LACSON: LEADERSHIP BY EXAMPLE NEEDED MOST NOW

With the country losing its competitiveness in the Asian region, it is time government officials practice leadership by example, instead of putting politics and privilege over principle.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson stressed this Friday night as he said leaders who do not lead by example and instead give in to graft and corruption should not expect the country to prosper.

It is time to set aside politics in favor of public service, the genuine public service that every Filipino deserves. Politics has shown to us by politicians as the art of compromise and commerce. Candidates buy votes, cheat, promise the moon, the sun and the stars when campaigning ... Where leaders do not lead by example, do we expect this country to prosper? Businessmen like you say no, he said in a speech before the Philippine Printing Technical Foundation Inc. General Assembly in Makati City.

He said that when he headed the Philippine National Police from 1999 to 2001, he reminded the police force, place privilege above principle and you lose both. He also stressed the principle that what is right must be kept right, what is wrong must be set right.

But what made him succeed, he said, was that he led by example, which convinced the policemen that he meant business.

What made the police think I meant business? Another principle Live and lead by good example. I was not stealing anything from the Filipino people and my policemen knew it. I was jogging with them, leading them in physical exercises and the physical fitness tests, he said.

He also said he applied these principles when he risked being a laughingstock in his second year as senator because he abandoned his P200-million annual pork barrel.

Also, Lacson exhorted the print industry to regain its competitiveness and contribute to nation building, and regain its former glory in the process. He said the industry can do this by evolving the needed technology, and working hand in hand with the academic field.

These are tough times we are living in. Every effort towards progress counts. And we must hurry as competition is kind only to the victor but cruel to the vanquished. Let us not be at the end of the line, he said.