Analysis on the Actual Speech Delivered by Mr. Marcelino “Jun” Escalante in Behalf of City Administrator Wendel Avisado
BACKGROUND
“Personal Leadership grows out of trustworthiness. To lead other effectively, individuals must first be able to lead themselves effectively. In other words, before you can empower other people, you must first know who you are, your strengths, weaknesses. Once you can build on yourself, you can empower others. With these characters, the pursuit of excellence in relation to work will be easy and productivity will increase as well as its quality.”
-From the Rationale on the seminar “Empowerment: A Challenge to Excellence”
Organized by the Society of the State Personnel of the Philippines, the seminar aims to provide avenue for self-awareness and sharing of insights by the participants regarding empowering themselves and empowering the people.
The seminar is a three-day activity with lecture discussion and structured learning activities. Topics include Self Awareness, Public Service Values, Empowerment, Ten Steps in Empowering People, and Team Building – Interpersonal Behavior and Processes for an Effective Team.
Supposedly, the invited guest speaker for the seminar’s opening program is City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who declined due to conflict in schedule. City Administrator Wendel Avisado was selected to represent the Mayor and the city government, but regret to come due to conflict in schedule as well. Mr. Marcelino Escalante, head of the Human Resource Management Office, graced the occasion on behalf of the two government officials.
Speech Analysis
Analyzing Mr. Escalante’s speech would mean going into a thorough discussion of the different variables that are very influential to the entirety of the speech. These aspects include setting variables, speaker variables, audience variables, topic variables, and media variables. Moreover, this analysis will also examine the rhetorical elements prevalent in the speech, as well as the rhetorical proofs and rhetorical moves.
Looking at the setting variables, the physical setting of the actual speech greatly affects the approach the speaker employed, and at the same, influences the attitude of the audience toward the speaker and the subject. The speech was delivered inside an intimate conference room (with a capacity of at most 50 persons) in a well-known hotel, and this created a more intimate ambience and suggests a certain level of formality. The said space also aided in sustaining the attention span of the listeners, thus making the audience very attentive in the entire delivery of the speech. The closed space also influenced the speaker’s voice modulation; had it been delivered in an open space, the speaker would have used a different approach.
With regard to the speaker variables, Mr. Escalante’s effectiveness as a speaker is very reflective of his expertise in dealing with organization and people from different walks of life, as expected from a Human Resource Management Head. In addition to that, the physical appearance of the speaker (the attire, posture, bearing, etc.) implies that he is a person of authority and should be regarded with respect. Thus, this speaks of the speaker’s credibility as the guest speaker of a Mindanao-wide formal gathering of LGU officials.
Considering the audience, we can extract some socio-demographic information that may have influenced in the way the speech was structured by the speaker. The audience (approximately 25 in number) includes both sexes belonging to 30-50 age bracket. All the participants in the seminar are LGU officials. Thus, public administration serves as the common ground of the organizers, speaker and audience.
One important consideration under topic variables is the question “why the topic?”. In the case of Mr. Escalante’s speech, the subject matter is relevant to the theme of the seminar, which revolves around empowering the people in public service. The topic is indeed significant since it intends to give insights in improving job performance in the context of public administration.
During the speech, the speaker was aided by certain media to effectively deliver his speech. He made use of technological gadgets (microphone, complete sound system)) to enhance the clarity and audibility of his speech—a major consideration in assessing an actual speech.
Moving on to the examination of the rhetorical elements present in Mr. Escalante’s speech, it can be noted that the speaker employed test of evidence to support his claims. As shown in the following citation, the speaker made mention of a book as a means of supporting the validity of his statements. Aside from that, it also shows the speaker’s application of logos in tailoring his speech:
I can recall and we are all aware of… The Book man siguro ang title about atong Re-engineering Government by Dave Healer and David Osbourne. In one of the series of insights there, which they find a guiding force to be for empowerment is there is the affirmation of the four-way test of the Rotary Club.
Looking into its form and structure, the speech did not strictly follow the conventions of Monroe’s motivated sequence as a guide in organizing the content of his speech. This is maybe due to the fact that it is an impromptu speech. With regard to language use, the diction is simple and easy to comprehend. Moreover, the speaker employed code-switching using the Visayan, Filipino and English language. This, again, may be due to the fact that the speaker did not come up with a manuscript for his speech. The following passages show how the speaker made use of code-switching:
He had given me earlier the prepared speech for this morning, hand it over and I told him “Sir, murag kuan man ni siya, murag seminar man ni siya sa empowerment and challenge to excellence, probably the context would be on empowerment, empowering the people to strive more and perform more bias to excellence ”, and sabi niya, “sige lang Jun ibigay mo lang dyan ang input mo” because I went over, and when I went over medyo economic empowerment ang kanyang, ang kanyang context.
Pag here’s the decision now, wala na, kasi the incident already passed. Ang uban pud nga mga pilosopo they would say, nga aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo? Sa kambing na lang.
Narrating, defining and the use of flashbacks are the rhetorical moves dominant in the speech. One approach that the speaker employed is narration, which is evident in the entire speech:
We had just finished our meeting with Attorney Avisado, he told me “Jun, the schedule is in conflict. I have to proceed to another equally-important activity” so I had to come over and say something about the seminar on Empowerment and challenge to empowerment.
And you know what? The policemen in that particular district, in that particular station, was very pro-active in responding to cases and complaints because if there are cases filed or complaints filed, normally, they ask, “ Boss, what is your instruction?”
The speaker relates significant stories and experiences in the past that are related to the subject matter, thus, aiding in the structuring of his message. The following excerpts show the speaker’s application of definition as one rhetorical move. Here, the speaker lengthily defines loyalty and empowerment the important keywords in his speech:
What we are here are people like us who are really concerned and doesn’t mind and don’t mind at all the pain. Yan ang sinasabi kong loyalty…you know, loyalty in public service is not counted by the number of years in public service but it is counted when there is an opportunity whether to stay or leave but you decided to stay, that is loyalty. You can be in public service for the last 30-35 years and no opportunity to self-own, you are stuck into it and therefore you are given the most loyal, loyalty award for having served the government for so long a time, to me that is not loyalty. Loyalty is when there is an opportunity for you to leave public service but you decided to stay, that is loyalty.
Making a decision at our own level without necessarily waiting for our bosses to make instructions consonant to the problem of the issue that makes us a more empowered employee or official in public service.
Moreover, the speaker used flashbacks all through out the speech. These flashbacks serve as the speaker’s tool in delivering the speech as shown below:
I can recall when we had a meeting with the chair of the Civil Service Commission, that…
I can recall and we are all aware of…
With regard to the Rhetorical Proofs it can be noted that all three are applied at different degrees. As stated earlier, the speaker applied logos when he cited a book as a reference to his statement. He also used the Rotary Club’s Four Way Test in conveying his opinions in what should an empowered public servant be.
Considering the speaker’s character (ethos), the speaker being a public official and the head of the Human Resource Management Office is enough to build his character and support his credibility. It is also noteworthy that before the speaker started with his speech, he first mentioned his office and his position thus generating a good reputation. This was necessary as he needs to introduce himself as a credible speaker considering that the audience was expecting a different guest speaker, and he was not even introduced during the program. Expecting that Atty. Avisado will be gracing the occasion, the organizers prepared an introductory speech for him. As shown below, the speaker introduced himself at the very beginning of the speech:
I’m Marcelino “Jun” Escalante, the Head of the Human Resource Management Office of the City Government of Davao, and we have just finished out meeting with Atty. Avisado…
Furthermore, prior to the given communicative task, there’s this perceived source credibility by the listeners. Though the audience had not seen the speaker yet, they have this notion that the speaker is of authority and that the speaker is credible having been invited to speak for the occasion (initial ethos).
Looking into the emotional aspect of the speech (pathos), the speaker presented his message in such a way that appeals to the emotion of the audience. Here, the speaker delved into the discussion of the economic aspect of being a public employee. Moreover, he moves the listeners through uplifting the nature of their job, and emphasizing the honor of being a public servant:
I can recall when we had a meeting with the chair of the Civil Service Commission, that the problem really with public governance especially in hiring people in government is the economic aspect of it. How can we economically empower also our employees…of public service and so she told me very clearly that, “Mr. Escalante, if you want to get rich, get out from public service.” I told her, “Ma’am, I don’t want to be rich, but I simply want to have a decent kind of life.”
Evaluation
Overall, the speech was effective considering that it was an impromptu speech. The delivery was very spontaneous, which was helpful in sustaining the audience attention.
By and large, Mr. Escalante’s speech was effective and qualifies as a good speech. Using the principles of the art of good speech, Mr. Escalante’s speech is socially responsible; reveals the speaker’s credibility; serves a specific purpose; deals with worthwhile subject matter that is fitted to the occasion; claims the attention and interest of the audience; uses effective bodily actions, good diction and style.
