HONESTY, WHAT ROLE DOES IT PLAY?

N.B. The following is a memorandum originally written by the Honorable Eriberto B. Misa when he was Director of Prisons on July 25, 1940 or 74 years ago. His son Joaquin L. Misa, then legal counsel and director of Victorias Milling Company revised it some time in 1987 and was fanned out as a Memo by the then President of Vicmico, C.R. De Luzuriaga, Jr. I got hold of a copy of the same when I was a young Principal then at the Don Bosco Technical College, Basic Education Department. I was so impressed by it, and even now, 27 years later, I still am. Everyone who reads it can probably, in the words of Mr. De Luzuriaga,  "appreciate how applicable it is to us, till now," especially now, and that "it has not suffered the ills of time." I quote here some of the best lines, especially about Honesty, Efficiency, and Loyalty. I omit all those that pertain per se to the conditions of the officials and employees of the company to whom the memo was sent a second time around. My own comments and additions are writeen in italics.

HONESTY

Because you do not steal, does not necessarily mean that you are honest.

Honesty is synonimous with honor, fairness, integrity, truthfulness and freedom from fraud.
When you commit an action against accepted precepts of honor, you are not honest; you are dihonorable.

When you are not impartial in your actions and judgments, you not honest, you are unfair.

When you deliberately commit an injustice because your action has been influenced by fear, gain, or favoritism, you are not honest; you lack integrity.

When you lie, you are not honest, you are a liar.

When you pretend to be what you are not, you are not honest; you are a fraud.

When you take away anything that belongs to another, without his consent, you are not honest; you are a thief.

When you do not try your best in the discharge of your duties, you are not honest; you are no good.

EFFICIENCY

Efficiency in the service is the satisfactory manner in which you perform the work assigned to you.

A piece of work is satisfactorily performed when it accomplishes the desired result with the minimum use of energy and time.

As in any kind of human activity, only painstaking practice can attain near perfection. Therefore, get into the habit of doing things promptly and to the best of your ability, always looking for easier, quicker and better means of doing them in the future.

Avoid being too technical. Comply with the spirit rather than with the letter of any instruction, rule or regulation, when you find it conflicting with the main objective.

LOYALTY

You owe it to your superiors, to all your equals, and to all your subordinates, but above all, you owe it to your employer [the Company]. Don't think of the Company as something remote and abstract. It should be closer to you than anything else, as you are fortunate enough to be in its service. Your loyalty to your superiors, your equals, and to your subordinates ends where your loyalty to the Company begins. When you find yourself torn between your loyalty to your superiors and friends on the one hand, and to the Company on the other, your duty is first to your Company.

As loyal employees in the service [...] we should feel keenly, as resting upon our shoulders, the responsibility of creating as good and wholesome image of [ ... ] as possible.



I post this today, 16 February 2014, 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A. The Gospel reminds us of three realities that are closest to the humanity of all of us: anger, lust, and the need to be truthful and honest. Traditional teaching tells us it is not sinful, per se, to be angry, but what is sinful is what we do with it. Experience shows us that lust is something we all human beings need to temper and control, and that, it concerns, first and foremost, the interior before the exterior of our personhood. The third is what concerns us most in our times - the lack of passionate dedication to TRUTH, and the wanton disregard for the value of TRUTH-TELLING.

These three items concern us all deeply, individually and collectively. At no other time in our common history has the need for  truth-telling taken center stage in our collective consciousness, when accusations left and right are met with denials left and right, and people concerned seem to be infinitely capable of not batting an eyelash while telling a pack of lies, for the whole world to see, in public television, no less.