Our woman in Berne

The two-day international conference on federalism and multiculturalism held in Makati October 3 and 4 was made possible by the hard work and determination of two women —Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation  to the Philippines Lise Fevre, and Philippine Ambassador to Switzerland Rora Navarro-Tolentino. From Makati, Ambassador Fevre made financial support available through the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation.

The initiative to hold the conference came from Ambassador Tolentino. She said that during the five years that she was based in Berne, capital of Switzerland, she visited 13 cantons to promote closer bilateral political, trade, and cultural relations between the two countries. It dawned on her that the expressed interest in federalism of President Macapagal-Arroyo and some members of Congress and political scholars, could be enhanced by tapping Swiss expertise in multicultural federalism. She hoped that the conference will "enrich the ongoing discussion of crucial and concrete issues confronting various proposals to transform the Philippines into a federal state."

Ambassador Tolentino is a soft-spoken, articulate diplomat who joined the Foreign Affairs Department while she was a foreign service course student at the UP in Diliman, and was acting chief of the research division, office of policy planning, at the Department of Foreign Affairs when she finished the law course and passed the bar exams in 1973.

Her career has been one uninterrupted journey of promotions. Her first foreign assignment was Bangkok as first secretary and consul general, then counselor, and deputy chief of mission (the youngest post holder at age 39) and alternate permanent representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. She became ambassador to Australia and concurrently non-resident ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Nauru; then to France, UNESCO, and Portugal. She was charge d’affaires a.i. in Bangkok when EDSA I broke out, and as Ambassador Rafael Ileto was in Manila, he asked her to take control. She was the last appointed career chief of mission to be appointed by Marcos.

She became ambassador to the Swiss Confederation in 2000 up to the present. She has received the Distinguished Service Award from the DFA, and the Gawad Mabini Award, rank of Dakilang Kamanong, from President Macapagal-Arroyo.

I asked her after the conference about her formula for getting promotions quickly, without her angling for them, nor her pulling strings. She has no formula, she said. "I don’t claim any superior intelligence. I am just fortunate." But she did admit, that she has "good human relations" and she does things "hands-on. If I have a project, I just don’t sign papers I am actually there. I give emphasis to team work."

"Maybe," she said, "it’s because I have a happy family life. I have a supportive husband, and children who understand." She is married to lawyer Abelardo M. Tolentino Jr.; they have two daughters ages 31 and 28, and a son, 23, who is taking up fisheries.

She studies her foreign posts with I would say, a passion. When she first went to France, she took a leave of absence for six weeks and lived with a French family in Vichy so she would learn to speak French and understand French culture.

Rora’s father, Constantino Navarro Sr., served as governor of Surigao del Norte, then as Congressman from 1959-1992. Rora’s exposure as a daughter of a politician gave her, she said, "a high degree of tolerance, and the ability to understand people of different levels." Her father was kind and sincere in his private and public life. Her mother was a schoolteacher – "She was the disciplinarian."

As to whether the Philippines better shift to the federal system of government, she said, "I’m not prescribing federalism per se. But I want it studied as an option. I saw the merits of federalism in Switzerland, but it has to be studied well, it has to be internalized before we can adopt it for our own."

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Our guest at a recent Bulong-Pulungan sa Westin Philippine Plaza, Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Jose Mario Bunag, turned out to be not the dreaded axman that newspaper reports of errant taxpayers projected him to be. Rather he  was how his friends and family have spoken of him – gentle and fair, but firm and brooking no nonsense. That fits his policy of politely convincing taxpayers to give what is due the government.

 So it isn’t surprising that one month after he assumed the top post at the BIR, he announced that the total revenue collection for August 2005, – P55.85 million – surpassed the agency’s targeted amount of P51.763 million.

What’s more, with large taxpayers, specifically top-earning corporations, contributing P30.135 million, and the regional offices putting into government coffers P51.763 million, the BIR also surpassed the August 2004 collection.

Mr. Bunag praised BIR personnel for working long and hard to change the image of BIR (which had been reputed to be No. 27 in the list of graft-ridden government agencies, although that has dropped to No. 21 lately). He expressed confidence that the goal of P547 billion for 2005 will be met.

Mr. Bunag said we can solve the government’s deficits from tax revenues, "rather than borrowing until we’re blue in the face." Which is why the BIR is trying to raise the tax consciousness of people, "to make them pay willingly, not twisting their arm."

Networking is working for BIR in going after non-paying taxpayers. Claire de la Fuente, head of the bus operators of the Philippines, was found out to owe the government P85 million in taxes from financial statements made on the number of buses she had registered. Movie stars Richard Gomez, Regine Velasquez and Judy Ann Santos were found out through records of other agencies. Even if they pay up, they will still have to face criminal charges. It’s easy to tell who do not pay the right taxes by just looking at how many cars they have, where they live,  and their spending habits, Mr. Bunag said.

He admitted that the days of some BIR officials whose lifestyles are beyond their income are numbered. "It will be difficult to eliminate graft and corruption completely," he said,  but some headway has been made, with more and more people paying taxes voluntarily.

Mr. Bunag admitted he’s lived comfortably enough with his earnings as a law practitioner. When he was offered the BIR post, he and his wife, the former Editha Cruz, agreed that it was time that he served the country. And the country’s the better for that decision.

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After the success of his book, Wealth Within Your Reach, and receipt of the 2004 National Book Award under the business and economics category, Francisco J. Colayco has come up with another expected best-seller, Making Your Money Work, Pera Mo, Palaguin Mo!

Colayco says his  first book, which sold 50,000 copies, needed a follow up because his readers "saw that the first book taught them how to establish a financial resource base, or savings, even without any accounting background since the book simplifies financial principles. In his second book, he tells them how they could make their money work, make  their savings grow, and make investments the correct way.

 "The best way to get rich quick is to get rich slow. It is better to have a stable and more attainable financial plan. And it is best to achieve your financial  independence  the slow but sure way." Making Your Money Work, with its  accompanying Pera Palaguin workbook (with co-author Prof. Helen S. Valderrama) is available at the National Book Store and Power Books. Call 5333423 or text 0917-8537333.

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My e-mail: [email protected]