i interrupt my regular (ok “somewhat” irregular) programming….well i had such a huge scare today, when i found out my blog was g.o.n.e….as in kaput, pfffftttt! it went on all day, the panicky emails, attempted phone calls and such. bottom line, i got it back. but underline…i do not ever want to go through that again! especially when i felt truly compelled to publish something important, something tugging at me all this time, as if someone from the past were pushing me to publicize something very important.

i watched a bit of the inauguration of the new Philippine president, Benigno Aquino III, or “P-Noy” as he’d like to be called, allegedly. i listened to the lyrics of one folk singer, Noel Cabangon, and as i always do i went back to my grandfather’s Credo, which was published anonymously in the Manila Chronicle many decades ago, and then in his published work, “Fragments, Thoughts and Short Essays,” and which i saw first hand, painted on to the walls of the Courthouse of Gumaca,Quezon, where he was a judge from 1962 until 1967. he worked at the Bureau (later Commission) of the Civil Service from 1915 to 1962….i always read it as a sort of prayer for the Philippines whenever Filipinos pin their hopes on a new regime.

“Credo of the Public Servant

1. I believe that a position in the government is a public trust to be administered for the good of the people and not for the personal profit or benefit of the office, holder, his family, or his friends.

2. I believe that public service calls for sacrifice, humility, and renunciation; that although public office is an honor and gives opportunity for leadership, those wielding it and exercising its powers are servants of the people and not rulers or masters.

3. I believe that the government employee should be imbued with a high sense of honor, a steadfast devotion to duty, and unswerving loyalty to the Republic, and its cherished institutions.

4. I believe that the government employee should be physically, mentally and morally fit for service, should be strict and exacting with himself, and should expect and require of himself more than he expects and requires of others.

5. I believe in “the importance of little things,” in neatness and accuracy in beauty and art, in simple duties faithfully performed, little temptations earnestly resisted, little courtesies extended, and “myriad self denials.”

6. I believe that the employee should lead a simple temperate life, free from pretense, from excesses, or suspicion or appearance of evil.

7. I believe that moral leadership contributes to good morale and esprit de corps and that the law is but the ethical minimum.

8. I believe that job satisfaction is not all a question of pay or hours of work.

9. I believe in strict adherence to the principles of the merit system and just democratic management.

10. Lastly, I believe in human dignity, in a regime of justice, liberty and democracy, in the rights of minorities and the little man, in a government of laws under the protection and guiding hand of an all-wise, merciful, and just God.” –Amado del Rosario, 1957