Ambassador Ramon del Rosario Sr

Monching del Rosario’s death was mourned by the current and former staff of the Department of Foreign Affairs. He was considered an icon of the diplomatic service immune from the traditional “carping” by the career staff of political appointees, He served with distinction as ambassador to Canada, Germany and Tokyo. During the time of my father, CPR, he once commented. “He is the best ambassador I have and I wish I had more like him”. He confided to me that Monching was ideal for Washington but the President preferred to send a relative known for blind loyalty rather than professionalism. Monching’s accomplishments both in government and business deserve only one adjective: Outstanding.  

Title of ambassador versus special envoy

By Presidential Executive Order No. 594, the position of “Special Envoy” was created for a specific mission, act, or event and for a specific duration or period not exceeding six months. Section 6 of the Executive Order specifically states that the title is that of “Special Envoy” and not “Ambassador”. That was precisely stated so that it would not detract from the title of ambassador. The title of ambassador can only be used when confirmed by the Commission of Appointments. Ambassadors represent the President of the Philippines in a foreign country or international organizations in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961.

This distinction is very important. If you have multiple individuals utilizing the same title in a country, the various ministries of the host country will not know who to deal with. It also diminishes the symbolism attached to the office of the resident Ambassador as the President’s trusted representative in that country thus hampering his effectiveness even on matters outside the “special envoy’s” specific mission. I urge designated special envoys to take note of this. Henry Kissinger was once a special envoy and Tony Blair is currently a special envoy. Neither individual used the title ‘Ambassador’.

Non-resident ambassadors

Even as I state that the proper use of the ambassadorial title should be strictly observed, I would like to recommend the appointment of non-resident ambassadors which is a practice followed by Singapore. This country maintains diplomatic relations with 175 countries but has only 44 overseas posts. It has however 35 non-resident ambassadors to important countries like Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Iran, Uzbekistan, Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic and Poland. Considering our modest resources, it is impossible to have an embassy in every country. There are instances where there is a need for official/diplomatic representation but we do not have either because we do not have the resources or a permanent presence is not justified by the cost. For example, there are newly emerged nations particularly in the near East which have commercial opportunities or there is a need for the protection of our citizens. The designation of a reputable individual in our community as a non-resident ambassador could provide the cost-effective solution. Such an individual would be resident in the Philippines, most likely a businessman. He would be given a modest travel budget allowing him to visit the designated country two or three times a year. Singapore has done this for many years. It has been a productive solution. Maybe this appointment would even be a more attractive proposition to our special envoys many of whom are quite capable. Retired ambassadors who still have the energy and zeal can also fit the bill.

MECO: Model for consular services

The Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO), the country’s “de facto embassy” in Chinese Taipei, has been quietly transforming itself into a model for a Foreign Service post that is operationally efficient to carry out the task of promoting the country’s interest abroad. In 2006, MECO was selected by the “General Chamber of Commerce of Taiwan” as one of the model representative offices in Taipei along with the US and German representative offices as part of the chamber’s 60th anniversary celebration.

MECO’s continuing effort to distance itself from its past reputation as a repository for political patronage reached another milestone when it was granted certification as an ISO 9001compliant organization last July. Antonio I. Basilio, who heads the Taiwan operations, said that the effort to have ISO-certification, while intended to comply with the President’s directive to government agencies to establish an ISO-aligned Quality Management System (QMS) to improve efficiency, proved useful in identifying the gaps and lapses in their operations and services that they needed to address.

As a result there is now a stronger commitment to increase customer satisfaction, employees are more motivated, and productivity increased. Basilio said having the certification is just the beginning because the quality standards have to be maintained. Moreover, there is a continual drive to improve because certification raises greater expectation from the public and they see this in the results they get from their customer satisfaction survey.

Through the use of properly stated quality objectives, customer satisfaction surveys and a well-defined continual improvement program, many companies and some government offices are using ISO 9000 processes to increase their efficiency and profitability.

I hope that the Department of Foreign Affairs will be one of those agencies that will undertake the establishment of QMS in the organization and make itself and its consulates ISO-certified. Certification is not easy because the requirements to document all processes are tedious but should be easy if the organization has in fact been implementing processes. However these processes should be reviewed (I do not recall if this was ever done before in DFA) with an eye to improving customer satisfaction. Government agencies don’t often see themselves as providing a service but rather as implementers of laws and regulations that the public has to comply with anyway. It is because of this attitude that there are some embassies and consulates often seen as an inhospitable place that the public – particularly Filipinos – should try to avoid if they can.   

Compliance with ISO 9001 standards requires a major commitment on the part of management and the staff. I recommend that the DFA Undersecretary for Administration and his assistant secretaries dialogue with Tony Basilio and his staff. Hopefully, they can convince themselves that this is a worthwhile undertaking and muster the commitment to make the organization more operationally efficient and adopt customer satisfaction as an imperative.