Bacolod and the Good Life in Outreach Work

It is a joy to be in Bacolod, where life is good.

In this year’s Masskara Festival, everyone got to know this new tag line to promote Bacolod City as a prime destination for the good life and everything good that life has to offer in the City of Smiles. The city government has worked very hard to make this year’s festival a well-attended one. With all the festivities promoted daily all over Bacolod, you could palpably sense the good life in this city I have grown to cherish.

I am in my 5^th year here in Bacolod. Since I came from Manila in 2007, many things have definitely changed. Infrastructure-wise, we have the new flyover. We have a new airport. There are more than a dozen new buildings that have become hotels and restaurants, plus offices to different business process outsourcing companies and foreign shops. And in this study center where I am staying, there are also new projects that are born and are interesting to sustain, promote and worthily support.

Sabor Bisaya

July 27 was an eventful day with the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Negros Occidental’s (HRANO) biggest culinary event of the year staged at the Bacolod Pavilion Hotel --- Sabor Bisaya. Organized by Jovial Media Events headed by Ms. Maricar Dabao, with former city councilor Atty. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue as one of the program hosts, students from the Hotel and Restaurant Management schools around Negros and both local and foreign food enthusiasts gathered in this once a year affair. Sabor Bisaya, conceptualized by Negrense Chef Jomi Gaston in 2011, is now becoming a food and beverage local event favorite.

Various competitions were held that day we went: Table Setting for Two with Menu Card, Cake Decorating Contest, Organic Menu Food Challenge, and the Original Visayan Cuisine --- competitions open to both students and professionals. The following day, there was another set of food and beverage contests which kept the HRM students of the province very busy.

Fresh Start Organics had a booth where different products like the Artisan Piaya and Green Smoothie (Malunggay or Moringa) were sold. Puro Organic, Fresh Start’s sister company, also joined Fresh Start’s booth where they sold our organic coffee i.e. Mt. Kanlaon, Negrense and Hacienda coffee blends, muscovado and coco sugar and Artisan cheeses and some bottles of fresh cow’s and goat’s milk. Work colleagues Gladys Abayon of Fresh Start and Joan Cachuela of Puro Organic, were there.

A Day at May’s Organic Garden

I was fortunate to be part of a tour conducted at the Ramon Uy Foundry and Machine Shop Corporation (RUFMSC) and May’s Organic Garden and Restaurant located in Brgy. Pahanocoy, Bacolod City this July. I have been reporting and doing work familiarization in this part of the city for two weeks now and I must say, I am really enjoying every bit of it.

My young friends Camille and Meawyn, both from the University of St. La Salle, came along to join the tour along with our guests from the agriculture office of Oton, Iloilo’s local government unit. They actually came to meet Mr. Ramon Uy himself, or Sir RU as he is called, to be interviewed by him to possibly do part-time work here at RU.

Why Opus Dei Is Conservative

At breakfast today, June 26, the feastday of St. Josemaria Escriva, the founder of Opus Dei, I had a light talk with Winnie, a numerary who works in the catering department of one of our centers here in the province. We were commenting how, in a recent article, Opus Dei was tagged again as a 'strong' conservative group of the Catholic Church, with the word 'conservative' bearing more negative hues than positive.

Has the word conservative evolved into something to be embarassed about? Has it become an uninspiring idea to be conservative in the 21st century? Is it a nightmare to be one?

To be conservative is taken to mean the following: to be traditional, conventional, conformist, unadventurous, old-fashioned, a disciple of the old-school, as opposed to being liberal, modern, experimental, or avant-garde, a follower of the new school.

While it may possibly have its downsides, being conservative has its 'upsides' to it as well.

As there is much talk now on thinking critically, may I invite you to practice it now by also considering why conservatives are the way they are? This, assuming that you have more leanings on the liberal way of life, which, by the way, is not something negative to begin with.

This article attempts to explain why Opus Dei is conservative.
It is my spiritual family. And I feel that some light must be shed on this today, the feast of my spiritual father.

The Negros Museum Initiative: Communicating Culture

I was fortunate to be in a two-day seminar at the Negros Museum last May 21-22, 2012, with Ms. Jeannie E. Javelosa, museum curator of the Yuchengco Museum, a columnist of the Philippine Star and a culture and sustainability advocate. She was with Mr. Nico Reyes, Business Development and Marketing Manager of EON, a leading public relations firm in the Philippines that provides communication consultancy services to some of the top brands and organizations in the country.

We were given an interesting lecture on Culture as basis for development and communication, with a focus on Branding. This is where we learned the 4 Cs i.e. the Core of the Philippine Brand which are collaborative, caring, colorful and creative. We talked about brand personality and what characteristics sets a company or organization apart from the rest, meaning we identified the unique and outstanding qualities there could be in the organizations we represent.

The Marian Month of May

We have just started the month of May, the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The very first vivid memories I have of Our Lady are those of my elementary days in Sta. Isabel College Manila. We have a very big quadrangle in school which is named after Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. There, under her gaze, I got to know her little by little.

I joined Mary's Angels in elementary and the Children of Mary club in high school. We promoted the devotion to the Holy Rosary and learned so many songs and prayers addressed to Our Lady.

Fresh Start and Social Entrepreneurship

April 18, 2012-BACOLOD CITY: The events group Creative Little Minds organized a 3-day Entrepreneurship Program for Kids at the Workshop Area of World of Fun in Robinsons Place Bacolod from April 16-18, 10-12nn. There were more than 25 kids in attendance, from ages 5-15 years old.

The kids had several workshops and had fun learning how to start a business, manage money i.e. know where it comes from, how to spend wisely, save and share --- and they also learned the importance of social entrepreneurship.

Creative Little Minds' organizer, Ms. Kitkat Lobaton, invited our bosses at Fresh Start to share its story on how it became a business with a mission --- a business with a heart! As I form part of Fresh Start Organics' Marketing and Public Relations department, I was tasked to give a 15-minute talk to the kiddie participants. It was all about the company's commitment to sustainable development by mainly helping our small farmers here in the province. Sustainable development means addressing the needs of the environment, society and economy through one's business practices.


Stress was made on the 3 reasons why Fresh Start Organics was put up by owners Ramon and Francine Uy, a young Negros couple who spearheaded and claimed active support to organic agriculture here in Negros Occidental, in 2005. Social entrepreneurship is about the company's contribution to society, a kind of corporate social responsibility which makes the business' existence noble in itself.

Firstly, Fresh Start is committed to promote GOOD HEALTH through fresh and safe organic produce, coming straight from its organic farms in Silay and Sagay all the way to its stores in the city. The company does this by mixing organic fertilizer i.e. vermicompost, to the already rich provincial soil in the farm.

Secondly, Fresh Start is committed to FAIR TRADE, that is, in helping small farmers improve their quality of life here in the province by increasing their income and profit from farming.

Thirdly, Fresh Start is committed to ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION, because through its organic agriculture practices, soil is made healthy and a rich biodiversity is ensured in the farm.

The talk ended with the kids being challenged to truly make a big difference in other people's lives, in helping people help themselves, through the business they wish to put up. They were told not to be afraid to make a fresh start in their kiddie business however small it may be.

And what was made important for them to remember is : Who we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God, words taken from Go Negosyo's book entitled 8 Simple Secrets to Raising Entrepreneurs.

It was fun and enjoyable to impart some knowledge to the kids about what we do and what we stand for. But I realized, too, that the kids, in all their simplicity and optimism taught me something as well. And that is to never give up dreaming ---- to dream of big things, always hopeful for success.

This is what life is about in the eyes of children. And I think, this is what ought to be in the eyes of 'big' kids as well.