Great Memories at OneMGM Boracay

(Published in BusinessMirror)

Few Boracay resorts can offer the vibrant island life while at the same time providing a measure of peace and quiet the way OneMGM Hotel does. The boys loved it here!

A sprawling garden resort between boat stations two and three, OneMGM is quicky gaining a name for itself for its good food, friendly service and great entertainment.

Just five minutes away from the beachfront, guests of OneMGM are never far away from Boracay’s famous white sands and turquoise waters, and the leisure activities that have made the island the Philippines’ new vacation capital. Guests can laze around in OneMGM’s rattan beds by the beachfront and enjoy languid summers under the watchful eyes of its staff. Isaac fell asleep on the rattan bed in the veranda, while Jacob was quite comfy in the couch. Parents can relax as their children swim in the pool, secure in the knowledge that the resort’s lifeguards are there to guard the swimmers. It was great having them there -- I didn't have to worry about the boys at all.

Though just a short walk away from the white beach, one is immediately transported to a tropical oasis upon entering OneMGM’s gates. Asian-inspired villas dot the property, a veritable garden with three pools, an open-air restaurant, and giant trampolines surrounded by lush tropical greenery. Friendly hotel attendants roam the premises in their signature yellow shirt and orange pants, flashing the sunniest smiles and offering what is probably the fastest service in the entire island. Every so often, the resort plays host to bands and shows, to the delight of its guests, many of who come from the colder climes of Europe and Asia. Weddings and conferences have been held here, too.

Other than the villas, there are also standard hotel rooms and suites in the sprawling property, where guests can likewise enjoy the niceties of city life – a mini bar, a TV with cable, a private kitchen with plates, utensils and cooking implements, a safe, hot water, and comfortable beddings. The suites, with their plump sofas and individual balconies, are perfect for families and small groups. The famous D’Mall and the wet market are easily accessible through the tricycles that pass the area, as is everything else. The resort also has regular shuttles to and from the jetty port as well as a boat that goes to Caticlan.

The OneMGM Hotel is the first of many developments that will eventually transform Boracay’s station three. Expansion plans are well underway, with the hotel’s proponents recent acquisition of the adjacent three-hectare property. This will give the resort beachfront access and the longest resort frontage in station three and in the island. The site will eventually be home to more resort rooms and villas, as well as a chapel, an aviary, more food outlets and an entertainment center. All these will make the resort a total destination.

For this summer, the resort is offering a special rate to local residents and balikbayans. For P2,499 net per person (minimum of two persons), the third person sharing the room pays just P999 while the fourth person enjoys free accommodation. The group also gets its fourth night at the resort for free. This rate includes overnight deluxe accommodations and free breakfast.

Indeed, a stay at the One MGM Resort makes for many great memories. //

People I Admire Series: Cesar Buenaventura

(I was initially hesitant to meet up with Cesar Buenaventura. I remember interviewing him when I was a young reporter during the time of President Aquino and I thought he was this pompous, impatient know-it-all. I am so glad I agreed to meet with him for this conversation. Sixteen years later, I found this man who touched me with his wisdom and his true concern for the Philippines and the youth. He was curious about how someone young -- me -- felt about things concering the nation and my family, probably because he has seen so many wasted opportunities around him. I was teary eyed when he talked about his last lunch with his best friend, Jimmy Ongpin. I wish that Cesar Buenaventura's lessons would not be wasted on my generation.)

Corporate history is filled with stories of men constantly outdoing themselves to build the enterprises that would be the bedrock of the Philippine economy; of winners rewriting the rules and conduct of business; of thinkers and doers whose work would leave a permanent imprint on the face of Philippine business.

In many of these stories, the name of Cesar Buenaventura invariably comes up. Belonging to that generation of men who witnessed the country shake off the ravages of war to become Asia’s wealthiest, only to stumble later on to economic perdition, Buenaventura has the wisdom of the years and the insight that comes with having taken a personal stake in the writing of these stories.

Twenty-six years ago, Buenaventura, then president of Pilipinas Shell, was asked by bosom friend Enrique Zobel to become chairman of the board of advisers of the fledgling Makati Business Club. The bombastic Zobel had just delivered a speech categorizing the wealthy into three groups – the “profligate rich, the idle rich and the working rich” – vilifying those who chose to stay indifferent to the decay around them, and at the same time exhorting the rest to speak up on matters that concerned the nation. For Buenaventura, it was not a difficult decision. The year was 1981, and Philippines had already earned the reputation as the sick man of Asia. Poverty and despair gnawed at the social fiber of the country, yet the government was too absorbed in its own political affairs to care about the majority. The private sector had to speak up for the Philippines in one voice.

Not one to compromise objectivity out of fear or favor, MBC never curried the favor of any administration, from President Marcos down to President Arroyo. Buenaventura remembers the MBC squarely taking on the Marcos government when it spoke up against the 11 mega-projects of the administration. Back then, it was almost a taboo to question or criticize the government, which was known to be heavy-handed in dealing with its critics. Ironically, first to speak up and most vocal against the projects was Jimmy Ongpin, then president of Benguet Corporation and brother of Bobby Ongpin, who happened to be the trade secretary and main proponent of the projects. A friend of the Ongpins to the end, Buenaventura laughs on remembering Bobby asking him to please tell Jimmy to stop criticizing and to show support for Marcos and his projects.

Buenaventura’s association with the MBC and the individuals who would play pivotal roles in recent Philippine history brought him closer to many realities that he would not have appreciated from the confines of his office.

To this day, Buenaventura calls himself a “disciple of Ninoy Aquino” after seeing him undergo a “Gandhi-like transformation” in the years following his incarceration. “I would have followed him to the gates of hell,” he said, remembering the man whose life inspired him to do more for his country than fate would have allowed him to do.

Educated by the CICM sisters in Baguio, the young Buenaventura wanted to become a doctor but was prevailed upon by his father to become an engineer instead. In the 1940s, he was admitted to the University of the Philippines – a “heresy” for his former CICM teachers who expected him to go to a Catholic university instead. But egalitarian UP was the best that could happen to the teenage Buenaventura. Rich and poor, elitists and provincianos, came to learn about engineering and experience the joys of youth at the state university, paying little mind to the fact that by the end of their freshmen year, a third of the class would have disappeared. Due to UP’s strict winnowing process, completing engineering in the prescribed four years was an accomplishment in itself. Buenaventura was all too happy to be among the 25 students who finished college on time, and eventually moved on to place in the engineering boards.

Upon graduation, Buenaventura first worked with David Consunji, then a young entrepreneur who had just started his construction business. The two would eventually strike up a friendship that would last more than six decades, and would build an empire that would help change the Philippines’ metropolitan landscape. “I was Dave’s first employee,” Buenaventura recalls. “I remember that we had one pick-up, one mixer, and one driver. We couldn’t even get to the front door of AG&P. Our payroll was between P10,000 to P15,000 a week. We built houses and labs.”

Buenaventura eventually snagged a Fulbright scholarship, and went to the United States for his master’s degree, before becoming an engineering professor. He helped build the Walt Whitman bridge in Philadelphia, and though life in the United States was good, “I always dreamed of going back to the Philippines. I was expected to come home.”

Professionals who went to the US were usually expected to join government on their return, and almost always rose up the ranks, as in the case of Public Works Secretaries Buencamino and Dans. Civil servants, in the days before the war, were highly respected by the public for their competence and integrity. Buenaventura, along with Jimmy Ongpin, were among the first professionals to come back to join the private sector. He readily rejoined Consunji upon his return, and helped build the U.P. Chapel. “I remember I would pick up Lindy (Locsin) in my Volks. He couldn’t make up his mind then if he would be an architect or a pianist.” The U.P. Chapel was finished in 1955, and the joy Buenaventura felt on its completion was only erased when the beloved UP Chaplain, Fr. Delaney, passed away ten days after the chapel was opened.

In 1956, when cars had a sticker price of P6,000 and the exchange rate stood at P2-$1, Shell offered Buenaventura a job. Compensation would be P800 during executive training and P1,200 after the training phase. This dwarfed the P400 he got
from Consunji and the P400 that UP would have given him as an assistant professor.
Moving to Shell was an easy choice. It would be his corporate home from then on, being named as its president at age 45, and moving on to become chairman of the Shell Foundation following his 15-year stint as company president.

Shell acquainted Buenaventura with some of the biggest industrialists in the Philippines, among them Enrique Zobel, whose family partnered with Shell in building a refinery. Over time, Buenaventura and Zobel struck a deep friendship, one rooted in respect for each other’s competence and made stronger by their shared values, especially in matters that pertain to people. He still remembers clearing a road strike in 1966, when militant laborers closed down the Pandacan depot, and especially cherishes the lessons learned from it.

Shell also allowed Buenaventura the opportunity to tap the Philippines’ potentials as a source of petroleum. It was a difficult venture, starting off with a failed exploration that cost Shell some $150 million. “I remember apologizing to the Managing Director in London. He told me, Cesar, don’t feel bad about it. For every sixty holes that Shell dug, only one would contain oil, but that single hole will be able to answer for the cost of digging the other 59,” he recalls.

Fortunately, the chastened Buenaventura never let go of his dream to plumb the Philippines’ waters for prized petroleum. Eventually, his efforts would lead to the discovery of Camago and later on, Malampaya. Shell ended up spending over $2 billion to build the Malampaya pipeline, and today, Malampaya is an important contributor to the Philippines’ energy needs.

Beyond these, Shell allowed Buenaventura to take a direct hand in molding many young minds to create globally productive citizens and workers. “In Shell, we developed a cadre of professionals that shows that the Filipino can do it,” he said, reciting the names of Shell homegrown talent (Ed Chua and Ely Santiago, to name a few) who have made their mark globally for their competence and hard work. In fact, he is proudest of the fact that he has “left a group of people trained to take over and with long term careers, and who could rise beyond being president of this company.”

On leaving Shell, Buenaventura decided to go into consultancy, drawing upon his vast experience sitting on the boards of First Holdings, AIG, Ayala Corporation, and Benguet Corporation. He formed the BPE Partnership, which would combined his expertise and experience, along with those of his brothers Rafael (formerly the Bangko Sentral governor) and Linda Echauz.

This was when Consunji again crossed Buenaventura’s path. Now 73, Consunji presided over the largest construction company in the Philippines but had not yet addressed succession issues. Buenaventura saw the opportunity to set matters straight for his buddy. “I told him, ‘Dave, you should take your company public. You don’t really want quarrelling cousins in your board, do you?’”

With Buenaventura as advisor, DMCI Holdings went public in 19--, a step that would not just strengthen DMCI’s financial and corporate structure, but would once again reunite the two old friends in a single company. Eventually, “Dave said ‘now that you’ve taken me public, help me run this company.’” Buenaventura said yes to Consunji and to an extension of his corporate career.

Flush with cash, Buenaventura and Consunji decided it was time for DMCI to buy out AG&P, a move that would consolidate the operations of the two giants. It was, after all, the heyday of construction, and the friends were proud to conquer the company that once towered above theirs. Their timing, though, could not have been worse. Shortly after the purchase, the Asian financial crisis unraveled, bringing AG&P, by now found out to be worth no more than a shell, to its knees. Worse, it had an army of regular workers and no projects.

Consunji entrusted Buenaventura with the task of running AG&P, which went into receivership to pave the way for its eventual restructuring. The rehabilitation process was difficult, but Buenaventura once more rose to the challenge, reengineering AG&P to specialize in the hook-up, commissioning and fabrication of steel structures. Today, AG&P is again a proud and mighty company with 4,000 workers dispatched all over the world.

If Shell taught Buenaventura the value of harnessing the talents of people, AG&P taught him the importance of relating to them as human beings. “The most unpredictable commodity is not money and materials, but manpower,” he stated. “You need to share with workers so they don’t feel exploited. You have to make them proud of the company. You should not treat them as commodity.” In fact, he reveals, AG&P provides its people with meals three times a day, with no limit to the food they can consume. As a result, people are happy. “They feel well taken care of and they have pride in their work,” he says, as he unabashedly proclaims “I am very proud of AG&P.” In fact, he tells Consunji over and over again that he wishes DMCI would not let go of AG&P.

He perfectly understands, however, that there is a time to let go, and for Buenaventura, the time to wind down is now. “I’ve let go of AIM, of UP, and will soon let go of MBC. BEP has young people running it. We’re in the process of disposing of AG&P – at a profit, of course,” he ticks off. Of course, he will still help out DMCI in policy matters, plus there is still the Shell Foundation. Now that it has come very close to eradicating malaria in Palawan, thanks to the efforts of volunteers, Buenaventura will still have to keep close reins on its operations.

Besides, he says, “retiring does not mean letting go completely.” At 76, “I am still interested and can still contribute. I will help in the nature of what I’ve been doing in the last 58 years.” What matters the most, Buenaventura reckons, is that “I enjoy what I’m doing.” And for corporate Philippines, this is what truly matters. //

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. //