The JBC and the road to hell

Calling A Spade…
By Solita Collas-Monsod
BusinessWorld

“Before the 1987 Constitution, a good number of citizens, bar associations and civic organizations, and mass media, especially, expressed dissatisfaction over the nation’s system of dispensing justice with a vehemence that reached new heights, considering, (1) a persistently staggering backlog; (2) lazy, dishonest and incompetent members of the judiciary; (3) cumbersome procedures; and (4) dilatory tactics of litigants and lawyers.”

Thus was the Philippine judicial system prior to the approval of the 1987 Constitution described by former SC Justice Regino C. Hermosisima Jr. in a speech (five years ago) during a workshop of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC). In a nutshell, Hermosisima said that the system was ineffective because it was unable to get HONEST, DEDICATED, and COMPETENT judges (emphasis his). He described how the members of the judiciary were selected at the time — the President choosing from a list of candidates prepared under the supervision of the secretary of Justice, who in turn included in the list those within the Justice Department whom the secretary believed would make good judges, plus those proposed by political allies and other influential people. For those contending for the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court, the President or the Justice secretary consulted informally with the incumbent members of those bodies.

The list from which the President chose were never made public, said Hermosisima. And, of course, these nominees were vetted by the Commission on Appointments, adding fuel to the fire of suspicion that the appointments were made based on who the appointees knew rather that on what they knew.

Continues Hermosisima: “Consequently, this method of appointing and promoting judges proved to be one of the major reasons why our people do not trust lower Courts as much as they do the Supreme Court. The people know that, as a general rule, a man can reach the Supreme Court only after years of service in the lower courts or of practice at the bar which has earned him a national reputation. On the other hand, they suspect that judges receive their appointments and promotions more through political influence than merit.”

Which, he concludes, is why the 1987 Philippine Constitution (actually, the brainchild of former Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion ) created the JBC: to eliminate politics from the appointments to the judiciary, as well as the ombudsman and deputy ombudsmen.

Great intention, right? The 1987 Constitution provided that the JBC, which would be under the supervision of the Supreme Court (SC) would be composed of seven members: three ex officio and four regular. The ex officio members would be the SC chief justice as chair, plus the secretary of Justice, and a representative of Congress. The four regular members would be a representative of the Integrated Bar, a professor of law, a retired member of the SC, and a representative of the private sector. They would be appointed to four-year terms, with the usual staggered appointments to ensure continuity, and with these appointments subject to confirmation by the Commission on Appointments.

So how would politics be eliminated? By removing the Commission on Appointments from the picture, at least directly. While the latter had the power to approve appointments of the regular JBC members, it no longer had the power to confirm or reject the judiciary (and ombudman) appointments. The President, however, had to choose his appointments only from a list submitted by the JBC, which would contain at least three nominees per vacancy.

But you know what is said about good intentions: the road to hell is paved with them. And it doesn’t look, so far anyway (after roughly 23 years of existence), that the JBC, as a great intention, is any exception.

Why do I say that? Well, just consider the quotation at the beginning of this column. Can anyone say, at this point, that the situation described has improved after more than a score of years of JBC operation? Can we say that there are more HONEST, DEDICATED, COMPETENT judges now (to borrow Hermosisima’s emphasis) so that our judicial system is more effective? Using Hermosisma’s metric, are the backlogs less staggering? Are the procedures less cumbersome? Are the dilatory tactics of litigants and lawyers now less dilatory (although we are supposed to have a continuous trial system, for heaven’s sake)?

More specifically, let us take the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Every member of these august bodies had to have been vetted by the JBC, who in turn are supposed to have chosen only those who aside from the necessary legal knowledge, also had to have proven morality and probity. So how come we had recent scandals rocking the Court of Appeals (corruption) and the Supreme Court (charges of having an Arroyo court, wishy-washiness, and now even plagiarism)? How do these events reflect on the effectiveness of the JBC in choosing only the best and the brightest, those with independence and probity?

Or for that matter, let us meditate on the choices of the ombudsman. Or deputy ombudsmen. The success rate of the JBC in their choices for this agency has arguably been much lower than in their choices for the courts.

And there are some other, relatively minor, sources of confusion. For example, the Constitution mandates “a representative from Congress” as an ex officio member of the JBC. How come we have two? Former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. explains that it was because this provision was written assuming a unicameral legislature, and we ended up with a bicameral legislature. But can the JBC just disregard the Constitution like that? Particularly because with a seven-member JBC, the four regular members constitute a majority, while now, that is no longer the case, and political interference can more easily come into the picture. And then the Constitution provides for the clerk of the Supreme Court to be ex officio secretary of the JBC. Now there are two: per the JBC Web site, Court Administrator Midas Marquez is also ex officio secretary. How can the Constitution be treated so cavalierly?

It is not only the Constitution that seems to have been treated in such a cavalier fashion. It is also the JBC itself. The newest member of the JBC, who represents the academe, is one Jose V. Mejia. I read his CV in the JBC Web site — and very frankly, there is nothing particularly outstanding about it. But he happens to be the law classmate of Executive Secretary Ochoa. What does this say about the politicization of the JBC? Another member of the JBC by the way, reportedly has a proclivity for being wined and dined by candidates for vacancies. What does this day about probity in the JBC itself?

The only way we can ensure that the JBC goes about its business properly is to subject its processes to the merciless lens of transparency and public scrutiny. For its own credibility, if not for the sake of the country, the JBC must do so. Or set another stone on the road to hell.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=The-JBC-and-the-road-to-hell&id=31136

No sympathy for Merci

To Take A Stand
By Oscar P. Lagman, Jr.
BusinessWorld

The resignation statement of the ombudsman would have drawn credulity, sympathy, and esteem had it been made by a brilliant, erudite but humble and deferential person. But because the statement was made by Ms. Merceditas Gutierrez, it drew mockery, pity, and greater contempt.

The statement must have been prepared by one of her obsequious underlings who just put words in her mouth without regard to Ms. Gutierrez’s personality, language, and public image. To paraphrase Mike Defensor’s monumental declaration after studying the “Hello Garci” tapes, that was Ombudsman Gutierrez’s voice but she was not the one speaking.

She started her statement by thanking the President for graciously accommodating her on very short notice when she went to see him to tender her resignation. It was as if the President was clueless as to who she is. The President was fully aware of who she is and what she represented — a huge stumbling block — in his quest to bring corrupt public officials to justice.

When the 2010 election results began to indicate a victory by the presidential candidate whose election campaign was anchored on bringing GMA to justice, there were already calls from the advisers of the presumed president-elect for Ms. Gutierrez to resign. Were it not for the position’s fixed term, Ms. Gutierrez would have been summarily dismissed hours after PNoy was sworn in as president. That was therefore no gracious accommodation accorded her on April 29. Her resignation letter was long overdue. Personal delivery of it was totally unnecessary.

“I have always been guided by the precepts that the public and moral responsibilities of public officials transcend all other considerations,” said she. The public’s perception is precisely that having been appointed by Gloria Arroyo, she owed allegiance to her and not to the Filipino people and the Constitution. People strongly believe that she ignored her public responsibilities in consideration of her patrons Gloria Arroyo and her husband. She is accused of deliberately sleeping on the Fertilizer Fund scam and the malodorous NBN-ZTE deal to shield them from criminal charges. It is alleged that the Fertilizer Fund was used for GMA’s presidential bid in 2004 while it is bruited about that the NBN-ZTE deal was really the First Gentleman’s scheme.

She absolved the Comelec officials involved in the P1.3-billion Mega-Pacific contract nullified by the Supreme Court of all administrative and criminal liabilities because they were the ones who purportedly manipulate elections to favor GMA and her minions. She sat on the case of the Euro generals because they are the ones who suppressed public demonstrations against the Arroyo administration.

She said her unblemished record in public service is the greatest and lasting legacy that she can leave her family, her children, and her children’s children. On the contrary she is referred to as only the second public official to be impeached by the House of Representatives, President Estrada being the first.

Only 79 congressman or 33% of the members of the House signed the resolution to impeach Erap. Out of 285 members of the House, 212, or 74%, voted to impeach Ombudsman Gutierrez. Many of those were former toadies of GMA in Congress. That is the legacy she leaves behind.

She said that as a government official, she must place first and foremost the interests of the nation, the Office of the Ombudsman, and as a mother and wife, her family. “The impeachment proceedings have consumed not only the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, but the Chief Executive of the land as well. At a time when the present administration is in its infancy and beset with more urgent problems, the last thing that the nation needs is for the House and the Senate to be embroiled in a long-drawn-out impeachment proceeding against a single public official,” she declared.

If those were her true sentiments, she would have resigned in July last year, when she was strongly urged to do so, instead of distracting PNoy and tying up the Lower House of Congress and the Supreme Court in her vain attempt to vindicate herself. Her attempt at heroics comes too late in the day.

She herself said she was firm and resolute to participate in the impeachment trial before the Senate. Maybe she was assured by her patron of the favorable votes of Senators Lapid, Revilla, Zubiri, Sotto, Santiago, and Marcos (all four Arroyos signed the House resolution urging PNoy to allow the burial of President Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani), but her advisers must have pointed at the handwriting of 212 congressmen on the wall.

I cannot let Sen. Santiago’s nomination of Gilbert Teodoro for ombudsman go by without comment. It will be recalled that when Teodoro was asked during the presidential campaign if he would push for the prosecution of GMA if he were elected, he said he would not go against a president who put her trust and confidence in him, young though he was, when she appointed him secretary of Defense. Did Sen. Santiago think of PNoy as brain-damaged?

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Today is supposed to be Gus Lagman’s turn at this column. As he has become a public official, it has become inappropriate for him to render his opinion on national issues publicly.

When he was asked to join the pool of writers of this column, he declined at first. But then he realized he could use the column as a medium for his advocacies. Indeed, his first articles were on our electoral system and the Comelec.

We in Manindigan!, the cause-oriented group that is behind this column, join other civil society groups in hailing our colleague’s appointment as election commissioner. We expect great reforms in our electoral system from hereon.

By the way, Gus is blocking the resolution signed and promulgated by the Comelec authorizing the chairman to sign a contract with Smartmatic-TIM for the purchase of: hardware and software (P130.9 million), election and stress test consumables (P50.4 million), technology-related services (P756.0 million), and ballot boxes and non-technology-related services for a few hunded million pesos more. He says the price is too high to pay for an election where each voter only writes five names chosen from a very short list of maybe a dozen candidates. Counting the votes manually will only take an hour or two.

He also said that the Comelec’s technology consultant has admitted that Smartmatic is still fixing defects in the system. He believes Smartmatic-TIM has to first demonstrate that the defects have already been fixed before the Comelec should even consider purchasing the system.

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=No-sympathy-for-Merci&id=30994

Lend coco levy money to farmers

Grassroots & Governance
 By Teresa S. Abesamis
 BusinessWorld

No one will dispute, not even Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Jr., that coco levy funds collected from coconut farmers around the country were used to purchase First United Bank (FUB) from his cousins who were then on the wrong (Ninoy Aquino) side of the political fence. This bank was later on renamed UCPB, since the presidential decrees and other directives signed by his friend the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos during martial law stated the purpose for such a purchase was to enable coconut farmers to have easier access to credit. Thus, UCPB was aptly named United Coconut Planters Bank, purchased in 1975 by order of a presidential decree “for the benefit of the coconut farmers.”

Today, almost 40 years after the creation of UCPB, supposed to be the coconut farmers’ bank, credit is still tight for the coconut farmers and for farmers in general. Technological innovations, such as cold-process virgin coconut oil and value-adding products such as coco nets (for soil erosion control) and coco peat (soil conditioners for higher farm productivity) have opened up opportunities for farmers to share in the value-adding from their produce, thus enabling them to approach prosperity. And yet, coconut farmers are unable to participate fully in these new opportunities because they are unable to obtain financing for the equipment required for them to produce the new products that have generated demand domestically, as well as overseas. Ironic that they can’t borrow a little; since Danding Cojuangco was able to borrow so much from the bank they supposedly own.

Now that it looks like the last bastion for obtaining justice, the allegedly venerable Supreme Court, has decided in favor of the consistently lucky Danding Cojuangco, shall we just wring our hands and say, well, there goes P85B of the coconut farmers’ money, which is the estimated value of the 20% shares in San Miguel Corp. that Cojuangco has won back. The government is filing a motion for reconsideration. Meanwhile, since this seems like, almost, a lost cause, given the present composition of the Supreme Court, what can we do to help the farmers tap new opportunities to rise above poverty, so that they can send their descendants to college, and break the cycle that, with increasing numbers of descendants, condemns them to long-term penury?

Perhaps the UCPB bankers need to learn to be more creative and imaginative they should be able to, if they focused enough on the alleged purpose for its existence: the welfare of the coconut farmers.

I am not a banker, so I could make some technical errors in making some of my suggestions. However, I am just issuing a challenge to the bankers to be more creative in order to achieve their fundamental missions, in addition to enhancing bottom lines and shareholder value (do we know who these shareholders are now?)

For example, Dr. Justino Arboleda, who came up with ideas for value-adding coco nets, coco peat, and other by-products from copra meal extraction processes (from coconut husks) can hardly meet the international demand for his innovations because the coconut farmers, whom he wants to be his suppliers, do not have access to credit so they can own the decorticators and other equipment that will enable them to process the husks into marketable products that they can supply to Arboleda’s company.

On the domestic market, President PNoy himself, upon the endorsement of DPWH Secretary Rogelio “Babes” Singson, has endorsed coco nets for soil erosion control in public works products all over the country. As the Philippines is so typhoon and flood disaster-prone, this is a boon to infrastructure construction. The coconets will hold the hillsides and shoulders of highways so that vehicles can run safely through highways protected from landslides. Soil on the hillsides and roadsides can be held together by roots of vegetation planted through the coco nets that decompose in time. Homes, too, can be protected from the onslaught of typhoons passing through newly constructed highways.

In Australia, cattle raisers have discovered the blessings of coco peat, which they scatter on the ground beneath the cattle in their ranches. The coco peat catches the manure which, when dried, they gather up with the peat and turn into organic fertilizer, now in demand with the trend for green technologies.

The German car manufacturers use decorticated coconut husks as upholstery material for their cars and mattresses in lieu of fossil-fuel-based products which they were using before, again, as a gesture toward green technologies. A friend of mine asked me why here, we are still using imported oil-based upholstery materials. I said, “You know how it is.” (Which means, no, I don’t know.)

The opportunities are there to tap. What can the banks do?

They will have to come up with new ways to ease access to credit for farmers. On this, the UCPB, which has a mandate to help them, should pave the way. Perhaps they can put up guarantee mechanisms to make it easier for rural and other provincial banks to take risks with the coconut farmers. Perhaps, being a unibank, they can put up venture capital and go into joint ventures with the coconut farmers that enable farmers to redeem low-priced “preferred shares” within a five-year period or so, thus enabling them to solely own the ventures in time. There must be many more innovations that creative UCPB bankers can come up with. It is a matter of focusing on their fundamental mission. What I am saying is that it is probably a matter of “using their coconuts.”

http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=Lend-coco-levy-money-to-farmers&id=31069

$3 trillion in 15 years makes Osama the most expensive manhunt

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR 

By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star

Posted on the National Journal last May 6, Tim Fernholz and Jim Tankersley had tracked how much Osama bin Laden had cost the US. They wrote: “By conservative estimates, bin Laden cost the United States at least $3 trillion over the past 15 years, counting the disruptions he wrought on the domestic economy, the wars and heightened security triggered by the terrorist attacks he engineered, and the direct efforts to hunt him down.”

Questioning what the US government had to show for all that, Fernholz and Tankersley added: “Two wars that continue to occupy 150,000 troops and tie up a quarter of our defense budget; a bloated homeland-security apparatus that has at times pushed the bounds of civil liberty; soaring oil prices partially attributable to the global war on bin Laden’s terrorist network; and a chunk of our mounting national debt, which threatens to hobble the economy unless lawmakers compromise on an unprecedented deficit-reduction deal.”

Further driving their point: “All of that has not given us, at least not yet, anything close to the social or economic advancements produced by the battles against America’s costliest past enemies. Defeating the Confederate army brought the end of slavery and a wave of standardization in railroad gauges and shoe sizes.” They cited how that had paved the way for a truly national economy.

They added: “Vanquishing Adolf Hitler ended the Great Depression and ushered in a period of booming prosperity and hegemony. Even the massive military escalation that marked the Cold War standoff against Joseph Stalin and his Russian successors produced landmark technological breakthroughs that revolutionized the economy.”

One of the positive outputs that the hunt for Osama bin Laden produced per Fernholz and Tankersley was the development of unmanned aircraft — the Predator Drones. Linda Bilmes, a lecturer at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and co-author of a book on the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, was quoted by the National Journal authors: “We have spent a huge amount of money which has not had much effect on the strengthening of our military, and has had a very weak impact on our economy.”

Compared to the American Civil War, the hunt for bin Laden had incurred less US casualties. The Civil War, per the National Journal writers, disrupted capital flows and trade and an estimated 3 to 4 percent of the population in the 1860s were killed. Citing John Majewsky, chair of the History Department of the University of California in Santa Barbara, as source, Fernholz and Tankersley wrote that the US Civil War cost double the US GDP in 1860.

Per the two writers, “World War II defense spending cost $4.4 trillion. At its peak, it sucked up nearly 40 percent of GDP, according to the Congressional Research Service. It was an unprecedented national mobilization, says Chris Hellman, a defense budget analyst at the National Priorities Project.”

They added: “But the payoff was immense. The war machine that revved up to defeat Germany and Japan powered the US out of the Great Depression and into an unparalleled stretch of postwar growth. Jet engines and nuclear power spread into everyday lives. A new global economic order forged at Bretton Woods, N.H., by the Allies in the waning days of the war, opened a floodgate of benefits through international trade. Returning soldiers dramatically improved the nation’s skills and education level, thanks to the GI Bill, and they produced a baby boom that would vastly expand the workforce.”
Indeed, you’d wonder if the US had really panicked or over magnified the terror threat to have spent so much resource on the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Spending over $3 trillion in 15 years just to hunt a terrorist would appear grossly disproportionate, if not sheer madness, to one who would accept it at face value. With much less cost, the US could have hired the best mercenaries to hunt bin Laden. With just a $100 million bounty, there will be a likely traitor or disgruntled member of al Qaeda to do the job of firing the fatal headshot.

However, there could be method to the seeming madness.

What if Osama bin Laden — just like Saddam Hussein and his fictional Weapons of Mass Destruction — conveniently provided the US with the perfect cover for their attempt to corner the last remaining oil reserves in the world? This jibes with the International Energy Agency’s findings that the world consumes 6 percent of the total global supply of oil annually. That means NO MORE OIL in 20 years.

From that perspective, it would make sense to allocate such an enormous resource to the War on Terror. On the surface, it appears to be a hunt for Osama bin Laden but in reality – it is just a desperate quest for oil.

The greater tragedy of this unfolding chapter of world history is man’s folly of prioritizing the requirements of war over the requirements of peace and social harmony. When will man finally see the point that a weapons race and exclusive privileges merely heighten the risks of war? The equitable distribution of wealth and opportunities are the best promoters of a lasting peace.

Why must man be mankind’s greatest enemy?

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Chair Wrecker e-mail and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com

A 10-year wait for justice

SPY BITS
By Babe Romualdez
The Philippine Star

Everybody is waiting for the promulgation of the celebrated kidnapping case of a Filipina-Chinese. The victim, Jacky Rowena Tiu, has been waiting for almost 10 years for justice to be served. She was kidnapped several meters away from her residence in San Fernando, La Union in September 2001. Our good friend, former Philippine National Police chief Art Lomibao who at the time was Region 1 police commander, told us about his “kidnapped for love” story that started when Jacky, then 29, was brought from La Union to safe houses in Tarlac and Cavite. At one point, her abductors almost had one of her fingers cut off to send to her father as a warning that the kidnappers were dead serious in their demand. She was held for eight days and finally released after her father paid a P10-million ransom.

Unknown to the kidnappers – who turned out to be mainland Chinese operating in the Philippines – the Tiu family had been cooperating with the police and within a few hours, the seven suspects were apprehended with the ransom money recovered intact. Unlike many other kidnap victims who have chosen to quietly fade away and even leave the country because of the trauma they went through, Jacky chose to fight back, refusing to be overcome by fear – something which did not really come as a surprise to many who knew her as a feisty, articulate young woman.

What should have been a cut-and-dried case, so to speak (with Jacky positively identifying her abductors from a police line-up and the fact that the suspects were caught dividing the ransom money hours after the victim was released at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) has turned out to be a continuing ordeal of disappointment and frustration. One of the suspects had his charges downgraded to that of a mere accessory and was allowed to post a measly bail of P100,000 – for a crime that is supposed to be heinous and therefore non-bailable. This same suspect literally got away in cahoots with some corrupt Immigration and DOJ officials who allegedly issued fake documents to have Zhang Du aka Wilson Zhang deported, with one so-called “confidential agent” accompanying the suspect to the airport in the wee hours of the morning. As far as we know, no big fish has been made accountable for this gross injustice.

There have been some joyful episodes to this saga though, like the marriage of Jacky and Art (a widower) a couple of years ago in what has been described as a classic tale of damsel in distress marrying her knight in shining armor. But the story of Jacky is far from having a happy ending yet because until now, the fight for justice is still ongoing, and one can understand the emotional and psychological strain that she and her family had been going through no matter how much they all try to return to their “normal” lives.

Over the years, the case has been transferred like a volleyball from one judge to another, with some inhibiting at first, then unexplainably doing a turnaround and deciding to continue the hearings, while others opted to retire halfway through the trial. Some sources have told us about the practice among some judges to go on “optional retirement” once they are “compromised” in a particular case – meaning they or their families must have been threatened by an accused or perhaps even “persuaded” by other, more lucrative reasons. This is an unfortunate reality that many people hoping for justice just have to come to terms with.

In any event, the case of Jacky Tiu is now in the sala of Judge Antonio Rosales of the Manila RTC Branch 52 awaiting promulgation which could happen anytime now. A lot of people are obviously watching how this celebrated case of kidnapping – even described as “ideal” by former president Gloria Arroyo in her 2002 SONA because it was solved early, the ransom money recovered with nobody getting killed – will finally be resolved. It is also not farfetched to say that this case will test once again the justice system in this country, and determine whether people can still put their trust and confidence in our courts, with judges deciding on the clear merits of a case and doing what is right and just.

It has been said that justice delayed is justice denied – but no one will argue that even if justice has been delayed too long, as in the case of Jacky – it will still be forthcoming in one way or another. After all, there is such a thing as karma – and the fight that Jacky has started, not only for herself but for all other kidnap victims whose lives have been turned topsy-turvy if not snuffed out by these vicious criminals, will not be in vain.

Spy tidbits

— Word is out that former Inquirer and now Manila Standard Today business columnist Vic Agustin is moving to television with a new talk show program being developed by TV 5. This probably explains Cocktales’ month-long leave from his current paper. People are now waiting to see whether Agustin is better read than seen or heard.

— After a busy year of mergers and acquisitions, an exhausted Manny Pangilinan recently left for the United States for a complete medical check-up. MVP, who turns 65 this year, is checking in at the Stanford University Medical Center and should be back in Manila after two weeks. MVP’s legendary work ethics has made the Metro/First Pacific Group one of the most profitable companies in Asia. His busy schedule has not even given him a chance to try out PLDT’s brand new $13.5 million Augusta 139 helicopter.

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Email: mailto:spybits08@yahoo.com

The remarkable Ancilla business-with-a-soul success story

AS I WRECK THIS CHAIR
By William M. Esposo
The Philippine Star

One of the most remarkable business success stories is that of a consulting firm that operates under the principles of the Economy of Communion (EoC). This success story was shared with us by the Focolare Movement’s international publication – New City. Published in their April – May 2011 edition, author Jose Aranas condensed the article to fit your Chair Wrecker’s space.

The Ancilla Story by Jose Aranas

“Ancilla Enterprise Development Consulting is an enterprise of the Economy of Communion (EoC) which was founded in 1991, the year that Focolare founder Chiara Lubich launched the EoC in Brazil at the service of the poor. Ancilla is a Latin word which means handmaid. This choice of company title indicates the desire to be a helping hand and effective support for business enterprises. To know more about Ancilla Enterprise Development Consulting, you may visit its website (www.ancillaedc.com.ph).

The protagonist in this true-to-life story is Tita Datu-Puangco, Ancilla founder, president and CEO. Her calling to this mission started when she was a young girl when she felt the need to change many things, and work to establish greater justice in society. After her studies at an American university on a scholarship grant, in 1972 she met the Focolare Movement. After meeting this Movement, she understood then that change in society could only happen by starting with oneself and by putting one’s trust in God.

In 1991, Tita understood that she could set up a management consultancy enterprise that would focus on and tap her core competencies. She felt that God wanted her to “start building her mansion in heaven,” so she asked Renato, her husband, if she could resign from her lucrative work as vice president of a well-known bank to start a consultancy practice. Her husband supported her, and together they decided to build her office over their garage. This occurred after she had just given birth to their fourth child, with their three other children still in school. Thus it took a great leap of faith for both Tita and her husband.

The person at the center

Tita with her team has formulated Ancilla’s mission, that is to “be a helping hand” in enabling change breakthroughs toward enterprise global effectiveness and leader stewardship, adopting practices which respect the dignity of the human person. Its values are unity, excellence, community of sharing, respect for the human person, innovation and integrity. At the center of Ancilla’s business concerns is the human person. She lived up to this principle during the economic crisis that swept over Asia in the late 1990s. While many Philippine businesses retrenched employees, the company opted not to expand, but to increase salaries to cushion the impact of the crisis on the families of their associates. Unexpectedly, Tita was still able to manage the company with a certain profit because some of their biggest clients worldwide never left them as partners for the Asia-Pacific region. At the height of the crisis, these companies kept on faithfully paying their fees.

State of the business

Now Ancilla has nearly 1,000 clients, with many belonging to the top 100 Philippine business corporations, plus a number of ASEAN based companies. The company has grown to employ 15 associates and 48 project professionals today. It has obtained assignments from important public and private organizations, which demonstrates the confidence that it inspires. The Pharmaceutical and Health Care Association of the Philippines has given Ancilla the task of piloting professional accreditation of medical representatives.
The firm has become a consultant for important projects in the energy consumer goods and business process outsourcing (bpo) sectors.

Ancilla has sought strong and strategic alliances with other firms, such as Eagles Flight International in Canada, the Enterprise Development International and Symlog in the United States, and Consulus, a brand management company in Singapore.

The company is also able to provide many poor families with their basic needs like food, clothing, shelter and the means to send many poor children to school. Another part of their profit is given for the education and development of people, especially young people in the EoC culture of giving.

Corporate challenges today

Operating in the market place just like any other business enterprise, Ancilla faces daily challenges in the complex market world.

The first challenge is the retention, development and growth of consultants. Tita shares: “The EoC spirit sometimes results in consultants and clients taking advantage of us. For example, one consultant was assigned to be the project manager of a year-long project with a multinational company. Later, she discovered by chance that he had set up his own enterprise and bid for a year’s project at half our company price.” Tita adds, “so, these unethical practices do happen. To this kind of situation, we respond with Christ’s teaching which advises us to forgive 70 times 70.”

A second challenge comes from the negative behavior of competitors. Often in business Ancilla comes head to head with a global consulting company, but as a policy, she said, “we try never to say anything negative about competitors.”

Third, is a need for global consulting technologies. Their business is subject to foreign currency ups and downs. Although Ancilla has found partners open to its situation, it foresees that in the coming years, it will become more expensive to offer the best to its clients at competitive rates.

The fourth challenge consists of equipping the company with Internet and digital features, which requires substantial investments and continuous updating.

What is her attitude when facing all these challenges? With confidence, Tita shares, “as long as we put the person and good relationship at the center of our business enterprise, we are sure that God will give us the inspiration and insights to pursue the innovations we need so as to continue quality service in our field.”

Indeed, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but in the end loses his soul? In the EoC enterprises, the businessman builds up on spiritual merits while still realizing ethically attained profits.

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Chair Wrecker email and website: macesposo@yahoo.com and www.chairwrecker.com