Uniship Chief Capt. Jae Jung Jang

Who knew what the world could do to a man’s restless heart? In this case, that of a young South Korean out on his first adventure to see the world, onboard his first overseas vessel.

When Jae Jung Jang left South Korea in his early 20s to become a seafarer, his goal was simple — to earn just enough money to reclaim his four siblings from the grasp of poverty, with the girls sent to an orphanage and the boys to their relatives. Jae’s childhood ended abruptly with his father’s untimely death, leaving him in charge of a family of five when he had yet to enter college.

As soon as Jae saw and experienced the immensity of the world, however, his simple dreams of economic stability slowly turned into grand visions of the future — a future where he, not only gathered all his siblings, gave them education, livelihood and security, but got to explore and make the most of what the world has to offer.

This temperament was at its strongest when the opportunity of stable income and corporate career security was almost assured for Jae, then known to his friends as Capt. Jang. He was then the subject of envy among colleagues as he was being groomed to become the director of South Korea’s biggest shipping line at the time, Sammi Line.

“I looked at the director’s office and felt uneasy. I could work hard and easily get into that position that everybody coveted. It would guarantee me a steady income and a comfortable life, and maybe retire from there,” Capt. Jang thoughtfully recalled.

“But I already saw the world; it is so colorful and full of life. I suddenly couldn’t see myself contained in that small white room and wait for my retirement. I felt that everyday should be a new day that you should be excited of what’s to come. A person’s life shouldn’t be fixed on doing the same job and routine every day because that is when we lose our energy and passion, you just become a slave to a lifeless system. There is no life to that.”

With such realizations came the providential opportunity. Capt. Jang was invited by a French friend to work for a shipping company in the Philippines, albeit in a time of political crisis. Nonetheless, the young captain bravely moved to the Southeast Asian country amid the sneers and pitying look of his friends who felt that he was in for a career disaster.

“They looked at me like I am so ‘kawawa,’” he remembered laughing. They were expecting that I would move somewhere big like America, Europe or Tokyo, and so they were stunned when I said I’m moving to the Philippines. They said, ‘How could you go there, it’s dangerous?’” the captain recalled.

Rising amid political turmoil

It was 1984, the sociopolitical landscape of the Philippines was indeed in turmoil when Capt. Jang flew in. He only had two peaceful years of working as the general manager of Seawood Shipping when demonstrations finally broke into the streets of Manila, the Americans and Europeans fleeing the country, and most shipping companies closing shops, his included.

Even as his French business partner joined the exodus, Capt. Jang remained in the Philippines, joined the defiant crowd of People Power demonstrations in EDSA, and ripped the sheets of Yellow Pages into confetti, so he would have something to toss into the Roxas Boulevard procession. When most of his friends and colleagues were fleeing, the young captain stood his ground and fought alongside his Filipino friends, for the nation he learned to love.

He has seen the fall of Ferdinand Marcos and the rise to power of Corazon Aquino to the presidency. He witnessed how the government and businesses shut down and reopened again for those who started picking up the pieces. He experienced the sudden boom of the local shipping business when foreign investors started looking for Philippine charterers and there was no one in the islands but him and his newly established company — Uni-Ship Inc.

“The new government under President Cory Aquino approved my application for business immediately and they were happy because there was no one investing and doing business here that time. So I started with seven young Filipino people and met with them in Cafe Adriatico in Remedios. Most of them are still working for me now,” he said.

“I learned then that Filipinos have a very good heart, they have a big loyalty and they like to work as a family. In Korea, if you are an employee, then you are treated that way. But here in the Philippines, everybody works with a mother-, father- and sibling-figure; many would even call me tatay,” he chuckled.

And so, when other companies would adopt the ways and traditions of their foreign investors, Uni-Ship, even when owned by a Korean, operated like a Filipino. Capt. Jang adopted the country’s tradition of filial relations; he sometimes would even wear the Barong Tagalog to work.

Caring for ‘forgotten neighbors’

Capt. Jang, in a comical confession, admitted to being a “bad boy” during his heydays in the Philippines, often closing up bars in Malate and Makati for his own private parties.

“Good money was coming in from the business and I could spend a lot just for a night of drinking. I was pogi back then!” the captain showed a black and white photo of what teenagers would identify as a “K-Pop-looking” man and cracked into fits of laughter.

His drinking and smoking spree came to an end, however, when he got to meet a leper in Quezon City.

“It was 1994. My friend, who was a missionary pastor with the Samaria Mission International, asked me to drive for him to Tala Leprosarium Hospital. When we got there, he introduced me to one of the patients and asked me to shake his hand… but I did not know what to do. The man has no hand!” he incredulously recalled.

But unlike other people whose initial impression and reaction with hansenites include fear and repulsion, Capt. Jang only felt sympathy and sorry.

“I felt very guilty then. I may be working so hard to earn the money that I choose to waste, but it turns out that I am drinking away something that could actually buy 30 hansenites three months’ worth of food! I realized the value of money and gradually stopped drinking, smoking and going to bars. I ended up visiting my leper friends in Tala every week and bringing them something every time.”

Since then, Capt. Jang has continuously cared for the hansenites in Tala, and eventually established a village for the cured patients called Sorok Uni Village in San Antonio, Quezon. The housing project included sustainable livelihood programs for the patients and their families, and education for their children. The housing project took five years to be completed, however, due to the social stigma and stubborn refusal of most barangay (villages) to accept hansenites in their community.

“The village people would block the roads so we could not enter. Rumors spread around the area that I was using the housing project as a front for a drug factory, and then when they learned that it is actually for hansenites, they were claiming that I was bringing Korean lepers to live here. It took me five years to convince and educate them,” he said.

He also created the same programs in Pasabolong, Zamboanga where about 800 hansenite families benefit from the education, housing and livelihood programs of Sorok Uni Foundation.

“I learned from my first visit that these people from Zamboanga worship Allah all the time even from a dilapidated mosque. So, one of my first projects there was to renovate the entire mosque; they were so happy with it. Whenever I visit today, and even if I am a Christian, I would join them in their worships like we are family.”

Today, Capt. Jang has extended his charitable hands to the homeless people of Manila by providing medical missions, feeding programs and public worships in Liwasang Bonifacio beside the Manila City Hall. He also sends hundreds of Mangyan children in Mindoro to school by erecting a halfway house for those who live six hours away from the school.

“I’ve learned that people have always wanted to be happy. But what is real happiness? Is it spending time and money to make yourself and family happy? That is fleeting. But if you spend all these for the benefit of other people, see children grow and finish their education, then that is lasting happiness and fulfillment. That is why we have to understand what the Bible says, ‘Love God and love your neighbor.’ It teaches us to be a channel of blessing,” he concluded.