Remembering RVR @ 103

“Great people stand out from others by their visions and not much by their intelligence.” — Amit Ray

It has been said that visionaries are possessed creatures. They are beings in the thrall of belief so powerful that they ignore all else, even reason, to ensure that reality catches up with their dreams. The visions of a glory-driven daring idealist — who led a new organization of young men committed to herald positive change in a devastated nation almost forsaken of hope; and later, built one of the most successful conglomerates the country has ever known — had invariably been hallmarks of a man whose ideas have always become actions; and had a perpetually passionate sense of what is eternal in human nature, of what is coming but as yet unseen, just over the horizon.

Manila Rotarian Ramon del Rosario was one such visionary. In an era dominated by an alarming epidemic of youthful despair — “Monching” to his contemporaries and “RVR” to his younger colleagues — did not only live his 90 years in making a positive difference in this earth, he also successfully carried a message of hope to young men and women to far continents; having represented his vision to the world as no one else could.

RVR was born on July 25, 1918 in Sta. Ana, Manila, being the sixth of nine children. Fatherless at nine, he was introduced early to the nuances of hard work, helping his mother survive on a meager teacher’s salary during the Depression. During his schooldays at La Salle High School, he had to contend with missed lunches and often dispensed with the luxuries of motorized transport simply to meet the costs of quality education. But it was through these unpleasant experiences that seem to have molded him to what he was in his later years. It was when he finished high school in 1935 that he discovered and developed his gift of speech, as he romped off with several academic awards for elocution, academic achievement and leadership. He later graduated from La Salle College (now, De La Salle University) in 1938 with a degree in Commerce, which took him only three years to complete, and passed the licensure board examinations for Certified Public Accountants after a few months.

Monching was employed almost as fast as the ink from his graduation diploma had begun to dry. He signed up as the first Filipino employee of a growing American company called International Business Machines (now, IBM), whose off-shore office in the Philippines, Watson Business Machines, opened only a year earlier. Serving the company with such commitment, focus and competence, he became the first Filipino General Manager of IBM Philippines in 1946 at the tender age of 29. Apart from his work at IBM, he was active in civic and professional associations, including the PICPA-Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He was also elected President of the De La Salle Alumni Association, and thrust to a stalwart role in the Rotary Club of Manila and the Knights of Columbus.

Fate, however, seems to have something far greater in store for him. He received an invitation from an old college buddy, Artemio "Temiong" Vergel de Dios, in September 1947, asking him for help in forming a new group for young businessmen and professionals. Temiong showed him a magazine article about young American men working on projects for their communities as members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, better known now as “Junior Chamber International (JCI).” He and a small band of like-minded buddies wanted to hatch a similar organization in Manila. More than this, he wanted this young achiever’s help to make it happen. Despite his initial reservations about this new organization — having initially declined the invitation to be part of the group — Monching was, nevertheless, elected as JCI Manila’s Charter President, and true to form, the organization lived up to Junior Chamber’s original vision of mobilizing youthful dynamism for community service under his leadership.

A month after their election, this intrepid group of young men launched their first project — a week-long “Clean Up the City Campaign.” This saw RVR and other executives removing mountains of debris and trash that had accumulated since war’s end in various parts of Manila. This ambitious undertaking drew tremendous favorable publicity in the newspapers. Soon, young men from provincial capitals were rushing to join the JCI movement and formed their own city chapters. In a year’s time, twenty-two provincial chapters were born; they held their very first National Convention from February 11 to 13, 1949 in Manila, where the national assemblage formed what is then JUNIOR CHAMBER OF THE Philippines, now known as JCI Philippines. Once more, Monching del Rosario was elected its first National President. Audacity and imagination distinguished the JCI movement under his leadership. They demonstrated it in so many projects which were done that year, but it was most especially seen in their bid to host the 1950 JCI World Congress in Manila — the first in Asian soil.

It was this highly successful World Congress in Manila that would lead to his election to the World Presidency of Junior Chamber International — the first for a Filipino and an Asian; certainly, a position of great prestige at that time. Under his administration as JCI President, Junior Chamber embarked on an aggressive membership expansion program, where the JCI movement spread like wildfire through the length and breadth of the Philippines and spilled over Asia, as far north as Japan, to countries in Southeast Asia going as far as India.

During this time, a lot of changes were happening to RVR’s life. In 1951, he decided to join The Philippine American Life and General Insurance Company as Executive Vice-President, but events in the Philippines were ushering in a new era of industrialization. In 1953, he got his first taste of genuine entrepreneurial venture by helping his siblings set up the Del Rosario Brothers, Inc. — a company that manufactured and distributed household appliances to customers on an installment basis. But Monching wanted to pursue a higher calling — he envisioned a company that would assemble a high-powered consulting group that will initiate and manage industrial ventures badly needed by the country. So, in 1956, he incorporated the Philippine Investment and Management Consultants (PHINMA). From his ventures in PHINMA, RVR quickly secured for himself a premier position among young Filipino business entrepreneurs. In 1959, just a few years after PHINMA was formed, the company audaciously built the first Filipino-owned oil company, Fil-Oil Refinery Corporation (now, Philippine National Oil Company). Until that time, it was the biggest Filipino company to come into being.

It is with this inner strength, tenaciously rooted in self-discipline and matchless determination, that Monching made himself the unchallenged voice of the young upstarts of his generation — and, sometimes, the disquieting conscience of the old traditionalists. That voice, in turn, infused his young colleagues themselves with the fiber that gave their revolution its true stature. The mark of excellence he displayed in the organizations which he led, as well as in his countless business ventures, attested to the triumph of his far-reaching vision and leadership style. With neither land nor trading gains to underwrite his plans, he raised capital from various investors and joint venture partners, convincing them to put their money on carefully crafted projects, a competent management group, and his unsullied personal integrity.

Because of his unblemished reputation for uncompromising honesty and almost an unceasing mission to epitomize credibility, it was only a matter of time before he was called to government service. In 1978, Foreign Affairs Minister Carlos P. Romulo invited him to serve as Ambassador to Canada. In 1984, he was appointed Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany. And in 1986, President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino appointed him Ambassador to Japan.

Monching was not only instrumental in establishing business empires but also educational institutions. Together with his friends from JCI Manila, Monching helped establish the Asian Institute of Management (A.I.M.), the “Harvard Business School of Asia,” which is widely considered as one of the top graduate business schools in Asia, having produced many of the top executives in the Philippines and in Asia. Today, A.I.M. is credited with playing a major role in nation-building.

It was his heeding to his inner, immutable core of values of honesty and loyalty that endeared RVR with the same set of illustrious personalities who seem to share his beneficence; his long time associations with business luminaries as Washington SyCip, industrialists Vicente Madrigal II and Ernesto Escaler, former Central Bank of the Philippines Governor Jose “Jobo” Fernandez, Seiko Corporation’s Honorary Chairman Reijiro Hattori, former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, former AIG Chairman Maurice Greenberg, Gulf Oil Founder and former President William Larimer Mellon, as well as IBM Founder and Chairman Thomas Watson, only serve to solidify Monching’s gravitas and affinity with people possessed with unimpeachable integrity and a passion for excellence.

His advancing age did not deter him from doing what he loves best — helping people. He was known as a man in near-perpetual motion. Foremost among the conduits of his generosity was as Vice-Chairman of Caritas Manila, Inc., a Catholic relief agency, where he spearheaded projects to benefit indigent prisoners — many of whom were languishing in jail without yet being convicted — for minor offenses and their families. As a member of the Board of Trustees of the A.I.M., he constantly assisted in the development of courses geared towards ethical management, specifically, the private sector’s responsibility towards nation building — the school’s Center for Corporate Responsibility, as well as De La Salle University’s new Business School, his alma mater — are both named in his honor. Finally, to promote a science-oriented curriculum from elementary school to college, he funded the construction of a building in the DLSU Canlubang campus in Canlubang, Laguna, Philippines.

For his efforts to alleviate the conditions of the poor and the unprivileged, as well as for his service to the Catholic Church, Jaime Cardinal Sin conferred on him the Pontifical Orders of Knighthood of St. Gregory in 1994 and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem in 2002. In 2009 — on his 90th birth anniversary — JCI Manila, with the support of the Asian Institute of Management, formally launched “Ramon V. del Rosario Award for Nation Building” designed, not only to honor RVR as JCI Manila’s charter President, but also to keep alive in the current and future leaders of Philippine business the spirit of nation-building through responsible entrepreneurship that was the hallmark of his career. I was fortunate to have been part of this award’s first organizing committee as its adviser, ceremony program host and consultant. On the 25th of July 2019 — which would have been RVR’s 101st birthday — we continue his legacy through this award, now running on its 10th year. While RVR is no longer with us physically, his vision, the values he stood for, his commitment to nation-building — all these — live on, particularly in this significant institutional legacy.

There are many, many more tales I could write about this great man that inspires me to be what I am today. Yet, to characterize the man behind the myth could not be possible without getting to know the man personally. Through this modest tribute, I wish to perpetuate his memory, having had the supreme honor of knowing him on a personal level. Having been formally introduced to him for the first time during the 50th Anniversary Celebration of JCI Manila held at The Manila Hotel in 1998, I had the opportunity to work closely with "Tito Monching" when we established the "Beyond Prison Walls" project for indigent inmates in my capacity as National Secretary-General of JCI Philippines in 2002. His incorrigible professionalism, disarming humor and visionary leadership were traits that clearly set him apart from many other diplomats I have known. From having connected with RVR until his passing on September 7, 2008, we never stopped communicating, exchanging small notes and greeting cards from time-to-time; and, when I was really lucky, receiving an invite from “The Grand Old Man of Philippine Industry” every now and then to catch up on my goings-on, despite his very busy schedule — and seemingly "unreachable" stature — for lunch or coffee at his swanky office in Phinma Plaza nestled in Rockwell Makati.

Indeed, to the world at large, Monching del Rosario gave Filipinos what politicians of his time could not provide: a sense of pride in themselves. That sense is at the core of his unwavering belief in the Filipino people. If the elusive question of peace goes begging in a nation besieged by political tension and wracked by religious strife, business — he surmised — could perhaps be the great healer. For the good Ambassador, ideas about what can be accomplished differ from those of most mortals. They are far grander, informed by a vision as vast as the human determination to bring them into being. Indubitably, by bringing the spirit of entrepreneurship and industrial peace to a new conformation with the nation and salving the wounds that have torn its people for decades, RVR has left a secure legacy of helping vastly to recapture the real essence of economic justice.