ISM SUPE IN NYC

A meeting with Mr.David Toze - Superintendent at ISM

By Lee-Tal Behiri 2/11/04

Dear friends,

I wanted to share with you the wonderful experience a few ISM alumni have shared here in New York.

We had a pleasure of meeting the new Superintendent of ISM Mr. David Toze. Although none of us knew him, it had felt like meeting a distant relative after a long time. He reminded us of a place we once called home and memories we had long forgotten.

After meeting with old classmates and fellow students (class of 70' to class of 99'), Mr.Toze gave us the news of what's new at ISM. For example: the new campus, Mr. Hammett left for Brent, and the girls and boys Rugby teams. Or what's old: Vicky (Sycip Herrera), ISM being one of the top
ranking International schools.

But his main goal for meeting with us was to call out to all ISM Alumni and former students to keep in touch with ISM. He expressed sorrow for the fact that ISM hasn't been doing a good job keeping in touch with its Alumnus. He said that giving the best education and
than turning your back on your students is not the way to go.

Although keeping strong ties with Alumnus that are spread all over the world is not an easy thing to do, it is possible.

Two e-mail addresses that can be helpful if you want to update your details:

alumni@ismanila.com – Alumni relations.

super@ismanila.com – Mr. David Toze – The Superintendent himself.

Da King' Flap Suits Filipinos

An aging film star is shaping up as the leading challenger in the Philippines' presidential election in May, if he can deflect a series of legal maneuvers to derail his campaign.

Widely known by his initials, FPJ, or simply as "Da King," 64-year-old Fernando Poe Jr. is the country's wealthiest and most-famous actor. Ordinary Filipinos readily identify with Mr. Poe, whose film roles typically portray downtrodden bus drivers or other blue-collar heroes striking back at corrupt policemen, violent street gangs or other shadowy oppressors of the common man.

Mr. Poe also enjoys the backing of political groups linked to former presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, who have chosen the actor as their candidate to run against avowed U.S. ally and incumbent president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

But Mr. Poe, according to Manila lawyer Victoriano Fornier, isn't a "natural-born" Filipino, and as such is prohibited from running for president. Mr. Fornier, who says he is acting independently, petitioned the Philippines' Commission on Elections to disqualify Mr. Poe. Mr. Fornier and other lawyers say Mr. Poe's Spanish father didn't marry his mother, an American, until a year after he was born, making him an American under Philippine law.

Although the commission since has cleared Mr. Poe to run, the body also acknowledged that it isn't the proper agency to decide Mr. Poe's citizenship. That has prompted Mr. Fornier to appeal and other Philippine lawyers to file suits with the Supreme Court, seeking a determination of Mr. Poe's citizenship.

The allegations about Mr. Poe have prompted an all-too-familiar kind of legal wrangle in the Philippines, where democracy is as frequently conducted in the courts as at the ballot box. A fondness for litigation, in general, unsettles many investors considering competing countries for locating call centers, factories or tourist resorts.

Mr. Poe's disputed lineage has swamped Manila newspapers for weeks. Lawyers for and against the actor have accused one another of tampering with birth certificates and other documents to show that Mr. Poe is (or isn't) the illegitimate son of an American woman. The country's Senate has begun its own hot-tempered inquiry, while Mr. Poe has met with influential business leaders to declare: "I want you all to know I'm Filipino!"

Of course, electoral disputes aren't exactly uncommon in other countries. Many people in the Philippines followed the repeated Florida recounts and court challenges in President George W. Bush's narrow defeat of Al Gore in the 2000 U.S. presidential election with as much enthusiasm as they follow their own elections.

But for an impoverished developing country lagging behind Asian neighbors such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia, the Philippines has a surprisingly litigious streak.

After the U.S. replaced Spain as the islands' colonial ruler during 1898, Filipinos quickly grew adept at navigating the country's American-style legal system, particularly when it was applied to politics. Candidates for positions ranging from town councilor all the way up to the president regularly challenge ballot counts. Noel Cariño, for example, recently was proclaimed congressman of a district in Manila three years after he won the actual election; Mr. Cariño's opponent, in the meantime, had managed to grab Mr. Cariño's seat in Congress after challenging the original election result.

Political analyst and newspaper columnist Alex Magno says that in the Philippines, even relatively normal elections can stir unwelcome upheaval in the bureaucracy, which, in other countries, investors often rely upon for maintaining a degree of stability as elected officials come and go.

"This is because the contending factions usually resort to scorched-earth policies after the victors are proclaimed," Mr. Magno says. "The victors yank out the appointees of predecessors and hand out offices to supporters as spoils of political battle. The practice often results in discontinuities in policies and procedures, a shift in power among contending business groups and a long transition where many things remain undefined."

During recent years, these winner-take-all political battles have often taken place in court. During 2001, the Supreme Court declared that Mr. Estrada had effectively resigned the presidency when he fled the presidential palace after the army turned against him.

It took months to resolve that case, and Mr. Estrada insists from an army camp prison, where he is being held on corruption charges, that he is still the duly elected president of the Philippines and therefore is immune from prosecution.

During the most-recent presidential election, in 1998, the courts had to settle a dispute over whether a leading contender was a Filipino or a Chinese citizen. During 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that Fidel Ramos was the Philippines' rightful president, four years after he narrowly won a disputed election over rival Miriam Defensor Santiago. To this day, many Filipinos believe Ms. Santiago won the actual ballot.

This time, the dispute over Mr. Poe's citizenship could trigger a constitutional crisis. Mr. Poe's supporters have threatened to revolt against the Arroyo administration in a "people power" show of strength if he is ruled ineligible to contest for the presidency. If no legal ruling comes before the May 10 election and Mr. Poe wins -- as many opinion polls suggest he will -- he could, conceivably, later be stripped of office if the Supreme Court decides he isn't a Philippine citizen. That, too, would be likely to create a political furor. Mr. Estrada, with characteristic gusto, this week warned of "civil war" if his close friend is disqualified.

In either case, such developments would further unnerve investors already concerned about political stability in the Philippines. Thursday, the Philippine currency closed at a record low of 56.01 pesos to the dollar after the military detained six junior officers for criticizing the defense secretary for political bias. Ms. Arroyo played down the incident, describing it as "military adventurism."

As for Mr. Poe, lawyers from both sides are poring over various marriage certificates and birth certificates dating from before World War II to settle whether the actor was born before his parents married. As political analyst Antonio Abaya says, "This has become a quintessentially Filipino controversy: Who is faking which documents to prove or disprove that someone was a bastard?"

Source: JAMES HOOKWAY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
[Thanks to Rod O'Connor '82 for submitting this!]