Feature from cents to millions

CEBU, Philippines - Story of Leonardo "Sandy" Javier Jr. Mayor of Javier, Leyte and owner of Andok's Litson Corp.

"Know your product, keep ahead of your competitors and do not spend more than what you make."

This financial advice may be old school but it still works … and has worked for Leonardo "Sandy" Javier, Jr., incumbent mayor of Javier town in Leyte.

Javier spoke before a gathering of businessmen, during the culmination dinner of the 2-day 1st Visayas Chamber of Industry and Commerce Conference held August 25 and 26, to share his life story so that businessmen, who are even in the pinnacle of their empires, will be reminded that nothing substitutes for hard work, innovativeness and a keen eye for the market.

Before he went into the complex field of politics, he founded the popular Andok's Litson Corporation that is now poised at entering the USA market.

The introduction done on him was impressive. It was learned that besides owning the litson manok chain, he was also the owner of a myriad of businesses that delivers exclusive services to Boracay. He is even into horse breeding and racing.

His pedigree is also impressive. He is the eldest son of five children of Engr. Leonardo "Andok" Sr. who was a summa cum laude of his class and was a registered mining engineer and later geodetic engineer. His brothers included comedian George Javier and APO Hiking Society member Danny Javier.

Of the five siblings, he was the brightest of them all and was himself a scholar. His life however went awry, became the dark sheep of the family, but was able to turn his life for the better later on to become the richest man of the Javier family.

Sandy said he began drifting in college when he found out having girlfriends was more fun than studying. He managed to graduate from Ateneo de Manila University but he continued his prodigal ways.

In his 30s, Sandy said he woke up one day to find out that his siblings were making names for themselves while he became the sibling who once was touted as having the brightest future to just being the brightest brother.

"I was a vagabond and sige lang pangka pangka, no direction. I was making too many mistakes, so one day I went to my mother and told her I was going away to find myself."

Sandy said he went to Japan on a one-way ticket and a $500 allowance, which he immediately blew after checking in a hotel not realizing how expensive it was there. Still he went his way to become the country's first Japayuki.

He accepted odd jobs and even sang for a Yakuza member who slapped him after. Sandy said he was tempted to punch the Japanese, but found out soon enough that if a Yakuza is pleased, he slaps you and puts money in your pocket. That night, he received 20,000-yen and by the next morning, he said he was looking for more Yakuza members to slap him.

His soul searching led him to Germany for another three years as a TNT (a Pinoy slang for tago ng tago, meaning an illegal alien). He earned his stay at the house of an American who took sympathy in him, by repairing TVs on the side. But life hasn't looked up for him yet and he had to return to see his dying father one last time.

"When I came back, my father was dying. I did not recognize my father; he was so thin. It was then that I promised him: Kapag umasenso ako, I will name my business after you and your name will be known all over the world. Now we have Andok's America," he narrated.

"I told him: Your words and wisdom will be my guide. My dad gave me a smile that was worth several million dollars," bestowing his understanding and love on a prodigal son, said Sandy.

He then returned to Manila and started another elusive search for his place in the sun. One day, he saw lechon manok in Pampanga and thought they were not cooking it the right way. "Too fast, the juices were coming out too quick," he noted.

He thought it was good business and had a cart made for him. His first location, however, was a bummer. Of 12 chickens, he sold only two, so he and his wife ate adobong lechon manok, sinigang lechon manok, etcetera for the rest of the week.

Then, he found the right location, just near an outlet that was selling 700 chickens a day. "Talagang pinipilahan," and by positioning himself beside it, he believed the really hungry customers will have no choice but to go to him so they can buy immediately.

His "formula", however, was not foolproof. Some customers just would not patronize him. He would run after them, wooed them by saying that they were buying from an Atenean and the brother of the famous Danny Javier.

Some were honest to tell him that his recipe wasn't so good. After three months and a lot of food tasting, they came up with "the recipe." Still it did not guarantee sales. Some cars would just pass by his stall.

For them not to miss him, Sandy put up a large signboard with yellow lights on it. "Eh, kung lumampas rin, hindi ko na hahabulin 'yon. Bulag sigurado 'yon," he told his amused listeners.

From then on, Andok's grew to be the chain of litson manok restaurants that it is now, and he has since gone into other concerns.

For a successful businessman, it was almost unthinkable that he would be part of a bad business proposition called politics, he said. But then, somehow through this, he had to give back a part of himself.

Because Javier is a poor town, working for its development often entails for the mayor to draw from his own pocket-even to the extent of buying heavy equipment-just to get things going in his administration. 

Sandy said he gets his greatest satisfaction nowadays from seeing the look of hope in the eyes of his constituents. "The reason why I became mayor was I visited the town often and was sad that it was plundered for so many years. People were losing hope about life … Now that I am mayor, I can now see the hope in my people's eyes. I will teach my people to be God-fearing and respect themselves."

He also vowed that he would make Javier his next success story. "I will make it the most progressive town in the region that other provinces in the country will emulate it", he said. (FREEMAN)