This Billionaire Needs Your Help

C! June 29 2016

This Billionaire Needs Your Help

HE is tall, handsome, hunky, only 35 years old, already a billionaire businessman… And he needs your help.

In the Philippine stock market, the best performing initial public offering (IPO) is Calata Corporation with a market value of P4.3 billion, and its president and chief operating executive is Joseph ‘Josh’ Calata, the youngest CEO of a publicly listed Philippine company— himself worth P2.6 billion.
So what’s Josh’s problem?

Starting Small
Josh comes from a middle class family in Plaridel, Bulacan, the second of four children of Eusebio and Isabel Calata, who ran a small retail store selling fertilizers and other stuff needed by farmers in their area.
“My parents were able to send my siblings and me to school through their earnings from the store,” Josh told the media during the Bulong Pulungan forum at the Hotel Sofitel last Tuesday, June 28.
Josh earned a Bachelor of Science degree, major in Management of Financial Institutions from De La Salle University. Soon after he got his diploma, he applied what he learned to manage, what else, but his parents’ business.
“I computerized (accounting, product listings) and hired salesmen— and my parents wondered why I needed to do these for such a small business,” Josh flashed a smile that can melt your heart of stone.
Through such strategies, the business by then named J. Melvin Trading—J. after Joseph, and Melvin after his eldest brother— has grown into what is now the Calata Corporation, the country’s largest distributor of products needed by the agriculture sector— aside from fertilizers, seeds, chemical and veterinary medicine.
So why does Josh need your help?

At Bulong Pulungan, Josh, here with Deedee Siytangco, moderator,  presented his big problem: there may come a time when there will be no more farmers to sell his company’s products to.
Josh said that farming is hardly an occupation of choice in the Philippines. The general perception is that farming is a laborious, gruelling, thankless job. You know the song… Magtanim ay di biro… In English, Planting rice is never fun…
So farmers don’t encourage their children to follow their muddy footsteps.
Farming was never perceived as a lucrative occupation like Nursing once was, Josh pointed out.
“There was a time, everybody wanted to be a nurse,” he added. “Now we have more nurses than there are available jobs for them.”
Farming is way, way far from such status. Today’s young generation would rather be call center agents, if not overseas workers, he said.
“The average age of our farmers now is 57, earning a miserable P5,640.00 a month,” he said.
His problem then is that in the next 10 years or so, there would be no more farmers— his main market for his fertilizers, seeds, and all.
But, Joseph pointed out, this is not just his problem. He said the problem is a lot bigger— as in food security for the country.
Indeed, if the agriculture industry dies, if no one is planting rice or growing livestock anymore, where will the Philippines get its food? That is, food that everyone can afford.

Agrivolution
Josh pointed out our Asian neighbours had wisely developed their agriculture industry and so they are realizing surpluses in agricultural harvest— while we are importing rice.
Josh said the solution for the Philippines is Agrivolution— to make agriculture an attractive enough industry, to make farming not just a job but rather, a profitable business.

“We want to develop entrepreneur farmers,” Josh said.
Agrivolution consists of a three-part program: to inspire future farmers, cultivate productivity, and sustain growth.
“We are just in the inspire stage,” Josh said.

To this end, Calata Corporation is boosting agriculture in the Philippines by creating the Calata Foundation which is providing scholarships to inspire millennials to go into agriculture.

Joseph Calata with his team, from left: Fredericko Kraus, president LMIO; Raymond Gaston, vice president for operations; Becky Garcia, and Armin Demetillo, members, Board of Trustees.

Scholarship

As a start, Calata Foundation donated P2 million to a scholarship fund of De La Salle Araneta University (DLSAU). The scholarship is being offered not to high school students but to college graduates to encourage them to go into further studies in agriculture in the University.
What’s more, Calata Foundation is choosing from among its beneficiaries highly qualified to be entrepreneur farmers who will be sent for a one-year scholarship program at the Universidad del Litoral in Sta. Fe, Argentina, which is known for excellence in agricultural studies.
“In Argentina, the farmers are rich,” Josh gushed, short of saying they are not like your typical Pinoy farmer in that muddy field, bent from morn till the set of sun.
In the cultivate stage, the Foundation is building agricultural centers to assist the entrepreneur farmers in whatever they need to succeed in their business— skills training, equipment, tools, and information on modern farming.
The program also includes micro-financing to provide loans to help entrepreneur farmers to start and grow their business.

Josh called upon big corporations to invest in such agricultural centers as a means to ensure the country’s food security.
In the sustain stage, the Calata Foundation hopes for long-term support for the agriculture industry which should include education and legislation reforms, solar-powered irrigation systems, and state-of-the-art post-harvest facilities.
“Until now, our farmers still dry their palay on the streets or basketball courts,” Josh lamented.

 

He Needs You
So why does Joseph Calata need your help?
“I am appealing to media, to everyone, anyone, to help in promoting awareness of the cause of farmers and to revive the agriculture industry in the country,” he said.
He pointed a grim scenario in Africa where mining diamonds has so flourished, agriculture has become a second rate if not totally forgotten industry.
Come to think of it, you can’t have your diamonds and eat them too, right?
By the way, girls, you can’t have hunky, handsome billionaire Joseph Calata, either. Eat your heart out—he’s already taken.

— Cynthia U. Santiago Photos by Ed L. Santiago

Take the Ice Bucket Challenge!

ENTERTAINMENT COLUMN FEED
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Take the Ice Bucket Challenge!

YES, take the challenge of Ice Bucket, the band fast drawing crowds at the Cowboy Grill on Timog Avenue, Quezon City. And why not?

The Ice Bucket band members, from left: Roel Hipolito, keyboard; Michael Edurise, guitar; Limuel Llanes, vocals; Emman Bunao, vocals; Kim Dorado, drums; and Gaylord Templo Garcia, bass.

This a group of young men who did not study music yet they play their guitars and drums like they were born with those instruments. And once they sing, their audience listen mesmerized, then break into applause at the end of each song, if not get up on their feet and rock!
“We are our parents’ headache,” they say.
Because they say their parents, since they are parents, wanted them to go to school and come home with a college diploma.
But hey, the ability of these men must be gauged in the light of the theory of multiple intelligences— which says there’s not just one intelligence such as the one that earns you that certificate your parents will hang on their wall. Rather, there are eight intelligences, and one of them is musical—rhythmic and harmonic. Like the Ice Bucket members’ intelligence.

Half-a-Million Likes
Small wonder, the Ice Bucket band is strumming, and drumming, and singing its way into the heart of already over half a million fans.
Yes, that’s the number of likes on their Facebook page since they released their first single titled Topak.
Topak is the Pinoy slang word for crazy or weird— like civil society may regard these school truants. Their song, however, is not about them. But yes, it is about craziness, as in crazy love. Now you know why it’s going viral. For love, especially young love, is always infectiously crazy.
“Lahat tayo ay may topak,” they say, pointing out one truth about the human condition.

Following the success of Topak, the band members are now rehearsing for their second single they are titling Unos.
Unos is the Filipino term for storm. Is the song something about climate change? Well, given the temper of these band members, could this song be more about life’s tempests? Abangan!

The band is concocting the song in the rehearsal studio of their manager, Louie Villacorta (standing, right), or Tata Louie to performers he has managed and to his staff in Tatstone, a premier provider of professional event equipment, the official supplier of Eat Bulaga.

The Ice Bucket Challenge
Although already gathering a hefty following, Ice Bucket really has just begun. For with the members’ incomparable talent, they have much, much more to give to their fans and they can go more and more viral — like the phenomenon from which they got their name.
A couple of years ago, to promote awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable, debilitating disorder of the muscles, the ALS Association popularized the Ice Bucket Challenge. It goes this way: A nominated participant dumps a bucket of ice water on his head and then nominates another one to do the same. One has to comply within 24 hours or donate an amount of money to the ALS Association.

In July-August 2014, the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral on social media and soon other organizations adopted the Ice Bucket Challenge to raise funds for their own causes. Participants included celebrities who gave donations even as they succeeded doing the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Ice Bucket, the band, has taken the challenge for its own good cause— to show to the world that whatever intelligence you are born with, you only have to work and work on it until you succeed. That’s the Ice Bucket Challenge today.
Your challenge, should you decide to accept it, is to check out the band at the Cowboy Grill or log on to the Ice Bucket Facebook page…and rock!

—Photos by Ed L. Santiago

The Aquino Legacy: A Reference for Public Schools

C! June 26, 2016 The Aquino Legacy: A Reference for Public Schools IN the last few days of his administration, outgoing President Benigno Aquinio III and his public relations men have taken great e…

Source: The Aquino Legacy: A Reference for Public Schools

The Aquino Legacy: A Reference for Public Schools

C! June 26, 2016

The Aquino Legacy: A Reference for Public Schools

IN the last few days of his administration, outgoing President Benigno Aquinio III and his public relations men have taken great effort to present in various media the government’s achievements in the past six years.

But bottomline, the question that nags is this: if such accomplishments are so impressive, how come Aquino’s presidential bet  who promised to continue the good deeds lost in the recent national elections?
One answer offered by a C! source is that those achievements were not communicated well enough to voters.
Now, if the good things Aquino had done did not sink deep enough into the voters’ mind, his men are making sure that the programs will be communicated to students through The Aquino Legacy, a compilation of DVDs consisting of documentary films on the programs of the Aquino Administration.

 

Last June 21, Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr., project producer, led the launching of the DVDs at the Bulong Pulungan, the Tuesday media forum at Hotel Sofitel.

The films were produced by the Presidential Communications Operations Office, with Secretary Herminio B. Coloma Jr. and Maria V. Montelibano as executive producers.

The compilation, styled in book form, has five chapters:

Chapter 1: Good Governance and the Rule of Law

 

Chapter 2: In Pursuit of Inclusive Growth

 

Chapter 3: Social Development and Investment on Human Capital

 

Chapter 4:  Highly Responsive and Service-Oriented Governance

Chapter 5:  Peace, National Security, and Foreign Diplomacy
The Department of Education will distribute the DVDs to public schools to serve as reference materials in history or economics subjects.

 

Deedee Siytangco (right),  Bulong moderator, and Jullie Yap Daza, core member, present Certificate of Appreciation to Secretary Ochoa and all the President’s men.

The media received a copy of the DVD compilation plus a copy of The Inaugural, a coffee table book on the glory days that made Benigno Aquino III the 15th President of the Philippines.

—Cynthia U. Santiago    Photos by Ed L. Santiago

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Media Lessons to Learn from Sonny Coloma

C! June 16, 2016 AS THE AQUINO ADMINISTRATION ENDS… Media Lessons to Learn from Sonny Coloma   IF Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr., head of the Presidential Communications Operations Offi…

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Media Lessons to Learn from Sonny Coloma

C!
June 16, 2016

AS THE AQUINO ADMINISTRATION ENDS…
Media Lessons to Learn from Sonny Coloma

 

IF Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma Jr., head of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), is going to be the guest of Bulong Pulungan on June 14, 2016— 16 days before the end of the six-year term of his boss, President Benigno Aquino III— you’d think that Coloma would present the accomplishments of the Aquino administration.
But Secretary Coloma said such accomplishments have been presented already in various media so he need not repeat them.
So the next thing the Bulong media wanted to know was the answer to this question presented by Manila Standard Lifestyle columnist, Bob Zozobrado, now Lyceum’s Career Services and Industry Relation executive director: What has Sonny Coloma learned in the six years that he dealt with Philippine media?
Since government is concerned with improving the life of the people, especially through economic programs, news about government falls under what’s called development journalism.
Development journalism has been perceived as using media as a tool of national development, and there are arguments against media having such role.
Coloma said he understands that media’s main role— especially in a democratic system— is to be the watchdog of society, so no one abuses the perks of freedom. Media has to make sure government— or for that matter, any sector of society— is doing what it is supposed to do, and if it doesn’t, it follows that media has to report the bad news. And so it’s always been perceived that media is adversarial in nature, Coloma said.
As PCOO head, and eventually spokesperson for the Aquino administration, Coloma said he has been able to cope with the challenges of his job by keeping in mind four mantras every time he faces the media.
And these are— journalism and media relations students, listen up:

1. I’m glad I’m here. Coloma said he chose to support the Aquino administration so he had to fulfil the mandate of his office.
2. I’m glad you are here. A number of the media people are young— “just the age of my daughter,” Coloma pointed out. He added the reporters are working—they have a job to do, so he had to cooperate so that they will need the information they need.
3. I know that I know that I know… Coloma said since people have various, and even conflicting ideas, he just had to respect, if not tolerate people’s views.
4. I care for you. People can trust you if they know you have their best interest at heart, Coloma added.

Happy Birthday, Jullie!

Speaking of   the journalism profession, last Tuesday, Bulong Pulungan paid tribute to a media icon among its core group, Jullie Yap Daza, on the occasion of her birthday the following day, June 15.

Secretary Sonny Coloma, along with Adam Laker, Hotel Sofitel general manager; Alice Jenkins, director of sales and marketing; and Deedee Siytangco, Bulong moderator, presents birthday cake to Jullie.

A Happy Day for Media!

— Cynthia U. Santiago Photos by Ed L. Santiago

Senate, Here Comes Dick!

C! June 11, 2016 Senate, Here Comes Dick! AT the Bulong Pulungan, the media forum at the Hotel Sofitel last Tuesday, June 7, the first forum after the national elections, the Bulong part— whispers …

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Senate, Here Comes Dick!

C! June 11, 2016

Senate, Here Comes Dick!

AT the Bulong Pulungan, the media forum at the Hotel Sofitel last Tuesday, June 7, the first forum after the national elections, the Bulong part— whispers during lunch— was, of course, pros and cons about incoming President Rodrigo Duterte.

 

Now, during the Pulungan part— the open forum after lunch— the guest, incoming senator Richard ‘Dick’ Gordon (here with Deedee Siytangco, Bulong Pulungan moderator) presented what he believes as major factors that would alleviate poverty in this country under the new dispensation.

1. Peace and Order. Gordon said a key factor in boosting economic growth is peace and order, Duterte’s major platform that garnered him 16 million votes to become the 16th President of the Philippines.
Gordon pointed out foreign investment is a must for economic growth, and businessmen will come in only if the government can assure they would not be harassed by criminals.
And do you scare away the criminals the Duterte way?
Gordon said he can relate with Duterte whose first claim to fame was as mayor, turning Davao City to a highly urbanized city, with zero tolerance for criminals.
Gordon himself served as mayor –of Olongapo City in Zambales– in the early 1980s. He received acclaim for converting the place from “sin city” — as it teemed with night clubs serving mainly soldiers from the United States Naval Base in Subic— to a model urbanized city known for strict observance of city ordinances.

“We mayors are like that,” Gordon said, explaining that like Duterte, he also had to use an iron hand— not to mention harsh language—in managing his city.

“Otherwise, our constituents will not obey us,” he said.
“He will adjust. Give him time,” Gordon added, indicating Duterte, as he himself promised, would abide by the ethics of his new office.

2. Education. Aside from peace and order, Gordon said he will support Duterte’s program for education, especially improving the salary of teachers.
Gordon attributed his career success to his good education— Lourdes School of Quezon City for elementary, Colegio San Juan de Letran for high school, Ateneo de Manila for his Bachelor of Arts diploma, and University of the Philippines for his Bachelor of Laws degree.
“I had good teachers,” he emphasized.
So, before anything else, he said, government should improve working conditions of teachers.

3. Tourism. With peace and order, one sector that would flourish is tourism, a major dollar earner, said Gordon, who knows whereof he speaks as he served as Tourism Secretary under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, making waves for Philippine Tourism with his WOW! (Wonder of the World) slogan.
Gordon said to boost tourism, he hopes to work on bills that will put up railroads and other facilities that will make visiting the country a breeze.

4. Disaster Preparedness. Following the Yolanda onslaught in Tacloban, Leyte, in 2013— and controversies over government response to the calamity— Gordon said he also hopes to work on legislations for disaster preparedness, relief and rehabilitation for victims.
Again, in this area, Gordon has well walked his talk, as he  has served as chair of the Philippine Red Cross which, he said, was the first agency to arrive in Tacloban at the wake of Yolanda, and among the last to leave.

Yes, Senate, here comes Dick!

— Text and photo by Cynthia U. Santiago