Miguel Belmonte: It’s a blessing to help others

MANILA, Philippines - Miguel G. Belmonte is a driven man. Especially when he’s helping others.

The president and CEO of the STAR Group of Publications, and the man who steered The STAR into becoming the highest-earning newspaper today, displays the same zeal and commitment even when he’s away from his desk and in the frontlines of relief operations.

Barely a week after typhoon Yolanda struck Eastern Visayas, claiming the lives of thousands and leaving a trail of devastation in its wake, Miguel and his wife Milette were on a RORO (roll-on/roll-off) vessel to Bantayan Island in Cebu. They headed a relief mission from The STAR’s social development arm, Operation Damayan, that was to take them to four towns in Cebu, Samar and Leyte, armed with relief goods for over 7,000 families.

“When I can, when my work doesn’t stop me from going, then I try to join the Damayan team to see for myself the progress of the relief work and do my little share to help. It’s easy for me to give my check, which I still do, but it brings a lot of fulfillment to be able to help others, look at their eyes, and make them feel you care,” says Miguel, who turned 50 last week. The week before his birthday, he and his family were in the thick of preparations — repacking over 200 sacks of rice at The STAR office in Port Area before sending them off to the Visayas by land. Then he, his wife and a few members of the Damayan contingent were flown to Cebu by Philippine Airlines before embarking on a seven-hour journey by land and sea to Bantayan, the first stop in their mercy mission.

According to hardworking Damayan coordinator Emie Cruz, Miguel shakes every single hand in the queue, even if there are 3,000 people lining up for their relief goods.

“If they want to chat a little bit, I also chat with them,” says this father of three. “If they want a hug or a handshake, if it will make them feel better to make them know that people they don’t even know care for them, I hug them, too. Bringing some hope to them is well worth the difficulties involved in going to these places.”

“The easiest thing is to delegate. Sometimes, to be honest, I feel like just handing the check over to someone from many other institutions like the Red Cross,” admits Miguel. “ But we feel that it’s our obligation to our donors to make sure that every peso they gave us goes directly to the ones they intended it for. What better way than for us to hand it ourselves to these people that our donors wanted to give their help to. For typhoon Yolanda, so far we have already accumulated P9.4 million in donations. This is the biggest we’ve ever solicited from donors. Our company also gave our share but most of it came from outside donations. But since Damayan has projects all year round for people who need our help, we don’t depend entirely on donations.”

“Everybody has a role. If we don’t have kindhearted donors, we wouldn’t have anything to bring there. Everybody helps in whatever way he can. Not everybody has to be standing there, distributing relief goods. Time and effort, financial support, all are a big help,” says Miguel, who became president of The Star when he was only 34 years old.

Team effort

Miguel says he is happy and fortunate his wife Milette is so committed to helping others, too, even if joining the trips isn’t a walk in the park and poses some risks to them.

“God has blessed me with so much, which I feel that I don’t deserve, so helping out physically, not just monetarily, is the least I can do to show how grateful I am for the blessings,” Milette says. She and her husband also joined the Damayan team in Loon, Bohol after the magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck just last month. “What I do is nothing compared to the Damayan team’s dedication. They have jobs to attend to and families to take care of, and yet they find the time to sweat it out in the worst of conditions at times, only to be of help to the needy.”

Milette is also inspired by her husband’s “sheer devotion to make things better for everybody. How can I not be moved?”

During their Yolanda relief mission, the Damayan team was on the road at the crack of dawn every day, and managed only three hours of shuteye each night.

“We distributed relief goods for 7,000 families in two days – 3,000 in Samar alone, 2,000 in Bantayan Island, and 2,000 in Tanauan, Leyte,” recalls Miguel.

He can never forget Tanauan.  His wife was driven to tears when she saw the devastation on the way to Tanauan, where some corpses still remained on the roadside. After distributing relief goods to beneficiaries who held pre-distributed tickets that were used to organize the queues, there were still several sacks of rice left and several typhoon survivors with no tickets.

Miguel says that after the group assured everyone that there was still more than enough left for those without tickets, lo and behold, an orderly line formed on one side. No jostling, shoving or looting whatsoever took place despite the deprivation in the town.

“They were so thankful. In all the places we went to, they told us that the Damayan relief goods were the best they received. We gave rice good for three to five days for a family of five,” Miguel says proudly.

Each Damayan relief pack is worth about P1,000 and also includes groceries, a pair of slippers, a sleeping mat, blanket, and a big jug of water. “We couldn’t give more because they couldn’t carry the pack anymore,” points out Miguel.

Adrenaline gives him strength whenever he joins these relief missions, but it is the memory of his late mother, STAR founding chairman Betty Go-Belmonte, which continues to inspire him.

“My mother, who started Damayan in 1988 to help victims of typhoon Unsang, is my major inspiration. This is her legacy, her legacy of serving others especially those in need, those who are less fortunate. People often describe me as my mother’s son. I’m proud of that  — I am also proud of my father (Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.). There are things you inherit from your father and things you inherit from your mother,” he says.

He also firmly believes God put him where he is now, for a reason. A graduate of UP Diliman, he says he didn’t even take up Journalism in college — he aspired to be a hotelier. But it was to him that the torch of running The STAR was passed.

“The company has been so blessed. We have faced so many challenges through the years and the business is not an easy one. You can count with one hand the number of newspaper companies that are actually making money, and in that hand, we probably have the longest finger because we earn the most. It’s the guidance that I received that makes me want to do this.  Nobody asked me to. I am not a politician. None of the people we reached out to in Samar and Leyte is from our target market. We went to places where the newspaper isn’t even sold because they are so hard to reach.”

And yet at the end of the day, Miguel Belmonte finds that just like his mother did, unconditional love is its own reward.

“It’s a blessing to be given the opportunity and capability to help others. Two months ago, I could hardly walk due to a back problem, but one month after therapy, I was already helping carry sacks of rice for earthquake victims in Bohol,” he shares gratefully.

Miguel then smiles, looks at the portrait of his mother Betty in his office, and then at The STAR’s two-inch thick issue for the day, and he smiles even more.

“I have no doubt I was put here for a reason. Whatever that reason is…  I am learning more about it every day.”