“My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people; those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition.” This quote is attributed to the late Indira Gandhi, a powerful figure whose place in history is solidly cemented being the first and so far only female Prime Minister of India.
Perhaps the yellow army followers should be reminded of Gandhi’s words because their standard bearer seems to be taking credit for the boom that’s happening in the business process outsourcing industry, claiming that he “started and expanded this BPO sector” when he was still the chief of the Trade Department. Of course, we now all know that this claim has been disputed—more like repudiated actually—by an acknowledged BPO industry pioneer who said it was actually former president Gloria Arroyo who made the industry grow.
Of course, we now all know that Mar Roxas’ claim that he “started” the BPO industry in the Philippines is laughable because records would show that way back in 1992, the BPO sector saw its inception when Accenture put up the first global resource center in the Philippines with Frank Holz at the helm. Mar Roxas was certainly not Trade secretary then, not even when other companies started putting up multinational BPOs in the country during the time of Fidel Ramos as president.
Roxas, in case his memory needs to be jogged a little, served as Trade chief only in 2000 under the Cabinet of then-President Joseph Estrada and even his tenure was short lived because he left his post when the Estrada ship showed signs of sinking. He was reappointed by Arroyo though, but resigned in December 2003 if we are not mistaken, in preparation for an eventual run in the Senate. So how he can claim credit for the boom in the BPO sector really makes us shake our heads in wonder.
But then again, no surprise there because the idea has been firmly planted in his head by his friend and patron President BS Aquino who kept on harping about Mar being the “father of the business process outsourcing industry in the Philippines”—a claim seconded by Palace mouthpieces.
What’s that quote again about a lie being repeated enough becoming truth? Isn’t that attributed to Hitler propagandist Joseph Goebbels?
MVP at PMA
Philippine Business for Social Progress and Philex Mining Corp. chairman Manny Pangilinan was at the Philippine Military Academy graduation exercises in Baguio to give a talk before PMA cadets about “Leadership in the Corporate Perspective.” MVP reminded the future military officers that “all of us are called upon and challenged to service, to use our effort and talents for nation-building. Businessmen are no different from scientists, farmers, laborers, or men and women in arms from this duty of improving people’s lives,” he said, adding that his companies reflect this fundamental concern for growth and welfare.
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