On a normal day at 5:45 a.m., Herr Henry Schumacher would be seen whacking his tennis racket at the Manila Polo Club.

Of course, at the age of 70, he can no longer have a regular singles match with the in-house trainer of the Manila Polo Club and dish out a perfect serve-and-volley move that his compatriot Boris Becker popularized.

"I’m a tennis freak. I play tennis every day, but not as much singles anymore [because they would just go easy on me]. I’m 70 and the guy I’m playing with is in his 30s. How stupid of me to believe that I can beat the guy. But I see [former Chief] Justice Artemio Panganiban [playing singles] and he wins every day," he said.

But while Schumacher would now opt to stay away from competitive tennis games, he would never back down when it comes to pushing the advocacies of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) and the Joint Foreign Chambers (JFC).

One time, Schumacher and other officials of the ECCP and the JFC were summoned by the Senate to explain why they wrote a letter to then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, asking her not to have the Electric Power Industry Reform Act amended. A highlight of that hearing was when Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told Schumacher to just get out of the country if he does not agree with its regulations.

Despite that, there was no letting up for Schumacher. He continued to be the voice of the ECCP and boldly commented on various issues that the foreign chambers believe would undermine the country’s positioning as a preferred destination for foreign direct investments.

And he is here to stay.

Schumacher has lived half of his life in the Philippines. After brief stints at the German military and Hoechst AG in his home country and South Africa, he was assigned by the company to head its Philippine operations in 1977.

"It was in March or April of 1977 [when I first got here]. The Naia [then Manila International Airport] terminal still had no bridges connecting the aircraft to the building. I heard a band playing and I already got that exotic sense. I told myself, ‘Where have I landed?’ I was hearing loud music," Schumacher narrated.

Hoechst Philippines then was 30 percent owned by Jobo Fernandez before he became governor of the Central Bank, so his approval was needed for the transfer of Schumacher to the country.

"We had a good time together. He phoned me one time to go to his house in Dasmariñas [Village]. I went to his house, and that was shortly after the Philippines declared a moratorium on debt payments. And he told me he had been offered to become the next central banker of the Philippines and he was fighting all night with his family and friends but he still wanted to do it," Schumacher recalled.

His designation here was supposed to end after five or six years. However, with the series of national events beginning with the assassination of former Sen. Ninoy Aquino in 1983, the Edsa Revolution, the departure of President Ferdinand Marcos and the attempted coups versus President Corazon Aquino, his company decided not to move him. "Hoechst said 'don’t move.' They were comfortable that I was capable of managing in a chaotic environment."

Then, in 1988, the mother company wanted him back. But, probably, he has come to love the country so much that he did not follow the order of his company.

He stayed!

"I decided against it, I resigned. I have been out of headquarters by that time for 15 years and I didn’t see myself fit to move in to the HQ again. And when you live in the Philippines, you live with many shades of gray. In Germany it’s just black and white. After that, I can’t see myself living in black and white again," he said.

When he said "shades of gray," Schumacher meant flexibility. And that, he said, is one trait that gives Filipinos a good advantage over other races.

"You can put a Filipino anywhere and he will adjust. In Rome he will be an Italiano, in the Netherlands he will be a Dutch. It’s amazing. I haven’t seen any people like that. You can even work in Afghanistan and there is no place where there is no Filipino. It is the flexibility that the Filipinos have, you can adjust," Schumacher said.

Of course, he added, enjoying flexibility has its negative side that worked against Filipinos also --- it’s the lack of discipline.

Another thing that enthralled him is the friendliness of Filipinos. "If somebody does not smile, something is definitely wrong."

One thing, though, that people might think is "un-Filipino" about Schumacher is his decision not to learn the national language. But he has a very valid excuse on that.

"My argument is the European Chamber promotes the Philippines around the world as an English-speaking country. So it is from that point of view. I believe that has always been and still is one of the competitive advantages of the Philippines," he said.

He laments, however, the fact that the first Aquino administration made a decision to remove the English language as a medium of instruction in schools upon the advice of then-Executive Secretary and now Sen. Joker Arroyo.

Because of that, the competency of Filipinos in the English language, although still better than most nations, dropped considerably. And this is evident in the hiring rate of the business-process outsourcing industry. Schumacher said for every 100 applicants, only five to eight of them would pass.

"That for me is a high price that is being paid. Arroyo was blinded, but he would never admit that. And now it would take several years to correct that," Schumacher said.

Schumacher knows what he is saying and he has the resumé to back it up. He and his fellow European executives founded the ECCP in 1978. It was the first-ever European chamber in the world.

With the scheduled integration of Southeast Asian nations into a single market by 2015, Schumacher spearheaded the creation of the Asean-EU Business Council, which is composed of the different European chambers in Southeast Asia.

To help eliminate corruption in the country, he helped jump-start with the JFC and the Makati Business Club the Integrity Initiative, where he is now the project director. He is also the president of the Retirement & Healthcare Coalition, while serving as the voice of ECCP, being its vice president for external affairs.

Source: Business Mirror; Leisure;  21 April 2013