A beaming Tugade with CDC directors Manuel Feliciano, Ricardo Baron, Rommel Bondoc, Jose Danilo Honrado and Frankie Villanueva Jr. and the Punto staff led by GM Endona.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CDC-PRD
CLARK FREEPORT – “I am both happy and tearful but the truth of the matter is… I am fearful,” Clark Development Corp. (CDC) President-CEO Arthur P. Tugade said as he accepted Punto Central Luzon’s recognition as Man of the Year 2014.
“I am happy and I am sad because they told me the award was from Punto. And this newspaper had really criticized me and rapped me numerous times,” Tugade said during the presentationof Punto’s issue declaring
him as Man of the Year mounted on a wood and glass frame at his CDC office yesterday.
“(Punto) made me realized when I started out in Clark what kind of a person I was and maybe it helped me become a better person. In truth, it was in the article “the cussing president”… I was really a cussing president and I was really a cussing person but maybe now with all the members of the Management Committee (Man-
Com) around me today, they can say that in all the daily meetings that they hear me cuss, it is now very rare that I cuss and there were even times I’m sure that I don’t cuss at all,” Tugade said.
“Because Punto made me sensitive to that fault,” Tugade added. “Initially I thought what can I do? I grew up on the streets and that’s my character and maybe I can’t change that anymore. But I did change even if sometimes I still cuss every now and then,” he admitted.
“Punto’s criticisms have taught me what public exposure is all about,” he added. “And I am begging (you) to understand that. So I was both happy and tearful but the truth of the matter is… I am fearful,” Tugade said.
Tugade explained that he is fearful because of what his mother had told him: “My child, if somebody gave you a candy, that same person who gave you a sweet candy when he slaps you, it will sting.” “I was fearful but to a certain extent you were able to change my character because I am now afraid to land in the news again for cussing,” he said with a chuckle.
“That’s why I am trying to change,” he added. But I have a request, Tugade said. “Please give us time to correct
the things which you perceived are wrong and if we didn’t do anything hit us but then the avenues for communications should be there,” he said.
Up at 4
Tugade said he rises at 4 a.m. and takes a shower at 4:30 a.m. He said he is already late if leaves his house in Alabang at 6 a.m. because he usually gets to the office by 7 a.m. and goes back home 7 p.m. at the earliest from Clark.
He admitted that at 68 years old, that is physically tiring. Tugade reminded his audience that he still has not spent anything from his representation expenses which is P100,000 per month. He said he has not spent for his allowance for a driver and uses his own vehicle in going to work.
“If all that is added, it will sum up bigger than what I actually get for my salary,” he said adding that’s excluding toll fees and gasoline. It is also financially tiring but on top of that, we have already started to change a lot of things, he said.
The political landscape has changed and a lot has to be changed, Tugade said. The processing, the orientation and the timeline had been changed. This means it is also tiring mentally. “Physically financially and mentally tiring,” Tugade said.
“But if those around you smile and follow your advocacy the feeling is great,” he declared. “But I ask for your prayers to sustain me be because I am also a human being just like you. The will to perform is there but I need your prayers.
I need all the strength I could muster so that fatigued and tiredness will not seep into my system as a human being because at this point in time what the CDDC needs is not an ordinary executive but an extraordinary one,” Tugade said. Challenged “I accept the award.
I feel challenged. If in the future you see I am tracking the wrong way, call my attention. If in the future you see that I am ready give up, come to me and tap my shoulder so that I can move on. If in the future you see that
I have stolen even one cent in the coffers of government, sue me and put me to jail,” Tugade said.
“So I accept this with this commitment. I am not saying this is easy because I will trip and I will fall. But if I fall I will rise up and change things,” he said. “I can only hope that you will understand the humanity in this (referring to himself)…,” Tugade added. The simple awarding rites was witnessedby members of the CDC Board and the Management Committee, and the Punto staff led by General Manager Atty Gener Endona.
For his part, Endona said Punto is here as part of public service. It is part of the advocacy for a better community.
He explained that Punto recognizes the leadership and character of people as well as corporations and companies in the community that help in the task of nation building.
