The President’s Men and Women: The other Abad in the Cabinet can’t say no to P-Noy

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential Management Staff director general Julia Abad is the youngest Cabinet member at 31. Despite the gargantuan challenge her job poses, Abad said she did not want to pass up the opportunity to work with a good man, President Aquino.

“How could you say no to someone like him?” Abad asked.

Abad brushed aside criticisms of her appointment to the PMS while her father, former Batanes representative and education secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad was named Department of Budget and Management chief.

“People will say what they want, what can we do? It’s him (father) who gets more affected but I will let our credentials speak for us,” Abad said in an interview.

Her father indeed requested that his child be introduced for her own achievements and not only because “she is Butch Abad’s daughter” and could be the reason why she got to be in her current position.

Abad said she had been working overtime, “close to 15 hours a day,” because of the volume of documents and other appointments she had to attend to. She is in-charge of policy research and analysis, presidential engagements, monitoring and evaluation of projects and the Cabinet secretariat.

“I am more on the technical side, which is good for me. I was a teacher and as a professional, my job is academically challenging,” Abad explained.

She said her job could also be political in the sense that she would do vetting of proposals, evaluate projects and be part of the “internal think tank” of the President.

Abad admitted getting overwhelmed sometimes being in the company of the other Cabinet members who are veterans in government service.

“Some of them offer help and I really appreciate it. It’s a privilege and honor to be able to exchange ideas with experts and those known for what they’ve done,” Abad said.

Mr. Aquino had said his Cabinet would be a mixture of the young and old. He said the young ones, though less experienced than the others, would provide the idealism and fresh ideas in his government.

Abad promised to keep a low profile and stay professional while encouraging the others in government to continue learning as well because “there’s always room for improvement” for everyone.

Abad was teaching political science at the Ateneo de Manila University when Aquino recruited her to be his chief of staff. Aquino won as senator in 2007.

She recalled bumping into Aquino at a mall and he told her he was glad to see her and made the offer. Abad said she made a decision to join Aquino’s office after a few days of thinking about it.

“I thought it was exciting. He even told me that ‘I asked you first’ before he told my father and my mother,” she said.

Mr. Aquino said Abad “possesses 80 percent of my brain” and had been reliable in handling his Senate affairs.

Abad had known Aquino for a while now being a family friend. Her parents worked with Aquino at the House of Representatives. Her mother, Henedina is the current Batanes congresswoman.

After years of working with Mr. Aquino, Abad described her boss as someone “considerate and good to his staff.”

She shared that Aquino even teased her not to get married yet when she was just starting to work for him at the Senate. But she did in 2008, with Englishman Andrew Parker, a World Bank economist and Aquino was one of those who flew to Batanes to witness the wedding.

Abad met her husband while working as executive assistant for then Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman in 2003.

She said her husband asked for her number from the others in the office but was told she would be leaving for the United States for a scholarship. When she came back in 2005, a friend organized a dinner just so she and Parker would see each other again.

“One week after I took the Senate job, I got engaged. He (Aquino) ordered everyone not to bother me for almost four weeks during my honeymoon,” Abad said.

Born on Jan. 30, 1979, Abad graduated at the Ateneo de Manila University with a Communications degree in 2000. She took her master’s degree in Public Policy (Political and Economic Development) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University as a Fulbright scholar.

She was involved with the Ayala Foundation as a writer from 2000 to 2001 and was executive assistant to the secretary at the DSWD from 2001 to 2003.

She taught political science at the Ateneo from 2005 to 2007 and was program officer of the Asia Pacific Philanthropy Consortium where she managed research programs on corporate and family philanthropy for the Asia-Pacific region from 2006 to 2007.

Abad said her focus would be to provide the necessary inputs to the President, to help him make the right decisions.

“How many times would you have a good president? I’d like to be part of those giving him the best support,” Abad said. – Jack Castano –Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star)