Vicente Paterno - On My Terms: The Autobiography of Vicente Tirona Paterno

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ON MY
TERMS

The Paterno family, three generations. Photo taken January 2012.

ON MY

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OFVICENTE TIRONA PATERNO

TERMS

On My Terms: The Autobiography of Vicente Tirona Paterno

Copyright to this digital edition 2014 by Vicente T. Paterno

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or
by any means without the written approval of the copyright owner and the
publisher.

Published and exclusively distributed by
Anvil Publishing, Inc.
7th Floor Quad Alpha Centrum
125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City 1550
Philippines
Telephones: +63 2 4774752, 4774755 to 57
Fax: +63 2 7471622
E-mail:

Edited by Nancy Pe Rodrigo
Supplementary proofreading by Roselle Rodrigo
Cover design by Patrick Kasingsing
Interior layout by Ramn C. Sunico

ISBN: 9789712731297 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

For my grandchildren

Joaquin, Nicholas, Sofia, Adela, Isabel, Luis, Beatriz, Mateo

Table of Contents

C HAPTER 1 Origins, then 1925-1945

C HAPTER 2 From UP Engineering to Harvard Business School

C HAPTER 3 Buckling Down to Work, 1953-1964

C HAPTER 4 The Meralco Challenge, June 1964-December 1969

C HAPTER 5 Retrospection, Reassessment, Last Quarter 1969, First Semester 1970

C HAPTER 6 Into Public Service: Board of Investments, June 1970-June 1979

C HAPTER 7 The Department of Industry, June 1974-July 1979

C HAPTER 8 Ministry of Public Highways, July 1979-November 11, 1980

C HAPTER 9 Return to the Private Sector

C HAPTER 10 A New Odyssey: March 1986-July 1987

C HAPTER 11 The Senate: July 1987-June 1992

C HAPTER 12 Mindanao, Ang Pag-asa

C HAPTER 13 Philippine Seven Corporation

T he initial purpose of these writings was only to inform my eight grandchildren of their origins. Writing on the origins of the Paterno clan evolved into a story of my life, the times I lived in, the work I did. Given the changes I see in the times, the eight cousins may live out much of their lives away from their origins. In whichever parts of the world they eventually spend their lives, I want knowledge of their ancestry and a strong sense of family identity to fortify them against feelings of rootlessness living in countries not their own.

So these writings progressed into a chronicle of my own life, their ancestor of the sixth generation of the Paterno clan. I hope that my grandchildren might discover in the annexed story of the Paterno clan, and in the book itself, certain features in the thinking, attitudes, and modes of conduct of their ancestors, which may influence how they will live and behave, in spite of large differences in the tools, social norms, and behavior of their generation from those of their forebears.

As I look back through this life, Steve Jobs 2005 commencement address rings true: You cant connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backward. I can now better appreciate the dots and the connections of my various occupations at different times of my lifesugar mill engineer, technical consultant, treasurer, financial executive, bureaucrat, minister, oppositionist, entrepreneur, senator, independent director, businessman, activist for difficult causes, and through it all, a concerned Filipino.

Book browsers and researchers alike will be interested to trace in this book of my life and times not only the variety of my professional career, but also the socio-economic contexts spanning the times I lived and worked in.

I am about age 88 as I deliver the manuscript to my editor. So the books readers, in order to appreciate the context of the events I write about, would have to be, say, twenty years of age by the time my substantive work eras began, namely 1956 to 2000, in different environmentscorporate, government administration, entrepreneurial, Senate, and my own business. At the time this book will be printed, interested readers will be mostly ages 50 onward, a declining 3 percent of the countrys population, unless the reader is a scholar seeking information for his/her research. By age reckoning, this book will have a limited and decreasing readership.

Book-loving browsers may also find interest in the variety of my professional career. I suggested to the editor to place a page of my curriculum vitae at the front part of this book. The book browser will see my work begin as a teenage trader at sixteen years of age through various stages, ending as businessman cum concerned citizen, because in my old age, I offer advice out of my experience to whoever has the time and willingness to listen.

But the elderly (or close to being so), the researcher, and the browser in the bookshelves, are not my primary audience. The book is mainly addressed to:

My grandchildren

Joaquin, Nicholas, Sofia, Adela, Isabel, Luis, Beatriz, Mateo:

This book is the outcome of my desire to tell you, my grandchildren, about me. It began with writing about our ancestry, started by an immigrant from South China in late 18th century. This ancestry shaped the family I was born into and influenced my choices during the course of my life. My writing was sustained by the realization that the age gap between me and Joaquin, the first grandchild, is sixty-seven years. That age gap is the equivalent of three generations. And by my awareness of huge differences between my world and that in which you, my grandchildren, are growing up and will live, my tales will be not fully understandable, if only read so early in your life.

In 1925, when I was born, there were only 12 million Filipinos. Lands then were available for settlement and possession, earnable by tillage through the homestead legislation. When Joaquin was born in 1992, Filipinos already numbered 65 million, and the land reform legislation required landowners to surrender landholdings in excess of five hectares, for distribution by government to landless farmers. As he came of age, population was to exceed 90 million, with most of the growth springing from the poorest families. Joaquin, Sofia, Adela, Luis, and Isabel may choose or have to live in other lands after university, and so with Nick. And what about Beatriz, fifteen years younger than Joaquin and her brother Mateo, two years behind Bee?

All will better appreciate their Owos tales in this book when they have grown in age. I hope Joaquin, his siblings, and his cousins will read or reread this books later chapters some eleven to fifteen years from now, and discover lessons they may find useful or pertinent for their life situations then.

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