The Development Academy of the Philippines’ Chairman of the Board, Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra, urged employees of the institution to “refocus” on the original vision of the DAP in the wake of two leadership changes it has undergone over the past year.

 Chair Guevarra, speaking before a general assembly of DAP employees at the DAP headquarters in Pasig last March 7, said recent developments that have seen the 44-year-old institution get back to normal provides the best opportunity to do that.

 “Now that we’re back on track, let’s refocus on the original vision that we have for the DAP.  Let’s make the existence of the DAP more relevant to national development,” the Chairman said even as he warned the worst thing that could happen to the Academy is to stagnate. 

‘Worst thing’

“The worst that could happen to an institution like the DAP is to stagnate,” SDES Guevarra stressed.  “That’s the worst that could happen for an elite institution like the DAP.”

He recalled that when he graduated from college in 1974, the Academy was barely one year old, but even then, he said that he looked at it as “a very elite” institution.  “I looked at the DAP with awe and admiration because I knew then and until now that the people here, most of them anyway, are high-caliber economists – doctors in public administration and management and also in the political and social sciences, and I considered the staff not as ordinary bureaucrats but as technocrats.  That’s why I’ve always admired the DAP,” he revealed.

‘Very important board’

Chair Guevarra said that this was also the reason he sometimes felt “inadequate” as a lawyer to chair a “very important board” like that of the DAP as he felt an economist, or somebody from the National Economic and Development Authority, the Department of Finance or the Department of Budget and Management, might be more appropriate for the job, recalling “a well-respected and a very competent” predecessor, the late Dr. Cayetano Paderanga Jr. who served as DAP chairman from 2012 until his demise in 2016.

That feeling he said lasted until what he referred to as an upheaval occurred at the DAP in 2017.  “In a span of several months, there were two leadership changes and I witnessed some sort of an institutional upheaval, to put it mildly,” he related.

Board thanked

He then thanked his colleagues in the Board of Trustees for helping provide the “necessary stability and quick action to restore normalcy” to the institution.

“So I’m happy that my fellow members of the board were fully supportive of the immediate actions that had to be taken during that time of instability of sorts,” he said.  “Now I’m very happy that things are functioning normally and smoothly.  The projects are on stream and (even the employees’) bonuses and adjustments in compensation I understand are forthcoming.” 

Chair Guevarra added that with the DAP “back in the saddle” and with a career official, Officer in Charge Magdalena Mendoza at the helm of the institution for the time being, he is optimistic that the Academy will continue to fulfill its mission and implement its programs capably.

The March 7 general assembly was actually the first time Chair Guevarra personally met with the DAP staff as an entire group during his tenure. 

– Bert A. Ramirez