meeting and had just voted to issue a public statement calling for resignation. The text added that Anvil past chairman Mike Tan of Asia Brewery was in the meeting too. Was Anvil going the way of MBC, FINEX and Management Association of the Philippines? Incredible! When I showed the text to Dave Chua, this young taipan got red in the face and almost jumped up from his seat in surprise. I, the neutral guy, and him, the pro-GMA guy, were both flustered. He called up Mike Tan, who replied saying sorry the pro-resignation guys had won by only just one vote because I was absent and in Shanghai. When Dave complained and said I would register my vote via cell phone, Mike laughed and said that I couldn’t vote, because the resolution wasn’t for GMA to resign, but for me to resign as Anvil president. Of course, the text was a joke all along.
After their all-night furious and passionate arguments that would shame our politicians, Anvil Business Club officers took a non-political stand that our organization that would support only the duly constituted government, that the constitutional process must be respected and allowed to immediately resolve all these political controversies detrimental to economic stability, that we are strongly for charter change that will usher in sweeping political, economic and other reforms.
Another unsolicited survival advice for President GMA, to leaders in business and other people, is to have a healthy sense of humor. Laugh a little more, laugh at your worst enemies, try to find the humor in stressful situations no matter how seemingly hopeless and bleak. Above all, don’t lose the ability to humbly laugh at ourselves.
Leaders and ordinary people alike need to puncture their hot air balloons of conceit and cut down their oversized egos. Don’t be arrogant, or be wrongly perceived as arrogant. Humility is not only healthy for our soul and our common sense, it is one effective way to disarm and possibly even win over critics and foes. Don’t always take yourself too seriously.
Life is so short and we need positive energy – not bitterness, rancor, vengeance and self-destructive hatred – to move forward. The horrible and seemingly hopeless problems we struggle with today might just be nothing but temporary storms that will soon pass. Impeach or not to impeach, resign or not to resign, no matter what happens or who we are in life – presidents, leaders or ordinary citizens – always think positive and never ever lose your good humor!
BULL MARKET, BULL SHEET By Wilson Lee Flores The Philippine STAR 07/18/2005