Who cares about FPJ’s citizenship?

The Comelec didn’t have a choice. They simply had to throw out the petition to disqualify FPJ. With the threat of riots by FPJ fans, the Comelec commissioners would be stupid to want blood in their hands. Let the Supreme Court justices sweat that out, since they enjoy doing the work of trial courts and specialized quasi-judicial commissions anyway.

Then again, this thing about FPJ’s citizenship is a total distraction. Who really cares if he is Spanish or American on paper? Only the ambulance chasing lawyers who are kulang sa pansin! The guy has lived as a Filipino in this country all his life and apparently loves being a Filipino. Pieces of paper, easily faked documents at that, do not prove anything of significance to the electorate.

What worries me about FPJ is not his citizenship or the possibility that he might be a bastard (all politicians are or become one on the job) but the fact that he has not said anything significant on the pressing issues a President of this Republic must deal with. Sure, he went to see the businessmen at the Manila Polo Club last week. But it was a social event, more than anything else.

It would be interesting what FPJ has to say about our runaway population growth. How will he deal with the powerful Catholic Church? In other Roman Catholic countries in Latin America and even in Italy where the Pope resides, the Church has little influence on issues such as divorce and family planning. After all, Church doctrine should not be allowed to intrude into secular civil laws. That’s unfair to non Catholics. How would the Opus Dei types want it if the Muslims insisted in integrating some of their Koranic principles into civil law, Taliban style? It is the same thing.

It would also be interesting to hear FPJ tell us how he plans to create jobs for our people in the face of globalization. Stiff competition from China, Thailand and other faster growing regional economies has seriously affected our manufacturing sector. How does FPJ plan to respond?

And what about the budget deficit? I asked FPJ before Christmas how he intends to run a government that is heavily indebted, has little or no money to do much of anything? All he could tell me is that he has a creative plan and to just wait. How long do we have to wait to hear his plan, if indeed he has one? Has he paid the right taxes himself?

Then there is the problem with our non-competitive agricultural sector, the reason why our people are mired in poverty. Will he parrot the knee jerk motherhood statements of past politicians on food security and ignore the issue of competitiveness? Does FPJ also have a plan for this we can wait for?

Citizenship is the absolute least important issue in this election. I know there are constitutional provisions to follow. But in the case of FPJ, he can and should be given the benefit of the doubt in the light of the notoriously bad record keeping in our civil registry, not to mention records burned during World War II.

Maybe when Joe deV gets his ConAss, we should remove that nationality requirement for President. It isn’t so bad that it almost disqualified FPJ but it disqualifies Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir too, assuming they are silly enough to want the job. I know about Quezon and his preference for a government run like hell by Pinoys. But even Quezon would change his mind if he were alive today and with first hand experience of our kind of hell.

Good News From Caltex

Okay, the long and short of it, I goofed. That part of my column last Friday where I reported that Caltex had labor problems that forced them to close down their regional "shared services" or "business processes" operations is wrong. According to William Pfluger, general manager of Caltex (Asia) Limited- Shared Services Center, not only did they not close it down, they are expanding it.

Actually, I was done with my Friday column when I attended this cocktail party last Wednesday evening. In the course of conversations there, this very senior figure in the private sector who is also one of Ate Glo’s advisers told me that story about the troubles of Caltex. She sounded sure of her story.

I tried to check that story out Thursday morning before I submitted my column but the phone in the PR section of Caltex was not being answered. Given the high stature of my source, my desire to give a more complete picture of the local BP situation, and the deadline I was facing, I decided to include the material. My mistake.

Caltex started their shared services operations here in 1998 with 40 regular employees. They now have 274 regular employees and anticipate that by the end of 2004, will have a workforce count of about 500 regular employees. They are also in the process of hiring 250 accountants who will perform Finance activities for ChevronTexaco North America customers.

According to Pfluger, their initial services consisted of Finance and Human Resources. "To date, we have expanded our services to include Information Technology and Procurement eServices. In addition, our Center is being considered a potential processing location of some ChevronTexaco global businesses which are currently conducting offshoring and outsourcing project initiatives."

Their internal customer base has expanded since their inception. This is also why they are in the process of relocating their office from San Miguel Properties Centre in Ortigas to the RCBC Plaza in Makati. "From servicing Caltex companies in Southeast Asia, our customers now include ChevronTexaco companies in Asia Pacific, North America, and some countries in Africa. This has resulted in our company going into 24-hour operations."

Pfluger categorically denies they had or have labor problems.

"It is important to note that the success and growth of CSSC is primarily attributed to our culture and our people. Our company’s culture, which is anchored on a flat structure, team-based, customer focused, and performance driven organization, has developed highly dynamic, enthusiastic, and empowered employees. The way we develop, maintain, and sustain an egalitarian environment, open-communication workstyle, and values-based culture makes our organization a success story not only in the Philippines but also in the world of ChevronTexaco and other Shared Services organizations in other locations."

This is one time I am happy to apologize and admit my mistake if only because this bit of good news from Caltex supports the main thesis of my column last Friday about our competitive advantage in this business of providing offshore back office services. It is also good for the country. Indeed, their success story proves my point that we should pursue this potential not only more vigorously but more systematically.

What Caltex has is not just an ordinary call center but one that requires higher value services demanding better trained and experienced professionals. What this means is, our people will soon no longer have to migrate and be separated from their families to work for world class organizations and earn better than normal local compensation.

This also means we have a way of replacing the manufacturing jobs we are losing to Thailand and China. But it also means we have to work double time to improve our people’s facility with the English language and improve the quality of graduates produced by our educational system.

Diplomatic Protest

Got this text message.

NEWSFLASH: US Ambassador Ricciardone was recalled by Washington DC bcoz the US government is protesting the discrimination against and maltreatment of an American citizen by the Philippines: FPJ.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is bchanco@bayantel.com.ph