The IMG does it again for OFWs

It’s that time of year that I get invited to join the Gala Dinner of the International Marketing Group (IMG) at SMX Mall of Asia (MOA) in Manila, dubbed the IMG Convention of Champions. Thankfully it didn’t rain at all and SMX is just a short walk from my hotel in Conrad. What a night it was… and every year it seems to have grown in membership for so many Filipinos (a lot of them, overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have joined IMG because few companies have a noble objective for Filipinos from all walks of life to be able to achieve financial literacy or financial independence and become businessmen in their own right.

Indeed, if you listened to the many IMG executives from all over the country, you will hear of their financial woes because they just didn’t know how to handle their expenses. What’s painful are executives who are laid off because their companies have to shut down operations. But these people who joined IMG have a story to tell… and it is a noble story that you will hear… from financial difficulty to financial independence. Now it seems that IMG has reached the 10,000 mark of participants that joined the Sunday evening gala event at SMX.

IMG has offices in areas where most OFWs can be found. Indeed, I’ve been to IMG offices in Rome and in Barcelona. But I have yet to visit their offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, Macau and in the US. They are also part of the Kaiser International Group and recently acquired Manila Bankers Life (MBL) and there is no doubt that this company is going places. Yes, IMG also runs MyTV that I currently managed.

Last Sunday evening, ABS-CBN’s Korina Sanchez-Roxas spoke before the convention crowd where she told them that they have grown so much it was as if the SMX extended their building. A famous group that sang that evening was the 4th Impact, a talented Filipino girl group composed of sisters Almira, Irene, Lylene and Celina Cercado who competed in the 12th series of X Factor in the UK where they finished in 5th place. They sang so well, you’d think that they won first place.

Kudos to the triumphant trio, Dr. Joen delas Peñas, Noel Arandila and Bart Borja for turning IMG from a dream 15 years ago, into the reality that we can all see and touch last Sunday evening. I was seated with my wife beside famous couturier Renee Salud who also had a fashion show that evening, which made the evening affair a very grand Filipino event that helped a lot of Filipinos! Kudos IMG! Thanks also to Kaiser Health Group manager Ana Marie “Tweety” Julian for making sure I had a proper water supply that evening. Ms. Tweety knows that I needed a special kind of water since my kidney transplant a year and a half ago.

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While in Manila, I was able to meet with some friends and apparently, many of them are still talking about that interview last week of British Broadcasting Company’s (BBC) “Hardtalk” with Stephen Sackur. Perhaps former Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno wasn’t warned that nearly a year ago, Hardtalk interviewed Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and it was what many considered a 24-minute disaster for Sen. Trillanes.

Good thing that my Facebook friends posted that BBC Interview on their pages, so I was able to watch the BBC’s honestly frank and gut-wrenching interview of ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno over the weekend and I took the opportunity to show it to many of my Facebook friends. Stephen Sackur began his program with an opening statement, virtually attacking President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs in the Philippines that has cost thousands of lives. Sackur pointed to the human rights record of Duterte that has attracted international condemnation and prompted charges of authoritarianism. Yet he has an approval rating unheard of in most democracies. 

The last time I saw Sackur interview anyone, it was against Sen. Antonio Trillanes whom he literally pounced into smithereens. But since this time he was interviewing with an ousted Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, I thought that it was a great opportunity for Ma. Lourdes Sereno to have the world as her stage. Alas for Sereno, there were instances that she would not give Sackur a direct answer. In short, rather than me giving my own comments on that interview, I dare you to listen to that interview so that you can see for yourself that the Supreme Court Associate Justices did the right thing in getting rid of their Chief Justice for she didn’t fit her role as Chief Justice. The Quo Warranto decision was done right for the SC and it kept our nation away from the Impeachment circus!

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