hat would make a Cesar Purisima leave his comfy top-floor office at SGV & Co. where he oversees an army of notoriously diligent auditors to move to the Board of Investments building to man the highest office at the Department of Trade and Industry?
It’s definitely not the paycheck, which is quite paltry compared with what he used to receive as Chairman and Managing Director of the country’s top auditing firm. In fact, he does not take home his monthly government salary but instead uses it as a reward for DTI’s Service Excellence Awards, a monthly recognition program that honors outstanding performers in the Department.

Purisima's sincerity comes across as an added emphasis on his articulation of government policies

The answer is that public service beckoned brightly at a time when Purisima thought he had already accomplished, if not exceeded, his task at SGV. In the last quarter of a century, he had risen from the firm’s ranks and reached its topmost position. It was time to take up a more patriotic and noble cause.
While still at the helm of SGV, Purisima had already intimated to partners that he had no intention of fully serving his prescribed term, and that he was set on stepping down come 2005. “I believed it would not be good for SGV to have the same person – myself – on top for a long time because soon enough my goal might be focused on keeping my job, and not on leading the firm in the best way possible,” Purisima shares. However, his SGV resignation just had to happen a year earlier as he took on the DTI post last January.
Incidentally, upon Purisima’s assumption of the SGV chairmanship, the first question Washington Sycip, Chairman Emeritus and his acknowledged mentor, asked him was who he wanted to be his (Purisima’s) replacement. That is why even with his earlier than planned resignation, succession was never a problem at SGV.

Strategic Hire
Now, Purisima is in a totally new field where he has to fully harness more than ever all his skills and abilities, with all the catching up the country has to do to keep pace with other countries’ economies. Fortunately, Purisima has the backing of his comrades at the private sector.
The DTI Chief is passionate about his new engagement. Like all previous Secretaries, he brings home tons of work and wakes up very early in the morning to do his homework. And the purity of his intentions comes across as an added emphasis on his articulation of government policies – especially important now that he’s also been tasked to be the head of the President’s economic team.
In an interview with Philippine Business, the fast-talking DTI Secretary proves he is more than qualified to be this administration’s lead economic manager.

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