The humble technocrat
Today’s title refers, of course, to the great man, Cesar E. A. Virata (12/12/1930-10/2/2026), who just passed away. Cesar Virata was consistently outstanding in both what he did—in academia, government, the private sector, and private life—and how he did it.
It’s been my fortune to have known Cesar since I got my undergraduate degree from the University of the Philippines in 1962. I was an instructor in the economics department, which was then part of the college of business administration, where he was the dean. I could call him “brod” since we both belong to the Pan Xenia fraternity.
My surveys in DAP. Cesar was board chair of the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) when I was its vice president for research (1981-84) and was doing social surveys. For use in Cesar’s campaign for a seat in the Batasang Pambansa, we did a confidential survey about his chances to top the race for the three parliamentary seats allotted for Cavite.
Cesar needed not just to win a seat, but to be No. 1 in the province, in order to justify the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s plan to appoint him prime minister (PM, which became a way to address him). He was not personally involved in the project, but his keyman provided some Cavite political operatives to work with. When the survey findings came in, I was amazed at how well the experts could explain all the town-by-town variations on the basis of their local knowledge. That was my baptism in voter-preference surveys.
I resigned (willingly) from DAP in 1984, after it got embarrassed by the sociopolitical survey that I had just directed for the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference for Human Development—this was private work, but I was the public presenter and was identified in media as a DAP executive. The fear in DAP was that it might get transferred from “his,” meaning under Ferdinand, to “hers,” meaning under Imelda. Having Cesar/PM as chair signified that DAP was “his”; indeed, DAP remained “his” and made my resignation worth it.
Cesar helped Social Weather Stations (SWS) learn to survive. Circa 1986-1987, when already out of government, Cesar was an SWS client in relation to his consulting work. That was how we—especially Linda Luz Guerrero, who has been SWS president since 2021—learned the ropes about how to gauge the market when billing for services: know one’s worth and don’t sell oneself short!
My Jica time. In 2011, I accepted Cesar’s invitation to join the advisory committee which he cochaired for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica). Everyone in the meetings addressed Cesar as “PM.” I stayed on until a few months ago, upon sensing he would soon leave the post for health reasons.
A song for the PM. On Cesar’s birthday last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas feted him with a special lunch, and invited my wife and me. As if to repeat the classic lesson that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” a monetary board member commanded me to render the following lines (to the tune of “That’s Why the Lady is a Tramp.”):
“That’s Why the PM is a Champ”
(Lyrics by Romeo Bernardo*)
Verse 1: He rides the sub-way in New York and DC, / (Even as Prime Minister, humble as can be.) / No fan-cy lim-os, no glit-ter, no stamp– / That’s why the PM is a champ!
Verse 2: In-teg-ri-ty shin-ing, in-tel-li-gence too, / (A states-man with heart, dedi-ca-tion true.) / From class-room to pow-er, the same sim-ple man– / That’s why the PM is a champ!
Bridge: He’s mod-est, he’s stead-y, he nev-er will show, / With Joy by his side–she’s Broad-way, you know! / To-geth-er they spark-le, a pair with such glow, / The Vi-ra-tas in-spire us so!
Verse 3: As Dean and Pro-fess-or, he taught with such grace, / (Then bank-ing and busi-ness–he still set the pace.) / No airs, no pre-ten-ses, no need to re-vamp– / That’s why the PM is a champ!
Finale: So raise up a cheer for his nine-ty-five years, / (A life full of ser-vice, re-spect, and good cheer.) / The Phil-ip-pines honors, we all want to stamp– / That’s why the PM is a champ!
(*Romeo L. Bernardo, University of the Philippines (UP) School of Economics class-1975, taught briefly at the UP College of Business, in 1976 became an economist on the staff of finance secretary Cesar Virata, rose through the finance department ranks, and was undersecretary in 1990-96. He is presently on the Monetary Board; writing alternative-lyrics for popular songs is one of his hobbies.)
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