Believing in hard work

MANILA, Philippines - The scene is the densely populated city of Navotas, which John Reynald Marcelo Tiangco calls home.

Constantly manning the family’s fishing boats with his crew, John says they are the suppliers of tuna (in different varieties and sizes, mostly yellow fin) to canning factories like Century Tuna.

Closely related to the “old rich” Marcelo-clan whose early venture was boat-building, John has set his direction early on in related fields such as corporate director of R&LT Shipyard and Realty Development Corp., Trans-Pacific Journey Fishing Corp.; and president, Admiral Aqua Farms, Inc., Admiral Marine Construct Inc., and Admiral Koi Food Specialties, Inc., Signal Marine Shipyard and Natural PNG Shipyard Ltd.

His position, as director of PT Sinar Purefoods International (Indonesia), Trinity Marine Ventures (Vietnam), Intercontinental Ventures PTE (Singapore) and Signal Marine Ventures, perks up his desire to serve his home city of Navotas.

Tiangco is a silent worker pushing for a clean, green and healthy environment to bring back life in the marine resources. He encourages his peers to abide by the basics of fishing – “even an elderly and experienced fisher must undergo check out rules due to the peculiar nature of fishing,” he says.

While it is a year yet into the 2010 polls, he said Navoteños are already prodding him to run for mayor, vice his brother, incumbent Mayor Toby Tiangco, who is on his last term. “My townmates worry that the unfinished project of the mayor will be put in the back burner,” he says.

“Modesty aside, Navoteños, since my brother became the mayor of our tiny city, we have “cleaned up” our acts – pushing ourselves to do what is important to make Navotas at par with the big cities in Metro Manila. With our unified efforts, it was really easier than we thought.”

Equipped with a BS Accounting and AB History degrees at the College of St. Benilde, DLSU (Taft) and ranked number one in Tennis, John hints he could be of help to build a healthy, alert and strong Navoteño, no matter the age.

A healthy mind and a healthy body is what John advocates to all his citymates, so on occasions of fitness activities he is there as an adviser, devotedly sharing his expertise in the sport he came to love when he was in college — tennis.