an afternoon with the Director for External Affairs from The Palace

It was supposed to be Senator Richard Gordon. But something came up, I guess, for Senator Gordon canceled or our student lied to us the whole time. The nerve! = )

Personally, I actually doubted that the Senator was coming. We had MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando last Friday and I think "we are not that lucky". And the fact that the organizers were actually choosing between Senator Gordon and Senate President Villar weeks before the event is too good to be true = )

But hey, let's give the student the benefit of the doubt here!?!

But for all its worth, Director Rene Custodio did a splendid job. A very good communicator. I loved the PowerPoint, specially the "Gollum slide" .

But you know, maybe because it was a last minute thing and Director Custodio did not have the time to "really prepare" his talk, I felt disturbed.

The Director flashed the impressive 7.3% GNP growth of 2007. Anyone who took Economics 101 will really smile. But what if the audience actually had more than just plain vanilla Economics 101 and is smirking inside and sheepishly asking, "... but which among the four engines of the Economy actually delivered the growth?"

(Hint: They are considered the new heroes of the Philippines.)

Well, the canned Powerpoint presentation did not show that which brings me to another point. I teach in Mapua Institute of Technology. We're regarded to be the cradle of Engineering education in this part of the world and somebody from The Palace brought a canned PowerPoint presentation? Hmmm, it's either we were considered to be non-involved thus they can just impress us with their PowerPoint-making skill and rhetorics or the Director was really just being a boy scout.

Lord, I am hoping it is the later!

But for all its worth, I appreciate what transpired this afternoon. In flesh in blood, I saw my government. I saw that they really cared for what Citizen Mapua might think if they did not send someone over. I really appreciate the effort. I saw that the Director has the heart for this... but Sir Director, I just noticed po, you're starting to sound like JDV. Serious = )

And for Senator Gordon, here are the questions I prepared for you. If you have time, I hope po you can answer:

1. The Philippines has a lot of problems, in your opinion, what are the Top 3 short-term issues?
2. What are the Top 3 long-term issues?
3. And on both, what are you prepared to do to affect change?
4. On a personal level, what was, so far, is your greatest challenge?

Well, that's that...