THE SUPERDELEGATES— any of you who have been closely watching the rollercoaster of a Democratic Party primary elections have surely heard about them already. I for one hasn’t had heard of them except for now; despite that I have had great interest in U.S. pre-election contests for many years now.

Of course — contrary to the way they are termed — they aren’t newly-invented superheroes with flowing capes and glinting gloves fitted to their hands, but real people who are designated to hold distinguished positions in the Democratic Party organizations and has superior voting preferences in the primaries, that in the Democratic Party convention this coming August, they might just be the ones to put finality as to the person of the party standard bearer, whether Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton.

As of now, Sen. Obama had gained more pledge votes by performing well in a number of primaries and caucuses held earlier in the year, more than what Sen. Clinton had gained that right now, Sen. Obama merely needs 176 pledged votes in the remaining primaries for him to finally clinch the nomination.

But as of now, and despite the magic number 176 of Obama, the contest is still seen by many as tight and could still run wide open as the next state to vote, which is West Virginia, is expected to go largely in favor of Sen. Clinton.

The latest news is that Sen. Obama had finally overtaken Sen. Clinton in the number of superdelegates that are expected to vote in August. Observers have suggested that in order for Sen. Clinton to overturn the overall lead of Sen. Obama throughout the primaries, she needs to win big among the superdelegates in August. A slight margin of win for her among the superdelegates would not matter as much.

There were some early criticisms in fact about how the Democratic Party nomination system could become undemocratic in a certain way, where the superdelegates could decide to set aside the results of the primaries, after hundreds of thousands of Democratic Party members throughout America from East Coast to West Coast, have exerted efforts to voice out their nomination choices, only to be overturned by the superdelegates, who are party stalwarts designated to their position or stature merely because they are party officials and elected officials. They are called PLEO’s.

There is no stopping the superdelegates from going against the will of the majority or results of the numerous primaries; they could vote irrespective of the primary results, especially in a very tight contest like this. That, even if Sen. Obama garnered the most votes in the primaries, the superdelegates could still overturn this and push Sen. Clinton as the party standard bearer by largely voting for her. “So much for democracy”, I have heard one party member quipped over CNN.

So the race they say between Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton would most possibly go down the wire, even towards August during the party convention where the superdelegates would finally vote, and this despite many observers had already advised Sen. Clinton to withdraw from the race as the lead of Sen. Obama in the primaries is nearly insurmountable, merely a mathematical possibility.

But because superdelegates could still matter in August, Sen. Clinton is pushing on.

I was just talking about summer and how we all loved the warm sun and the warm season that goes with it. But yesterday finally augured in the rainy season, for it had been raining for more than a couple of days straight since then, and if rain would fall with that kind of consistency, and it happens to be May, then it’d be for sure that the rainy season had finally arrived.

It was my second child’s birthday yesterday and we had planned to celebrate it by bathing at the pool, which we did in the afternoon. And it was also the birthday of Ilana, the very lovely and very cute daughter of my close friend Michael Lopez and Dra. Leileen Lopez, and it was celebrated at the La Vista Beach Resort and my kids were quite excited to hit the beach as early as the sun appeared in the morning.

When we arrived at La Vista, the weather was still in drizzle, as it was all morning. I was hoping that the sun might come up later in the day, but it didn’t. The rain fell but Sep-Sep, Beng-Beng, Bobi and Bebet suited up to their swimming trunks and bathing suit and got themselves all wet. It was raining, but it was so fun yesterday. The rain may fall, but joy is still in season.

Happy Birthday to my son Yves and to lovely Ilana Lopez.

By the way, before we went to the beach resort, we had to stopped by the new and sparkling Southway Mall in the middle of downtown, the only shopping store in town with a covered parking space that even if it was raining, it would still be convenient to shop. The kids and me were a bit in discussion on what type of toy we would buy Ilana as her birthday gift and for nearly half an hour there, we couldn’t meet at an agreement. I told them that Ilana was a girl and them three boys wouldn’t really know what a little girl wants.

Of course, my youngest daughter Bebet wouldn’t be able to speak just as eloquently yet that I didn’t consult her at all. But I was thinking what Bebet had always wanted to play with often and I have observed how little girls enjoyed so much playing with quaint little kitchen sets (aside from dolls and playhouses), pretending to cook and serve. There were quite a number of times that I had to pretend drinking something from empty little cups served by Bebet and I would go ‘Huhmm’ that was a very delicious tea, when in fact it was only air I took in, and Bebet would giggle often by those pretensions.

I hope Ilana would enjoy her kitchen set so well and serve her dad those very fine imaginary teas.

Just months after being perturbed by widespread conflict, where hundreds of monks took to the streets in protests of the military junta there, where some have been fatally shot at, Myanmar is once again thrown into a crisis, this time all the more grave and lamentable.

Cyclone Nargis lashed at the southwestern region of Myanmar, along the famed Irriwaddy delta, and left more than 22,000 people killed. At that rate, this tragedy has become of massive proportion as the number of deaths is expected to rise steadily where 40,000 others remain missing and unaccounted for.

The first time I heard about the cyclone hitting Myanmar, I was not as perturbed at that point considering that in this part of the world, harsh weather conditions mostly come and go throughout the year, especially such as in the Philippine situation. But hours after I heard the initial reports from CNN, I began to hear the word “cyclone” and that got me a little bit more disturbed. I never thought a cyclone exist or could possibly happen in this part of the world, for I’ve never heard windstorms passing through the Asian region called that way. Tropical cyclones are often termed as typhoons around here.

But Nargis was called a cyclone even from the beginning, bringing such havoc.

It is but sad for our neighbor Myanmar. I have been in full disagreement to the military rule there, especially with Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi still being persecuted there under a prolonged house arrest but the Myanmar people surely doesn’t need to be disturb by yet another ugly situation. It’s just a bad thing for them.

I hope the aids and assistance from the international community would continue to pour in and not be delayed any second more. A minute delay might mean lives being saved or lost. Electricity is all cut-down. Water is not to be found. Shelter is ever more needed. It’s time that the military junta there set aside their all-too-ardent politics and allow every possible assistance to come in.

Earlier, an American response team were disallowed entry into the affected area as the military government continues to be adamant against the U.S. government and wouldn’t allow any possibility of an American military presence there, even for just a small length of time, despite the urgent necessity for assistance.

EU had pledged about 3 Million dollars and that would be just be about sufficient for the immediate concerns. But U.S. personnel are more experienced and far more capable to respond to this kind of situation that their presence is of extreme necessity there. I hope politics should take a backseat for now. Lives of thousands in the Irriwaddy delta are at stake here and that should be the main focus now.

And I hope members of ASEAN, like the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand should extend the most help possible, and it is time to apply and put into action the ASEAN spirit of neighborliness and cooperation and help Myanmar get out of this very distressing situation.

It had been raining this summer. It’s near the end of April and there’s still rain that drizzles down from the blue heaven. It’s an unusual season that way. A friend and me was once examining how the weather was ironic, t’is summer yet there’s rain.

But today, the rain fell at dawn and the sun is starting to shine it’s light. It’s a beautiful light. Not so bright and yet not so dim like a rainy weather does have.

It’s the favoritest season don’t you think. I adore summer just like everyone does, just like you and me. It’s the time for letting flight the colorful kites so mighty in the oceanic blue sky. It’s the time for the kids to run in the arid grounds, dust and smoke in their faces, filling the air with innocent laughter and mirth.

I had dreams of summer before. I dream of summer as the windiest and most adorable golden field of wheat and corn, just like an American summer, along the intertstate highways and along old barns and stucco rural houses that serenade the bright summer like colorful marbles from afar.

I dreamt of summer just like the one I had mostly when I was a child. Cool air and incandescent shine all over me, as I flew my kite by myself or fish for small fishes in a nearby pond, like I own the weather for all myself, and myself alone.

Summer brings freedom. Unlike cold winter and heavy rainy days when one could merely sit by the window and see the wet grounds outside, puddles of mud all round, and wondered if a big fish would suddenly burst out in floods that sometimes come when the rain does not stop for days and days to come. I sometimes wished that the mythical fish, gigantic and full of mean scales on its bodice, would somehow appear and bring excitement to those sad rainy days when I was so young and so innocent. Of course, there’s no such fish as we all realized about the myths in our young unknowing minds as we grow up.

But it was so alive in my young mind, and it looks just like a coelacanth, that scaly big fish that was thought to be extinct but had been found out to still exist in some parts of Africa. And it’s huge like a submarine and I could imagine rivets all over its body, forming it and holding the whole body tight, like a gigantic machine fish, with a mean looking face that doesn’t smile at all.

I had the deepest fear of being gobbled whole and live by that giant scaly fish and finding myself just around its tonsil, calling for it to Please let me out now, you stupid fish! You have no right to put me inside your f*cking stomach and would you please belch me out right at this moment?!!! ( Pardon for the expletives.)

Oh, I really wouldn’t want to be trapped inside that dark crevice of a giant scaly fish and that’s one of my greatest fear. Maybe I could call that giantfishphobia, if there’s such a thing. Fortunately, there’s really no such big and scaly fish in reality, that would just suddenly burst out of a developing flood just outside the yard. Now, that I am grown up, such myths of my youth is for certain, just that, myth.

For the meantime, I am just going to savor the cool summer sunlight that’s enveloping the whole surrounding at this time and wish the heavy rainy days of May wouldn’t come just as yet.

(This is the content of a reaction paper I submitted today for my subject in graduate school, PA 201 - Theory & Practice of Public Administration)

I do not mean re-engineering or even re-structuring. Maybe all we need is merely to invigorate the government system in order for it to achieve the maximum efficiency that is expected of it.

We have tried such modes of re-invention as re-engineering and re-structuring, at great cost in time and money, and yet improvements have not been substantial or palpable. The public continues to languish in long queues every time a license or a passport is needed. Bribes are ever pernicious, and even more open today, like it is not anymore a secret that should be tucked inside the pocket or a key thrown into the deepest ocean.

The public continues to encounter ugly faces of public servants seemingly tired of their day job and daydreaming of life in beaches almost all day long. At the slightest error, the public who is merely seeking public service get squirmed at by those who are especially employed by the government in order to serve the public, and in order that the common person have the convenience that the government owes them.

What is the aim of the public sector now? This is one vital question that should be addressed before everything can be settled. Is the public servant merely holding position just in order to make a living? He or she should rather be selling vegetables or meat in the market, at least thereat, there would be wider potentiality for the improvement of wealth. Nobody could really get rich in the government service, even serving for a long time.

Is the public servant merely holding position for social status and pride? He or she would rather be joining pageants and spectacles on television, for he or she would be known better there.

The public office is a public trust. This dogma had even been institutionalized in our most fundamental set of laws – our Constitution – and this is most encompassing of all, where no one should be allowed to forget the essence of public service, which is in order to serve the people, and not merely for self aggrandizement.

In view of the foregoing issues, therefore it is but time to realigned our views about the public sector, starting from the people within it. That for every employee of the government, whether national or local, every time he or she sees an individual, riding a Mercedes Benz or wearing no shoes and in tattered clothes, it should not matter, because that person, whether rich or poor, famous or unknown, is the very public sector he or she is aimed to serve.

In this manner, improvement of government service and the government system could be initiated, entering its nascent stages.

Despite the improvements in work environment, like air-conditioned areas, new buildings, expensive vehicles and increase in pay and bonuses, government service remains the same old horse, who is lackluster in movement, lacks dynamism and most of all, deficient towards its main aim of serving the public dutifully and with vigor. The government remains a system that is prone to stagnation and inefficiency, misappropriation, abuse of authority and lack of direction.

We have tried re-engineering the government system in the past and yet even the best re-engineers couldn’t tame the wild river that is the Philippine government system. Maybe we need a rocket scientist for this. We have tried re-structuring but even if our re-structurers could build a pyramid or an Eiffel Tower out of a molehill, the government system remains an ancient nipa hut.

Maybe it’s time that we should try re-invigorization.

It’s not as complicated to do as re-structuring does or as expensive as a re-engineering would demand. It only takes will, political will and cooperation from the people in the system. There are a number of factors that would be put in focus in this aim of putting the government service in the right track, one is leadership, two is awareness, three is competition, four incentive, and five public choice.

In LEADERSHIP, I mean to say political leadership. When we all almost agree that politics and the bureaucracy could not really be separated and is intertwined almost all the time, leadership becomes a most important factor in putting vigor and integrity back into the government service. In choosing our political leaders, especially in the next election activities in the coming years, the people should now aim for leaders who have proven capacity to lead and carry an entire workforce towards the improvement of service. It starts with the people then. If the electorate fails in the first place to change our leadership from the highest level, towards the root level, then re-invigorization of the government system would remain an illusion.

AWARENESS is two-pronged, first there should be awareness or a high level of consciousness among our public servants that their holding of their respective positions is not meant for self-aggrandizement alone, as a form of livelihood above all, but in order to serve the public well, and this should become a passionate and patriotic mission in every individual that would be integrated into the government service. Secondly, there should be similar level of awareness as to the PUBLIC being the CLIENT that the government is aimed to served, (the private sector prefer to call them CUSTOMERS) and the government system is aimed at primarily serving the needs of the CLIENT, that when the client is dissatisfied, public service becomes irrelevant and inefficient in every sensible sense possible. The CLIENT becomes the reason for existence, without it, there is no public service in the first place. This way, every client that enters the halls of a government office should be served well, for the moment that no one would anymore enter the halls of government offices, is just about the time that public service should eradicated.

COMPETITION could be injected into the public sector so that improvement of service could pertain. If the public could be given a choice as to the locus of a better service that they are necessitating, then every public servant would aim to proffer the better form or kind of service. This would entail privatization or semi-privatization of some government agencies or giving the public more stake in the government system, where there is increased community involvement in public service. Competition would entail the heightened accountability and responsibility factor, where the government service would become directly accountable towards the community, that there is really not one that is indispensable, that the public would always have a better place to go when someone in the public sector doesn’t want to serve the people anymore, but only wants to receive salaries and bonuses. This is where PUBLIC CHOICE comes. This element of re-invigorization is the most complicated of all, but it could be done through medium term action plan, like say five years in the process, incrementally achieved by phases. And of course, this would entail a more detailed document and methodology. Competition also would bring forth to the adjustment of tenures in public service where at present, there is that seemingly extreme bias in favor of security of tenure, so extreme that even if a public servant would go to his or her work in drag and sleep all day, the government system could not take him or her away, resulting to mass demoralization and low-level performances. Public service should straightened out its merit system that only a good performance could lead to promotions and increase in compensation, that not one indispensable that for whenever a public servant does not want to serve the public anymore, as expected of him or her, then other more competent or more able individuals from the workforce should be recruited in his or her stead.

INCENTIVES of course remains a very important element, just like in re-structuring or re-engineering, that for every PUBLIC CHOICE of a government service, the better service would gain performance incentives, such as quota bonuses for a certain level unit of work, like for example if this government cashier had served 100 clients in a day, then performance credits and bonuses would inure or if this inspector had visited more areas or locations in a month than all the rest, he or she receives a hefty amount. It could be done in a larger scale that for example if this government agency branch had performed well in a particular year, more than the others in the same field, the whole workforce of that branch would get bonuses and be lauded with public acclaim. They do that in private sector, that’s why the private sector had been able to build the grand Makati skyline over the years, and is establishing another in Fort Bonifacio and in Ortigas, aside from the busting urban scene in Cebu and Davao, and they do not receive any subsidy from taxpayers, unlike the government service system.

The private sector had not been fraught with issues of grand corruption because employees in the private sector do not attain such level of indispensability like that in the public service, where those who performed well are credited well and remain in the service for long, while those who are lackluster and lack integrity in work is taken out of the system. And besides, if one reaches a managerial or administrative level in the private sector, one is assured of hefty compensation that is why, in recent years, managers and executives of private companies have been able to increased sales in dramatic proportions. There are a lot of things that the government service could learn from the private sector in terms of methodologies, form of work structure, incentive system, recruitment and promotion system, tenures of employees, work ethics and level of competency and most of all in their treatment of the CLIENT, which they often call as the CUSTOMER.

In public service, the CLIENT may not always be right, but for certain they are the reason for being. A population that is served better by the government, in terms of public service — like education, licenses, security of food, public order and safety, health and welfare, livelihood opportunities, housing, job placements, communication and technology, etc.— is a population that can make a better government and thereon, a more vibrant State.

Note: I hope Professor Rico R. Mabalod would give me a good grade for this.

THIS IS SUMMER AND WE AREN’T IN NOVEMBER.. There shouldn’t be Halloween stories.

But a couple of nights ago, I was early for my public administration class that when I entered the room, there was only one classmate waiting for the teacher before I came in. I said “Hi” and Rhea said “Why don’t you hi yourself”, no, I mean she also said hello to me, and was in fact similarly polite to me, like I was to her when I knocked on the door and greeted her earlier.

You know, I always have this untoward trepidation about snobby and conceited women when I was younger, perhaps even until now, that I have this subliminal fear of greeting women I am not so familiar with, like women of newfound acquaintances and those that are unfamiliar colleagues at work, that I often dissuade myself from greeting women who aren’t really close to me. In fact, I often have daytime nightmares about this that I imagine how conceited women would always respond to me when I said to them “Hello, how do you do?” and they would be like “Why are you helloing me or hi-ing me like that. Why don’t you hello yourself and hi yourself?”

But enough about that trepidation, I am sure it is merely that, trepidation and baseless hesitation. I am sure 9 out of 10 women I will said “hello” today, the moment I walk outside, would return my greetings with exemplary politeness, and not with some scorn in their eyes.

Rhea and me were sitting for nearly half-an-hour and our teacher, the eloquent and healthy Mr. Patinio, who happens to be the head of the Central Bank here in the city, has not yet arrived and neither one of our classmates.

It’s kinda strange, I uttered to Rhea, how our classmates are not in the classroom at that very late hour especially when we had to take the final examination that night (our classes goes towards the early part of night). She answered, that perhaps they all had forgotten about the examination. Well, I said I doubt that. Study shows that 9 out of 10 students just do not forget final examinations.

Excuse me, Rhea asked, have you seen somebody walked outside? I said What? She asked, have I seen someone from the room went outside by walking in front of her and me? I said that’s impossible because as far as I have noticed, there were only two of us there in the room, me and her, how could that be possible, I asked her?

But really I said, did she really saw some person walking in front of us?

Yes, indeed she assured me to the hilt, like I thought she was lying or had gone lunatic.

I told her not to worry and asked her to describe what she saw.

She said that while we were having a conversation, she thought that a classmate had already came in and sat down and then went out again. And Rhea described what she saw. She saw a woman with long hair in a white colored gown, walked towards the door and went out.

I said to her that we do not have a classmate with that description, and that I swore that not one of our other classmates have arrived yet.

She said yes indeed, not one of our classmate looked that way. And we both agreed that it was a ghost that she saw walking in the front part of the classroom, while we were having a conversation, and waiting for Mr. Patinio and the rest of our classmates to arrive.

But we didn’t leave the room. We waited for Mr. Patinio and the rest of our classmates to arrive. And we took the final examination.