048 ODE TO MIKE (1)
It was a beautiful Baguio afternoon back in 2005 when I first stepped foot at the education secretary’s cottage at Teachers Camp. Having been executive director of youth development organization CMLI in the early 90s, I’ve always been very familiar with the camp, since that’s like our second home, where we’d bring hundreds of youth leaders for our annual assembly.
This time, however, I was there for a different reason. It was there to meet the sitting head of the Department of Education, Secretary Butch Abad, who wanted to thank me for the speech I wrote for him for his first (and only) State of Education Address, which he delivered at the Education Congress in Bacolod City several months earlier.
As it turned out, it was also Abad’s intention then to recruit me to be part of his small DepEd team. I said yes, of course, and served as his policy adviser for communications up until the time he resigned from the department several months later.
It was a pleasant experience, in part, I assumed, because we were seated outside—in the cottage patio—where you can really relish the panorama of pine trees and the crisp mountain air that is Baguio. As we were about to wrap up our discussion, a gentleman in wire-rimmed glasses arrived. We were immediately introduced to each other, of course. This was my first encounter with Juan Miguel Luz, then Undersecretary of Administration and Finance, a position he had held since DJ’s term (Abad’s predecessor, Edilberto de Jesus).
He was there to invite Abad to visit a recently renovated school, Baguio City National High School. As it was explained to us, it wasn’t just a simple renovation—it was a restoration of a heritage building that was one of Mike’s pet projects at the department (I surmised later that this had everything to do with his father being one of the top architects in the country).
Abad asked me to join them. So I went. And as our small group toured around the school, I saw how passionate Mike was about the project. In hindsight, he appeared to be more happy than proud of what he had accomplished. Thus, I saw for the very first time the genius that is Mike Luz.
I realized then that I was in good company. With Abad and his ragtag team of idealists, and by then, Mike, my belief that there’s still hope for Philippine education was reinforced. And I was excited to be part of the cause.
In the busy months that happened later, being knee deep in communicating DepEd to its various publics, I got to know more about Mike’s work, and even more so, his penchant for innovation. Library Hubs. Sagip Eskwela. Obviously, he also came up with so many administrative and financial reforms, many of which allowed government to save billions of pesos. And there’s his magnum opus, creating what I’d describe as DepEd’s most powerful brand, Brigada Eskwela.
All this, and more, from the mind of such a brilliant man.
He certainly made the work of our communications team at the Office of the Secretary a lot easier since we had so many good stories to share to both our internal stakeholders and the general public.
(TO BE CONTINUED)