HARAPAN, GINAGAGO TAYO NG MGA ITO.
FROM MANILA TIMES
by RIGOBERTO TIGLAO
Doing research on some other topic, I stumbled on what at first I thought were outdated information. But the info turned out to be accurate—and troubling.
The conglomerate Philippine Investment Management Inc. (Phinma) listed as one of its board members Jose Cuisia. Isn’t he our current “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States, with concurrent jurisdiction over the Virgin Islands, Grenada and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico?”
Yes he is. And not only that, our ambassador is presently active in nine other firms, which certainly aren’t just mom-and-pop outfits.
He is vice-chairman in the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co., in which he had been CEO for a decade until its American owners, AIG, went bankrupt and had to sell out to Asian investors. He is also vice chairman of the company, which is at the core of Henry Sy’s empire, SM Prime Holdings.
He is a director of the Ayalas’ Manila Water Co., in cement conglomerate Holcim Philippines, in call-center firm Integra Business Processing Solutions, in property firm ICCP Holdings, and in Beacon Property Ventures.
I nearly fell off my seat reading this information: Cuisia is chairman of The Covenant Car Co.
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Why do I find that shocking? The Covenant Car Company is the sole importer and distributor of the US company Chevrolet’s cars in the Philippines, and I’m certain Cuisia doesn’t know much about the car business.
With that number of directorships in major firms, Cuisia is obviously raking it in while he is our underpaid ambassador to the US. Strangely though, he seems to have become exempt from BIR rules since he became ambassador in 2010. Reported as the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s 55th biggest taxpayer in 2009 and paying P13 million in taxes, Cuisia has completely dropped out of the lists for 2010, 2011, and 2012.
I’m sure that The Covenant Car Co., Phinma Life, SM malls, Manila Water, and Integra Business Processing Solutions would have one way or another have business dealings in the world’s biggest economy.
(The only other civil servant I know who is as busy as Cuisia in private firms is Social System Chairman Juan Santos, who sits in the board of Philex Mining and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. where the SSS has shares in and in seven other major corporations, including Phinma and First Philippine Holdings.)
The US is the most important country we have diplomatic relations with. That’s an understatement. As a nation, we’re depending on the US for our security, and after ranting at China, and bad-mouthing it as a bully, our foreign secretary right after would sheepishly glance at Uncle Sam to be assured that it will defend the country if the Chinese really gets pissed off.
The US is also where we have the biggest population of migrant Filipinos, whom we can tap as a powerful lobby group for our national interests, as American Jews have done for decades. As a nation we also have the responsibility to assist them in preserving their Filipino heritage.
But maybe his membership in these firms’ board is just titular, and his involvement is through Skype or some of kind of teleconferencing.
Cuisia has religiously attended in the Philippines each and every meeting of the board of the companies he is a director of, so that he is out of his US post from three days to a week every month.
Our ambassador to the US is not within his area of jurisdiction and travels to the Philippines for several days every month. Does the foreign affairs department pay for Cuisia’s first-class fare or is it the firms he is involved in?
I was surprised over Cuisia’s continued board memberships as I had the impression that this was forbidden, either by civil regulations or by practice in the foreign affairs department.
I remember there were magnates who wanted to be ambassadors during President Arroyo’s term, but who later on declined after being told they would have to take a leave from their companies. Tycoons Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Edgardo Espiritu had to take a leave of absence from their businesses when they served as ambassadors to the United Kingdom
Cuisia’s monthly travel to the Philippines is actually quite a remarkable feat.
Not only that. The foreign secretary has to formally issue a document appointing a chargé d’affaires, or the official in charge of the Embassy while he ambassador is away. Not only that. The embassy has to report to the State Department (or the foreign affairs ministry in other countries) that the ambassador is not in the country, and that the chargé d’affaires will temporarily represent the nation. I doubt if Cuisia bothered with these required documentation.
An ambassador’s job is actually a very demanding one if one takes his work seriously. Filipino organizations demand the personal presence of the ambassador in their social activities. You can dismiss these as petty events, but one can also see these as opportunities to strengthen your links to the Filipino community you also represent in that land.
What also makes an ambassador’s work practically limitless is the fact that to pursue the country’s interests, he has to make friends with the elite of the country he is covering, and this requires unending invitations to them for lunch or dinner. These requires the patience and energies of a salesman, since a single addition to an ambassador’s stock of friends would be another source of support when the Philippines need something from that host government.
Having a part-time ambassador is even a bit of an insult to the country he is posted in, as it sends the message that it is not that important a nation that it is not a full-time job for our ambassador, who will be away a week every month. I wouldn’t be surprised if Americans think of us so poor that we have to allow our ambassador in the US to make money in private firms while he is in his post.
tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.com
www.rigobertotiglao.com and www.trigger.ph
