Sonny Coloma

Publisher

SONNY COLOMA served as Communications Secretary under President Benigno S. Aquino III; Head of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) under President Corazon C. Aquino; and Transportation and Communications Undersecretary under President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. He was the Don Jose Cojuangco Professor of Business Management at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) where he also served as Dean of Executive Education. He was President of the University of Makati. In the private sector, he was a senior executive of a commercial bank. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Southeast Asian Inter-Disciplinary Development Institute’s School of Organization Development, an MBA (With Distinction) from AIM and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Philippines. He is the author of DIWA: Spirit-Led Organization in the Philippines and Pillars of Good Governance; and co-author of The Moving Train: Strategy, Organization and People; and KAPWA: Toward a Filipino Management Ethos.

Filipinos’ field of dreams in AI age: A reality check

January 15, 2025 4:03 pm

Our Sunday Bulletin Business section last Jan. 12 included two highly informative feature stories. The first, headlined “Filipino workers demand more than just a job,” and the second on “How students are turning creativity into careers” signaled to me that, indeed, as Bob Dylan sang in his vintage hit tune, “the times they are a-changing.” 

Networks and tipping points: Lessons for the Philippines

January 09, 2025 1:05 am

Two seminal works — Yuval Noah Harari’s “Nexus” and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Revenge of the Tipping Point” — offer profound insights into the complexities of our modern world. Harari explores humanity’s “network problem,” highlighting our failure to wisely wield the immense power we have amassed through vast systems of cooperation. Meanwhile, Gladwell delves into the “law of the very, very few,” underscoring how a handful of individuals can trigger massive, far-reaching consequences, whether in the spread of ideas, behaviors, or diseases.

Salute to dedicated gov’t employees: ‘Salamat sa tapat na paglilingkod!’

January 01, 2025 4:02 pm

Brought up by parents who were lifelong government employees, and having worked in the government, too, I have realized the important contributions of workers in government in the life of the nation. I write this while noting the high tide of negative sentiments generated by the revisions proposed by Congress that were thumbed down by the executive branch, resulting in the enactment of a slightly reduced national budget — formally known as the General Appropriations Act — that was signed into law by President Marcos last Dec. 30, coinciding with the observance of Rizal Day.
Compared to India, there is relatively low public awareness, much less interest in the national budget. In the early 2000s, while teaching in Asian Institute of Management (AIM) executive programs in India, I was impressed by the high level of public interest in a specific item that concerned millions of Indian nationals on their finance minister’s budget proposal, namely, the schedule of fares to be charged by the national railway. 

High drama at Quad Comm: What’s next in 2025?

December 25, 2024 4:02 pm

 From August to mid-December, the Quad Comm hearings at the House of Representatives have garnered high public attention. Manila Bulletin’s live-stream coverage videos on YouTube are witnessed by a huge audience, breaching the million mark several times. By the time the committee rendered a report on its accomplishments last Dec. 13, Quad Comm had become a household byword.

Mary Jane Veloso: Saga of survival

December 18, 2024 4:15 pm

Mary Jane Veloso’s homecoming yesterday, Dec. 18, culminates a nearly 15-year saga that began in 2010 when, as a 25-year-old young mother, she was brought by local recruiters first to Malaysia, then to Indonesia, where she landed in prison and was convicted to die by musketry, after serving unwittingly as a courier of prohibited drugs.