vignette

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Twenty-four years ago today I climbed the stairs to the third floor of Paradela building near Tandag town plaza to join the Department of Trade and Industry. Feeling small, I hesitated when I reached the door.

“Aduy, Mel! Dali,” Minda Duque, a DTI employee and a townmate, smiled and stood to meet me. She was alone in a huge room hosting more than half a dozen empty tables.

It was two years after EDSA Revolution and the government was reorganizing. And so DTI-Surigao del Sur then was young and skeletal, with only seven warm bodies. But because the five who were from Davao often went on official travel, it was mostly Minda who manned DTI. It wasn’t until a week and a half later that I met again Marizon S. Loreto, the DTI provincial director who interviewed me when I submitted my application letter a few months back.

It was then Undersecretary Cereferino Follosco (who later became the DOST Secretary) that gave DTI the reputation of having a nerve-wracking recruitment process. Consisting of a battery of tests and panel interviews, the process was such that even the most confident job seeker would wish for additional brain wattage. I learned about this from Minda when one day she happened to be on the same tricycle I was riding. She urged me to apply because “though many had tried, nobody had passed.”

As directed by Minda, I went to DTI on a Thursday because the chance was bigger that PD Loreto would be there. Charming and petite, PD Loreto is the type of interviewer that puts one at ease as she has a nice voice and an equally nice smile. Upon knowing I graduated from USC, she lit up; she herself spent two years at USC for her pre-med studies that she eventually finished in Davao.

I must’ve made an impression because what was supposed to be a casual interview just went on and on. And on.

I took the qualifying test the following week along with six others, half of whom were call-backs following a failed try. To this day I could still remember the toughest question in that overly long exam; it was the one that made us do a comparative analysis in terms of socio-economic impact should the 100-hectare marshland in Tago (yes, Tago!) that was presently the poor’s source of income (nipa shingles, wine, firewood, etc.) be converted into a site for aquaculture. We were made to support our answer with figures using assumptions. For a fresh graduate sans work experience except teaching taxation part-time at an external studies center, it was a trigger for aneurism.

But I passed it. Alone.

The two panel interviews that followed were not that gruelling as other failed applicants before me had painted. But then again, I’m not one to fear interviews. A few jitters, yes, but cowed? No way!

After the result was out that I passed the psychometric exam, DTI Regional Director Syvelyn “Bing” Tan did the final interview in Davao. And oh boy, how I loved that encounter with the feisty lady with goldfish eyes, near-Kabuki make-up, and the raspy voice of Elvira Manahan. Celibate and articulate, Ma’am Bing was an adept interviewer: probing but not intimidating; exacting but not condescending; accepting but not patronizing.

When the interview was over, she said she wanted me to be assigned in the regional office in Davao. What if I refuse, I said, but the words never left my pursed lips. PD Loreto later told me that she fought for me to be assigned in Tandag.

Twenty-four years is a long way. And the fact that I’m still with DTI writing this post speaks volumes on whether I like it here.

Happy anniversary to me!