Good Governance Personified.

“It does not matter if the cat is black or white — what is important is that it catches mice.” — Deng Xiaoping

There is always a special niche for an upright bureaucrat, a man of good will even in the most corrupt of systems; in the darkness, he who holds a candle is always needed. CESAR ENRIQUE AGUINALDO VIRATA, who served as a Finance and Prime Minister under President Ferdinand Marcos in an era considered as both the best and worst times for the Philippine economy, was one of a handful of top officials under the Marcos regime whose reputations have remained unsullied to this day.

Cesar Virata is the quintessential Filipino technocrat. An achiever even as a student, He holds two Bachelor of Science degrees, in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration, which he completed with honors (cum laude) at the University of the Philippines in 1952. In 1953, he earned his MBA in Industrial Management from the University of Pennsylvania.

His career started unassumingly in the sheltered confines of the academe, at the University of the Philippines where he taught from 1952 and eventually became the youngest Dean of the College of Business Administration in 1969 at the age of 30 years old. Simultaneous with his full-time teaching load, he prodigiously developed the practice of business consultancy of the accounting firm of SyCip, Gorres, Velayo & Company, which led to the establishment of its Management Services Division. In 1967, government took notice of his growing reputation and expertise and was appointed Deputy Director-General for Investments of the Presidential Economic Staff. This led to a string of appointments, first as Undersecretary for Industry at the Department of Commerce and Industry (1967- 1968), then as Chairman of the Board of Investments (1968-1970), Secretary/Minister of Finance (1970-1986), Chairman, Development Committee and Consultative Group for External Assistance from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank (1976-1980), among others.

His public service career was tested by tumultuous shocks and demand development problems — the energy crisis of the 1970s, aggravated by currency and interest rate changes. In the midst of very challenging times, he helped to steer major investment, financial, banking, tax and budgetary reforms for the government. Mr. Virata inherited a department weak in technical expertise, a weakness he was able to remedy in his long tenure in that position, the longest in the country’s history. He also embarked on a major cleanup of the Bureaus of Internal Revenues and Customs, dismissing some 5,000 officials over the years, including some politically well-connected staff.

There was an urgent need to put the fiscal house in order while seeking as well international assistance for the country’s development efforts, leading to the Consultative Group coordinated by the World Bank. He saw in the Consultative Group a vehicle for breaking the policy gridlock and moving institutional reforms forward to streamline the agencies and minimize corruption. Realizing the pitfalls in the Investment Incentives Law, he wanted to accelerate the liberalization of industry and trade. To help in this pursuit he recommended to President Marcos the appointment in 1970 of Gerardo Sicat, a UP professor of economics with a PhD from MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts), to head the National Economic Council that was later to become the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).

He was also responsible for the reform of commercial banking which was no less challenging than the industrial and trade policy reforms. The martial law setting would help accelerate the reforms in the domestic banking sector, leading to the merger of banks, increased capitalization, foreign participation, and stronger competition in the sector. Reforms extended to the Land Bank, which is now the largest formal credit institution in rural areas.

He served as an elected Member of the Batasan Pambansa (Parliament) from 1978 to 1986, the last five years of which, as Prime Minister of the Republic of the Philippines (1981-1986). As Finance Secretary, Mr. Virata actively participated in and passionately pushed for the ratification of the Philippines-Japan Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation in 1976. This landmark agreement not only normalized postwar trade relations between the Philippines and Japan were finally established.

Throughout his 34 years of outstanding government service, Prime Minister Virata developed a reputation for unsullied integrity, shining competence and sterling performance. It is a well-known fact that during the Philippines’ most turbulent crises of the 1970’s to the mid-1980’s, it was the reputation of Prime Minister Virata, which allowed the country continued access to international finance and recognition by the world business and banking community.

Though retired from public service in 1986, the former Prime Minster Virata continued to keep an extremely active schedule through his involvement in various business and civic organizations. He is also involved in many other charitable, educational, business. historical foundations. In 2014, the University of the Philippines made the unprecedented move to rename the College of Business Administration after him — the Cesar E.A. Virata School of Business (VSB) — where he served as Dean from 1960 to 1967. As an alumnus of the college, I had the extraordinary honor of being invited to personally witness the unveiling of a market commemorating this name change.

I have always been fascinated of Mr. Virata’s accomplishments since my halcyon days as a university student. But I grew to admire him more when I got to meet him in a number of occasions. Aware of his lofty positions in government during the Marcos regime, I expected him to be aloof and magisterial. Much to my surprise, I found him to be a regular, unassuming, and gentle human being. Over the years since, I have felt more at ease with him not only in social gatherings but also in more formal occasions. Having engaged with him in many of our casual conversations made me better appreciate the real Cesar Virata and the reforms he initiated which laid the groundwork for later reforms that have largely benefited the economy. It also made me understand why he stuck it out in public service during the much-disdained martial law regime. Even 91 years old, he remains a hard-wired optimist, it seems, doggedly hoping that his work on national policy and international economic diplomacy under those difficult circumstances will make a long-run difference.