Jacob's First Holy Communion

February 2, 2008, Feast of the Presentation of Jesus, was an equally special day for the PAREF-Northfield grade one boys and their families. That beautiful Saturday morning, the boys received their First Holy Communion at the St. Ignatius Cathedral in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
In a ceremony that was elegant in its simplicity, the 35 boys, resplendent in their all-white outfits and bearing lighted candles, walked down the aisle for the Candle Ceremony. The Feast of the Presentation is also referred to as the Candlemas, and recalls the time when St. Joseph and the Blessed Mother, in keeping with Jewish custom, took the baby Jesus to the temple with an offering of turtledoves.
Fr. Belarmino reminded the boys that the light on their candles represented Jesus Christ, who they were about to receive that day. He also shared excerpts from a dialogue that Pope Benedict XVI had with first communicants, which proved very meaningful and informative for the boys, their parents and their teachers. A communicant, for instance, asked the Pope how he could tell that Jesus was indeed present. The Pope likened Jesus’ presence to electricity. One could not see electricity, but could feel it in the form of light.
He also likened the need for regular confession to the need to clean up one’s room regularly. The dirt is always the same, he noted, but you just have to keep on cleaning up.
Preparing 7- and 8-year olds to receive two Sacraments (the boys went for their first confession on December 13, 2007, and went for another one the day before their communion) is always a big responsibility, but Fr. Belarmino and Mr. Batongbakal, along with class adviser Mr. Daquiz, were there to help the boys and their parents through the entire process. Their doctrinal formation started as early as last year, when the boys were in Prep, and went into high gear when they reached grade one, with Fr. Belarmino taking a personal hand in the spiritual formation of the boys and their parents.
Alongside this, the parents relentlessly presided over the details of the celebration, forming committees in charge of the preparations as early as July, 2007. Through the able direction of parent coordinators Mon and Tintin Carmona, parents wholeheartedly helped out in organizing the event. All in all, 30 grade one boys, four grade two boys, and a non-PAREF student joined the Communion Rites. The latter, who came from a non-sectarian school, was accommodated by the parents on the request of Mr. Batongbakal in the spirit of generosity and in the belief that every child deserves to partake of the Eucharist in a meaningful way.
On a personal note, it was especially touching seeing my own son receive the Eucharist with the faith to know that he was indeed receiving Jesus Christ. I initially feared that there was too little time to prepare my son to receive such an important Sacrament, but that glorious morning in February, I knew in my heart – as all other parents surely did – that the boys had indeed begun their journey of faith. //

Biomedical Treatment now in the Philippines

(Published in the Philippines Graphic Magazine, April 2008)

Every 20 minutes, a child with autism is born. In the Philippines and around the world, cutting across cultural and socio-economic lines, autism numbers continue to rise, confounding health professionals, overwhelming educators, and crushing the hearts of parents and family members.

As with all diseases with no known cure, autism – a lifelong condition -- continues to vex all who have to deal with it on a daily basis, without as much as a glimmer of hope. Management of autism traits – ranging from the inability to communicate meaningfully to unexplained tantrums, learning disabilities, and repetitive movements like hand flapping or twirling – entails a multidisciplinary approach. This often consists of behavioral management, physical, occupational and speech therapy, and special education, among others. But while helpful, none directly address that which causes the disorder itself.
Thus, when the first accounts of autism recoveries were recorded and brought to the fore, the autism community lost no time in embracing that which allowed children to break free of their socio-emotional cages, prisons that do not allow them to communicate meaningfully, even with the people who love them the most. The astonishing recoveries, according to the parents, happened when milk and wheat were completely eliminated from the autistic children’s diets. Children who were previously non-verbal went on to outtalk their siblings, began playing like children should, and finally connected with the people who, in the past, they regarded just as they would a blank wall. The unexplained screaming and tantrums disappeared and in their wake emerged happy, healthy children – something their parents could only dream of in the past.
Today, the ranks of recovered children includes some Filipinos who were able to climb out of the dark on account of their parents’ relentless efforts to experiment with what is today known as the biomedical approach to treating autism.

To explain the recoveries, it was shown that autism symptoms and behaviors are caused by opiates – substances found in drugs like heroin and morphine – that the body produces upon the ingestion of gluten and casein, proteins found in wheat and milk. In a healthy body, the digestive track takes in these proteins easily, and breaks them down into peptides that the body can utilize. Casein is broken down into large peptides like caseomorphine, which should be broken down further into smaller amino acids for eventual digestion.

In children with autism, gluten and casein are not digested properly to become simple amino acids, but remain in peptide form. In its peptide form, casein has opiate properties similar to morphine, and may plug into the same opiate receptor sites in the brain. Gluteomorphin, which also resembles morphine, is derived from gluten, found in wheat, barley, rye and oats and has been verified by mass spectrometry techniques to be present in unusual quantities in urine samples of children with autism.

Most autistic children were also found to have leaky guts, allowing relatively large molecules to enter the bloodstream from the intestine in abnormal quantities. As a result, these opiates leak from the intestine into the bloodstream, and eventually cross the blood-brain barrier to affect the brain and bring about the bizarre behaviors observed among children with autism. These behaviors disappear when the opiates are removed from the bloodstream, which will only happen when gluten and casein are no longer available in the body.
Hungry for a miracle, the autism community embraced the wheat-free, milk-free diet (better known as the gluten-free, casein-free diet for the specific proteins found in them) to amazing results for some, and a measure of improvement for others. Specific vitamins and nutrients – zinc, vitamin C, vitamin B12 with magnesium, among others -- were also noted to cause improvements in the behavior of autistic children. The biomedical approach eventually snowballed through the years to become the lifeline of many an autistic child.
Underpinned by the GFCF diet, the biomedical approach is also the cornerstone of the Defeat Autism Now! (DAN) movement. DAN is the fruit of the efforts of professionals committed to aiding recovery from autism. In 1995, the Autism Research Institute convened a group of about 30 carefully selected physicians and scientists in Dallas for the express purpose of sharing information and ideas toward defeating autism as quickly as possible. The participants represented the most advanced thinking by some of the best minds in the autism world, including Dr. Bernard Rimland, whose work has contributed much to the modern world’s understanding of autism. They shared a common dissatisfaction with the way physicians treated autism, mainly through drugs, which are believed to cause devastating side effects without addressing the root of the problem itself. They also believed that the right diet and nutritional supplements could be used to alleviate autistic symptoms.
DAN would also become the beacon of hope of thousands of families all over the world struggling with autism. In the United States, the autism community has openly embraced the DAN protocol, noting how it complements other therapies such as occupational therapy, speech therapy and applied behavior analysis (ABA). Several physicians began taking part in conference-trainings that would certify them as DAN doctors. In the Philippines, just as many parents are taking up the DAN protocol, paying little regard to the staggering costs and the logistical nightmares involved.

Until last year, Filipinos who wanted to follow the DAN protocol for their autistic children had to go to Singapore or Hong Kong where the nearest DAN doctors held office. Urine, stool and blood specimens were drawn there and then sent by courier to the United States, where these were analyzed to determine the presence and levels of allergens, metals (including lead and mercury), yeast, bacteria and viruses. After a two to three-week wait, the results are sent back to the DAN doctors for analysis and the appropriate nutritional supplements, as well as other adjunct therapies are prescribed.

Until recently, the Philippines did not have its own DAN doctor, but a mother’s concern for her son prompted pediatrician Rhodora Ibasco to work towards a DAN certification. Today, Dr. Ibasco is the only DAN physician in the Philippines, and more than a hundred Filipino families have sought her services since her certification in late 2007. Many are comforted by the fact that she charges a very reasonable P750 per session, as opposed to the minimum $200 or so charged by her foreign counterparts.

Today, Dr. Ibasco holds fort at the Comprehensive Clinic for Autism and Related Disorders in Quezon City, a center funded by another parent with an autistic child, Carlina Roa. The clinic also has a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and an infrared sauna.
It offers the same services offered by the Hong Kong and Singapore clinics through its tie-up with the Great Plains Laboratory in Kansas City, where the analysis of urine, stool and blood samples are done.

Because Roa is based in Cebu, a similar clinic has been opened in Cebu in February 2008. Tests to determine levels of toxins in the child’s body are offered by the clinic. Comprehensive tests, such as the complete autism panel, or individual ones, such as the Organic Acid Test, the hair metals test, the Ig test, are done in the clinic. Supplements, such as MB12 injections, cod liver oil and probiotics may be ordered through the clinic.

The clinic, painted a cheerful yellow, has rubber decals of its patient’s names adorning its walls, with small animals and flowers added to take out the gloom that have so marked the lives of these children. Patients, aged from 1 to 22, and their families march into the clinic brimming with optimism, hoping that biomedical treatment is the missing piece in the autism puzzle.

Dr. Ibasco acknowledges that while the biomedical route is expensive, Filipino parents are ready to give it a try. She points out, however, that the GFCF diet is essential for any of the therapies to succeed. “The Filipino diet is essentially GFCF,” she notes, pointing out that rice does not contain gluten and that milk is something children usually outgrow by their toddler years. The only culprits to be eliminated from the diet will be bread, cakes, and chips.

This, of course, is easier said than done. Autistic children have been noted to self-limit their diets to what is usually bad for them, providing clues of a biological addiction. Parent after parent tell of their children’s meal demands: McDonald’s chicken nuggets day in and day out for one; milk and Oreos for three straight years for another; Chuckie chocolate milk in the same box and nothing else for another. (This author’s autistic child, for instance, still throws a major tantrum if he does not get his Jollibee spaghetti or Greenwich ham and cheese pizza daily. It took months of behavior and occupational therapy to finally get him to eat a bowl of rice with soup.) Succeeding at GFCF entails a lot of discipline and sacrifice. Many family members cannot understand how something so good and so loved by the child should be withheld. “It’s really hard to implement at first, but you just have to persevere,” said Dr. Ibasco.

The tests, too, are expensive. The comprehensive autism panel costs P86,500 while the minor autism panel is P49,500. Even individual tests such as the Organic Acid Test go for P11,000, an amount equivalent to 22 OT sessions. Dr. Ibasco urges parents to go for the autism panels if they can afford it as these provide greater information, but in case they cannot, then the individual tests will suffice.

Biomedical treatment, she notes, will be truly effective when done simultaneously with other known therapies (OT, SP and ABA) as well as a good special education program.

Dr. Ibasco takes heart in the fact that there is greater awareness about autism now. Already, the American Academy of Pediatrics has come up with its list of red flags of autistic traits to be used in the early screening of children. More people are also coming to know about the biomedical approach, and embrace it even if many other physicians dismiss it as some sort of voodoo. At the recent autism conference in Manila, a known developmental pediatrician openly attacked biomedical treatment as unproven and without scientific basis. But Dr. Ibasco echoed researchers and parents when she says “why wait for the evidence (that the physicians are asking for) when the results are already there?”

Already, parents are getting more vocal about their experiences and successes, and many have educated themselves to an extent that draws Dr. Ibasco’s admiration. “Some of the parents I meet in the conferences know more than I do,” she smiled. Parents are the strongest advocates of autism, and their efforts have spurred authorities to pour more resources into its understanding. Jenny McCarthy’s appearance in Oprah, wherein she spoke of her son’s recovery after he took the biomedical route, also brought biomedicine within the sphere of understanding of most families with autistic members. In the Philippines, hundreds of parents are part of an online support system (www.autismpinoy.com) where they trade information on biomedical and other treatments, GFCF recipes, among others, and provide the emotional support and understanding that only those who have lived with someone with autism ever can.

Unable to find sources of the needed supplements, some parents have taken matters into their hands, and today are the exclusive distributors of these products. CCARD, for instance, is a distributor of the New Beginnings line of nutritionals. The list of parents who have turned their despair into an enterprise to help their children and other families struggling with autism continues to grow.

As the battle against autism rages, Dr. Ibasco urges families of autistic individuals to “go natural” in their lifestyles. Clean surroundings, she said, would be a good start. She urges families not to use “katol” or insecticides but to opt for natural cleaners like vinegar instead. “Genetics is the trigger of autism, but it is the environment that pulls that trigger,” she concluded. //

Yahoo launches advertising platform for Southeast Asia

Published in BusinessMirror, April 2007

(It always frustrates me that some people in the advertising industry could be so fixated with circulation numbers. Few realize the importance of reader engagement. This is why I enjoyed writing this article -- Yahoo articulated the new dynamics of reader engagement in the digital world.)

Southeast Asia’s advertising landscape is quickly changing. As people’s lifestyles change, with many logging in 36 hours of activity in a 24-hour day, advertisers have recognized that the traditional advertising media – TV, print and radio – cannot hold consumers’ attention long or well enough. Multi-tasking has led to shorter attention spans, and reaching consumers alone just won’t cut it. The challenge, instead, is to engage them.
Engagement, indeed, is the new “reach.” As the behavior and consumption patterns of people continue to evolve, more advertisers are realizing that in the new digital era, the traditional metrics of reach and frequency have gone the way of the dodo bird. Relevance, not reach, and engagement, not frequency, have become the thinking advertiser’s yardsticks in choosing the appropriate media for their clients’ campaigns in the digital age. And only the Internet – personalized by the user to suit his own purposes -- manages to stay both relevant and engaging to its user with every click of the mouse, whatever time of the day, from the kid out to duel warriors in the latest online game down to the businessman seeking real-time market information.
Recognizing the transformation of the advertising landscape, and the glaring absence of a platform that will enable online advertising to take off in the region, Yahoo recently launched Panama, its new advertising platform for Southeast Asia.
Panama is Yahoo’s search-based, self-service, cost-per-click advertising platform that offers the potential advertisers the promise of relevant eyeballs. This enables advertisers to make sure that their sites come out when the user types in keywords of the advertiser’s choice. The advertiser himself sets his own budget and pays Yahoo only for each click made on his ad. For Yahoo, this means giving the right user the right ad at the right time at the right cost. For the advertising world, this is the opportunity to test how far online advertising can take them.
For Yahoo!, online advertising has reached its “inflection point.” “The users are there, and they’re becoming advanced,” said Ken Mandel, Yahoo vice-president for engagement, noting how “online is fast becoming an important part of the advertising mix because of its high engagement.” In fact, Panama sponsored search is expected to generate $7 billion in ad revenues in Southeast Asia alone by 2010.
More importantly, Panama offers advertisers instant and more metrics, such that an advertiser would know quickly if his ad is working properly. “You can see the number of clickthroughs; the research is automatic. You can change your creative strategy right away if you see your ad is not working,” pointed out Mr. Mandel. Compared to traditional media where the advertiser essentially takes a leap of faith with every campaign whose results cannot be measured until after some time, Panama offers advertisers a good measure of certainty with its instant research and analytics. In a nutshell, Yahoo, through Panama, “takes the friction out of digital buying.”
Panama, in fact, allows even small and medium-sized businesses to mount their own online advertising campaigns to suit their own budgets and preferences. No clicks and the ad is free. For larger advertisers, Panama offers Yahoo’s targeting capability and reach of 53 million users monthly in Southeast Asia. For the smaller guys, it offers cost effectiveness. In the Philippines, a version that will allow advertisers to target specific regions of the country is in the works.
Reaching 86.4 million users in Southeast Asia alone -- far more than all the publications of the region combined ever can – the internet follows people wherever they go, engages them like no other device in modern times can, and even tracks their behavior. More importantly, it provides instant feedback and the necessary metrics on the efficiency of one’s advertising campaign, ensuring that no advertising money goes to waste. In a short span of time, the internet has become a consumer aggregator, relationship manager and a key advertising and sales channel.
As access to PCs rises across the region, the number of Internet users in Southeast Asia is expected to reach 94 million in 2008 (for a penetration rate of 18%), and 122 million (for a penetration rate of 23%) in 2011. Interestingly, in the Philippines, more than 75% of Internet users access the web through neighborhood Internet cafes.
Despite the fact that Southeast Asians are online 18% of the time, advertisers continue to regard online advertising with skepticism. In 2007, advertisers put just 3-8% of their advertising budgets into online campaigns, spawning what Mr. Mandel calls the “digital divide” or the yawning difference between the time people spend online and the advertising dollars spent online. He notes that in more sophisticated markets such as the United States and Sweden, this gap is shrinking, but for the rest of the world, including Southeast Asia, there is much room for growth.
Claus Mortensen, principal of the IDC Asia-Pacific, Digital Marketplace, likewise noted the big gap between online advertising and online activity in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) in 2007.
While $735 billion went into B2B transactions and $100.1 billion worth of B2C transactions were noted in 2007, online advertising stood at a paltry $2.7 billion. Korea was the biggest online advertising spender in 2007, but China is expected to outpace the rest in 2009. The Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia combined accounted for less than 1% of online advertising spending in 2007. Asia, he noted, is still very much into online display advertising as opposed to search-based advertising, although the two are seen to strongly rival each other by 2012.
In fact, Mr. Mortensen does not expect much growth in online advertising in the region, projecting a consolidated aggregate growth rate of 8.5-12% between 2007 and 2012. Online advertising, he predicts, will account for less than 7% of the entire advertising spending in the Asia-Pacific region in 2012.
In the Philippines in 2007, less than 1% of the $2.2 billion spent on advertising went into online campaigns, noted Yahoo strategic consultant Cris Concepcion. In 2008, he says a lot of advertisers “are in the cusp,” and are beginning to allocate more funding into online campaigns.
He estimates that 3-5% of advertising expenditures in 2008 will go into the online space.
Mr. Mandel, for his part, believes that the low advertising numbers are all rooted in advertisers’ fear of the unknown, which for many, is what online space represents. Fragmentation of audiences is also a valid fear of advertisers
Mobile advertising is another sleeping giant that advertisers have yet to understand and exploit. Mr. Mortensen noted that handsets – which he calls “the most valuable piece of real estate” for display advertisers because people cannot seem to live without them -- are now more accessible to the mass market, such that 1.2 billion people worldwide, and 430 million in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) have handsets of their own. This figure should go up to 2 billion worldwide in 2012, and 700 million in the Asia-Pacific. In 2008, there will be 1.2 billion mobile subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan), and this number should reach 1.9 billion in 2012. For now, however, only around 160,000 have mobile internet access. The number of users is expected to reach 450,000 in 2012, following the increase in phone applications. When asked through which device they access the internet daily, only 35% said they did so through their mobile phones. The overwhelming majority or 90% still used their PCs.
Mr. Mortensen noted that “there are still no budgets for mobile, but it’s getting a lot of traction.”
In the United States, mobile marketing expenditures reached less than $500 million in 2007, and is seen hitting $1.5 billion in 2010. He predicts that mobile advertising will be a “huge market” and as with online advertising, “it’s a matter of when, not if.”
Going forward, Mandel sees advertisers using multiple platforms for their campaigns, and moving from single campaigns to broader ones, as advertisers move from reaching the masses to chasing relevant eyeballs.
Yahoo, for its part, is betting on three things to keep its market dominance in 2008 : starting points, must buys and open platforms. Starting points – which is the page that users start their internet surfing with – “are valuable for our consumers,” says Mr. Mandel. “For our advertisers, we bring starting points with scale, and we give scale in a fragmented environment. For our users, we manage a complex web for a simplified experience and provide relevance to improve their surfing experience.” This, in turn, “preserves trust,” which is probably why Yahoo has the numbers that advertisers can only die for: 305 million homepage users, 50 million personal homepages, 262 million Yahoo email users, and 19 million mobile internet users in Southeast Asia, as well as being the second largest search engine.
Preshant Mehta, vice-president for Yahoo’s advertiser and publisher group, emerging markets, sums it up: “We want to transform the industry. Today, there are too many touch points, everything is manual and error-prone. Advertisers deal with fragmented audiences, opaque systems and pricing. We offer a common hosted platform. Unified processes standardize low value transactions so that audiences and inventory are aggregated across the web.
Pricing transparency reduces arbitrage. Now, everything is fast and easy; it takes just minutes to a few hours to launch a sophisticated campaign.”

Isaac is going back to school

This summer, Isaac is going back to a school setting after almost two years of home therapy. Back then, we opted for a home set-up since the school set-up was obviously not helping him but this time around, the reverse is true. He seems not to be benefiting from the setup anymore. The change is, of course, scary for me. After a long time, he will again be exposed to a lot of new people. How will he take his new surroundings and having unfamiliar people around him? How will he adjust to the schedule? Will he eat the food he will be given (no Piattos, I'm sure)? So many questions...
We've decided that he will go to New Era. Only New Era has the infrastructure and the will to have a real, working Special Education program and I'm just too glad that Dr. Dizon is there to personally oversee their Sped program. I do hope he doesn't get terrified by the sheer size of New Era. I still get lost there.
Change is always discomfitting, but we've made the decision. New Era, here comes Isaac!

People I Admire Series: Vivienne Tan

(After years of rest from magazine work, it was a pleasant surprise to write about and conduct a photo shoot for Vivienne Tan. She was really patient with me and Louie Aguinaldo even if we had her do some poses over and over again. Wish school administrators all over the country would be as dynamic as she is.)

Published in Personal Fortune Magazine, March 2006

For the past few months, life has been one big joyride across the Chinese business landscape for students of the Entrepreneurs School of Asia (ESA). Not that the immersion program – a full term taken in ESA’s campus in Zhejiang, Hangzhou – has been without the rigors of university life. But for students who had a first-hand experience of doing business in China, the stay was one exhilarating adventure of learning and discovery.
In a world where knowledge has become the most important currency, ESA has recognized that there are a few things that cannot be overlooked. The China phenomenon, for example, is a perfect example. To successfully do business in China, mere information is not enough. Rather, an in-depth understanding of the workings of business, culture and local practices, among others, are needed for one to blaze through the competition.
For Vivienne Tan, visionary behind the school, ESA will be the seedbed that will help produce “Asia’s global entrepreneurs.” Better known as tycoon Lucio Tan’s daughter, Vivienne is also chairman of the school, which first opened its doors in 1999 as the British International College. ESA aims “to develop the entrepreneurial mindset” among its students, going beyond mere rhetoric and grand plans. Indeed, notes co-founder Joel Santos, ESA is a “whole institution focused on entrepreneurship” and its attendant requirements: an understanding of the environment, the workings of one’s business, and how all these come together as one.
“We have always been firm advocates of entrepreneurship,” says Vivienne. “Even before entrepreneurship became a buzzword, our institution has been developing the model environment to nurture, develop and inspire young people to be entrepreneurs.” The school, she points out, “was conceptualized from the very beginning as a school made by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.”
ESA is probably the only college that offers Business Mandarin and a one-semester stay in China where students learn the rudiments of doing business in the country. Likewise, it is the only Philippine school that allows its students to pursue a straight Master’s program in its partner institutions abroad. ESA counts among its partners the University of Portsmouth, Oxford Brookes University, Northumbria University and European Business School in the UK, Northwest Polytechnic University in the US and Curtin University of Technology in Australia.
Just as its pretty chairman does not fit the mold of the traditional schoolmarm, so does ESA refuse to conform to the usual expectations of what a school should be. Its Libis campus sits within an industrial enclave, sandwiched between warehouses. The campus itself is a converted warehouse with an unfinished look, the cold, gray walls punctuated by playful splashes of color, glass and metal here and there. “I chose this myself,” adds Vivienne. Eschewing box-like structures that most schools go by, she says that a school’s “interiors should induce creativity and innovation. I want something where people can mingle and network, where they can discuss business and themselves.”
Indeed, ESA has a small, friendly community. Its students, mostly second-generation business owners, make up this close-knit circle, where many end up doing business with one another. Unlike other schools where students are more interested in school activities or the coolest gadget, ESA students are more interested in what each one is doing. “Ano’ng raket mo?” has become such a popular opening line and has probably given birth to more businesses than can be imagined. Students openly discuss business ideas and problems, and willingly share their ideas with their classmates, whether in or out of the classroom. This pervasive entrepreneurial culture is one that Vivienne is particularly proud of. She is always happy to see how freshmen – newbies who make a quick about-turn when she meets them in the corridors – blossom into confident upperclassmen who have no qualms about engaging her in casual conversation.
“We focus on applied learning,” explains Vivienne. “We provide a conducive environment that would transform their creative concept into a sustainable business. We don’t confine our students to the walls of their classroom. Instead, we encourage them to make the world their classroom.” As a requirement for graduation, students are supposed to start their own business or introduce major, strategic improvements to an existing one. To handhold students through this, ESA has put in place a strong mentorship program.
Alongside the focus on the business is the attention placed on the personal development of the students themselves with the goal of “improving their sense of self-belief and confidence.” ESA’s mentors tell its students not what to think but how to think. “We don’t tell them what specific steps they have to take,” says Vivienne. Suggestions on how to view the problems are instead broached. And recognizing that business is one big gray sphere, “we never tell them that something is right or wrong.” But tirelessly, ESA’s mentors encourage their students to do more, to go beyond themselves, never being pushy but never letting go either.
Vivienne herself always tells the students to ask all the questions they can ask while they are still in school, and not to be afraid to make mistakes. “It’s okay to make all the mistakes you can here (in school); no one will know. If you make your mistakes later on, then you will affect others already.”
Beyond the learnings, ESA imbues its programs with greater meaning through its commitment to “social entrepreneurship.” Explains Vivienne: “To be truly successful, one must go beyond achieving personal success by contributing and creating a positive impact on society. This would mean a strong sense of social responsibility anchored on a strong sense of values.” She adds: “We always tell our students they need not get jobs, they should create the jobs.”
Not surprisingly, ESA’s motto is “Entrepreneurs for Society.” Recognizing business as a tool to fight poverty, it unceasingly reminds its students to see beyond the profits their businesses can generate. They are also immersed in the realities of doing business in a poverty-stricken country, and are reminded of their responsibilities to society. Programs that would allow them to give back are incorporated into the program, such as an immersion program with Gawad Kalinga. They also provide business consultation to Quezon City’s urban poor as a prerequisite for the latter to avail of microfinancing from the government.
“In 2002, we launched our pioneering program, which is BS Entrepreneurship. In 2006, we had our first BS Entrepreneurship graduates. They have already contributed to society by creating jobs and value even before they graduated. More than providing our students an education and a degree, helping them be entrepreneurs that create jobs and opportunities is our measure of success.”
Of course, Vivienne admits she derives equal fulfillment in seeing her students overcome themselves and blossom into confident entrepreneurs ready to take on the world. She treasures words of thanks from students who acknowledge how she and the school have helped them, and still keeps a handwritten note from a student who singled her out for contributing to his growth. “Once you ignite something in them, they just expand their horizons and keep on going,” she says. “It’s all very inspiring.”
It is not surprising, then, that she “just fell in love” with her new role as an educator. Just as she has helped transform many a young student, ESA has helped transform her in more ways than one. Certainly, Vivienne has come a long way from her days as a systems operator in the US (she is a Mathematics/Computer Science graduate “who just had to know everything”) and her long stint in fashion design (she took up fashion management after deciding “computers are a guy thing”). Vivienne today stands as the muse of young global entrepreneurs ready to conquer not just Asia, but the world. //

People I Admire: Rommel Juan

(Rommel's story always reminds me that the simplest concepts are those that succeed.)

Published in Business Mirror

Having fun and making money are two things that Rommel Juan can mix quite easily.
Even during his college years, he was able to cash in on his fun ideas to make a quick buck. So when he opened Binalot and called it the “pambansang tsibugan,” he knew people would come in to sample the food and bask in its humor.
Binalot started as a food delivery service in 1996, when Rommel, then 24 years old, decided to embark on the business “for fun” and “because I had extra time in my hands.” Until then, Rommel was involved in the family’s automotive business, handling sales and marketing.
The decision to go into business was not surprising. Rommel comes from an entrepreneurial family, “where we discuss business each waking moment.” Pacita Juan, the genius behind the Figaro Coffee chain, is an aunt. Even when he was in grade four, Rommel was peddling stickers to his classmates. He was, however, not really money-savvy. In fact, he was a mere “agent” of his brothers, who financed the sticker business, and who could only scratch their heads when Rommel’s collections would fall short of sales. “Money didn’t turn me on. I did those things for the interaction with people. I didn’t even know how to count change,” he recalled.
Rommel says he set up Binalot “as a creative outlet.” He was into cartoons, comic books and always did the flyers and ads of their family business. “I’m really corny. I say things like what’s wrong, polo barong? What’s the matter, peanut butter? Binalot is really an extension of me.”
Rommel confesses that he didn’t know much about the food business when he started Binalot in 1996. He didn’t know how to cook, and had to ask the help of a family friend, Aileen Anastacio, in creating the dishes. Initially, Binalot was limited to food deliveries. “Ako mismo ang naglalako,” he related. Business was good. Then the Asian crisis struck, and the next thing Rommel knew, his sukis in the offices were all gone as many companies closed down. He was already mulling closing down the business, when, in act of divine intervention, Shangri-La Mall offered him space in its food court.
Though unsure of its prospects, Rommel grabbed the opportunity. “I said this is make or break for me, but I won’t fall in love with the idea (of the business). If it wouldn’t take off, then Ie would not hesitate to just close down the entire thing.”
Binalot’s opening day performance decided the company’s fate. “On the first day, there was the longest line I have ever seen,” he recalled. It was obvious. “This was our second lease on life.”
Binalot’s offerings of rice topped with Filipino favorites, served with achara (pickled papaya), tomatoes and salted eggs, all wrapped in banana leaves, became an instant hit with the lunch crowd who have obviously had enough of burgers and spaghetti. Binalot’s menu consisted of tried and true Pinoy favorites such as adobo, tapa, bangus, bistek, tocino and longganisa. Its humorous names – bistek walastik and adobonanza -- also became a hit with the crowd.
Encouraged by his initial success, Rommel opened more Binalot outlets in mall food courts. Unlike the food delivery business, he says, “sales are steadier in retail, and it is much more easier to plan for.”
As business grew, Rommel explored new business possibilities. “When we reached six stores, I realized that we actually had a brand.” However, he also recognized that his responsibilities were mounting. “I realized, marami na tao ko, hindi na laro ito. This boy playing has lives depending on him.”
To better take stock of things, he took up a Masters in Entrepreneurship at the Asian Institute of Management. This allowed him to have “a bigger outlook.” For the first time, he “saw the forest” which was just as well, because as he himself declares, “I am all about branding.”
Following this, Rommel ventured into franchising. First, he had to make sure that the business was replicable and that its systems were robust enough to be transplanted elsewhere.
In 2003, Binalot opened its first franchise outlet in Intramuros. This step, he said, was pivotal to Binalot’s growth. The franchise route allowed Binalot “to grow exponentially.” Today, Binalot has 30 outlets and Rommel is confident it would surpass 40 outlets within the year.
Rommel says Binalot’s success is rooted in the efforts of its people. “I keep it enjoyable for all our people,” he says, not hesitating to ask them “are you still having fun?” during their one-on-one performance reviews. He likewise makes sure that his people are empowered so they become more accountable for their actions.
Binalot is heavily invested in training its people. At the same time, it makes sure it treats its people well and pays the minimum wage. Rommel admits that “people management is the hardest part of running a company” and makes sure he is attuned to their needs and thoughts.
As a result, he is able to count his peole as his steady allies. “I bring my people together to help.” In fact, Binalot has its own corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, which it calls the “dangal at hanapbuhay para sa nayon” (dahon) program. Under this program, Binalot has commissioned a community from the Southern Tagalog region to provide it with a steady stock of banana leaves. The program has allowed erstwhile idle women to make as much as P200/day. The Binalot staff derives obvious pride from the knowledge that they are able to help many families.
Of course, Rommel recognizes his role in growing the Binalot brand. “The key success factor was that I loved it. I have the passion for it, which means I never had to work a day in my life.” //

Toy Recalls, Circa Philippines

Published in BusinessMirror
Perspective Section
December, 2007

To many children, Elmo, the much loved furry red monster from Sesame Street, is more than just a plaything. To children ages two to five years old, Elmo is a trusty playmate -- a friend to lug around the playground; one who won’t complain when hugged, pinched or smothered with kisses. For parents, Elmo even makes a good teacher. How many children from all over the world have learned the letters of the alphabet or mastered numbers one to ten from this ticklish little creature? Children eat orange and broccoli because Elmo does, too.

Imagine parents’ shock, then, when Mattel announced a massive global recall of toys in August this year that included Elmo, Big Bird and Dora the Explorer toys, among others. On August 1, Mattel’s Fisher-Price division announced that it was recalling 1.5 million preschool toys because of lead paint. That action included 967,000 toys sold in the United States between May and August. Two weeks later, it announced that it would be recalling 19 million toys worldwide, mainly Chinese-made toys that either had excessive amounts of lead paint or had small magnets that could easily be swallowed by children. It announced that further recalls could follow, as it began investigations and production checks in its factories in China.

Toy recalls are nothing new in America. For the past two decades, monthly recalls have been issued covering all kinds of toys and children’s equipment for an assortment of reasons – high lead content, having loose buttons or small parts that can come off, being made without fire retardants, among others. Almost every toy brand has experienced having its items pulled off the shelves for reasons that Filipinos typically do not worry about, but which American consumers have been trained to regard as a possible health hazard. The average Filipino consumer, for instance, would not worry about a teddy bear with loose button for eyes, or fret over drawstrings longer than 2 inches on a toddler’s shirt. American regulators, though, would see those loose buttons as a possible choking hazard, and the drawstrings as a possible strangulation threat.

High lead content, ingestion of which can lead to developmental delays and learning difficulties, is the top reason why toys are pulled off the shelves. American consumers are, in fact, relatively well informed in matters involving product recalls, and trooping to the store to return a crib or a doll that fails product safety standards is almost a non-event for many. US retailers, for that matter, do not question a customer who walks in to return or exchange a toy for whatever reason. Tired of Piglet? Here’s Pooh Bear instead.

The August toy recalls, though, were troubling for their scale. Never before have parents seen so many of the children’s best-loved toys being labeled as a health hazard. For many, it was agonizing to think that those Elmo stacking rings their babies have mouthed with aplomb actually contained dangerous levels of lead. Even before trade officials could get moving, parents all over the world were already emptying their children’s toy boxes to flush out the toys they deemed to be everything but dangerous. The recall scare did not spare the Philippines, especially affecting those parents who normally pick up toys in their travels to the United States. The response, though, was more subdued than the frenzy experienced in other countries.

Unlike the full-blown recall carried out in the United States, the Philippine recall was much more limited in scale. Fortunately for Mattel’s toy distributors in the Philippines, Richwell Trading and Ban Kee Corporation, the toy stocks in their warehouses were not among the flagged toys. According to a Mattel press statement, the Philippine recall was limited to three main lines, including 16 lines of Polly Pocket toys with magnets made in 2006 and earlier (Pollyworld Dial a Style; Polly World Rocking Theme Park set, Quick Click Playset, Quick Click Penthouse, Quick Click Boutique, among others.); Magna Battle Armor, Batman and Fight Wing Batman Magnet Lok system figures; as well as Sarge die-cast cars from Disney/Pixar. The recall announcement was made through print ads in major Filipino dailies as well as through notices in the customer service counters of major toy retailers.

Of course, there were many questions raised, especially among those who had purchased some of the recalled toys in the United States. Filipinos taking to the net were also surprised to find some of their old toys in the recall lists of the past years, and could only shake their heads in dismay.

But unlike American parents who frantically pulled out the toys from their children’s toy boxes, Filipino parents, after their initial shock, were far more relaxed about the whole recall to-do. Perceptions, Inc., a public relations firm tasked to handle the Mattel recall hotline in the Philippines, was initially deluged by calls from worried consumers but the tumult soon petered out. Rhea Bautista of Perceptions reports that out of more than 100 calls made to the Mattel hotline since August, less than half of the callers have followed through on their complaint. In fact, the on-ground team has been busy following up these callers, but many are no longer keen on following up on their complaint, even if the toys can be picked up by courier. “Di bale nalang,” was a common refrain.

Bautista notes that there have been zero returns for the Batman figures, and negligible figures for the Barbie kitchen and living room sets. The most returns were for Polly Pocket dolls, whose magnets were found to easily detach from the toys and which could cause a choking hazard if swallowed. Majority of the callers, she notes, came from the upper socioeconomic classes, which is not surprising considering that toys made by Mattel are priced above the reach of the mass market. Whether Filipino parents simply do not give much weight to the hazards of lead ingestion, belittle the possible dangers posed by these toys in their bedrooms, or are inured to having the developed world dump toxic products dumped in their children’s bedrooms, is something that only they can determine.

Bautista points out that it is far easier to exchange or return recalled toys through the Mattel hotline. Unlike retailers who still require the official receipt, and sometimes even the original packaging of the toys, Mattel is ready to pick up any toy that bears the right product code or at least fits the description of the toy in question. Bautista adds that even toys bought in other countries, including the Dora and the Sesame Street line, are now being received and processed through the Philippine hotline.

Of course, returning toys has not always been this easy in the Philippines. The first wave of recalls, which covered the Dora the Explorer line, had to be processed through Mattel’s Malaysia office. A parent who tried to return her daughter’s Dora toy found it simpler to dump the toy in the trash bin instead.

Today, Mattel’s Southeast Asia office in Malaysia still oversees recall operations in the Philippines, which will run up to February 2008. The Department of Health is the government agency closely monitoring the pull-outs, while the Department of Trade and Industry is simply assisting the involved retailers.

DTI Undersecretary Zeny Maglaya notes that Mattel “pulled out quickly” following the recall announcements. Toy manufacturers and importers, on the other hand, are voluntarily seeking and presenting laboratory results attesting to the safety of their toys, especially those toys that are being packaged with kiddie meals by fast food chains.

Last November, the DOH issued a circular requiring importers and manufacturers to present their laboratory results to the DOH-attached Bureau of Technology and Health Devices following a six-month transition phase, during which consultations will be made.

In the meantime, the public could only hope that toy manufacturers and government agencies could at least conduct independent audits at different points of the supply chain, whether it be at the manufacturing, shipping or retail levels. Third party laboratories and testing facilities should also be identified. Filipino retailers could undertake their own safety checks on toys, similar to what retailer SM did for the Christmas lights sold in its stores. Product registration cards should also be included in toy products to ensure the success of future recalls.

Maglaya believes the recall wave has made Filipino consumers more aware of the need to ensure product safety and quality. “The China recalls was a wake-up call. More calls were made to our consumer direct line,” she added. That, she says, is a “good sign” which means that no matter how slow, Filipinos are somehow on the road to consumer vigilance. //