Transformational Leadership

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Two days ago I had the fortune of being invited to a small breakfast meeting with MMDA (Metro Manila Development Authority) Chairman Bayani Fernando. I came into that breakfast meeting as a “sold man”. I went out determined to help spread the word about his leadership.

I grew up two towns away from Marikina and the difference is just startling.

How can this city change its image from the “rape and akyat bahay” capital of Metro Manila to what is now generally considered to be its model city in just 15 years?

My cousin had a store in Marikina that we used to visit 20 years ago. It was just messy. Mud everywhere. It was stinky. Garbage everywhere. Parking was a mess. Vendors selling where people needed to walk. Don’t even get me started on the toilets! No one really complained. It was pretty much the situation everywhere in the Philippines!

If you guys used to pass by Cloverleaf market (named for the interchange at Balintawak), you’ll know what I mean: 6 lane south bound at EDSA was effectively reduced to 2 because parked cars and illegal vendors took up all the space! No one seemed to care…people needed to make a living right?

Anyway, I had a Singaporean boss 8 years ago and his family used to drive around Metro Manila. Of all the cities, Marikina impressed him the most. It was clean and it was spacious. He liked what he saw and told me that it was indeed possible to change a city in that way. This was only a few years after Bayani Fernando’s first term as mayor started.

Marikina’s state then reflected the condition the rest of the nation: it was “sick”. But in a few short years, it became Metro Manila’s poster boy. The same people who resisted the changes are now the same people who are proud of what their city has become.

Many call the Philippines the “sick man of Asia”. We Filipinos are sick and tired of that nickname. We all know we deserve better than that. We want to be transformed into the “best country” in Asia.

With all these politicians parading in front of us (leading up to the elections 11 months from now), ask yourself: who among them can show transformational leadership? Who among them has actually transformed people the most?

…I ask you to examine all of them carefully. Let’s take the one who has PROVEN his capacity to lead people to change themselves.


Jay Araullo
Twitter ID: taytaybulls