‘Men Who Matter’

(Conclusion)

When does a man matter? When he lights up a room both with his good looks and his marvelous deeds; his charisma and his power; his humility and his brilliance.

This year, PeopleAsia’s “Men Who Matter” include Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, Citibank Philippines CEO Batara Sianturi, actor Piolo Pascual, Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office GM and acting chairman Jose Ferdinand Rojas II, journalist Ricky Lo, champion figure skater Michael Christian Martinez, basketball stars Jeric and Jeron Teng, broadcast journalists Paolo Bediones and Atom Araullo, chef Tony Boy Escalante, Coca-Cola director Juan Carlos Dominguez, businessman Luigi Nuñez and the youngest Filipino ever elected governor, Camarines Sur Gov. Miguel Luis Villafuerte.

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PCSO GM Joy Rojas is known as “Mr. Nice Guy” — just the kind of face and personality you would want to see at the PCSO, whose main mandate is charity. A lawyer, Joy is mild-mannered and amiable, and thinks he is privileged to be in a position to help the less fortunate.

“The best thing about PCSO is really the assistance and charity that you can give,” he told writer Malou Rosal in an interview for PeopleAsia magazine. The fulfillment he gets from running an organization, in such a way that it can efficiently do charity week, “is something that money can’t buy.”

Under the Aquino administration, the PCSO, according to Joy, was able to increase revenues, streamline operations, spend judiciously and expand charity services.

* * *

As he glided, spun and enthralled a multitude to the tune of A Time for Us, Michael Christian Martinez was not just proclaiming that his time on the icy world stage had come — he was proclaiming that the Filipino’s time to shock and awe the world had come.

Though he didn’t bring home a medal after the figure-skating finals in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia last February, Martinez has already made history for the Philippines by being the first Filipino to qualify for the Winter Olympics. He is also the first Southeast Asian to have competed in figure skating in the Winter Olympics.

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* * *

Antonio “Tony Boy” Escalante finished dentistry, then worked for eight years as a flight attendant for Philippine Airlines. Then he discovered his second true love (the first is his wife, Agnes): cooking.

So he studied to be a chef in Australia. One day, during a visit to a garden restaurant in Tagaytay, a dream took root in his heart. He wanted to put up a place where the food was as heavenly as the setting, where he would be inspired to cook — as well as to relax after he doffed his toque.

Armed with a dream and a loan from his mother, Tony Boy scoured Tagaytay for property on which to nourish his dream. All he could afford at the time was 1.3 hectares of land in the woods of Barangay Neogan, which was inaccessible, except through a dirt road, and which had no electricity. It had no view of Tagaytay’s No. 1 attraction: the volcano on the lake.

But dreamers are visualizers. Tony Boy saw his dream taking shape amidst the dirt roads and the coffee plants. Antonio’s is now visited even by foreign heads of state.

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Citibank Philippines CEO Batara Sianturi has two Bachelor of Science degrees (in Chemical Engineering and Polymer/Macromolecular Science) and a master’s degree in Chemical Engineering. But he has been a banker for 26 years now — and with no regrets.

“I see this as a continuity,” he told Joyce Aguila in an interview for PeopleAsia, “As we go through our stages of life, you have your first aspiration in college. For me, that was becoming an engineer. People find their passion, and it turned out that my passion was banking.”

In the Philippines, the Indonesian-born expat is at the helm of a business that is 7,000-people strong and considers itself “the largest foreign commercial bank in terms of assets, revenues and profitability.”

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Paolo Bediones — TV5 news anchor, TV host, reporter, rescue team leader, radio announcer and businessman — is pretty much like his boyhood idol, Superman. He tries to do it all and gets it done.

Bediones’ work has not gone unnoticed. He has received a Gawad Tanglaw award for Best News Program (Male Category).

He has also received awards as Best Showbiz-Oriented host, Best Travel Show host, and Best Reality Show host. He is a Hall of Famer in the Aliw Awards.

He told PeopleAsia: “Everything that’s happening now was simply a promise (before).”

And now it’s a promise fulfilled.

* * *

The day after CNN’s Anderson Cooper was in Tacloban after typhoon Yolanda, Coca-Cola Asia corporate affairs director Juan Carlos Dominguez was there, too, but with a different mission.

Whereas Cooper’s first duty was to report on the calamity and its aftermath, Colombian-born Dominguez’s mission was to look for each and every one of Coca-Cola FEMSA’s 240 employees in the devastated city.

“Through donations alone, we cannot change the world. If you send, say millions and millions of dollars to Tacloban, they will spill out, because there are so many in need. But if you concentrate on changing the lives of, say, 200 people, and do it in the right way, those people will forever be in gratitude. Not to us, but to society in general, and they will know that they need to give back that favor and change the life of someone else,” Dominguez said.

* * *

After Yolanda, he was the hero du jour — going beyond the call of duty. A human being as much as a journalist, risking life and limb to rescue those about to be swallowed by the storm surge.

Broadcast journalist Atom Araullo of ABS-CBN (an Applied Physics major from the University of the Philippines in Diliman) told PeopleAsia’s Jose Paolo dela Cruz: “You persevere because every once in a while, you produce a story that you like. You receive feedback and discover that you have touched someone else’s life.”

* * *

Entrepreneur Luigi Nuñez of Beer Below Zero has perhaps contributed to the lessening of global warming. Beer drinkers in more than 1,000 establishments around the globe — spanning Guam, Hawaii, Southeast Asia, South America, and most recently the US — can taste what Pinoys have been enjoying these past six years: Beer so cold you could have fished it out of an Arctic pond.

Luigi has taken Beer Below Zero from a backyard passion “to a global phenomenon.” Now, how cool is that?

* * *

Goal-oriented Jeric and Jeron Teng find their purpose on the hardcourt.

Though belonging to rival teams in the men’s basketball championship finals of the UAAP, they gave life to the meaning of skill and sportsmanship. They entered the court as antagonists, and left it as the brothers that they truly are.

De La Salle’s Jeron Teng, the season’s Most Valuable Player, told PeopleAsia’s Greggy Vera Cruz: “That game really tested our relationship as brothers.”

UST’s Jeric, for his part, said, “I want to be known as someone who gives his all in every game he plays.”

Whether as court warriors or brothers, both are definitely winners.

* * *

Camarines Sur Gov. Miguel Luis “Migz” Villafuerte, now 25, is making waves as the youngest-elected governor in Philippine history. Migz is set on continuing and even surpassing what his father has accomplished. But while he’s focused on his vision for CamSur, Migz still looks back at his journey towards becoming governor with fondness. “That campaign period was a special time for me and my dad,” he said.

One of Migz’s goals is to further strengthen CamSur as a destination, which now proudly enjoys more than 2.5 million visitors per year.

* * *

PeopleAsia pays tribute to 14 of the most successful and talked about men of Philippine society during its “Men who Matter” 2014 event to be held at New World Makati Hotel.

Hosted by PeopleAsia’s celebrity beauty columnist Bianca Valerio, the event will showcase an exclusive runway preview of Piquadro’s latest luggage, leather bags and other accessories, as well as the menswear from top Filipino designers Rhett Eala, Pepsi Herrera and Randy Ortiz. Also adding celebrity wattage to the event is Iya Villania, who will render song and dance numbers.

PeopleAsia’s “Men who Matter” 2014 is brought to you by the New World Makati Hotel, Lexus, PLDT Home Fibr, Piquadro Tech Inside, Singapore Airlines, Ponds Men, The Gan Advanced  Osseointegration Center, Max Factor, Ellesse Italia, Crossover 105.1 and The Philippine STAR. (You may e-mail me at joanneraeramirez@yahoo.com.)