A year ago today, Frederick Go readily dropped a life of ease and fortune to venture into the unfamiliar terrain of public service.
Not a few eyebrows were raised when he said he was stepping down as president and chief executive of the highly progressive Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC) to serve as special assistant of President Marcos for investment and economic affairs.
The appointment gave him the distinction “economic czar” of the Philippines.
The peculiar career shift certainly left several business bigwigs wondering. However, Go, already past his 50, dismissed all admonitions and apprehensions about throwing his hat into the bureaucratic arena, saying it was an offer he could not refuse and that the compulsion was so great he could not simply ignore it.
“It’s a bit of a challenge. But at the same time, it’s been very fulfilling. When you’re working in the private sector, you’re trying to achieve success for yourself and success for the company. But in the public sector, we’re trying to move from personal to greater interest,” Go told PeopleAsia in an interview.
Without a doubt, Go was successful as a business executive, but he found the call of public service very compelling.
“The way I see it, it’s about moving from success to significance. It’s about the future of the country and the future of the people, which really gives me a certain sense of fulfilment that you could never have in the private sector,” he said,
Go sums up his job description as “harmonize, synchronize, integrate, and implement’ President Marcos’ economic programs. And he was there whenever and wherever the President needed him.
Economy-wise, he says the country is moving in the right direction, logging a 5.6-percent growth in 2023, surpassing China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
He points out though, that the achievement came amid a holistic government approach to economic goals, notably the policies on ease of doing business in the Philippines.
For him, it should also be all systems go for the national identification program.
“How can we talk about progress when we don’t even have a National ID system? It is the foundation to financial inclusion, it’s foundational for distributing social services and financial transactions. People don’t have to line up for hours for their passport, for instance. With the National ID, the implementation of national services becomes simpler,” he said.
There is no arguing the fact that Go is a prominent figure in the Cabinet, yet he prefers to keep a low key insofar as publicity is concerned.
According to him, he’d rather talk to a private audience, and he opts to be known as the “silent, hardworking public servant.”
For sports, he plays badminton and was even a director of the Philippine Badminton Association, which he also gave up along with memberships in multiple civic organizations when he hopped onto the presidential bandwagon “to avoid any conflicts” in the near and distant future.
As a young man, journalism was on top of Go’s career priorities. He loved writing and was editor of Ateneo’s campus paper The Guidon.
His uncle, John Gokongwei, founder of the family-owned business empire, invited him to be editor of the Manila Times which was acquired from the Roces family. For a time, Go worked as a business reporter of the broadsheet.
From there, he worked his way up the corporate ladder of the Gokongwei-led JG Summit Group. The rest is history.
