Good neighbors

There are many good things happening in the Philippines other than the continuing attention by media over the botched police rescue operations during the Luneta hostage crisis on Aug. 23. These things taking place in our country were not as dramatic as the Luneta hostage crisis with its tragic end. But there are events that are equally promising, if not exciting to keep us upbeat about the future, especially during these trying times.

Unfortunately, it takes foreigners to take cognizance of these positive  turn of events happening in the Philippines more than us Filipinos do. Despite this hostage incident that involved Hong Kong Chinese as victims, the impact on arrivals of foreign tourists and investors who were still coming here have not apparently been that disastrous as earlier feared. Obviously, people only know too well and recognize the fact that similar incidents could happen anywhere in the world.

Last week, a group of seven-man delegation from Singapore’s Temasek Foundation CLG Limited arrived in Manila on a mission to further enhance their “connections” with the Filipinos and the Philippines. The delegation was headed by no less than Benedict Cheong, chief executive officer of Temasek Foundation.

Singapore ambassador to the Philippines, A. Selverajah formally welcomed the Temasek delegation. The ambassador introduced them to a very small group of select Filipino journalists, including this columnist, who were invited to a sit-down lunch with them at Hotel Dusit in Makati City last Tuesday.

Cheong impressed upon us that he was pretty much optimistic about the Philippines under the present crop of government officials led by President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. Cheong particularly mentioned his meeting for the first time Joel Villanueva who is the new director-general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

Two Singapore-based institutions — the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and Temasek Foundation — have partnered with TESDA and have embarked on a one-year “Training-the-Trainer Program“ to help upgrade the skills and competencies of Filipino workers.

From their website, Temasek Foundation declared its mission of “Building a Shared Future in Asia.” It describes itself as being: “Led by a board comprising leaders from the business and community sectors from Singapore and other Asian countries, Temasek Foundation is a non-profit philanthropic organization established by Temasek Holdings, Singapore, to contribute to sustainable growth and a bright future of hope and opportunities for the people in Asia, including Singapore.”

One of the board members of Temasek Foundation, in fact, comes from the Philippines, Cheong told me. He is Tony Cak-Tiong, the man behind the very successful distinctly Filipino hamburger chain of fastfood stores, the Jollibee Food Corp.

Based on their website also, the Temasek Foundation was established in May 2007 and aims to support the building of human capacity, promotion of governance and the provision of disaster relief. Independently managed and staffed with its own board, the Foundation committed close to S$20 million to 35 programs in 11 countries, with an emphasis on building expertise in vocational education and health care, strengthening regulatory frameworks and enhancing public management capabilities.

Its mother company, Temasek Holdings, incorporated in 1974, is an Asia investment firm with headquarters in Singapore. Temasek Holdings owns a diversified S$186 billion portfolio as of March 31, 2010 and is concentrated principally in Singapore, Asia and the emerging economies.

Cheong underscored Temasek is “independent of the Singapore government” although admitting one of the biggest shareholders is the Ministry for Finance of Singapore. “We have a lot more flexibility than government organizations,” Cheong explained.

Temasek Holdings, Cheong cited, decided to set up a Foundation “to give back” what they could to the people in terms of training programs that would have “multiplier effect” to produce more benefits for all. He took pains to differentiate these from typical corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that big business firms set aside out of their own company funds. “My team and I, from the very beginning, are not the CSR of Temasek. In other words, we do not have to work in areas where Temasek has big investments in, or has issues,” Cheong pointed out.

Temasek doesn’t have direct investments in the Philippines, Cheong said, in “not significant” volumes compared to other Singaporean companies that have business ventures in the Philippines like Keppel and Singtel. The Temasek Foundation, he cited, has a lot of flexibility to choose the programs they wish to support like those in the Philippines.

Aside from its partnership with TESDA, Cheong said the Temasek Foundation has also worked with the Ateneo de Manila University for the training of selected public elementary school teachers in Quezon City and with St. Paul University for the training of some 160 nurse leaders, trainers and clinical instructors from the cities of Manila and Angeles in Pampanga.

And the Temasek Foundation also maintains an exchange program for students for two or three weeks short course. To date, 607 Filipinos have been to Singapore under the program. The De La Salle University International Center recently opened their tie up with Temasek Foundation and the Singapore Management University’s Leadership Enhancement and Regional Networking Program that will run from January to May 2011.

“Hopefully, when this generation of people become leaders in their respective communities, they will have that connections,” Cheong believed.

This kind of connections is what keeps mutual respect among the community of nations that may be disturbed once in a while by incidents like the Luneta hostage-taking. We certainly did not wish this incident to happen that has strained our country’s relation with Hong Kong.

We had issues in the past with Singapore like the hanging of the late Filipina domestic helper Flor Contemplacion after she was convicted by their court. That had somehow strained our relations with them. But as good neighbors, we have successfully gone beyond these irritants and moved on to deepen our relations and bilateral ties.