At one time one sees Mayor Dors Rivilla jogging early in the morning or enjoying some jokes with a policeman after the flag ceremony. Another time, one sees him donating blood. Still another, one sees him sharing simple pleasures with children in the barangays or making sure the Brigada Eskwela in those areas is efficiently executed. Or one may simply hear him discussing important current issues over his early Monday morning “Lipad Nang Umunlad” radio program. Wherever and whenever, we see the Mayor at or into something. He is highly visible. And audible.

The Mayor, for all intents and purposes, is a manager. He is very much like a manager of a company who must take care of his staff and make sure he is able to make happen what is best for every one.

I remember when I was one of the many managers in the corporate world. Every morning, before I could even look at my list of things-to-do for the day, I would go around my turf, which was the creative department of an advertising agency, and start my day with a short exchange of words with every person in my staff. One might tell me that his load was heavy and would ask me for an additional writer or an additional artist. Another might tell me that her parent was sick and would tell me in advance about her application for a leave of absence. One unassuming writer would just smile at me as if to tell me that everything was just fine and that he would see me later during the day to jolt me out of my seat with his impressive creative concept. One young, hardly talking artist at the far-end cubicle of the creative department showed me his swollen thumb when I asked him how things were for him. By this time, my secretary came to tell me that my first meeting for the day was to start in five minutes. That was 9:30 am. In thirty minutes, I started my day by seeing my entire staff. I would not see most of them the rest of the day. But my brief encounter with each of them gave me a pretty accurate idea of how things were in my department and guided me in making my day-to-day decisions towards a generally beneficial company operation.

Starting my day in office this way everyday made me a wise, efficient manager because it made me prescient of the needs of my staff and potential problems of my department. This quick, easy, and pleasant morning habit certainly made me an effective manager in the corporate world.

Now going back to Mayor Dors Rivilla…

I think the reason why Mayor Dors has become an effective manager of the Municipality of Paniqui is precisely because he chooses to be one of his people. He finds time to be with them and eventually gets to know what they need, not through anybody else, but directly from them. A mayor who keeps his distance from his constituents is likely to be misinformed. Who in the first place would want a misinformed manager, or worse, a misinformed mayor? For comments / reactions, please email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it