Today, I've read two stories. One, an inspiring about a Filipino car designer, Wini Camacho, who helped designed Mercedez-Benz E-class. He was involved in all stages of the process—a rare practice in car production.
This is a display of Filipino leadership ingenuity.
In a report from Top Gear Philippines, it wrote: Contrary to popular belief, no production car (at least in this day and age) is designed by one man alone. Even the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro had a whole team of designers working under him during the conceptualization if the Delorean DMC-12. However, when a designer is part of each step of the long process of creating a new car—just like our kababayan Wini Camacho was during the inception of the current Mercedes-Benz E-Class— that’s something to brag about. In the world of automobile design, it’s very rare for one designer to be involved in all stages of the process.
To say that Filipinos are a second-class citizen is totally wrong. The mindset of being inferior over other races in the world is what holds us back. The Filipinos show their leadership genius in many parts of the world. However, it doesn't become obvious because it is not in our nature to brag about our contribution. This is evident in our very own Banaue Rice Terraces. No single person was credited for its construction.
We are influential and humble at the same time. But we have to assert our own leadership philosophy, which leaders from around the world can consider applying. We have to tell them our brand of leadership that is naturally ours.
In another news, a former militiaman surrendered on Friday, admitting his role as the main gunman in the killing of AKO-BICOL party-list Rep. Rodel Batocabe. He surrendered to the Army in Sorsogon on Thursday and was turned over to the police because of a standing arrest warrant over a rape charge.
The self-confessed gunman profusely apologized to the family left behind by the solon, while explicitly naming Batocabe's could've-been political rival Carlwyn "Awyn" Baldo in the May 2019 polls as the brains behind the killing.
In his own admittance, "Gusto ni Mayor Awyn Baldo na siya ang permanenteng makaupo sa Daraga para maging mayor kasi may pangako siya sa amin na tuloy-tuloy ang kabuhayan namin, nagsasahod kami sa kanya," Yuson said.
This leadership mindset is far from our original leadership art. We didn't think about permanent leadership. We have designed a leadership succession and made it part of our leadership culture. And since we adopted another form of leadership, this is what happened. Everybody is killing each other, literally and figuratively, for a leadership position.
Two tales of leadership that makes us confused as to who we are as Filipino leaders. It's time to take a side.