He took his oath of office last April 3, 2023 before Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo. He never thought he’d be back in a government agency that for 15 years had been his workplace, mastering almost every facet of the Philippine postal service.
Now, at age 59, it can be said that life has gone full circle for PHLPost Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Luis D. Carlos. It is a life punctuated by a career path where learning, relearning, and rebooting is a constant—from the bottom, all the way to the top.
STOCK TRADING
Born in Pampanga on July 23, 1964, Carlos spent his elementary years at the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Immaculate Conception Parish School from 1970 to 1976.
He next traveled to Manila for his secondary and tertiary years, finishing high school and college at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST).
In 1987, a year after graduating with a degree in Business Administration, major in Marketing and Management, Carlos landed his first job. He started at the bottom of the ladder, as telephone clerk and trader at Wolff & Company, Inc. in the Binondo district, learning the ropes of trading for eight years.
In the next two years, from 1995 to 1997, Carlos worked as a remisier at the Philippine Stock Exchange, assisting brokers in locating clients.
By 1997, he had become the manager of prestigious Abacus Securities Corporation, one of the country’s leading stockbrokerage houses.
WORD OF HONOR
“Working in the stock market taught me how to value ‘word of honor.’ Whatever you do, whatever you sell, whomever you deal with for any transaction, that person will rely on your word, especially in the stock exchange, he said.
As a young stockbroker, Carlos learned that honoring your word is equivalent to gaining trust. “If you break your word for whatever reason, you will lose the trust of everybody.
These lessons became life-long principles for Carlos. “I used those principles in whatever I do, even as an entrepreneur. You always need to be fair. Money is just money, and you can’t bring that to your grave, but your word of honor will be your legacy. We will all be judged by what we did in this world.”
PUBLIC SECTOR
It would take another four years in the stock market before he ventured into the public sector—first, as board member and later, consultant of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).
Come 2004, Carlos was appointed by fellow Kapampangan and just-elected President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as Assistant Postmaster General for Marketing of PHLPost.
The appointment was the beginning of a 15-year sojourn that allowed him to learn and relearn every important aspect of running the agency.
From becoming Assistant Postmaster General for Marketing (2004-2007), Carlos proceeded to occupy the following posts— Assistant Postmaster General for Administration (2007-2011); Assistant Postmaster General for Operations and Marketing (2011-2012); and finally, Assistant Postmaster General for Marketing and Management (2012-2019).
He left PHLPost in 2019 but as soon as President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. was elected President in 2022, Carlos was called back, this time, with an even bigger responsibility—as PHLPost’s main man.
MODERNIZATION
At the PHLPost, he saw his task as primarily “to bring the agency to new heights in terms of modernization and to cope with the demands of a robust-with opportunities-yet-challenging postal system.”
Modernization is a major component of the PHLPost development roadmap that seeks to create more international opportunities for the postal service.
“We are currently in talks with Trade and Industry Secretary Fred Pascual, and we agreed that more products from the Philippines need to be sold outside of the country. The e-commerce business is expected to grow by 2025. It is already here. We just have to bring outside of our borders the products from the Philippines,” Carlos said.
PHLPost’s top man regards his agency as a sleeping giant, with a lot of opportunities awaiting it.
He mentioned that when he finally got to meet the Pres. Marcos after taking his oath of office, the President reminded him that there will be a lot of outside noise—something like a pack of dogs all barking at the same time that he won’t be able to hear himself. He was advised not to be distracted; to not mind the noise and to just focus on realizing his goal.
Carlos reiterated that part of the PHLPost modernization is the improvement and recruitment of necessary human capital.
“After our reorganization was approved by the Civil Service Commission, it was now time to hire new blood but of course, doing this will entail the need for a budget. The hiring of people is to establish a new bloodline, generate fresh ideas that will hopefully make PHLPost remain relevant and always reliable,” he said.
BEST PRACTICES
Carlos said he is looking at ways to improve the system, making it truly at a level compatible with the needs and realities of the 21st century.
For that to happen, he said, there is a need to observe the best practices of postal systems around the world.
Carlos recalled a meeting he had with the officials of the United States Postal Service (USPS), where he was asked to visit the U.S. to discover how the USPS could help PHLPost.
“I am reserving that plan perhaps for a future date. But surely, going there will give us a lot of new knowledge and information on how to further improve PHLPost’s service,” he said.
CHALLENGES
Technology pundits claim that one of the biggest challenges facing PHLPost and the country’s postal system is remaining relevant in the face of all the advancements in technology, such as digitization and the like.
Helping Filipinos to deliver the kind of quality service they deserve in terms of postal service delivery is another challenge to consider.
Carlos said that he recognizes the many people already consider postal service as obsolete and irrelevant.
He argued, however, that whatever technology took away from the post, will have to be given back through technology.
“The Philippines is just a latecomer,” Carlos confessed, adding, however, the being late has its own set of advantages.
“We don’t have to buy big and expensive servers because there’s the cloud already. Internet is becoming more affordable. Smart phones are becoming even smarter. All the costs that the others incurred, we won’t have to pay for them anymore, and all the things or mistakes the other players committed, we can avoid them already by making certain adjustments,” he explained.
NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE
The way Carlos sees it, “nothing is impossible for PHLPost at the rate it’s going.” He waxed ecstatic about the arrival of the parcel sorting machine, a piece of equipment that he said should be constantly fed with parcels to sort.
“That is why our talks with the DTI is of extreme importance because of e-commerce, where they will tell business owners to send their parcels through PHLPost because it will be more affordable, and there are many benefits because we are a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU),” he elaborated.
Even in the US Postal Service (USPS), he said, parcel senders need not go to the Post Office to surrender their parcels. Customers can just use their computers to process parcel shipment and pay corresponding fees. They can even print their own label.
USPS personnel will then simply go to customers’ homes and right there inspect the parcel to be sent, which can’t be avoided.
“But all the rest of the requirements—papers, payments, and the labels they prepared in advance, can be done online. Everything will be efficient,” Carlos said.
SLEEPING GIANT
The PHLPost chief stressed the same thing can be done with PHLPost. “We just need a little funding from the national government. We hope this system can be looked at and checked so that we can embrace technology and modernize our operations. We simply need to put everything in place, and I’m sure that the President, once he sees the changes that we are proposing, will do something to get us the funds we need,” he said.
Carlos considers PHLPost as a “sleeping giant.” He is determined to ignore all unnecessary distractions and just follow what Pres. Marcos said: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”
He also takes in full measure the advice given to him by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who said it would do him good to ignore all the things that previous PHLPost administrators did and to just do his own thing.
Carlos is of the belief that someday, everything will become rosy for PHLPost and that this could be realized through good governance practices that people will follow.
GOOD GOVERNANCE
He noted that in the words of Pres. Marcos, everything boils down to good governance. All other negative issues being thrown against PHLPost will be addressed by way of good governance.
Carlos usually does his morning rounds at the Manila Central Mail Exchange in Pasay City, where he temporarily holds office since the fire that gutted the Central Post Office in May 2023.
It has been said that PHLPost personnel, at first, were surprised to discover that their chief was already hard at work, very early in the morning.
“I don’t want to sulk on issues and deal with backlashes and controversies supposedly surrounding the Central Post Office fire. I’m way past that,” he said.
Carlos added: “What I’m looking at now is that probably, that fire was more of a reboot for the PHLPost. I sincerely believe that everything happens for a reason, just like what happened to me last year. Who would have thought that I will go back to PHLPost after I left in 2019? I was already living a quiet life in my small farm, then suddenly I was appointed. But I accepted the appointment and thought of it as a challenge to help turn things around for PHLPost. It was good that I also had a background working for the private sector, and what I learned there I’m applying now as Postmaster General and CEO of PHLPost.”
