Servant leadership personified

Countless people who knew or worked with Aniceto “Chito” Sobrepeña are still in shock and grief over his sudden passing last week. It was all so sudden, with his ailment having manifested barely two months ago, and not a few may learn of his passing only through this article. But we’re told that pancreatic cancer is like that; it manifests when it’s too late to be reversed. The family’s call for blood donors for his urgent, complex surgery met with a wide and rapid outpouring of assistance and prayers from his various social and professional circles, showing how much love and esteem Chito had earned through the years. But pray as we all did for his physical healing, our Creator saw it was time to call him home after having eminently earned his eternal reward in Heaven.

Like his rare A-negative blood type that made finding blood for him more challenging, Chito was a rare gem indeed. He is among the most outstanding individuals I have held in the highest esteem and truly admired. I had in fact written about him in this column nearly 10 years ago to extol his exemplary kind of leadership (see “Wanted: true leadership,” 5/10/16). Since then, he had done so much more good and touched even more lives in more ways. To us, his former colleagues at the former National Economic and Development Authority, he had been and will always be remembered as a model Nedan who exemplified the technical excellence, integrity, and professionalism that have been the agency’s proud hallmarks.

It was not by my own choice that Chito became my undersecretary (we called them deputy director-general or DDG then) when former President Fidel V. Ramos appointed me to lead Neda and designated him to be one of my DDGs, without my prior concurrence. Little did I know then how much of a blessing he was to be. I knew Chito had worked at the heart of Malacañang in the Cory Aquino administration as her Cabinet Secretary, heading the Presidential Management Staff, a post that required the full trust and confidence of the President, which Chito had earned. I knew, too, that his coming to Neda was a homecoming, and the staff readily welcomed his return. He had begun his career in the Neda regional office (NRO) in Eastern Visayas, his own choice because it was then the country’s poorest region. He rose through the ranks to become director of the Policy Coordination Staff by the time late President Cory Aquino called him to Malacañang. He was thus a natural fit when I put him in charge of all NROs, which serve as technical secretariats to the Regional Development Councils, the regional counterparts of the president’s Cabinet. This was when I personally witnessed in him leadership at its finest, as he effectively rallied the NROs to be respected vanguards of development in the Philippine countryside.

To me, a true leader brings out the best in those he leads. That is indeed how Chito led, constantly asserting that leadership should be more about service than authority, power, and privilege—many call it “servant leadership.” Chito’s nurturing leadership spurred the NROs that he led to excellence, enabling and training by his own example all those he worked with. A true leader is also a listening one. The most dangerous leader is one who thinks he knows everything. For Chito, decision-making must be more than consultative; it should be participatory.

A true leader is firmly grounded in principle. Any leader will receive all sorts of advice from widely differing perspectives, solicited or otherwise, and it’s ultimately his/her judgment and character that determines which advice prevails. The good leader decides based on what yields the greatest good for the greatest number, and what is righteous in the eyes of God— not what serves his/her own interests, or what is popular. Chito’s deep spirituality, practiced through his and dear wife Anna’s active membership in the Ligaya ng Panginoon Catholic Charismatic community, was the firm foundation for his principled leadership.

Lastly, a true leader is humble. What I found most remarkable in Chito was his rare self-effacing leadership. He would not claim credit even when ideas and initiatives were his own, instead publicly attributing these to his principals: President Cory in Malacañang, me at Neda, and Chairman George S. K. Ty at the Metrobank Foundation. Back in 1995, I was saddened by his departure from Neda to assume the presidency of the latter. But the late Mr. Ty clearly saw in him the great promise of doing so much good in perhaps more meaningful and concrete ways through the philanthropic work of what was then the country’s largest bank. And he was right. Chito shone in that capacity for nearly three decades until his retirement last year, personifying true servant leadership in his public and private sector careers. God bless Chito’s soul. He will be greatly missed.

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