A central idea

Nothing warms the heart like a success story.  And nothing can beat it if the “central” characters are young, spirited entrepreneurs like DJ Marasigan and Darlo Lopez.

Both are friends of my own kids and are in fact young enough to be my kids. Both are in their mid-twenties and dared to travel a well-worn, oft-traversed path, and took it to an altogether different level.

Of the two friends, only Darlo was prepared for their chosen career path, having graduated from CCA with a degree in culinary arts. While most of his peers chose to work as chefs in established restaurants, Darlo looked at the idea of street food, and took it from there.

His friend, DJ, is another story. He graduated from De la Salle University with an unlikely career, Physical Therapy, but chose to nurture his entrepreneurial spirit with his close friends.

Their first venture was simple. They had about seven tiny stalls measuring 1-1/2 meters x 1/5 meter, just big enough to have one store tender, along busy streets in BF Hones in Parañaque. Business was brisk because one — their prices were very affordable; two — they offered clean food, and three — service was prompt and quick. It soon became a favorite drive-by option for the young people in the village.

That was in April 2005. By March 2006, they found a good site as a restaurant, and the first branch of Central B-b-Cue Boy was born in BF. On October of the same year, they found a better site along Aguirre Avenue, the village’s main thoroughfare, and it was here that Central bloomed into a full-blown restaurant, with a seating capacity of 250.

Central’s character is predominantly young.  It is an open restaurant, with the main sitting area just amply covered to protect the diners from rain. Otherwise, it’s al fresco wining and dining, without the modern amenities of air conditioning to spoil the fun!

What sets it apart from other restaurants with similar grill specialties? Aside from the al fresco ambience, they have kept their prices extremely low. Their pork barbecue is at P15, and this goes for their chicken barbecue as well. Their popular pork and chicken isaw is at an incredulously low P12 per stick, while their sisig, which can give their counterparts a run for their money, is at P60. Their Baby Boy which is baby back ribs is at P90.

They have their own concoctions of mixed drinks which they sell either by the glass or by the pitcher, and these are priced very low as well. Their Bad Boy and Bad Girl are sold by the pitcher for P150; their Bad Trip at P180 and Bad Shot at P190. A pitcher serves four to five, so you can see it’s not a bad deal at all.

I have always been amazed whenever I pass through Aguirre Avenue late at night. The cars are double-parked, bumper-to-bumper, and go as far as several meters away from the restaurant itself. Apart from that, there are dozens of young people waiting for their turn to get in, because the restaurant is simply too full to accommodate them. Catching a fleeting glimpse beyond the gates of Central, one can see that the management has added more than enough tables, some tables just nudging the gates, but the throng outside patiently wait for their turn.

It is an amazing sight that never fails to intrigue me because this is a common sight, not just on weekends when the crowd is impossibly big, but on slow weekdays as well. Imagine driving through such a sight on a Monday or Tuesday, perhaps. Or imagine driving past it on a stormy night and finding it impossibly full again!

This year, in March, they opened another branch in Kapitolyo in Pasig City — same ambience of open-air dining, same simple structure, same inexpensive menu selections. Though it has not caught on as much as the original BF branch, perhaps because there is just too much competition in the general area, it has nevertheless spawned its own regular clientele. On a regular “slow” day, Central in Kapitolyo has a healthy crowd of young people. This branch has a seating capacity of 150, smaller than the Aguirre Avenue branch.

Just two months after, in May of this year, they opened a third branch in Better Living Subdivision, and after another two months, opened one in BF Resort in Las Piñas. The Better Living branch can seat up to 200, and that is pretty big.  The Las Piñas branch has a smaller capacity at 100.

The dizzyingly fast pace of Central is proof of the dynamism of its owners. As the name implies, it conjures images of a crowded meeting place, a melting pot of young people out for a good time on a shoe string budget. The idea works indeed.

Reservists’ lament

Last July’s graduation of two groups of reservists was not quite the same as the previous ones. The turn out of reservists has been increasingly low over the past few years, and the dedicated men who give their time and effort to keep the reservists’ spirit high and active are disappointed over this sad turn of events.

For the July graduating class, Gen. Romeo Tolentino sent his Chief of Staff to speak in the opening ceremonies while the ARESCOM Commanding General Brig. Gen. Luini C. Mirar was guest speaker for the opening class. Col. Joseph Galam gave an inspirational talk to the 125 new graduates.

In the past, these rites would have thousands of young graduates, but since Congress made the ROTC course optional, spurned in part I guess by the untimely death of a cadet officer, the turn-out of reservists has been dwindling.  The ROTC is now also just a one-year optional course.

Like so many other good ideas gone to waste, the spirit of ROTC in its original concept has been sidestepped in favor of politicizing and the dirty business of military supplying. The malefactors have tainted a noble concept, and the deterioration of the morals, and the very fiber of this age-old tradition have contributed to the slow death of the reservists movement.

Notwithstanding the grim prospects, a few good men remain steadfast in their commitment to the movement.  People like Col. Joseph Galam, Col. Marcelo Javier, Lt. Col. Roberto G. Gamboa Jr., Lt. Col. David Karganilla, Maj. Lee Licup and many others believe in the potent power of the reservists. These men faithfully set aside one day a week to do their share in inculcating the values formation that is in the core of the reservists movement — integrity, courage, discipline, and a deep sense of nationalism. They cite Israel and Switzerland who both have excellent citizen armies in the core of their formidable defense. These men and women can be called anytime for active duty and have been properly and adequately trained. If this can be replicated in a country such as ours where logistics are scarce but manpower is not, we could easily offset the sorry state of our outdated weaponry, or the lack of it.

Mabuhay!  Be proud to be  a Filipino.

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