The Way of the Strategist

Life’s Trials, Experiences & Realizations contain Jewels of Wisdom & Virtues that we need to unlock in order for us to successfully grow & be efficient and effective in the fulfillment of our missions in this life. A Strategist understands that after the battle there will be loses and gains. He also knows that a person can lose a lot but he shall never lose his virtues for these are parts that make him a human of morals and goodness – GCaps

The Way of Life of a Strategist

Calibrated Judgments for Complicated Challenges, Using Wisdom and Virtues in Choosing a Mission and Understanding the Essence of Losing and Gaining Along the Way.
By: Giancarlo Capco “GCaps”

In life there are many ways to live and survive but for me the best way that can open the gate towards understanding life is the way of the Strategist. All of us are given free will together with the gift of life and with this freedom we have the liberty to live according to ways that we desire. Whatever life a person wants, appreciating different turn of events in our lives is the hardest part. To understand life’s ways and live with it harmoniously a person should live by choosing his life’s path through wisdom guided by virtues, he should also learn to accept whatever the result of his actions, then have the courage to move forward to the next path, then live a life with calibrated judgments for complicated challenges and then he should learn to understand the essence of losing and gaining along the way, this is The Way of Life of a Strategist. A Strategist perceives life in this way and it all summed up to this conclusion because of his time developed skills strengthen by principles and guided by virtues. His ways might not be the best amongst all ways but his ways are good in inspiring and motivating people to move forward together with time.

All of us can be a Strategist if we decide to become one. Being a Strategist is not a position or a designation that people can give you or call you because to be a Strategist requires time developed skills and knowledge and a personal decision to accept responsibilities and obligations attached to such calling. As can be seen in the timeline of our existence, there are warriors who follow orders of their ruler, knights who live according to the words of their king, soldiers who fight through the command of their general, but with all of these, there exist the one who creates strategies that followers and leaders use in order for their group to win their battles, he might be from the division of the followers or from the section of the leaders but the certain fact is that such person through his time developed skills and knowledge decided to stand as a Strategist to empower, inspire and motivate the group and his leader to execute a strategy that aims to win their battle. In summary, a Strategist can be anyone, a warrior, a knight, a fighter, a follower or a leader but he must possess the time developed skills and knowledge and the required personal decision to become a Strategist.

A Strategist believes that whatever goal a person decides to achieve or a mission a person decides to conquer or a challenge a person decides to face, such person needs to bring all his strength and strategies towards the aim of achieving it.

A Strategist knows that a person will lose many things along the way when such person is in a conflict or battle but such person have a big chance of attaining his goals, be successful in his missions and be victorious in facing life’s challenges if he will face his fears and don’t let worries stop him in formulating well prepared action plans and strategies for his goals, missions and challenges.

A Strategist understands that after the battle there will be loses and gains. He also knows that a person can lose a lot but he shall never lose his virtues for these are parts that make him a human of morals and goodness.  A Strategist also knows that whatever the result of the battle, a person can collect what he lose along the way and brings back whatever he can get back, however, he also knows that those which are uncollectable and those that he cannot find and get back are meant to be lost and he knows that there are understandable reasons why these things are gone and he respects life for taking them away from him but he also hopes that someday he can find them again if life will allows him. Then he also knows that those that he can collect and get back, he can enhances them and develops his connections with them in preparation for his next  mission, goal and battle.

A Strategist believes that those who value him with great compassion and with truthfulness will always be there for him even during battles or even off battle. A Strategist deeply understands that those who decided to leave him and never get back to him are also important and for this he is even thankful that they passed by in his lifetime, and he is also very much grateful because even for a short while they contributed in their own special ways something in his life and development and they already become part of his life.

A Strategist always remembers that even the greatest persons who are experts in strategizing ways in facing life’s battles has their own limitations, therefore a Strategist gives strong emphasis in the need to understand that a person cannot hold so much matters in this world because everything has a limit and capacity, so he knows that it is very vital to be wise in deciding what to hold on and it is also important to choose those that can make him better and those that can help him in bringing goodness and inspirations in the territories that he will walkthrough.

A Strategist gives high importance In human connections, he values all of them, trust those who want to hold on to him and respect those who want to go away from him because just like in a life of a soldier in going to a battle he choose to communicate with those people who are essential in his mission, he ask for support to those that can help him in winning the battle and he fight together with those that can make him survive the fight and keeps him standing till the end. But A Strategist do all of these in order for him to stay alive, so that after the battle he can give unconditionally his achievements to the people he loves, be thankful and brings back the favors and supports he get from those people who helped him in his missions, and he never forgets to share whatever he can share because he believes that sharing can help in motivating people also to share what they have and when all of us share with each other these acts can help in the development and welfare of our society.

A Strategist knows that all of us want to reach our dreams and achieve our goals. He knows that in accomplishing these dreams and goals, we all need to decide for the best way that we think and believe which can help us to attain these things, so a person needs to act according to his own decision and not from the words of others because whatever decision a person do, the effects of his decision will make him suffer or make him benefit from it.
A Strategist lives with the principle that focus can leads to quality works and with this he always remembers that focus is important in winning a challenge, so he gives highlighting that a person needs to free his mind from distractions caused by worries, fears, sadness, jealousy, envy, expectations, negative thinking, anger and defeat, then a person needs to condition his mind to positivity so that he can strengthen his knowledge, health, fitness, virtues and strategies in order for him to equipped focus with all his positive weapons that can lead him to outstanding victories.

A Strategist also gives importance to the fact that a person needs to be wise in choosing the battle that he wants to fight because in all actions that he do, he will always experience loses and gains, and with wise decisions he will lose those which are not that helpful and important in his development but then he also knows that he can gain those which are significant and essential for his betterment and welfare. Wise action can gives him positive loses and gains and he knows that these are benefits of thinking intelligently and deciding wisely.
In the end, whatever happens, whatever the results will be, a Strategist knows that a person should not be locked up in his disappointments, frustrations and sadness. He knows that it is ok to feel these things when a person is defeated in a battle but he should never lose hope because time in life will not stop so he should stand and hold on to hope, move with every movement of time, learn from mistakes around him, then plan, prepare and make himself more strong and wise. A Strategist have faith that as long as there is time, he should never stop moving forward and he should always be ready for his next strategy for his fight in his next battle, for his expedition towards his next goal and for his winning strike for his next challenge.

A Strategist is a simple humble person and enjoys the company of ordinary people because with them he gains his strength to strive more to equalize and maintain the equality between the ordinaries and the elites. He stays simple when circumstances can be dealt with simple approaches, but he will be in his maxim efficiency as Strategist and he amplifies his ways when things are in its difficult state and requires strategies in solving complications.

A Strategist gives all his trust to his Creator and knows that sometimes, just sometimes, there are things that he cannot understand and during those times he needs to move on and let fate decides and at those moments he trusts his Creator that someday a great explanation will be given to him that can enlighten his heart and mind. A Strategist also believes that his efforts measure the amount of success that he can attain and his faith stands with the enlightenment that if he deserves something and he do his best to achieve it, life will give him those things that he deserves on the right time and place.

Life is easy to understand when we realize that ways towards success requires methodical preparations that can result to effective strategies and efficient actions, and life is easy to deal with when we accept that all our actions will result to loses and gains but with proper use of wisdom guided by virtues we can attain positive loses and gains. In conclusion, a life with calibrated judgments for complicated challenges, using wisdom and virtues in choosing a mission and understanding the essence of losing and gaining along the way with trust that the Creator of everything will explain all the loop holes in life in the right time and place, is The Way of Life of a Strategist.

Written: August  04, 2012
The Fort Global City, Philippines
Authored and Written by: Giancarlo Capco “Calriger GCaps”
Article Title: The Way of Life of a Strategist / The Way of the Strategist

 

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Preserving the History -PHILIPPINES MALACAÑAN PALACE

MALACAÑAN PALACE

The official residence of the President of the Philippines is Malacañan Palace.  Situated in the old Manila district of San Miguel, over the 175 odd years that government has owned the place, the buildings have been remodeled, expanded, demolished and rebuilt, and adjoining lands bought.  Most recently, in 1978 to 1979 the Palace itself was drastically remodeled and extensively rebuilt by then First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

Spanish Colonial Era

The first recorded owner of the property is Luis Rocha, a Spaniard in the Galleon trade.  The Rocha property was built of stone, described as being a relatively modest country house (although modern day Rochas say it was not small and in fact had a ballroom) with a bath house on the river and gardens, all enclosed by a stone fence.  The latter was probably a nipa-roofed and bamboo-enclosed structure built on the water, where away from the gaze of passing boats, the Rochas and their guests could enjoy the rushing water while clinging to a rope – a favorite pastime of the era.  It was one among many weekend homes of the elite, located in San Miguel, Paco, and Sta. Ana along the Pasig river and its tributaries, easily accessible from Intramuros and Binondo by boat or carriage or on horseback.  The still standing “Carriedo House” within the Sta. Mesa campus of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, may have been one of these weekend homes.

Luis Rocha sold the property in 1802 to Colonel Jose Miguel Fomento of the Spanish Army.  Fomento’s testamentary executors in turn sold it to the government upon his death in 1825.

The Spanish Governors General had lived grandly in Intramuros since the 17th century in the Palacio del Gobernador on the Plaza Mayor (now Plaza Roma). The “Posesion de Malacañang” as it was called, was a country home and temporary residence of outgoing Governors General awaiting the next ship to Spain.

The  great earthquake of June 3, 1863 felled the Palacio in Intramuros. The Governor General had to move to Malacañan Palace.  Finding the place too small, a wooden two-storey building was added at the back of the original structure, as well as smaller buildings for aides, guards and porters, as well as stables, carriage sheds and a boat landing for river borne visitors.

The newly closed Colegio de Sta. Potenciana was remodelled into the Palacio Provisional de Sta. Potenciana, located at the site where now stands the Philippine National Red Cross and possibly the National Commission for Culture and the Arts Buildings on General Luna Street.  With Sta. Potenciana ready, the Governor General moved back to Intramuros in 1865.  Meanwhile, repairs continued at Malacañan Palace.  Work must have been just completed when another earthquake struck, badly damaging both Sta. Potenciana and Malacañan Palace. The Governor General moved to an office building on Calle Cabildo in Intramuros.

Malacañan Palace was once again repaired and improved.  Its posts were strengthened, roof tiles replaced with corrugated iron sheets, balconies repaired and both exterior and interior beautified.  As luck would have it, no sooner were these completed when fresh calamities struck: a typhoon in October 1872, an earthquake in December 1872, a fire in February 1873, another fire in 1873 after repairs were completed, and a bad storm in May 1873.  After that, rebuilding resumed in earnest, with new wings, azoteas, rooms, and galleries, over the next four years (1875-79).

By the time the Americans took over in 1898, Malacañan Palace was a rambling Spanish colonial period complex of buildings, built of wood, with sliding capiz windows, patios and azoteas.

Under American Rule

The American Governors General abandoned the plan to reconstruct the old Palacio at Intramuros.  Instead, they continued to improve and enlarge Malacañan Palace, buying up more land, reclaiming more of the Pasig River, raising the ground level (to keep above flood waters), changing wood to concrete, and beautifying the interiors with hardwood panelling and magnificent chandeliers.

In 1920, the Executive Building was constructed by Governor General Francis Burton Harrison.  Till then, the Governor General had to commute daily to his office at the Ayuntamiento Building.  Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood was the last chief executive to hold office in Intramuros and the first in Malacañan Palace. Gov. Gen. Dwight Davis (1929-32) notably extensively rebuilt the Palace itself.

Malacañan Palace during the Commonwealth

Beginning 1935, when Manuel L. Quezon moved to Malacañan Palace as the President of the Commonwealth, Palace improvements were continued, including the construction of the Social Hall (now Heroes Hall on the ground floor, intended for dining and dancing and non-official social affairs), State Dinning Room and the famous Pasig River facade. It was then First Lady Doña Aurora who saw to the construction of a Palace chapel, which is at the left of the main entrance, on time for the 33rd International Eucharistic Congress in 1937.

Malacañan Palace survived the Second World War, the only survivor among the major government buildings of Manila.  The southwest side of the Palace, which would have been the State Dining Room and its service area, was damaged by shelling, but the rest was unscathed.

Malacañan continued to be the jewel of the still fashionable district of San Miguel, spared by the war, unlike Ermita, Malate and Paco across the river which were devastated.

Palace Renovations

In 1972, the Executive Building was cleared of employees.  Many transferred to the recently enlarged Administration Building (now called Mabini Hall).  J.P. Laurel Street (formerly Aviles Street) was closed to traffic and the Pasig River dredged.  The entire second floor of the Executive Building was converted into the large Maharlika Hall, used for social functions and official gatherings.

The former servants’ quarters at the West end of the Palace grounds, abutting the old San Miguel Brewery which has since transferred elsewhere, was remodeled in 1975 into the Premier Guest House, in time for the IMF-World Bank Boards of Governors meeting.  The nearby Arlegui Guest House was built at the same time.

In 1978-79, the Palace was expanded, its facades on all four sides moved forward.  The Presidential quarters were enlarged on the J.P. Laurel front, eliminating the small garden and driveway leading to the private entrance.  A new dining room and expanded guest suites were built on the main entrance front.  On the riverside, a large Ceremonial Hall was built in place of the azoteas, veranda and pavilion.  A larger Presidential bedroom was constructed on the remaining side, with a disco above, at roof level.  The layout of the old rooms was retained, although the rooms themselves were enlarged and new bedroom suites inserted in what had been part of the garden.

The old Palace was gutted almost entirely, not only to meet the needs of the Presidential family but also because the buildings had been weakened by patch up renovation and repair jobs for a century.

The building is now made of poured concrete, concrete slabs, steel girders and trusses, all concealed by elegant hardwood floors, panels and ceilings.  It is fully bullet proofed and air-conditioned and has an independent power supply. Reconstruction was overseen by Architect Jorge Ramos and closely supervised by Mrs. Marcos.  It was inaugurated on May 1, 1979, the Marcos silver wedding anniversary.

During a fire in 1982 many irreplaceable mementos in a small museum located at the ground floor were lost.  Air purification equipment was installed in 1983.  In both instances, the First Family lived in the Premiere Guest House.