Thank you, Ma'am Ledi

A great person recently passed away due to relapsed leukemia last June 12. Dr. Ledivina Cariño is very close to the Ehem Anticorruption Group and most especially to me. I recalled Dr. Ledi to be very enthusiastic to write the Foreword for my book, Fixing Society (2007).

Dr. Ledi was a pioneer in public administration theory and practice in the Philippines; she is a pillar of the UP's National College of Public Administration (NCPAG), former Dean and one of the emeritus faculty in UP.

Dr. Ledi Cariño is one of the icons of anticorruption research and advocacy in the Philippines!

I met Ma'am Ledi up close beginning in 2003 when I was doing my anti-fixing research. We had series of consultations in UP, and she taught me a lot about doing anticorruption research and anti-fixing research, qualitative methods, on pure virtues and social capital, on how to deal with government officials and employees, and public administration and corruption among others. Dr. Ledi was the first reviewer of my book, and she was very instrumental in tightening up my theoretical and conceptual frameworks (the other very helpful eminent person from UP who reviewed my book was Prof. Randy David, who also wrote a blurb for my book).

For the information of everybody, Dr. Ledi was the first who ventured into anti-fixing research in the Philippines, when she made some country comparison of bureaucratic fixing during the Marcos years, and her research was published in her book -- Bureaucratic Corruption in Asia: Causes, Consequences and Controls (1986). So when she learned of my study, she was very happy because I expanded her research into a bigger scale, scope and coverage and developed and employed the unexplored methods of 'undercover ethnography' and 'friendship as method.' Ma'am Ledi was particularly happy about the Fixers' Dictionary in my book.

Dr. Ledi wrote the Foreword in 2007 and later on, I found she endorsed and nominated my book for Outstanding Book Award in 2008 in the prestigious National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST). I got the award, and I and Fr. Albert Alejo met her during the NAST awarding ceremonies on July 10, 2008 at the Manila Hotel.

In the name of the Ehem Anticorruption Group and in behalf of all the Ehem networks in the country, we wish to send our condolences to the Cariño family.

As a tribute to Dr. Ledi, may I invite everyone to once again read her Foreword in my book (Fixing Society). And let's all offer a prayer for her. For those who know Ma'am Ledi, you may want to make a special mass offering.

And to Ma'am Ledi, thank you, thank you very much! You will always be part of the Ehem anticorruption program, and you will always be immortalized in my book! When I got the news about you from Dr. May Ursos of Ateneo (you belong to the same UCCP), I was really really sad. I read again your Foreword, and this time -- it was different reading it; I was having goose bumps!

Ma'am Ledi, mabuhay po kayo! Rest in peace!
I will never forget you!