MANILA, Philippines—Take it from “Rudy the Rock.”

Governments must be transparent, their leaders honest and principled rather than obsessed with popularity, if they are to earn the people’s trust.

As one avid listener put it, former New York Mayor Rudolph “Rudy” Giuliani made familiar leadership tenets sound so fresh and timely to his Filipino audience of government and corporate VIPs at an exclusive, pricey gathering at the Makati Shangri-La hotel Tuesday.

Giuliani, who had earned world praise for his crisis management in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, spoke before a sellout crowd that included former President Joseph Estrada, former Senate President Franklin Drilon, and local government officials led by host Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay.

Admission to the forum—dubbed “Leadership in Times of Crisis”—cost P300,000 per table nearest the stage and P22,000 per seat in the farthest sections of the ballroom. The event drew a powerhouse crowd of around 500.

“People are in great need of honesty and integrity in government,” Giuliani said when asked later in a press conference for his prescriptions for the Philippine political situation.

Best advice

“And the more they can see how [government] operates, the more they feel that they are operating in the open, the more confidence a government can be able to develop.”

“Probably the best advice you can give any government today is to be more transparent,” Giuliani said.

“That applies as much to my government as it does to yours,” said New York’s 107th mayor, who last year launched a campaign to be the Republican Party nominee in the coming US presidential elections before withdrawing from the race in January.

At the forum, pacing around the stage and gesturing to drive home a point, the famous New Yorker spoke of what he called the “Six Pillars” of effective leadership.

Transparency is one such pillar, Giuliani said, a must for any government—or for individual leaders—to overcome “the cynicism that is developing” among the people.

Such leaders should also “develop strong beliefs” and stick to them in order to achieve long-term goals and visions. Those who focus on popularity rather than principles tend to be bogged down by small details and lose sight of the ultimate objective, he explained.

Effective leaders are often optimists and those who can visualize success find it easier to achieve it, Giuliani said. Optimism, he noted, attracts more followers than pessimism.

Leaders must also be courageous and relentless in preparing for crises. They must know how to foster teamwork and, most importantly, how to communicate their vision to their followers.

Emerging from the forum, Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco said the gist of Giuliani’s speech was “something we already knew, and yet when we listened to him it was like a new idea altogether.”

Extemporaneous speech

“It was an extemporaneous speech and the crowd listened in rapt attention for close to 45 minutes,” said Tiangco, who considered himself a big fan of the speaker.

Serving two terms as New York mayor from 1993 to 2001, Giuliani is credited with transforming the Big Apple into one of the safest large cities in the United States, reducing overall crime by 56 percent and murder cases by 66 percent under his watch.

He also reduced welfare dependence among his constituents by nearly 60 percent.

In 2001, Giuliani was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” and in 2002, he received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. Former French President Jacques Chirac once called him “Rudy the Rock.” With a report from Nancy Carvajal