Saturday, November 01, 2008

BADO DANGWA, ENTREPRENEUR & POLITICIAN

When Manileños think of buying fresh flowers, many go to the Dangwa Flower Market, though Bob Dangwa, a very successful entrepreneur, did not own any business enterprise in the cultivation or selling of fresh flowers.

The Dangwa Flower Market was so named because of the Dangwa bus terminal on Dimasalang Street, which became the drop-off point for fresh flowers when the Dangwa buses were the primary means to transport them from Baguio to Manila. Consequently, the surrounding area became a fresh flower market, now offering fresh flowers from all over the world.

As for Bado Dangwa, he was born in Kapangan, Benguet, on May 5, 1905. His main aspiration was to become a teacher while studying at the Trinidad Agricultural School. He was, however, also fascinated with junk machines and motor vehicles; taking them apart and then restoring them to finely-tuned, working condition.

During the 1920s, with the foresight to provide an efficient means of transportation for the Trinidad Valley region as it was being developed as the country's vegetable bowl, Dangwa took five dilapidated Chevrolet cars from the North Garage in La Trinidad. He refurbished their engines, and with a loan of ten pesos, converted three of them into passenger vehicles. They eventually proved to be a popular mode of transportation plying the La Trinidad-Baguio City route, long before the surplus jeeps of World War II.

Soon thereafter, he expanded his transportation business to connect Mountain Province with other nearby provinces and Manila. Hence, the Dangwa Transportation Company was born with Bado Dangwa as its president and general manager. By the time war broke out, the firm had 173 buses carrying both passengers and cargo between Baguio and Manila.

Just before he joined the guerrillas when the Japanese forces landed in the Philippines, he turned over his buses to the U.S. army. His bravery in leading guerrilla units in fighting the Japanese in the various mountain trails of the Cordilleras brought him fame.

After the war, to serve once again the people of the Mountain Province, he rebuilt his transportation business by acquiring and converting surplus American trucks.

In recognition of his business achievements and wartime heroic efforts, President Quirino appointed Dangwa as governor of the Mountain Province in 1953. Ramon Magsaysay, who succeeded Quirino, also reappointed him as governor; hence, Bado Dangwa was the only governor in Philippine history, who was appointed by two presidents from opposing political parties. When the governorship of the Mountain Province (composed of the sub-provinces of Bontoc, Ifugao, Kalinga Apayao, and Benguet), became elective, Dangwa was elected governor of Benguet. He was also reelected after his first term.

In 1963, he retired from politics and focused his energies on various private enterprises; one of which was the largest poultry farm in La Trinidad that employed highlanders (Igorots), and supplied Baguio City's needs for poultry products. Meanwhile, his transportation service company, by 1967, included 500 trucks and public utility cars and taxis; the majority of its 1000 or so employees hailing from the Mountain Province.

Married to the former Maria Antero, he and his wife pursued many philanthropic activities that benefited hospitals and schools, including a number of other civic and charitable organizations. Bado Dangwa died In 1976 at the age of 71.

Unfortunately, the Dangwa bus company is no longer as it once was. It has become a mere shadow of its former glory. Nonetheless, besides the famous flower market in Manila, the Cordillera police regional office was also named after Bado Dangwa.

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Additional source:
SILENT STORMS
Inspiring Lives of 101 Great Filipinos
by Fernando A. Bernardo
Published by Anvil

Photo depicts the crowded scene yesterday at the Dangwa Flower Market as many people flocked
to the area to buy fresh flowers for All Soul's Day.

Related links:

Dangwa Flower Market - Pictures from flickr

Flowers at the Dangwa Flower Market - a slide show - theprotagonist.net

Flowers for All Soul's Day - Housewife @ Work

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Please note:
I very much appreciate my articles and photos appearing on fellow bloggers' sites, popular broadsheets, and local broadcast news segments, but I would appreciate even more a request for permission first.
Thank you!

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Labels: business, life in Manila, Philippine history

posted by Señor Enrique at 7:51 AM | 21 comments

Monday, October 13, 2008

ON CORDUROYS AND MACOMBER STORE

I was cleaning my closet the other day and came across a favorite pair of corduroy trousers (above photo), which I tend to wear only when in Baguio since I find this fabric unsuitable for Manila's muggy weather.

These trousers, by the way, I bought years ago one autumn day at Banana Republic, one of my favorite stores in New York. In fact, I started shopping at its original store located on Broadway in the Upper West Side. At that time, it was a specialty travel wear and accessories boutique. Bought by The Gap, it's now a very popular store with branches all over America.

These days, whenever corduroys and the city of Manila arise in one single thought, the store Macomber comes to mind as well. It was one of the pioneering ready-to-wear stores in the city, at a time when RTW was basically unheard of. Macomber specialized in denim (maong) and coduroy jeans.

My memory placed the Macomber store as being on Avenida Rizal in Santa Cruz, but a cousin argued that it was somewhere on Quezon Boulevard in Quiapo. Be that as it may, even though I had only purchased one pair of corduroy jeans at this store (when I was in high school, wanting to be hip), I've come to regard Macomber as Manila's answer to Levi's.

Recently, I learned that the man behind the Macomber Store was Florentino Mariano Maliwat, who happened to be the best friend of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

The friendship between the two men stemmed from the late 1940s when the mayor was still a working FEU high school student at a haberdashery shop in Tabora. Mr. Maliwat, on the other hand, was a budding entrepreneur who bought fabrics per kilo for mass production -- during the early years of his RTW enterprise, at a time when everyone favored customized tailoring.

According to a tribute article by People Tonight, Mr. Maliwat would hand over his list of buttons, threads and other needs for his growing factory to Mr. Lim who would put his orders together and help carry the boxes all the way to Azcarraga (now Recto) where Maliwat’s old jeep was parked.

A lifetime friendship flourished soon thereafter between these two young men. Last April, Mr. Maliwat passed away much to the mayor's deep sorrow.

To read more about the admirable friendship between Mr. Maliwat and Mayor Lim, please click here.

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Labels: business, life in Manila

posted by Señor Enrique at 8:12 AM | 16 comments

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

MARITIME PIRACY AND ECONOMIC CHAOS IN OLD MANILA

According to the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center, there has been an alarming surge in pirate attacks worldwide. Africa remains the world's top piracy hotspot, with 24 reported attacks in Somalia and 18 in Nigeria this year.

Recently, Somali pirates seized the cargo ship Faina off the coast of Somalia on Thursday as it headed to Kenya. The Ukrainian-operated ship is carrying ordnance ordered by the Kenyan government, which ncludes 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and a substantial amount of ammunition and spare parts.

The pirates are demanding a $20 million ransom to release the Faina and its crew. Although the Kenyan government stands firm in its policy not to negotiate with pirates or terrorists, what's on board deeply concerns five nations — Ukraine, Somalia, Russia, the United States and Britain — and have been sharing information to try to secure the swift release of the ship and its 21-member crew.

Meanwhile, in America, in its attempt to thwart a shattering financial crisis with major global repercussion, the Bush administration and congressional leaders agreed on a deal to authorize the biggest banking rescue in U.S. history — the $700 billion bail out program.

According to the Wall Street Journal, at its core is Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's concept of buying impaired mortgage-related assets from financial firms — giving them cash to replace the toxic debts that have put them in danger or dissuaded them from lending. The plan is to help the firms restore their capital bases as well as the trust that enables them to borrow and lend at reasonable terms. Without this, officials worry that the credit markets, the lifeblood of the U.S. economy, would grind to a halt.

An extraordinary week of talks unfolded after Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, went to Congress 10 days ago with ominous warnings about a full-blown economic meltdown if lawmakers did not act quickly to infuse huge amounts of government money into a financial sector buckling under the weight of toxic debt.

These two crises — maritime piracy and economic turmoil — in one fell swoop, at one point during the 16th century, similarly roiled in and shocked Manila.

In the early morning of November 4, 1587, in the bay of Augua Segura or Puerto Seguro, now named San Jose del Cabo somewhere in the tip of Baja California, the English pirates led by Thomas Cavendish sighted the galleon ship Santa Ana, on her way to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Lower California to make a landfall and check her course prior to continuing on to Acapulco.

Cavendish's ships, the Desire and Content gave chase with all sail. It was afternoon when they came up broadside with the Santa Ana — tagged as the "great rich ship" — under the command of Tomas de Alzola. It left the port of Cavite the last week of June, some four-and-a-half months earlier.

The English ships attacked the Santa Ana with full force, killing and maiming many of its men who fought valiantly and refused to surrender. After about six hours of intense resistance and having suffered heavy loses — with the hull of Santa Ana also sustaining a canon blast at the waterline — Captain Tomas de Alzola finally hung out a flag of surrender.

In spite of the the disparity in size of the ships — the Santa Ana had a tonnage of 700, while the Desire and the Content were of 120 and 60 tons, respectively — the odds of the battle was overwhelmingly in favor of the British. The Santa Ana lacked the necessary artillery and fire power. Cavendish's Desire alone mounted eighteen guns, while the Content had ten.

In a report to the king from Manila, Governor de Vera wrote that the capture of the Santa Ana came as a surprise since the galleon routes were kept a secret and no other but Spanish ships had been sighted on the these galleon routes for years.

Cavendish and his men were all praise, however, for the courage of Captain Alzola and his crew, which included Filipinos, for fighting up to the end.

The Santa Ana carried 122,000 pieces of gold and a cargo of fine pearls, silks, satins, damasks, musks, and other merchandise of the East Indies, as well as ample supply of all kinds of foods and wines. The royal treasurer in Manila provided a more detailed report: the Santa Ana carried 2,300 marks of gold, equivalent to 84.2 pounds avoirdupois; not to mention a large amount of gold that had not been registered. The total sale value of the Santa Ana's cargo in Mexico would have been over two million pesos, which represented an original investment in Manila of more than one million pesos.

The Spaniards in Manila were further infuriated upon fully realizing the extent of Cavendish's depredation, which consequently, created a severe economic meltdown in Manila. Bankruptcy, poverty and severe despondency were experienced by many members of the city's trading community, including a substantial number of inhabitants and soldiers.

Besides the daring piracy that Cavendish conducted in the waters considered by the Spanish as the exclusive domain of their king, it was his youth (barely in his twenties) along with an inferior sea vessel manned no more than fifty men — who trespassed their domain and got away with it — that ultimately left the Spaniards in Manila feeling unbearably weak and inadequate.

During the 250 years of the galleon trade, the sea claimed dozens of ships, thousands of men and many millions in treasures. As the richest ships in all the oceans, the galleons were the most coveted prize of pirates and privateers. Four were taken by the English — the Santa Ana in 1587, the Encarnacion in 1709, the Covadonga in 1743, and the Santisima Trinidad (the largest ship in her time) in 1762.

The first to fall was the Santa Ana, a prize catch that went to the Englishman Thomas Cavendish. His brazen act of maritime piracy eventually precipitated an economic turmoil that startled the Spanish regime in old Manila.

Wish you were here

Saturday, November 01, 2008

BADO DANGWA, ENTREPRENEUR & POLITICIAN

Monday, October 13, 2008

ON CORDUROYS AND MACOMBER STORE

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

MARITIME PIRACY AND ECONOMIC CHAOS IN OLD MANILA

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