EXPERIENCE is one of the most important qualities of a leader, particularly one who runs a country. As I once wrote in this column, this is particularly true for the Philippines, which has been struggling to avoid recession and sustain growth amid a global crisis.

This time I would like to talk about the leader’s “Day One,” the “First Year,” or the “First 100 Days,” different terms but all referring to the initial phase of his presidency. To help me drive home my point, let me share with you excerpts from an online article in Yahoo! titled “Why 100 Days?”

This refers to how US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt handled a massive financial crisis when he came to office. Unemployment then was high and banks were not lending. It was, indeed, a confidence problem. The new president went right to work. In just over 100 days, a first version of the “New Deal” was launched and Congress passed 15 major bills in support of his economic program.

The Yahoo! article, written by Sarah Parsons, quoted a report from The LA Times: “The initial storm set a tone for the rest of Roosevelt’s first term: constant action, bold experimentation, unprecedented expansion of the authority of the federal government. Since then, journalists and political analysts have embraced the 100-day report card for new presidents.”

Right after his election, President Barack Obama told 60 Minutes:

“There’s a new book out about FDR’s first 100 days. And what you see in FDR that I hope my team can emulate is not always getting it right, but projecting a sense of confidence and a willingness to try things and experiment in order to get people working again.”

Soon after, Obama signed a $787-billion stimulus bill, approved a troop increase in Afghanistan and set a withdrawal timeline for Iraq, signed orders to close the Guantánamo Bay detention center, ban the most harsh interrogation methods and reverse the ban of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Parsons also quoted David Greenberg, who wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal: “The main reason that the 100 days are an unreliable indicator of future performance is the same reason we watch them so closely: They constitute the period in which the public is just getting to know the new president, and in which the president is just getting to know his new job.”

But Michael Watkins, who wrote “The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for Leaders at All Levels,” explains on HarvardBusiness.org:

“The first 100-days mark is not the end of the story. It’s the end of the beginning. Leaders entering new roles can stumble badly and still recover. But it’s a whole lot easier if they don’t stumble in the first place. And that’s why the transition period matters so much.“

The current Philippine situation, which will likely be the same when the new president takes his oath next year, is not so different from the situation in the United States when Roosevelt was elected president. Unemployment is high, bank lending is very selective and favors mainly the buying and selling of companies instead of the productive and job-generating small and medium enterprises and, of course, we continue to have a confidence problem in addition to the impact of the global recession.

All the candidates in the May 2010 elections, from the Office of the President down to the local governments, promise to institute dramatic changes, to arrest the decline in the economy, and so on and so forth.

But one thing that’s important is to accomplish a lot on your first 100 days and the first year. To me this is really very important. Everybody will be closely watching the next president and his administration. And foreign investors and foreign creditors will be watching government officials and employees, and the entire bureaucracy will be watching.

A lot of our people have become cynical, and I don’t blame them, given the failure of leaders past and present to improve their lives. And surely questions will be asked, in public, in the media, in the markets, in barber shops and beauty salons, in the Internet, and in people’s minds:

Will this new president be just like those politicians who made promises, got elected and suddenly suffered amnesia? Did he really mean to effect changes to boost the economy, clean the government and help the people, or did he just deceive the people?

These questions make the next president’s first 100 days or his first year in office very important because it is his only chance to establish, clearly, in the minds of the people that his is going to be not just a new administration but also a much better one.

Transparency is the first strategy and the first policy. Our greatest need now, given the disasters that struck us this year, is infrastructure, and that is where transparency should be exercised.

The next president should, as soon as possible, conduct public bidding on all projects with maximum transparency, by televising the proceedings, inviting representatives of various groups like nongovernmental organizations, civil society and the church to monitor the proceedings.

This would be a first and important step to establish that the new president’s term will not be corrupt. That will also convince creditors and investors that things have changed for the better in the Philippines.

The World Bank has estimated that more than $4 billion will be needed to repair the damage caused by Ondoy and Pepeng. So the second step is efficient and prompt implementation of infrastructure projects.

I know that many infrastructure projects have been started years back and needed only a little additional work to complete. All of the unfinished projects of the government should be completed as soon as possible for the benefit of the people. This should be done regardless of whether these are projects of the outgoing administration or even previous administrations, especially if the projects are really important.

So, in 100 days or in one year, the people, the investors, the creditors and the bureaucracy should be convinced that the new administration fits the demands of the presidency and will satisfy the expectations of the people.

Not everything will be accomplished in the first 100 days or the first year, but the new president’s performance in that initial period will determine how he will perform in the remaining five years of his term, and where he will lead the country and the economy.

Obviously, the first 100 days means serious work, not something like an on-the-job training, because if the new president fails in the first 100 days or the first year, it will be very hard, if not impossible, to recover.

The bottom line is that the first 100 days will answer the question in the public’s mind: Is this president the real thing or joke only?

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