Friday, September 7, 2007

ISKO MORENO (Success Story)

Entertainment Former youth entertainer Isko Moreno is a pure example of extreme poverty to success.

Indeed, skinny Francisco Damacosog, who lived and breathed hunger and pain since his early childhood in one of the toughest sides of Tondo, rose from being a dance and sing "That's Entertainment" teenage talent of German Moreno to become Manila's vice-mayor in his late '20s.

He was discovered by a talent manager who saw a handsome kid beyond the dirt and difficult circumstances that surrounded him.

His discoverer brought him to TV host-actor Kuya Germs who took Isko under his wings and opened the wonderful world of showbusiness to his eyes.

But Isko was not so successful in the youth-oriented TV program and was not given the opportunity for marked roles that would pave way to stardom.

Having saved a little to make himself and his family comfortable, Isko thought of going back to school in the '80s because showbiz is not a lifetime career.

He started in politics as a Manila councilor --learning the ropes of the trade in a hard way. Having had difficulties expresssing himself in English, Isko often suffered humiliation and embarrassment whenever his critics ganged up on him in the session hall. His colleagues could see nothing extra-ordinary in the youthful, good-looking boy who was once featured near-naked in a poster.

But no amount of cruelties could stop him as he went on to finish college with a public administration major at the Pamantasan ng Lunsod ng Maynila while serving as an alderman.

Now, he is a sophomore law student at the University of the Philippines where he hopes to learn more about good governance and law administration.

One can now notice the absence of sheepishness in him as he has become eloquent in expressing his ideas --courtesy of his diligence and continuous learning process.

Going back to his childhood years, Isko remembers going about the big waste bins of McDonald's near his residence and rummaging for old food stuff like chicken bones and leftovers to be cooked for his poor family.

Movie reporter Morly Alino recalls seeing the child picking up spoiled food and bones to be washed and cooked again for their meals.

"Ay, we would sometimes meet each other between Tuazon and Kagitingan streets where Isko was always watchful of the McDonald's leftover garbage. Such an industrious and easy to get along fellow despite his youth," said Alino.

Veteran reporter-radio personality Tita Swarding also has nothing but good words for Isko.

"When Daddy Wowie wanted to hide Isko's extreme poverty, I advised him not to do that. I know the public will only love the youngster more if they know the truth about him since they will be able to identify themselves with a downtrodden being," said Tita Swarding. "I'm glad he took my words to heart."

How did Isko win against his heavyweight opponents in this year's vice mayoral race?

"I am a sincere man. I have no money. All I had was the people's trust and belief that I would do something good for the city when I make it to the top. I and my mayoral candidate, Danny Lacuna didn't have much financial or logistic resources except our clean records and the love of our constituents," he said.

He recalled going to campaign gatherings or house-to-house meetings and announcing, "Please lend me your votes in this election and I promise to serve you with my best effort if you give me the job."

"That's a promise I will deliver, I will not fail them who gave me a mandate," said the three-termer councilor who says he has always been active in serving barangays and the community as well.

He said that when he formally takes his seat at the City Hall with landslife winner, Mayor Fred Lim, everyone will be welcome to visit him and tell him their concerns.

Isko said not being a partymate of Mayor Lim is not a problem. "While he is from Pwersang Masa and I am from Kampi, I will fully cooperate with his rules and policies provided they are for the good of the majority."

"I am sure he will listen to what is right. Differences will only occur if he ignores what is true and what is correct". (PNA)

Maid in London returns home a multimillionaire

CONSUELO VALENCIA (Success Story)
By Emman Cena
Inquirer

COME CHRISTIMAS time, Filipino workers around the world are likely packing goods in a box.

Back home, the air is filled with the scent of "Stateside" lotion, soaps, chocolates and the whiff of Americana deliciously trapped inside what have come to be known as balikbayan boxes.

To 59-year old Consuelo Valencia, the concept of the balibayan box inspired her to put up the Farochilen Group of Companies 10 years ago. The business venture eventually earned her millions.

No fairy tale
But the success of Manang Consuelo, as she's fondly called by friends was hardly a fairy tale at the start. It took courage for her to fly to London in May 1977 to work as a domestic helper.

She left her two young sons in the care of her husband who himself was trying to make ends meet.

Armed with the ambition and determination to give her family the best that life can offer, she rose from scrubbing floors to being one of most the most successful Filipino businesswomen in the United Kingdom.

"It was a matter of survival and sacrifice for me and my family," says Manang Consuelo, who arrived last week to spend the holidays with her family.

But the sacrifice eventually paid off. Several newspapers in the UK had carried her story on how a cleaner became a millionaire in 10 years.

How it all began
Her reversal of fortune started in 1986 when after nine years of scrubbing floors in London, Manang Consuelo was offered a job with a freight shipping firm.

"At that time, nobody was doing business with the Philippines," she says, "But I realized there were many people here (UK) who wanted to send parcels to their families."

When the owner of the firm retired, the business was handed down to her. Through her excellent PR skills and her determination to succeed, she managed to bring the company on top of the heap with an ever-growing list of customers.

The company now collects boxes and T chests from individual customers across the United Kingdom. Manang Consuelo says their weekly shipment averages 40 containers shipped door-to-door delivery to the Philippines. This time of the year is the busiest, she says, since the movement of the balikbayan boxes is at its peak.

Also in 1986, Manang Consuelo ventured in a door to door cash delivery service through the Farochilen Remittances.

"With Filipinos in the UK sending money once or twice a month to support their families back home, this is a perfect venture," she says. By offering a reliable face-to-face speedy delivery, high exchange rates and low remittance fees, Manang Consuelo gives the banks a run for their money.

Not content with the success of the remittance and freight business, in 1996 she also embarked on travel services, phone card dealership, real estate, recruitment and publishing house--all of which she never imagined she could ever have.

In just 10 years, the Earls Court-based freight (cargo) company expanded into a wide range of business venture now known as Farochilen Group of Companies, the biggest business of its kind servicing mainly the Filipino community in the UK.

Now its managing director, Manang Consuelo supervises the freight company and its subsidiaries including the widely known travel agency that mainly deals with flights to Asia, Singapore and the Philippines. She now also owns four house-buildings in London.

Tatak Filipino
She also launched Tatak Filipino in October 2002, a mini-supermarket specializing in food stuff imported from the Philippines and the Far East.

Once serving a single household doing household chores, Manang Consuelo, through her chain of businesses, now serves the whole Filipino community in UK.

But serving her fellow Filipinos doesn't end there. She has donated three libraries here in the Philippines, a Catholic chapel and classrooms in Iloilo--her way of giving back, she says.

With an outstanding profile as a business tycoon who rose from poverty, Manang Consuelo has earned for herself accolades here and abroad, recognizing her dedication to work.

She placed 11th in the 100 REAL Women of Achievement in UK in 2004 and also won the Woman into Businesss Awards sponsored by the Bank of Scotland in February 2003.

To date, the rags-to-riches story of Manang Consuelo has attracted various film producers and TV networks. In the UK, a known writer has offered to write about her life while the British Broadcasting Company will soon shoot a documentary film about her.

Manang Consuelo arrived Friday night straight from London to receive her award as one of the outstanding Overseas Filipino Entrepreneurs (OFEs) sponsored by the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE). The award was given yesterday by President Arroyo and Presidential Consultant for Entrepreneurship Jose Concepcion III at the "Go Negosyo Para sa mga OFWs at Balikbayans Fair" at Market! Market! Trade Halls A & B in Taguig City.

Go Negosyo awardee
The "Go Negosyo" para sa mga OFWs at Balikbayans is part of the continuing Go Negosyo campaign of PCE, encouraging the further development of entrepreneurship in the country. It also aims to complement the happiness of OFWs getting reunited with their families by exposing them to business opportunities.

The 59-year old is now a multimillionaire. Indeed, 29 years after leaving her family to become a maid in London, Manang Consuelo is literally made.

FERDIE CAPILI (Success Story)

FERDIE CAPILI almost didn’t make it to Spain. Ferdie was working at the Imperial Hotel in Legazpi City when Lady Luck winked at him. One of the hotel guests, a Saudi Arabian national married to a Filipina nurse, was playing a round of golf. The Saudi guest didn’t like the coffee served and came looking for the F & B Manager to complain. Since the regular F & B Manager was absent, it was Ferdie who faced the guest. As luck would have it, the Saudi guest—who turned out to be the Manager of a Rolls Royce franchise in Saudi Arabia owned by Sheik Mohammed Al-Asmawi—was impressed with how Ferdie resolved the coffee issue. He straightaway offered him a job as personal F & B Manager of the Sheik, reputedly the tenth richest man in the world. Ferdie was to be based in Marbella, Spain.

Ferdie had to take the roundabout route going to Spain. Having been turned down when he applied for a visa, he flew to Morocco to establish the minimum 3-month residency to be eligible for entry to Spain. For three months, he was stuck in Sheik Mohammed’s magnificent villa in Tangiers, incommunicado from his family and unable to roam around. The food and the accommodation were fit for a king but he became so bored that at one time, Ferdie found himself talking to an Arabian horse owned by the Sheik. To this day, Ferdie won't tell what he and the horse discussed.


As the apex of his career in Spain, Ferdie became General Manager of the Marbella Resort Hotel, the first time in Malaga that a Filipino had risen to such a powerful position. After working for nine years for the Sheik in Marbella, he returned to the Philippines and now operates his Our Lady of Manaoag Montessori School system (pre-school, elementary, high school and college), in Balagtas, Bulacan.

“I’m proud to say that my school’s skills assessment standards are even higher than the standards of the industry and that of TESDA,” Ferdie beams. Why a school? As far as I knew, nobody in Ferdie’s family had any experience in running a school.

“I think this is the best way to return to society the many blessings I’ve received,” Ferdie answered my thoughts. “Education is the best way for the poor to improve their lives, and through my scholarship program, I am somehow able to make it happen for them.” Ferdie reminisces about the time when he struggled to make both ends meet as a student in UP. He remembers having to sell kangkong at the market place so he could earn fare money. In addition, he sold carabao milk at the UP Canteen in exchange for snacks. He joined the UP Repertory Company, a theatre group, not only for self-improvement but to earn extra money. He joined balagtasan contests for the same reason. Ferdie has come a long way since his batang kangkungan days, but for him, his humble beginning is a source of pride and inspiration, and he never fails to tell his story to his students.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Mike Bolos (Success Story)

By Emman Cena
Inquirer

HE could have stayed in the United States where his family is or in the burning deserts of Saudi Arabia to rake in more money. But Mike Bolos opts to stay home and walk the road less-traveled.

“I’ve had enough overseas. Life’s comfort is obviously there but I’d like to get old here,” Mike Bolos tells the Inquirer in an interview.

Turning 53, Bolos obviously had enjoyed the prime of his life toiling 25 years as an accountant and chief financial officer in several companies in Saudi.

He had all the best. But in 2005, he decided to return and settle where, he says, his heart is.

“I’d rather spend whatever earnings I have here,” says Bolos who has put up a spa center in Manila and a commercial building in his hometown, Guagua, Pampanga.

The spa which started in August, 2005 employs 18 women, whom he says could have ended as domestic helpers had they gone abroad.

“They were merely high school graduates but they earn here as much as P20,000 monthly as masseuse,” he adds.

The P60-million, 3-story commercial building, on one hand, is expected to be in full swing this month. It will house various establishments such as a dance studio, an Internet café, a 7-11 convenience store and a modern American-patterned dental clinic run by one of his children.

“The mall type building will be the center of life (in Guagua). This is my way of paying back the people I grew up with. This will be a one-stop shop,” he adds.

Formula for success

But the success of Bolos didn’t happen in the blink of an eye.

“I was good in numbers and they never failed me throughout. But of course, it was sheer determination, hard work and patience,” he says.

His is a classic Cinderella story. He climbed the corporate ladder from being an ordinary Accounting board passer.

It was his brother who was looking for a job abroad but it was Bolos who was given the chance.

At 21, he worked as an accountant in a travel agency in Riyadh where he stayed for two years. He later moved to a health care company, the Gama Services Ltd., where he spent 23 years. He left Gama as corporate assistant comptroller.

At an early age, Mike learned how to juggle work with academics as business administration student at the University of the East.

But the hard times didn’t stop him from dreaming of a brighter life for his family. It was actually one of the goading forces behind his success.

He graduated high school valedictorian which qualified him for a business course at the University of Santo Tomas.

But after a year in UST, he decided to transfer to the University of the East where schedules were more suitable to him as a working student. After graduating and passing the CPA boards, he left the country in 1980.

He also had his own family to miss, being married to a fellow Kapampangan at an early age. “My first two years were miserable because I had no idea of the culture of the place. I was young and was thinking that things are done as they were done in the Philippines.”

But he eventually learned the ropes, he says. He later learned how to throw his hat into the fray, so to speak. He performed well ahead of his co-workers. He started earning good money, was provided free house and car by the company. “Everything was free. A lot of freebies. So my monthly check goes to my family tax-free,” he recalls. In fact, he admits, he was one of the highest paid Filipinos in Saudi at that time.

Children far from me

“Given a chance I would have tried to work out my relationship with my children. They grew up far from me. We’ve gone on our ways,” Bolos says.

Two of his kids are now in the US. Michelle, the eldest has a family of her own while Michael, 20, is studying law in Chicago. The middle child, Madelaine, is helping him run the family business in Guagua.

Business secret

Asked his business secret, Bolos could only say, “There are a lot of opportunities here. But the sad part is that the money that Filipinos work hard for are going to the hands of the rich people, most of them foreigners.”

These days, Bolos says he gets himself busy by doing the rounds of his businesses. He rarely gets rest days. “I don’t even have time to watch TV. I am always in front of my computer. I wake up at 8 a.m. to check e-mails then my day ends at about 3 a.m.”

“Until I get my team in place then I’d finally take a break,” he says. He is currently hiring people to man his commercial center in Guagua. “I’m happy but not content. I have a lot more things that I’ve wanted to do but not for myself though.”

Did he ever think of running for public office? “Yes, I’ve received feedback from some of my town mates. But it’s not really my turf. I’ll help out as a private individual.”

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