Lessons on leadership at the Aboitiz summit

Our special presentation on Straight from the Sky tonight is a talk about the future of golfing in the Philippines. As our national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal said, “The Youth is the Hope of the Fatherland.” This is true not only in nation building… but it is also true to the sport of golf. I’ve been playing golf since 1979 at the old Club Filipino, Inc., which is now the Ayala Business Park, and you can say that I have played with the old Cebuano golfers from way back. Many of those golfers are now playing in that great golf course up in the sky.

One thing I do know is… only a few children of my old golfing pals are still playing golf today… perhaps because there was no such thing as a Jungolf program back in those days. But today, the Cebu Country Club and Alta Vista Country Club already have an active Jungolf programs…, which means, we will have children of golfers playing golf with their parents and beyond. In fact, last May, the Cebu Country Club hosted the 1st Philippine Junior Amateur Golf Championships. I hope this will catch on with our youth.

Call me lucky that during the Aboitiz Invitational 2012 I met Mr. Luigi Tabuena, the President of the Philippine Jungolf Foundation and he agreed to have this interview, which we did at the Cebu Country Club. So watch this very interesting interview about the future of golfing in the Philippines on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00 p.m. with replays in MyTV channel 28 on M-W-F.

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I dropped by in the two-day 7th Aboitiz Future Leaders Business Summit at the Radisson Blu last Friday and Saturday, which began with Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV) CEO Montxu Aboitiz giving the opening remarks and the history of Aboitiz… from its humble beginnings to its near bankruptcy and its diversification into a multi-national that it is today.

If there is one single contribution that the Aboitiz Corporation has done for Cebu… it is programs like the Future Business Leader’s Summit as it plants the seeds for future entrepreneurs who will surely benefit from this annual exercise… more so that this Summit has already become a nationwide event as it is participated by practically all major schools in the country… and their top students are learning the “Aboitiz Way” of doing business… which is emblazoned in their logo, “Passion for Better Ways.”

Being a Leadership Business Summit… the meat of the Summit was given by Jon Ramon Aboitiz, Bobby Aboitiz and Romy Ronquillo. Of course, I cannot reprint all that they said during the leadership forum. But Jon Ramon Aboitiz came up with great phrases for students to remember by like “Good leaders inspire others to lead” or that quote from Henry Kissinger who quipped “The task of a leader is to bring people from where they are to where they have not been before.” Of course there were the usual Motherhood phrases that we all use… Leadership by Example and this is something that I personally know that Aboitiz executives do with a passion.

Sir Bobby Aboitiz came up stage with his “Bugsay” on hand…waving it to the students…. to tell the story of the fisherman whose life depends upon the way he rows his “Bugsay”… towards prosperity or misery. His basic message was about attitude and I fully concur. In a boat with everyone having his own oar, if we all row together… nothing can stop us from achieving our goals. But there will always be people who fence sit and do not row with the rest… and worse… the negative that rows his oar in the opposite direction. These are lectures that students do not often get in school, but they certainly get an earful during the Future Business Leaders Summit.

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As of press time Saturday night, the texters worked overtime giving first hand information that Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo’s aircraft was missing off Masbate City as reported by Masbate Vice-Governor Vince Revil. As of this writing, Sec. Robredo was still missing and search operations conducted to find the plane, which was piloted by my good friend, Capt. Jessup Bahinting of Avia Tours.

Apparently, the twin-engine Piper Seneca was trying to make an emergency landing when it crashed into the sea near the Masbate Airport. I know Capt. Jessup very well as one of Cebu’s most experienced pilots. When my TV Show, Straight from the Sky celebrated our 10th Year, I had Capt. Joy Roa of Air Safari Fame and Capt. Jessup Bahinting as my guests and we flew circles over Cebu City.

Capt. Jessup also figured in a near mishap with then Cebu Gov. Emilio “Lito” Osmeña where he’s engine conked out somewhere near Sogod and he glided his plane safely along the beach. As of this time when I emailed this article, we are still praying that both Capt. Jessup and Sec. Robredo are safe and sound. That Sec. Robredo’s aide Capt. Jun Abrazado survived the crash gives us hope that all the passengers on board also survived.

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