Saludo sa Civil Service (Part ll)
 11 September 2008

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The newly appointed Chairman of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Ricardo L. Saludo is not only an associate in public service but also a brother to me.


Ric, as he is fondly called by his friends and colleagues, was a journalist before joining the government. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Makati Business Club Research Team, before he worked for prominent international media outfits as Assistant Managing Editor and Special Projects Editor of Hongkong-based Asiaweek Magazine from 1996 until 2001. Furthermore, Chairman Saludo was also the Asian affairs commentator for the Cable News Network and CNBC Asia from 1995 until 2001.

In 2002, he was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as Cabinet secretary, wherein he was tasked to prepare agenda, oversee the conduct and documentation of Cabinet meetings, issue and monitor Presidential directives to Cabinet members and national agencies.

Although he has moved on to a new office address, Chairman Saludo remains to be a brother -- a partner in ensuring, through our own respective offices, that government indeed works for the betterment of the Filipino.

The bespectacled Chairman Saludo is a man with a vision. He made his vision fairly clear when he said that his goal over the next six and a half years is to make government employees more MERCI-ful (Morale, Efficiency, Responsiveness, Courtesy and Integrity).

Chairman Saludo has solid plans and strategies to realize this vision. His plans and strategies include the completion of the third phase of the salary standardization law, narrowing the gap between the salaries of government workers and those in the private sector, strengthening meritocracy in government and intelligently applying media and information and communications technologies to promote responsiveness, efficiency and integrity in government.

While he has set grand aspirations for himself and the civil service, Chairman Saludo keeps his feet firmly on the ground. He knows that by himself, he can only do so much. Although he has done well for himself so far, graduating cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Literature at the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and is pursuing his Masters Degree in Public Policy and Management at the University of London by distance learning. He was awarded Outstanding Alumnus from the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communications, where he took graduate studies in media management and journalism.

His achievements notwithstanding, Chairman Saludo acknowledges that alone, he cannot make all the fundamental changes in the age-old ways, structures, policies and practices of a mammoth organization that is the Philippine civil service and make it world-class within his term as CSC chairman.

Chairman Saludo however maintains a positive outlook for the future of the civil service. This outlook is buoyed by his steadfast belief that there are many more like him in the over a million-person strong civil service, and the millions more outside the formal government structure, who share his vision and aspirations, and that given the opportunity, these like-minded individuals would move as one to make the vision of a MERCI-ful civil service a reality.

Indeed, legitimate collective action can be a potent means to achieving noble ends. Let us therefore, from the government rank and file to the high-ranking officials, to our partners in the global community, and the Filipino society at large, join Chairman Saludo and together make a big difference – not just in the Philippine civil service but for the whole Filipino nation.

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