Crisis should unite people and encourage selflessness

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile. — Albert Einstein

Our lives are like a candle in the wind. — Carl Sandburg

You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live. Now. — Joan Baez

The recent typhoon Ondoy disaster should humble us into remembering that everything can be taken away from us in an instant. Remember the great ship Titanic. Remember Mt. Pinatubo, whose volcanic lahar submerged churches and mansions, erasing whole towns from the map of central Luzon.

What better way to give meaning to our wonderful but fragile human existence here on earth than to be of help to others, to do our modest share in making this world a better place, and to uphold truth, justice and compassion?

This crisis not only provides a true test of leadership and character, it can also unite our fractured society and bring out the best in people in terms of selflessness.

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The private sector should be commended for acting fast in voluntary relief operations to assist the typhoon victims, especially business, the Church, mass media and other groups. Crisis often indeed brings out the best in people.

On a personal basis, I have seen this spirit of volunteerism in action. Even as the typhoon had not yet subsided on the evening of Sept. 26, the young, ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs of Anvil Business Club (membership is not limited to Filipino citizens, with our executive vice president Stefan Tong a citizen of Malaysia and vice-president of Singapore’s Keppel Philippines) within 24 hours had officers raise personal donations via text messages among each other for 600 cases of canned foods to send to typhoon victims. Anvil members like top business seminar speaker Josiah Go donated a lot.

Anvil donations were coursed through various NGOs such as The Philippine STAR (with Anvil honorary chairman George Siy of Marie France/Facial Care Center/Svenson texting Philippine STAR president Miguel Belmonte), GMA Kapuso Foundation (thanks to chairman Atty. Felipe Gozon’s special assistant Rod Cornejo and top broadcaster Mel Tiangco, who personally received our donations), ABS-CBN 2 (thanks to Kris Aquino’s SNN show for acknowledging Anvil’s donation), the Chinese-language newspaper World News’ fund-drive, etc.

Young business leader Donnie Tantoco of Shopwise and Rustan’s supermarkets also asked me how to text Kris Aquino for their donations, and he was himself later able to contact her for their donations through ABS-CBN 2. I got many other text messages from various business and civic leaders, as well as ordinary people wanting to help.

The idea for Anvil’s ongoing relief efforts started with Anvil Council of Regents chairman Jeffrey Ng of Cathay Land/South Forbes Golf City, who texted this writer several times at midnight. This writer is chairman of Anvil. This civic project has been efficiently coordinated by Anvil president Danny Ching and other officers. Apart from joining our late-night emergency board meeting and donating to Anvil’s project, Anvil Regent and past chairman Michael G. Tan of Asia Brewery has also donated truckloads of Absolute and Summit bottled waters for hard-hit areas all over Metro Manila.

Jeffrey Ng reminded me that years ago when Anvil Business Club was just being organized, a major natural calamity hit the Philippines, and then founding chairman Elena Tanyu Coyiuto initiated with fellow co-founders like Jeff Ng, George Siy, Aileen Uygongco-Ongkauko, Berck Cheng, David Chua, Michael Tan, Steve Cua and others a fundraising drive for immediate relief assistance.

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I wish to give special thanks to Anvil director Jansen Chan and his wife Michelle Tiu-Lim Chan of Mega Sardines for special discounts given our Anvil purchases for civic donations to typhoon Ondoy victims.

I’m impressed that Mega Sardines founder William Tiu Lim has pioneered the idea of easy-to-open pouches for their products. I discovered Mega sardines have unique fishing boats and cannery operations in Zamboanga, and I’ve tried eating their fresh products, which are delicious. Journalist Shirley Matias-Pizarro said Mega Sardines is now promoting a “healthy heart” campaign with actor Cesar Montano as celebrity endorser.

Thanks very much also to my friend, 555 Sardines/Century Tuna/Argentina Corned Beef founder and low-profile business taipan Ricardo Po Sr., 77, for responding to my request for a discount on Anvil Business Club’s purchases for our donations. He responded to my midnight text with a cellphone call. He and his firms have also given millions’ worth of food donations to typhoon Ondoy victims.

Unknown to most people, Ricardo Po Sr.’s life story is inspiring. As a 15-year-old immigrant from Fujian, China, he led an authentic rags-to-riches saga. I apologize for breaking my promise not to write about him, because he told me he is publicity-shy despite once working as a journalist for the pre-martial law-era Chinese-language newspaper Tay Tiong Hwa dit-po or the Great China Daily News.

Congratulations on Po’s newest business venture, Birch Tree Milk, which he acquired from the Sy Chi Siong family. I told him that from my childhood to my college years, I drank Birch Tree Milk. His celebrity endorsers are Philippine STAR columnist Lucy Torres-Gomez and husband, actor Richard Gomez (who confirmed to me he’s running for congressman, representing his wife’s hometown of Ormoc).

At a dinner in Choi Garden resto in Greenhills, I once asked Ricardo Po Sr. about his success secrets. Over delicious xiaosing wine, he quoted an old Chinese adage — which I also heard from Elizabeth Yu Gokongwei, wife of the JG Summit Holdings founder, as well as from SM Group/BDO founder Henry Sy — “Tien-si, te-di, din-ho” in Hokkien, or “Tian-xi, Di-li, ren-he” in Mandarin. At the historic Beijing Olympics last year, where almost all of the world’s top overseas Chinese taipans were in attendance, Po said that a university professor translated this Chinese adage for him as “Right time, right place, right people.”

When I pressed the Philippines’ biggest canned foods manufacturer for other bits of wisdom behind his entrepreneurial success, Po said: “Hard work, many years of hard work. Maybe it’s also my passion for excellence, which was inspired by my late, great mother, and maybe because I was poor before. For me, we should strive to be the very best in whatever we do. Mediocrity is not acceptable.” 

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