“Be strong and steady;
always enthusiastic about the Lord’s work
For you know that nothing you do for the Lord
is ever useless.”
1 Corinthians 15:58

It has been a hectic for us…from welcoming the new general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Manila, the young and good-looking Mark Bradford, to driving to Tarlac City on a pilgrimage to celebrate the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross with the monks of Fr. Archie Cortez, to being inspired at the Bulong Pulungan Sofitel forum by the success of Immigration Commissioner Nonoy Libanan’s reforms, to a tranquil Japanese lunch with presidentiable, senator Chiz Escudero and catching up with Beth Tagle, her Inner Wheelers and healer Fr. Fernando Suarez for a feeding session for 1,000 poor kids in Smokey Mountain.

Whew! I had been home-bound for three days because of a bad cold so “coming out” was essential to save my sanity. What do you do when you struggle with trying to breathe but console yourself with the thought that isolation from the world will do you good (and your loved ones too)?

I read, watched all the EWTN programs, movies on TV especially the “girl” romantic comedies like “Mrs. Winterbourne” with Shirley McLaine and that cutie pie, Brendan Fraser who always looks like an over-grown boy scout. I followed the news, and even the entertainment gossip so I felt I had earned the right to hop, skip and jump to different social happenings when I regained my voice and cleared my nose and head, thanks to a steady concoction of warm water, honey, kalamansi and a daily dose of bee propolis from Ilog Maria!...

Now the socials…the Mandarin Oriental’s “hello and goodbye” to the old manager, Helmut Gaisberger and welcome Swiss/British national Mark Bradford was a gathering of the hotel’s top clients, the tourism players, businessmen, tycoons, and friends. PR head Charisse Chuidian in a becoming new hairdo, welcomed the many guests to the tent-like ballroom.

Friends I had not seen for some time like a blast from the past—couple Paul (The Magician) Potasy and wife Lita, hoteliers Peter Stevens and Peter Jentes, food writer Chona Trinidad, a glowing Toni Gregory, Tourism’s Usec. Edu Jarque with travel host Susan Calo Medina and others, coming and going. Fun.

Bradford, we learned, came from his last posting in Chiang Mai where Mandarin has a luxury hideaway retreat, the Mandarin Oriental Dhera Dhevi. He has been with the hotel chain for eight years and he was warmly welcomed by the top brass led by Andrew Hirst, Mandarin Hotel Group’s Operations Director for Asia.

He speaks French and German and should be an asset to Mandarin Oriental Manila as he was in all the hotel properties he was previously assigned to.

***

And last Tuesday, I had the chance to sit down for coffee and delicious sugar-free French desserts with Sofitel’s genial general manager Bernd Schneider, marketing boss Rose Libongco and Immigration Commissioner Nonoy Libanan. He has just guested at our media forum, Bulong Pulungan and spoke extensively on his bureau’s “new image.”

We congratulated him on his action-packed reforms that has earned him plaudits not only from his very pleased boss lady, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (who appointed him there to clean it up and professionalize the services in 2007) but also from those who do business with the bureau-foreign nationals.

The “Com” has, in the process of reforming the bureau which was once listed as “one of the most corrupt agencies in government,” upgraded BI to one of the “best performing and least corrupt” in terms of efficient and honest service, revenue-generation and energized bureaucracy. No more fixers, hello to quick, simple and streamlined visas for foreigners who put up businesses here, satellite offices in key cities, computerized visa checks and an “academy” for his agents! In the least corrupt, most efficient list, BI is now No. 3 up from number 87.

This lawyer ex-activist, seminarian, vice-governor, congressman is an artist at heart and as he told Bernd, “My passion is perfection, in my music and my work.”

Bernd, whose two children are also into music understood this. Nonoy plays the classic Spanish guitar and learns his pieces “by ear” as he does not read notes. But so fine-tuned is his musical ear that he only has to hear a piece several times and he can already play it on his guitar! All his five children have his musical genes too.

When he was still a congressman, he confessed that he was a “Japayuki” in Japan, playing at concert gigs on invitation of fans there. He accepted invitations on his “off” days from congress and so is mulling over his possible musical “career” after 2010 because he says, “I will not run for any elective post in 2010!”

What is there left for the “Com” to accomplish in the BI which boasts of a new building on the site of the burnt-down old office? After all, he took the bold step of dropping once-harassed Indian and Chinese nationals from the “restricted list” of foreigners, earning him the respect of his constituents and was able to bring in much-needed foreign investments to bring in much-needed foreign investments that generated some 30,000 new jobs in barely six months! He has decongested the holding cells of foreign detainees and expedited the extradition of non-desireables and criminal elements who managed to enter the country.

On top of his priority now is a law, Nonoy said, that will make the BI independent, stronger and more responsive to the needs of the times. It will make the BI a department much like its counterpart in the US, making it really a true “gateway” guardian of the country. It’s already in Congress, and he hopes it will soon pass.

Today, the “Com” celebrates his 42nd birthday and we wish him long life and more success! He has received a finalist certificate for the prestigious “Lingkod Bayan” award among government workers and he says this is more than enough recognition for all his efforts.

I say, “Cheers!” and may your tribe increase!