Arnel Paciano Casanova: From a slum dweller to a city builder

In Photo: Lawyer Arnel Paciano Casanova, president and CEO of Bases Conversion and Development Authority, speaks before participants of an investment conference in 2014.

By Leony R. Garcia

WHO would ever think that a slum dweller, a penniless student who migrated to the city to pursue the elusive dream of education, would one day become a city builder?

This is the story of Arnel Paciano Casanova, currently the president and CEO of the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), a government development corporation mandated to transform former military lands into alternative productive civilian enclaves. 

Casanova grew up in a poor family in Padre Garcia, Batangas province. His father, a farmer, and her mother, a seamstress, had a hard time raising him and his seven siblings. Thus, at a young age, there was this thirst for learning as a way out of hardship for the family and a way to be successful in life someday.

Thirst for learning

“In my town, a college degree was literally an impossible dream.  Yet, my thirst for learning was insatiable.  Armed with P100 in my pocket, I went to Manila and took the University of the Philippines [UP] College Admission Test, and passed,” Casanova reminisced.  

So while studying in UP, the young Casanova lived with relatives, who were slum dwellers in Fort Bonifacio. He then became one of those unknown city migrants who had to scrounge for food, shelter and education while sleeping on the floor, enduring leaking roofs and flooded road.  “Yet, I found grace in humanity in the slums.  Neighbors know each other. I never ran out of people to play street basketball with at any given time of the day or night.  We shared food, no matter how meager it could be. I found my true friends in the midst of  squalor,” he continued.

Peace negotiator at 25

Fast forward. Casanova was 25, just a year out of the UP Law School. He was a young lawyer working as part of the government peace panel.

“Fortunately, we were able to successfully negotiate peace with former military rebels.  For this, I was awarded the prestigious Philippine Legion of Honor Medal [1997], one of the youngest recipients of such award under the presidency of President Fidel Ramos,” he said.

According to Casanova, other accomplishments of the peace panel then included the recovery of weapons, firearms, explosives and ammunitions of the army rebels—Reform the Armed Forces Movement, Soldiers of the Filipino People, Young Officers Union (RAM-SFP-YOU).

As a lawyer, he also helped draft the General Peace Agreement between the Philippine government and the RAM-SFP-YOU and the Marcos loyalist forces and the Amnesty Proclamation. And in 2003, he testified on military corruption before the Feliciano Commission, a body created to investigate the Oakwood Mutiny. This resulted in the recovery of government property, valued at approximately $200 million, which was misappropriated by a group of retired and active generals of the military.

BCDA chief

And now, 20 years after, Casanova finds himself approaching his fifth year as BCDA president and CEO.

And his latest accomplishments:  “Through sound partnerships forged with the private sector, prudent asset management and revenue collection, we were able to contribute over P27 billion for the account of the modernization of the Armed Forces.  Among our projects which greatly benefited the nation are the Bonifacio Global City, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway and soon, the country’s first, smart, disaster-resilient metropolis, the Clark Green City.”

Other advocacies

Currently, he is a faculty member of the Ateneo School of Government and UP College of Law teaching social entrepreneurship and law, while mentoring other social enterprises involved in health care, poverty alleviation, environment, housing and others.

He is also into microfinancing and is part of CARD Inc., the biggest microfinance institution in the Philippines. He has founded AvantChange, a social enterprise organized in Cambridge that aims to promote social entrepreneurship in Asia. Further, he supports the Tsinelas Leadership of the late Secretary Jesse Robredo, and is among the pioneers of Kaya Natin! (We Can!), a social movement for good governance and ethical leadership.

A staunch supporter of the youth, Casanova believes in the promise and the vast possibilities that they can do.  “For me they are equally good and hardworking. My story is not unique, and we have many youths who have moved mountains through hard work and selflessness.  The only difference with today’s youth is the lack of reverence for the heroes of our country. Because we can learn a lot from our history, value those who passed before us,” he admonished.

He also advised today’s Millennials  to love the country and study hard, to value the opportunity to participate in  good governance, and  not holding back in dreaming and working hard to achieve those dreams.

“From a slum dweller, I am now a city builder.  And my education in UP and in Harvard has given me a different perspective—a perspective that has empowered me to pay it forward. In building Clark Green City, my colleagues in the BCDA are  being able to offer Filipinos an opportunity to live a better quality of life—a life they deserve,” he said.  

“Clark Green City is a project for the benefit of the new generation. And we in the BCDA are committed to realize this for our country. We hope our countrymen will support this project, as it will behold proper urban planning that will yield growth that is inclusive—affordable quality of life that is world-class and responsive,” Casanova concluded.

Source : http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/arnel-paciano-casanova-from-a-slum-dweller-to-a-city-builder/

Lucio Tan at 25: Birth of an enterprise

In Photo: Himmel, 1999

By Joey de Guzman / Special to the BusinessMirror

AS a child, Lucio C. Tan was always fascinated by technology. With a sense of wonder, he marveled at the speed and efficiency by which machines and high-tech devices of his time transformed the world. He believed then, as now, that technology and innovation play vital roles in the development of any enterprise.

At his tender age, he dreamt of becoming a scientist. Thus, after graduating from Chiang Kai Shek High School in 1955, he immediately set this dream to motion: He enrolled in a chemical engineering course at the Far Eastern University. Though he did not become a full-time scientist by profession, his almost obsessive fondness for science and technology is reflected in his daily life and throughout his business empire.

Business mind-set

As a working student, the young Lucio Tan busied himself with mastering the craft of mixing chemicals and flavorings at the Bataan Cigar and Cigarette Factory. Through hard work and a frugal lifestyle, he slowly raised the seed of his envisioned enterprise. While still working for the cigarette firm, he became a partner in a cornstarch venture and, later, established an electronics shop producing transistor radios. Though both attempts at entrepreneurship didn’t take off, these setbacks only fueled his determination to pursue his dream.

Sowing the seeds of an empire

At 25, he started laying the groundwork for a chemical manufacturing and trading firm. While others of similar age were busy establishing careers after college, Tan was already forming the foundations of what would become one of the most inspiring corporate success stories in the Philippines.

Making the most of what he learned from his chemical engineering studies and his work of mixing chemicals at the Bataan Cigar and Cigarette Factory, he drew plans and purchased second-hand machines and reconditioned American trucks for his envisioned enterprise.

On November 18, 1960, Himmel Industries Inc. was born. The company started small, venturing into the trading of chemicals, such as refined glycerin, sorbitol, industrial honey, menthol and flavoring compounds. While the company’s original target market was the burgeoning cigarette industry, it later expanded operations to supply major ingredients to the food, pharmaceutical, beer, paint, ink, textile, cosmetic, paper, glue, plastic, rubber, PVC and cement industries.

Within the same year, Tan married Carmen Khao Tan. They have seven children.

Founders

Located in Barrio Santolan, Pasig City—where it still stands today—Himmel was founded by Tan and several partners. Each took specific roles in managing plant operations, marketing and cash management. With this core group, Himmel provided high-quality products and professional services, thus earning the trust and loyalty of its clients and business partners.

Early years

At the time of Himmel’s entry, there was great demand for refined glycerin—a chemical widely used in the cigarette, paint, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries. However, few Philippine companies could meet the demand and the pharmaceutical grade required by most manufacturers. Seeing great opportunity, Tan flew to the United States and bought an old glycerin refinery, dismantled the same and rebuilt it piece by piece in the Philippines.

The refurbished plant was a huge success. Himmel was able to process and produce high-grade glycerin, which it sold to local companies at costs much lower than its imported counterparts. Because of Tan’s foresight and keen business sense, many local companies benefited from his glycerin plant, which made Himmel a byword in Philippine industrial circles.

Trading and related businesses

Years later, Himmel’s operations expanded to the trading of industrial chemicals. In 1977 it built a second glycerin plant.  With the foundation for long-term stability in place, Himmel diversified into the trading of fabricated steel drums, compound flavors, and fragrances and printing ink.

With great demand for flavorings and fragrances, Himmel introduced the planting of peppermint grass in Mindoro; propagation of citronella plants in Laguna; and raising of honey bees. It was upon Tan’s initiative that honey production was pursued. Even today, the tycoon is an acknowledged beekeeping expert, a skill he acquired during his younger days as a chemist for the Bataan Cigar and Cigarette Factory.

With natural competitive advantages as a supplier of raw materials, Himmel ventured into soap manufacturing. Through Manserve, an affiliate company, Himmel produces its own line of bath soap, like Nova, Success, Persona and Stiefel. The company is also a major subcontractor, producing different brands for various multinational corporations.

In 1981 Himmel set its sights on the booming Calabarzon area. Using South Korean technology, it built a private pier in Pinamucan, Batangas, that could service huge vessels with average lifting capacities up to 17,000 dead weight tons. Later, Himmel acquired 14 shore tanks with a combined capacity of 11.5 million liters of liquid bulk cargo, including aviation fuel.

On a par with international standards, Himmel’s liquid cargo terminal could store imported chemicals and solvents in bulk for later delivery to different parts of the Philippines. Equipped with some of the best safety and firefighting equipment, the cargo terminal has attracted an impressive list of clients which includes giant multinational firms.

Himmel and the lt Group

Through vision and hard work, Tan and his cofounders built Himmel from its small plant in Pasig City to its current status as one of the country’s biggest chemical traders. Its path to success was paved with calculated moves, carried out with methodical precision. Its operations were anchored in the belief that nothing can be gained from haphazard strategies.

Indeed, after more than five decades, Himmel has distinguished itself not only in the chemical manufacturing and trading sectors, but also as the seed from which sprouted a vast conglomerate that now cuts across the length and breadth of Philippine commerce.

It was from Himmel and, later, Fortune Tobacco Corp., that the Lucio Tan Group of Cos. (now publicly listed as LT Group Inc., or “LTG”) expanded into agribusiness; airlines and related services; banking, finance and securities; brewery; chemicals; distillery and alcohol; education; food; hotel; real estate; soap manufacturing; steel fabrication and construction; and tourism and travel services.

Since Himmel was established, Tan set his sights on the pursuit of quality and profitability that was to shape the vision of today’s LT Group Inc. With its achievements, it could be said that Himmel—more than a corporate success—is one man’s vision which he dreamed and put into action at the young age of 25.

Source : http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/lucio-tan-at-25-birth-of-an-enterprise/

Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua: No Dream Too Tall

In Photo: Portrait of the Cabangon Chua couple, who got married on the eve of Christmas, 1959 and Young businessman Tony, shown here with his third motorcycle, a Harley-Davidson speeder.

By Joel Pablo Salud |Special to the BusinessMirror

It was half past the summer of 2009 when, as the new boy in the Philippines Graphic newsroom, I was introduced to the company’s chairman emeritus, Ambassador Antonio L. Cabangon Chua. I was then just recently hired as the magazine’s new managing editor.

Tony (in bow tie), then the youngest member of the Chamber of Pawnbrokers of the Philippines. Then Manila Mayor Antonio J. Villegas is in left foreground.

At the doorway to his office, I saw the ambassador standing all dapper and sporty in his dark blue jacket, sports shirt and beige pants, even as he sported a smile that made me feel doubly welcome.

I immediately sensed a humility to him that defied explanation. I had worked in numerous companies prior to working with the Aliw Media Group. I was no stranger to corporate top brass. The same level of modesty I sensed in my new boss came few and far between.

Very few had had the chance to meet the man, whom many fondly call Amba, up close. As we shook hands and settled in his office, I noticed a huge framed photograph of a lovely woman in Filipiniana attire hanging by his wall. I recall wondering who the woman was, until later in the day when I was told she was the ambassador’s mother, Dominga Lim Cabangon.

Past the routine civility of introducing myself as his new hired hand, Amba immediately set the pace of the conversation. No small talk, no further courtesies; just a gesture of trust I rarely see in other bosses I’ve worked with in the past.

“I want you to interview General Ermita for the magazine today,” the ambassador said, obviously eyeing me with a bit of curiosity. After about half a minute of silence, he waved at his secretary, who apparently knew what the gesture meant.

The Filipinas Pawnshop, on the corner of Herran (now Pedro Gil) and General Luna in Paco, in a recent photo: Still in the same location after almost 50 years.

Turning to me, he then said, “My driver and my car are waiting for you downstairs. Hijo, I have worked with a lot of journalists and editors in my lifetime. All I ask is that you be fair.”

With no further instructions, he stood up and kindly saw me out the door. As I strolled past the secretary’s desk, he again called and asked me to draw near.

Thereafter, he leaned over and said, “I want you to think of the magazine as your own, and think of me as your own father. From this day on, I will treat you as one of my children. We’re your family, always remember that. If you need anything, anything at all, don’t have second thoughts of asking me.” He then patted me on the shoulders.

That alone said a lot about the sort of individual I was to respect as my boss. Little did I know then that there was more to this man than meets the eye.

Weeks into the job saw me scrounging for information about the ambassador—who he is, how he runs things. I have yet to hear anything adverse when, quite by accident, I stumbled on two books, one written by National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin, Antonio L. Cabangon Chua: A Saga of Success, and its sequel penned by award-winning writer Jose F. Lacaba and Eric S. Caruncho.

While I was not the sort who read biographies, Joaquin and Lacaba were good enough reasons to flip the pages.

Tony Cabangon’s life as a child cared for by single parent—his mother Dominga—along the poorer side of Barrio Namayan in Mandaluyong was anything but a breeze.

During and immediately after World War II, the young Tony ran errands as a servant, rented out komiks, sold newspapers and magazines, and buffed the shoes of American GIs just to make ends meet. Later on, with a little help from a vocational course, the future ambassador to Laos worked as an automotive and diesel mechanic and a passenger jeepney driver.

His mother Dominga borrowed money from rich relatives in exchange for life’s modest needs.

Often ill-treated to the point of being humiliated, both mother and son soldiered on, Tony more than ever, who did everything humanly possible to ease the poverty of his mother.

It was a hard climb for both mother and son, but none too steep for Tony to reach. To ease the grip of poverty, the young Tony engaged in everything, from vending fish whenever he can to finally opening a humble sari-sari store in that pitiful riverside barrio they called home.

One defining moment in young Tony’s life came by way of an American GI. In the book The Continuing Saga of Success, written by award-winning poet Jose “Pete” Lacaba and Eric S. Caruncho, Tony himself reminisced about the incident.

Tony related that while he was shining the shoes of a GI, his eyes caught the pear the man was eating. Tony hardly had a bite to eat for hours. As if to taunt him, the GI asked if Tony wanted the pear.

“And this son-of-a-bitch American knew my mouth was watering for that pear he was eating. ‘You want this pear, boy?’ he grinned at me. I could only gape at him. The pear was only half-eaten and suddenly he hurled it away. ‘Go get it, boy!’ I didn’t move […] I refused to stir.”

It was then that the GI kicked the young boy “like a dog.” The sudden violence forced the young Tony to scamper under a six-by-six truck for safety, where he wept because of the pain.

“But at the time,” Tony said, “I felt something of my mother’s pride. I hadn’t run to pick up that thrown-away pear the GI wanted me to eat. I was very thin then, probably malnourished, certainly quite hungry. But I had not run after food like a dog. I had shown the American how even in misery, one can keep one’s pride.”

It served the young boy a lot of good to see to it that his mother was cared for by him all throughout her life, earning for himself some home-spun wisdom along the way. Coupled with being streetwise, the young Tony began his dream of a life even while in high school and college.

With more than ample resources from the sari-sari store, the young Tony ventured into being a driver of a passenger jeepney in his middle teens. It was, as he said, his first car. His job as driver and shopkeeper kept him busy all throughout the day, plying the Pandacan, Santa Ana and Paco routes. The hours he spent as college student of the University of the East he dedicated to studying until he made it into the Dean’s list.

No summer went by without seeing Tony on campus, between the pages of textbooks and inside classrooms. He was, at an early age, a man in a hurry. In three years, and at the age of 22, he was able to finish what was supposedly a four-year commerce course.

However, his attempt at being a certified public accountant proved disastrous for a time in Tony’s estimation. He had failed the first test. While on the verge of taking the second, his first business as a jeepney operator was already taking off.

But he had better things in mind than the meager return on investments he received from driving and operating a fleet of public-utility jeeps. Able to convince college friends to invest their money on a new venture—a pawnshop—Tony took on the reins of what would be a defining moment in his career as a businessman.

It cost him more than a hand and a limb: all of the P30,000 savings he garnered from operating a fleet of passenger jeepneys.

And so rose the Filipinas Pawnshop at the corner of Herran (currently Pedro Gil Street) and General Luna in Paco, Manila. It still stands today as an admirable tribute to the ingenious young man who knew how to turn his misfortunes into fortunes.

At the age of 26, Antonio L. Cabangon Chua was the youngest member of the Chamber of Pawnbrokers of the Philippines. He would decades later stand as the country’s diplomat to Laos and chairman emeritus of one of the country’s largest and most extensive business and media enterprises—the Antonio L. Cabangon Chua Group of Companies and the Aliw Media Group.

In honor of his mother’s memory, the ambassador shares his blessings through the Dominga L. Cabangon Memorial Foundation. With its goal of supporting needy children through education, the foundation has lent its hand in support of hundreds of scholars belonging to deserving children of his employees, also to priests seeking further education.

With this comes his homage to his good friend and first editor in chief of the Philippines Graphic, National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin: the Quijano de Manila Foundation. The foundation’s aim is to offer financial assistance to the effort of developing young writers and children of journalists. The Philippines Graphic Nick Joaquin Literary Awards, now on its 25th year, seeks to enhance writers’ skills by empowering them with tools needed for the task.

“Whether you’re rich or poor, everyone has 24 hours in a day. It’s what you do with your 24 hours that counts. In life, you never give up.”

*Joel Pablo Salud is currently the editor in chief of the Philippines Graphic.