Perpetuo “Boy” de Claro

Portrait of a Man
 Introduction

To honor our “boy” on this special occasion of his 60th birthday,

the children and I thought of giving him something that we feel
he would truly appreciate. Knowing how much he enjoys reading
letters and notes coming from the people he loves, we thought a
book about him—a small record of his vibrant personality and the
colorful life he’s lived—would be the best gift.

Through this book, we share with you Boy, God’s greatest gift to
our family. We hope it captures the various ways in which we know
him—as a kind and loving family man, a trailblazing professional,
an exacting boss and mentor, a loyal and generous friend, and
a passionate civic leader. We also hope it reveals to Boy certain
things that he doesn’t know about himself.

Boy has always said that the measure of success lies not in the
awards or riches you have earned but in a happy family life. He
Boy with granddaughter Aria
has consistently been able to live by this mantra. He has also been
able to give of himself to people other than his family. This book
Contents
is a testament to the many lives he’s touched. It is also our little
way of showing our appreciation for all the love and support he
has given us. A Family Man ........................................... 1

The Midas Touch ..................................... 19

Corito de Claro A Teacher By Example ............................. 35

Friendly Fire ............................................ 51

The Lives Of Others ................................. 71

 Chapter One
A Family Man

When Boy de Claro decided on a rare whim to skip work and head
to Punta Fuego in Batangas with his wife Corito one morning—
“let’s play hooky,” she said—he hadn’t the slightest idea he was
in for a big surprise. It was a treat in itself to take his Sunday
car—a sports car he used only on weekends—out on a weekday
morning with his wife on an impromptu trip. They sped down
South Expressway, stopped for breakfast in Tagaytay, and finally,
made their way to Punta Fuego to visit the beach house of Corito’s
cousin, a gorgeous place that, according to his wife, Boy really
ought to see.

They got to the house around midmorning, and Boy refused to

park on the driveway, settling instead for the street—“nakakahiya
naman,” he said. The place was idyllic and the house itself, a
spacious five-bedroom adorned with a view comparable to the
The de Claro family: Boy, Corito, Maia, Rammy, and Jill

1
 Portrait of a Man
French Riviera, seemed drawn from the pages of a dream. As they
went from room to room, delighting in its design and ambience,
Corito held her breath, thinking Boy would recognize certain
things in the house that were their own possessions—an old beat-
up treadmill, a painting from Bali given to them as a farewell gift by
friends from Jakarta—only to end up amused by his obliviousness
to what she thought were obvious clues.
That is, until they arrived at a room where a Peck Piñon painting
of a sailboat was on display. It was a dead giveaway. Boy stared at
the piece, clearly befuddled, and hesitantly stated a fact—“This is
my favorite painting.”
“I could no longer contain myself,” Corito recounts, laughing. It
was time to reveal the surprise she had worked on in secret in the
last year, taking a string of day trips to Punta Fuego, overseeing
construction, selecting tiles and panels and fixtures and fittings,
the whole enterprise kept a secret because of a comment Boy made
about the ridiculously expensive lots in Punta Fuego—“Sino
kayang gago bibili dun?”—after she had already bought the land
and right before she could tell him about it. As they stood before
2 3
A Family Man
the Piñon painting, she turned to her husband and said, “This is
your house!”
Boy was thrilled, of course—“he even congratulated me for
building a beautiful house,” Corito says—but the first thing he
said seemed straight out of a sitcom—“Ay, buti na lang, kelangan
ko na magbanyo!”
Now known as the “I-love-my-husband house,” Corito’s gift to
herself in the guise of a surprise for her husband, the beach house
in Punta Fuego is where the de Claros—Boy and Corito, daughter
Jill and husband Dave with their two boys, Marco and Nico,
daughter Maia and husband King with their baby girl Aria, and
son Rammy—gather on holidays and special occasions. The story
of the surprise house is a favorite to recount, one that portrays
hilarious caricatures of Boy as the dense, clueless husband and
Corito as the wife who can get away with anything.
Perpetuo “Boy” de Claro is anything but dense and clueless when
it comes to work. The lighthearted husband is nothing like the
 Portrait of a Man
President and General Manager—and now Chairman of the
Board—of Wyeth Philippines, a brilliant marketing executive
and relentless perfectionist who keeps employees on their toes
and pushes them to become nothing short of excellent. It is to
the credit of Boy’s staunch work ethic that companies like Wyeth
Philippines, Colgate-Palmolive Philippines, and Johnson &
Johnson Philippines (J&J) enjoyed their golden ages. He runs a
tight ship, one governed by his legendary vision and cunning, as
well as his infamous temper.
The Boy with the thunderous voice and sharp tongue is a far
cry from the grandfather who dozes and does crosswords beside
his sleeping months-old granddaughter Aria. The calculating
professional is hardly like the homebody who prefers to spend
most of his free time in what Jill calls his “horizontal position,”
lying in bed or on the couch and watching sitcoms or movies.
The Boy of the brash and brazen nature, never one to shy away
from controversy at work, barely resembles the man who turns
childlike with anticipation over the prospect of a mahjong session
with friends, or the man who exclaims melodramatically—“I died
a thousand deaths”—upon entering a store filled with what he
4 5
A Family Man
loves to collect—wooden boats of various styles and sizes.
Described by his family as malambing, Boy is the kind who openly
shows affection for his wife and children. As a father-in-law, says
Dave, he is supportive—“he leaves us to chart our own lives,
but always assures us he’s there to help our family.” He is also
particularly sensitive to the needs of his loved ones. Boy’s younger
sister, Cora Aycardo, says, “I have always felt Boy and I had a
special bond. To this day I could swear he was psychic. Whichever
corner of the world Boy would find himself in, he always seemed to
sense when I was in trouble or problematic in my young adulthood
as I would almost always get a phone call from him.”
It takes a workaholic to achieve Boy’s level of success as a
groundbreaker in his field. And true enough, recalls Corito, “When
the kids were young, he didn’t like weekends. He was excited to go
back to work.” When Corito gave birth to Jill, it was her mother
who took her to the hospital because Boy was working late. By the
time he got to the hospital, their first child was already born.
 Portrait of a Man
In the early 1980s, when Boy moved his wife and two small
daughters (Rammy, who is ten years younger than Maia, wasn’t
born yet) to the United States for his stint in New York as Associate
Director for Colgate-Palmolive Philippines, Maia remembers the
long days and late nights her father would spend at the office. “It
was a game with me, my mom, and Jill: ‘Guess what time daddy
will be home?’ He’d come home late and we’d pick him up at the
train station because he would commute to work. He was really a
workaholic then. He was still building his career.”
Not that Corito, a working woman herself, ever minded Boy’s
long hours at work. Theirs is a relationship with ample room for
independent choices and pursuits. “He allowed me to grow, to
do what I wanted to do. He did not have that macho attitude,”
explains Corito. “He realized I was better at certain things than
he, and that is mostly in managing our financial affairs. I would
go into big investments without him even knowing. I don’t even
have to ask him. He has complete trust in what I do. May iba na
I’d call usisero… they’d always ask, ‘What are you doing?’ Always
asking and asking questions. But siya, no.”
6 7
A Family Man
Boy may be a workaholic, but he belongs to the rare breed that
manages consistently to put family first, regardless of the insanely
rigorous demands of the workplace. “He knows his priorities, and
his priorities are me, the kids. I always felt I was number one in his
life,” says Corito. “He always tells his secretary, if any of my family
calls, no matter what I’m doing, I have to take the call.” It doesn’t
even have to be an emergency. He adheres to this policy so strictly
that he would interrupt an important meeting to take calls from
his family or talk to them if they happen to drop by. When the
kids were growing up, he would exert extraordinary effort to fix
his schedule around their school activities, to the point that Corito
would occasionally tell him, “No, it’s okay, I can go. Your work is
more important.”
An expert compartmentalizer, Boy is not one to take work home.
Corito says she doesn’t even know much about the goings-on in his
office, the politics and problems. The kids know of his reputation
in the workplace mostly through stories and not through actual
exposure. The office and the home are two different places, and
 Portrait of a Man
it seems, as much as possible, Boy enters these vicinities as two
separate men. As a father, Corito recalls, he was never the type to
carry the children or change diapers or help out with homework.
But when the family was living in the US, far from the many social
obligations of life in the Philippines, Corito and the girls enjoyed
quality time with Boy, so much so that Corito thinks of their stay
in the US as an ideal time in their family life. “Ang kulang na lang
nun, si Rammy.”
It was in their Greenwich, Connecticut home that Corito and
Boy literally got down on their knees and scrubbed the floors of
their new house together. It was there that each night, he made
his girls chew red tablets (then a Colgate product) to test their
teeth for plaque, sending them off to the bathroom to brush their
teeth again if they displayed red smiles. It was there that he told
his daughters made-up bedtime stories with characters like The
Witch of Dundelock, that he and the girls named themselves the
nonsensical “Kissing Gurami Family.” It was there that he played
Bingo and Monopoly with his family over virgin piñacoladas and
mushroom canapés made and served by Corito. It was there that
he took his family on trips during weekends to New York, Boston,
8 9
A Family Man
Hershey Park, Montreal, and Quebec, where they would go to
restaurants and eat, the family’s favorite pastime.
“With people in the office, he demands excellence. With us, his
kids, he takes us for who we are. Syempre, unconditional love yun,
wala na siyang choice!” says Maia. “He lets us grow and find our
own wings. He doesn’t push us to do what he wants us to do.”
Between Corito and Boy, it is actually Boy who is far more lenient
with the kids, while Corito, jokes her daughters, can be “Hitler”
or “The Wicked Witch.” When the girls would have disagreements
with their mom, Boy would step in as mediator. “He’d talk to my
mom,” Jill recounts. “I know there were a lot of times they would
fight. So many times my dad intervened for us.”
The home is clearly Boy’s sanctuary—when he has time in his
hands, “he’s not maalis,” says Jill—and this is perhaps why he is
easygoing when with his children. “He laughs at our mistakes,”
says Rammy, remembering the time he got caught with cigarettes
in his bag. He had forgotten his bag was transparent and so there
it was, a pack of cigarettes, in full view for his parents—who didn’t
 A Family Man

approve of smoking—to see. Instead of getting angry, his father

struggled so hard against laughing at his son’s blunder. “Di siya
makatawa kasi feeling niya magagalit si mommy sa kanya!”

Although it took some time for Boy to warm up to both Dave and
King, as is typical of fathers with the men dating their daughters,
King recalls an incident when Boy treated his first boo-boo without
much fuss, and even a bit of humor. The family was going to watch
a show at Music Museum in Greenhills, and since there was no
driver available, Maia volunteered King, then her boyfriend, to
drive for the family. It was a simple enough task, but King was
nervous anyway. “I was probably doing 30 km/hr on Ortigas,” he
narrates.

King’s nerves notwithstanding, they got to the show without any

hitch. Going home, however, was a different matter. Once they
were all in the car and King started the engine, “there was an
awful sound from under the car! Holy Kamote! That was my end!”
he exclaims. When they all got out of the car to see what was
causing the ruckus, “there it was, an electronic device of the high-
tech Lincoln Continental hanging from under the car.”
Boy and Corito with grandchildren Nico, Aria, and Marco

11
 Portrait of a Man
“It took me about thirty minutes to figure out what to do and say
to Mr. de Claro,” King continues. “He said never mind, he’ll be
the one to drive na lang. And thankfully he still allowed this now
dirty and sweaty guy to ride beside him. He was cool about the
whole thing. He would even joke about it but you cannot imagine
what I was feeling the whole time!”
To his kids, Boy is confidante and champion. “He says to us, ‘There’s
never a problem too big that you can’t tell me,’” Jill recounts. When
in need of advice, he is the one they turn to, without fail. He is
also matanong, says Maia. “He always wants to know what we’ve
been doing. You feel special when you talk to him.” He likes to
reminisce about his own childhood, how much things cost back
then, the simple life of his family when he was growing up. Boy
is a dog lover who would’ve taken care of German Shepherds if
it weren’t for Corito’s objections, and Jill recalls, “When dad was
young, his dogs were always named Rex.” Rammy, who shares
Boy’s interest in basketball, chuckles as he remembers his dad
saying, “Nagbabasketball raw siya dati tapos sobrang dungis kapag
natutulog kaya raw ata siya nagkapimples.”
12
A Family Man
Boy is so easy with his kids that he rarely asks them to do anything
for him. It was back when he was around seven years old that
Rammy was made to do something regular with his dad—go
out for breakfast during weekends, just father and son. The ritual
lasted until Rammy was around Grade 6. They would go to Ima
or Jollibee, and Rammy would listen as his dad talked about, of
all things, the birds and the bees. As for Jill and Maia, Boy takes
pride in the fact that his married daughters, their husbands in tow,
continue to indulge their dad by spending Valentine’s Day dinners
at home with him and Corito. Little does he know that his sons-
in-law—who get to save rather than spend money on Valentine’s
Day—are only too happy to oblige.
“The only thing he requires from us is a card or letter every
occasion,” says Maia. Despite evidence to the contrary, Boy is quite
the sentimental person, a devoted collector of letters written by his
children, which he stores in a briefcase. “When he’s old, what he
wants to do is just take out all the letters from his kids and read
them all,” Maia adds.
13
 Portrait of a Man
King, who happens to be a chef, is sure of one thing: “There’s
a saying, ‘The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.’
That’s also true with Boy de Claro.” A devoted fan of Mr. Poon, the
siomai and mami of Ma Mon Luk, and chicharon, which he never
fails to buy when he takes his sports car out on weekends, this is
one man who loves to eat. “As long as my pasta is al dente, my
steak is never overcooked, and my scrambled eggs are malasado,
I’m OK with Boy de Claro!”
To his wife, Boy is and continues to be the ideal husband and family
man. “Life with Boy is never dull,” says Corito. As newlyweds they
spent each evening after dinner playing cards, and so competitive
were they with each other that many times, the games would end
with tampuhan, with Boy getting on Corito’s nerves especially
when he introduced new ideas into the game that were hard to
refute. Their married life is filled with laughter because of his great
sense of humor. He is also always the first to say sorry and make
peace after a fight. Corito and the kids bask in the comfort of
knowing that whenever they need Boy, he will always be there. He
even tells them that anyone can call a “family council meeting,”
where they can sit down, talk, and help each other through any
14
A Family Man
problem. To cap a life well-lived, says Corito, “Boy and I look
forward to spending our old age sitting on our rocking chairs,
paugoy-ugoy na lang.”
If Boy has a suitcase-full of letters received from his children
through the years, not to mention the countless family pictures
taken during birthdays, Christmases, and other special occasions,
the same cannot be said of his own childhood. There are hardly
any pictures of Boy as a child and young man. But there are
good memories and important lessons from his youth. The son
of Ramon de Claro, a lawyer, and Felicidad Martinez de Claro, a
homemaker, Boy is the third of seven children.
“One of the stories mum used to tell,” recounts his sister Cora,
“was that when she told Boy off for some misdemeanor, this
would usually involve a long and detailed discussion about said
misdemeanor and Boy’s attempt to explain himself and defend
his actions. In mum’s words: naka-isang salita ka, naka-100 na si
Boy. But the end result was he would end up doing what she tells
him to do—granted of course that she was right. One of Boy’s
15
 Portrait of a Man
strongest traits is that he knows how to listen.”
“Our parents tried to teach us a great many things,” continues
Cora, “and on hindsight, Boy must have been listening intently.
They taught us about integrity, honesty, fairness, the value of hard
work. They allowed us to be who we innately were, they gave us a
lot of latitude, taught us about love, about caring for other people,
about being generous to those who had less than we did. They
taught us not to compare ourselves with others, for always there
will be greater and lesser persons than we are, that education was
supremely important if we wanted success in life.”
Boy has undoubtedly taken many of his parents’ lessons to heart.
His professional success is so astounding that, says Cora, “I think
he even exceeded our parents’ greatest hopes and expectations.”
The downside of such great heights career-wise, of course, is the
overwhelming amount of pressure, and in Boy’s case, it seems,
rage is one outlet for him to let off some steam. While his family
has never been the target of his notorious temper, Corito and the
children have witnessed his road rage many times. He’s transparent
16
A Family Man
when angry, Maia notes. “He spits out his words. He enunciates
every word so you know it’s really serious.”
When choosing restaurants, Jill and Rammy say they prefer going
to places they know their dad already likes, except their mother
and Maia like to suggest new places. “Recently we had lunch
at an Italian restaurant,” Rammy recalls, “and the moment we
entered the restaurant, I knew it wasn’t his type. I had a feeling
magkakaproblem. I think he didn’t like the food that much, pero
di na rin siya nagcomment. I think he knows we get scared. Ang
nangyari dun, we were trying to pay pero ang tagal. He tries to
mellow, pero pag di na niya kaya…” Rammy drifts off but it is
easy to imagine the outburst that is the inevitable end of the story.
“If I get the chance, I’d tell my dad, ‘please, relax lang,’” Rammy
says. “Let it go sometimes.”
Fortunately, at this stage in his life where he is cutting back on
work, Boy has mellowed in his dealings with people. Rammy says
Boy’s mahjong group has also been instrumental in helping him
keep his cool. “At least now meron siyang barkada, patext-text
na.”
17
 Portrait of a Man
The flip side of Boy’s rage is his passionate nature. Corito describes
his passion as very physical, evident in his every gesture—the
way he speaks, laughs, drives, eats. Boy looms large, literally
and figuratively. When he enters a room, he becomes its center
of gravity—he of the boisterous laughter, the booming voice, the
stinging retort, the impressive repartee. Passion for passion fits Boy
to a T, and whether it be steering a company toward success, or
uplifting the poor, or tending to his family, Boy is unshakable and
wholehearted in pursuing endeavors that matter most to him.
At the end of the day, however, there is an elusive quietness to
the man who loves to look at the model galleons he’s acquired
through the years and who still has in storage boxes of wooden
ships he has yet to assemble. There is an intriguing simplicity to
the man who enjoys listening to music while shining his shoes,
and whose ideal day would be spent driving alone in the morning
and watching television all day. Boy loves to drive alone on early
morning weekends, hitting 200 mph, not heading anywhere in
particular. No one is privy to his thoughts on such occasions. The
most he’d reveal to his children about those drives is his love for
one sensation—the feel of shifting gears.
18
Chapter Two
The Midas Touch
It began with an accident that didn’t happen: a slab of concrete
broke loose from the ceiling, fell, and landed smack on an empty
chair. Fortunately, the chair’s regular occupant, a Wyeth employee,
was outside doing fieldwork. Minus the misfortune of bruises and
broken bones, the incident could’ve been written off as a minor
inconvenience, something to be solved with a quick repair. But
Boy de Claro, or PMC, as he is called in the workplace, is not one
to go for the easy fix. Not contented with treating the matter as an
isolated case, he not only ensured that the Wyeth office was free
from safety hazards, but he also drew up an extensive renovation
plan meant to provide his staff with the finest work environment
possible.
Despite his perennially hectic schedule, PMC monitored the
renovation closely and made sure it transformed the Wyeth office
19
 Portrait of a Man
into a world-class facility. “He devoted his first thirty minutes each
day being the unofficial foreman, architect, and project manager
all rolled into one,” says Elvie Guzman, former Chief Financial
Officer of Wyeth. “No job is too small for him to get passionately
involved.”
And when it comes to taking care of his people, PMC leaves
no stone unturned. “A good business manager must fully and
acutely realize that people are the most important assets of any
organization,” he explains in an interview for the Asian Institute
of Management (AIM) alumni magazine. “We have to nurture
and reward this resource, as well as train and develop it. We have
to make sure this resource is happy where he or she is, and that
they’re not costs to lop off at the first sign of a crunch.”
It was during PMC’s first “Barangayan” (town hall meeting) in
Wyeth that he uttered the words “Create the bounty and we will
share the bounty.” Since then, he has done everything in his power
to remain true to these words. Their first National Sales Conference
(NASCON) in Bangkok, recalls Elvie, was the first major test
to PMC’s credibility. And of course, he delivered, successfully
20
The Midas Touch
rallying his people to hit their sales targets and overcoming the
skepticism of HQ over the effectiveness of NASCON as a tool
to reach corporate targets. When PMC finally touched down in
Bangkok, it was in the company of some 300 employees, majority
of whom had never set foot in a foreign country prior to the trip.
From initiating the annual half-day workday, aptly dubbed “Work-
Life Balance Day,” to engaging in a three-year battle to update
an otherwise obsolete hospitalization plan for Wyeth employees,
it is beyond question that PMC never misses an opportunity to
safeguard the well-being of the company’s greatest asset.
Wyeth is not unique in its experience of a golden age under the
leadership of Boy de Claro. Two other companies share this
distinction: Colgate-Palmolive and Johnson & Johnson (J&J). He
entered Colgate in 1976 as a product manager and worked his
way up, eventually becoming Associate Director in the Strategic
Planning and Worldwide Business Development Group in the
New York office in 1982, and relocating to Jakarta as Marketing
Director of Colgate’s “biggest proposed capital venture outside of
the United States.” He entered J&J in 1998 and stayed with the
21
 The Midas Touch

company for almost a decade, starting out as Marketing Director

and making his way up to Executive Vice President for Sales and
Marketing.

The facts are staggeringly impressive. PMC seems to have the Midas
touch. An AIM case study notes that “during de Claro’s watch
as Colgate Marketing Manager, they overtook their two largest
rivals, Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever, in toilet soaps
and detergents—categories where the two had been the perennial
leaders. These two categories joined toothpaste, shampoos,
toothbrushes, scouring cleansers, deodorants, and other products
where Colgate was already number one.”

Jem Bengzon, a fulltime entrepreneur and former head of trade

marketing under PMC in J&J, waxes nostalgic when he recalls the
company’s heyday. “Those are what I fondly refer to as the Camelot
years. They had a fantastic management team. Fred Rodriguez was
the Managing Director. He had Boy for marketing. Although it
was a subsidiary, they ran it the way a company should be run.”

Boy at a dinner with former President Corazon Aquino

during his stint with Colgate in Jakarta
23
 Portrait of a Man
Fred and Boy were not only leaders; they were visionaries. Together,
they steered J&J toward new directions and uncharted territories,
at times provoking the ire of regional management. The risks, as
the results proved, were well worth the trouble. “Some of the stuff
we pulled off in J&J were world-class,” Jem says. “They were never
done anywhere else in the J&J world. Modess with wings first
came out of here. Johnson’s Isopropyl Alcohol first came out of
here. Those happened under Boy’s watch.” The tandem of Fred and
Boy managed to come up with a machine to manufacture Modess
with wings for P300,000—a pittance compared to the USD 3
million they were told they needed to spend for a machine that
could do the job. Under their leadership, the company survived
a drive to become worth USD 100 million; it also survived what
could’ve been a crippling six-week internal strike. In plain and
simple terms, says Jem, “It was a really good time to be in J&J.”
“He had initiative. He planned. And that’s important. He
controlled. And that’s important. He engaged himself in the work.
And that’s important. What I’ve just given you is the definition of
management. Those are the elements of management,” says Joe
24
The Midas Touch
Guerrero, former ambassador and former Ateneo teacher. Though
it may seem like it, he is not describing Boy as the man he is today;
instead, he is describing Boy the teenager, a student he got to know
pretty well during his stint as the moderator of 4-F, Boy’s senior
high school semi-honors class in the Ateneo. The young Boy did
not particularly excel in academics, but he stood out, nonetheless.
“He was exuberant and he had much to say,” recalls Joe. “He was
like a master sargeant. He was not the official one. In class we had
a beadle, a monitor. He wasn’t that but he acted like a beadle.”
Based on the trajectory of his career, to say that Boy has evolved is
an understatement. He goes down in history as the first Filipino
General Manager of a multinational, one among the top 100 largest
companies in the Philippines—a feat that is testament to his taking
to heart the arête—the quintessence, the excellence—that his Jesuit
education sought to inculcate in him. This achievement and many
others cannot go unnoticed. In 2006, he was the recipient of the
Alumni Achievement Award (Triple A) from the AIM, where he
received his MBA in 1973. A year later, the Philippine Marketing
Association honored him with the Outstanding Achievement in
Marketing Management Agora Award.
25
 The Midas Touch

In a newspaper feature on the Agora Awards, Boy says, “A leader

must know the way, show the way, and lead the way. A leader who
at certain times may not know, may not show and may not lead
the way should get out of the way.” Boy may be known for “tough
love” when it comes to his staff, but his philosophy reveals that he
is toughest on himself.

Elvie describes PMC as “a master planner and strategist.” “Early

in the year, he would sit down and do an inventory of the year’s
upsides and downsides to hit the year’s Sales IIBT targets,” says
Elvie. “He begins to plot them notwithstanding the variability
of external factors. You can always suspect he has a crystal ball
stashed somewhere as more often than not he takes the company
results to where he plotted it.”

PMC does not have a crystal ball; however, his capacity for coming
up with fresh ideas and being two, three, five steps ahead of everyone
else, combined with marketing instincts he can count on, make
for far superior substitutes. “Boy is brilliant, to begin with,” says
Pinky Laurena, who worked with PMC at J&J, working her way
The recipient of the 2007 Agora Award for Outstanding
Achievement in Marketing Management
27
 Portrait of a Man
up from Marketing Management Trainee to Regional Franchise
Manager. “He has all these ideas na parang oo nga ’no, why didn’t
we think of that? Even my direct bosses would say the same. He
did out-of-the-box things. We were joking one time, siguro naiisip
lang niya yan pag nasa banyo siya. He’d give you one direction
today and tomorrow he’d say, ‘You know, I thought of this. Why
don’t you try this?’ And after a while, you think, oo nga ’no, it
makes sense.”
“Brainstorming and mind-mapping were favorite activities,”
says Grace Soyao, who worked as Marketing Director for Boy
at Novartis Consumer Health. “He leads by enabling his staff to
lead. It was never just about him. He makes his people visible to
everyone in the business.”
And while each member of the staff is expected to hold his or her
own in the workplace, working as a team is equally important.
“Boy has that uncanny way of making people work towards a
common goal and steer them to action, difficult as it may be,”
notes Elvie. He gets his people to support rather than outdo
each other. “His basic philosophy was, ‘If you have an enemy, a
28
The Midas Touch
common problem, that should be me, not other people. Lahat
kayo dapat magkakampi. Wala dapat magpopormahan, wala
dapat magsasaksakan,’” explains Jem.
It takes no less than consistent excellence to impress PMC, but
once you earn his respect, he is more than eager to entrust you
with responsibilities. “He’s a firm believer in delegation,” says Jem.
He may be the company’s top man, but he has no qualms about
turning to the expertise of others when the situation calls for it.
Neri Calimon, Medical Director of Wyeth and member of its
Executive Management Group (Excom), says, “Boy deferred to
my judgment when it comes to medical and regulatory issues that
the company has to deal with. He always says, ‘Ikaw ang doctor,
mas alam mo yan kaysa sa’kin.’” PMC himself is a team player,
who is in constant dialogue with his Excom regarding company
concerns and issues. “We usually have very good, even explosive
discussions—more often over lunch with his favorite chicken
bacolod or with him providing my favorite comfort food, pilipit—
after which we will come up with a common stand. There is mutual
respect and trust, and an honest, straightforward relationship,”
29
 Portrait of a Man
says Neri. “This became more evident when the company had to
face numerous issues last year and survived it with good numbers
and the continued respect of people in government, healthcare
professionals, and the consumers.”
Caught in the midst of a controversial breastfeeding debate which
put Wyeth and its billion-peso brands under fire, PMC held his
ground, seeing the company through not only the best of times but
also the worst of times. It was a given that the company survive
the controversy; it was simply unthinkable for failure to become
an option. “Even from the start while addressing the issues,” Neri
points out, “he was already planning on ways to recover.”
PMC’s brilliance as a marketing man has gained him fame and
recognition in the corporate world; his aggressive—to say the
least—approach to leadership, on the other hand, has gained him
notoriety. He is more than aware of this perception, and in an
interview for an AIM case study says, “I’m the hired hand and I
may prove to be difficult to deal with, especially insofar as HQ
personnel are concerned. So for me, it’s always been performance
30
The Midas Touch
that matters—results are what will save me from myself. I am so
acutely aware that if I had not been performing in my current
position, many people would love to see my head on a platter.
Thankfully, performance prevails over egos—even over politics.
Without performance, I wouldn’t have a life vest in a raging
ocean.”
A man whose stature in his field approaches that of a myth, of course,
comes with his own set of urban legends that the storytellers—
generations of marketing and sales people ranging from rank-and-
file to top management—insist to be true. These horror stories, if
you will, are as colorful as their central character, repeated again
and again over merienda, on the phone, in the hallways, from
one company to another, one office lounge to another, one ladies’
room to another.
One story that got to Jem had to do with the launching of Ovaltine
Smart, when PMC was still working in Novartis. The word out
was that all the preparations for the launch were done—except for
the product. The launch was going to push through with no stock
available, obviously a no-no. “The product manager was updating
31
 Portrait of a Man
Boy. This is Boy very subdued,” narrates Jem. “He says, ‘You know,
your product is Ovaltine Smart, which means the advertising has
to be smart, the execution has to be smart, the packaging has
to be smart, the delivery has to be smart, the promos have to be
smart… even the product manager has to be smart.’” Jem pauses
and laughs. “That’s tame de Claro.”
Not-so-tame de Claro figures in another story, this time from
J&J. One of PMC’s marketing men launched cloth diapers, and to
make the long story short, says Jem, “It tanked. Ang dami-daming
stocks, hindi naman gumagalaw.” PMC, of course, made sure his
displeasure over the poor performance of the product was heard
loud and clear. He didn’t do this by yelling or breaking one pencil
after another with one hand. Instead, one day, the marketing man
arrived in his office and “yung room niya literally punong-puno
ng cloth diapers na hindi siya makapasok sa kwarto,” recounts
Jem. No harsh words were spoken, but the sheer volume of unsold
diapers dumped in the man’s office was a far more severe reprimand.
“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get the signal.”
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The Midas Touch
Right before Boy ended his acceptance speech during the Triple
A Awards, he did the unexpected: he pledged a million pesos to
the AIM alumni scholarship fund. It was his way of giving back
to the school that played an instrumental role in making him
the marketing legend that he is today. Boy knows he owes much
of his smarts to his education, and although he is tough on his
subordinates, at the same time, he makes sure they’re equipped
with the necessary tools to face up to his grueling demands.
“His passion for work excellence gave birth to the emphasis placed
on training and made WAP (Wyeth Academy Philippines) what it
is today—a hub for the development of its employees and business
partners, and later, a regional training facility,” says Elvie. “He is
a staunch believer in training that improves the employees and
strengthens the company.”
Jem recalls that at some point during his stay in J&J, sales and
marketing were integrated under Boy. Jem was then asked to cross
over to sales from marketing. “The sales side had evolved so much
in terms of its technologies so what Boy wanted me to do was
go over to the sales side and help define what those technologies
33
 Portrait of a Man
were,” he explains. This move led to Project Phoenix, which Jem
describes as “a re-education of the sales people, a training program
that made the sales people move from being the sales people to
becoming business managers of their own territories.” The project
struck a chord in Boy that he pushed Jem to design a program and
work it out with the Ateneo Business School. Project Phoenix was
eventually formally taught in the Ateneo.
“The long and short of it is his basic philosophy in marketing:
there are no career APMs, no career Associate Product Managers.
Meaning, when you’re in marketing, you’re expected to be the
General Manager of your business. If you’re performing just
as Associate Product Manager or that’s what your talent level
is, then this is not the place for you,” says Jem. It is no wonder
that Boy’s top three lieutenants in marketing in J&J eventually
became vice presidents or heads of companies, and they are just a
handful among many others who once served under Boy who are
now holding key positions in various companies. Boy may be the
toughest boss around, but he is the first to root for those working
under him—if they have the mind, heart, and stomach for it—to
be bosses themselves.
34
Chapter Three
A Teacher By Example
If you work for PMC, then there are two words that surely send
shivers down your spine: business review.
Hear those two words and your heart skips a beat, or beats a little
faster. Suddenly, what you know yourself to be—a confident,
intelligent individual with respectable marketing abilities and
more than a couple of years’ worth of experience on the job—
comes into question, and you squirm in your seat, oddly feeling a
little unsure of yourself. Exhausted from a busy day at work, you
still find it hard to sleep at night. You think of calling your mother
to request for a novena. You might even drop by the neighborhood
church to say a novena yourself.
For the quarterly business review, your task is to provide an update
on the performance of your brands, to report on and assess your
35
 Portrait of a Man
projects for the balance period, and to determine whether you can
meet your targets or not. A fifteen-minute presentation is all you
need to prepare for the occasion. Fifteen minutes is half the time
you spend eating lunch, a quarter of the time you spend driving to
work, an eighth of the time you spend watching a movie. And yet,
no matter how many times you’ve gone through a business review,
those presentations always feel like the longest fifteen minutes of
your life.
The objectives of the business review are fairly straightforward,
yet the experience of fulfilling them is far from painless, especially
when your main audience is PMC. Not only is he difficult to
please, to say the least, but he is also transparent in expressing his
dissatisfaction.
“You knew he wasn’t pleased when his ears turned red and he
started breaking pencils with one hand,” says Jojo Ocampo, one
of PMC’s top three marketing lieutenants at J&J. “He could get
really temperamental, especially when your brands weren’t doing
well,” adds Pinky Laurena, also a former J&J employee. In such
cases, the reasons for falling short of targets had better be good,
36
A Teacher By Example
and the presentation should offer a convincing assessment of the
situation.
PMC expects comprehensive knowledge and quick thinking when
he interrogates his staff about their brands. He is short-fused and
sharp-tongued, making it doubly necessary to have one’s wits
about throughout the review. “He checks if you believe in what
you’re saying,” Pinky continues. “If he sees you’re iffy, he’s gonna
swoop down on you and start giving you a hard time.” He has no
patience for even a moment’s pause before responding to questions,
and he does not appreciate any indication that you do not know
your presentation by heart. “When he asks, for example, what’s
the GP of Johnson’s Baby Cologne Blue? Or Regular? You have to
memorize. You can’t say, ‘Wait, I’ll check my notes,’” says Pinky.
The fact that PMC is “a walking calculator” adds to the pressure.
“He’d say, ‘Okay, if you get this multiplied by this…,’ you’re getting
pa lang your calculator, he knows it na. When you press equals,
sabay kayo. He is accurate to the first decimal point.”
Keeping up with a man whose mind can work faster than anyone
else’s is what PMC’s staff members always attempt to do, putting
37
 A Teacher By Example

in long hours and enduring sleepless nights to ensure they are

a hundred percent ready to meet the man. Some attempts are
more successful than others, but every shortcoming is also an
opportunity to learn. “When you prepare three weeks for a fifteen-
minute business review and you prepare maybe 60 sheets for those
15 minutes, you think that you have everything covered,” says Jem
Bengzon, who once worked with Boy in J&J. “Not with Mr. de
Claro. He always had this habit of coming out of left field. He
always finds something. And more often than not, those comments
would be good. They’d be very insightful.”

PMC is a teacher primarily by example. It is fascinating to watch

him locate the gem of an idea amid a chaos of possibilities, or
discern and plot the web that holds seemingly unrelated elements
together. Those who consider PMC their mentor have learned the
most from him by observing his inquisitive and inventive mind in
action. He, in turn, pushes his subordinates to learn by knowing
when to take charge and when to let them take the floor.

“The quarterly business review is an event I really appreciate,”

says Andrew Santos, the new President and General Manager of
The J&J and Lintas staff, including Pinky (seated, far left) with Boy

39
 Portrait of a Man
Wyeth. “These reviews encourage people to fully understand their
assigned business, clearly identify the issues, and provide proposals
to solve these issues.”
In business reviews, notes Andrew, “even if one does not know the
solution to the issues he faces, PMC is more than happy to roll
up his sleeves to help work on a solution. However, he provides
just the right amount of inputs, providing the right level of ‘space’
to people.” This space, of course, is filled with high expectations,
one that a brilliant boss demands of what ought to be an equally
brilliant staff. “One thing he didn’t like was if you had no position,”
Pinky points out. “He’d say, ‘Do you think you can hit this’ and if
you say, ‘It depends,’ naku, patay ka na talaga. You can either say,
‘No I cannot hit it because it’s like this’ or ‘Yes, I can do it because
I’m going to do these things.’ Ayaw niya ng fencesitter.”
When Jem arrived at the J&J office for a job interview with PMC,
he wasn’t nervous at all. The year was 1992 and he knew he could
easily impress, what with his newly acquired AIM education. It
helped that he was fifteen minutes early for his 1 pm interview. It
40
A Teacher By Example
also helped that he knew nothing about PMC.
For some reason or another, Jem was made to wait in the lobby
until a little after 1 before being ushered into the office. When he
finally came face to face with PMC, who was sitting at his desk,
Jem extended his hand. PMC stood up, walked past Jem—frozen
in an awkward pose with his hand in the air—and toward the
sitting area, where he settled on the couch. “You’re late,” he said.
Throughout the interview, PMC constantly referred to Jem’s
tardiness, despite Jem’s persistent clarification that he was actually
early and was made to wait. “That’s typically Boy,” says Jem, visibly
amused by the memory of that first encounter. “Some of the stuff
that he did back in the day, he did to test your mettle. To see the
kind of stuff you were made of. If you would withstand it or if you
would fold.”
It can be a challenge to see past PMC’s reputation as a terror boss.
After all, in many ways, it’s true. “I first met Boy when I interviewed
with Metro Pacific for a brand management position,” recalls Jojo.
“He was a real terror and I never felt as small as I did during the
41
 Portrait of a Man
interview. I vowed I would never work for him!” Unfortunately,
Boy came in as the new Marketing Director at J&J, where she was
working. “I had no choice but to work for him,” she says. What
seemed like an unfortunate event turned out to be a lucky break.
Jojo sees PMC as a mentor, one who “really pushed you to the
limit and stretched you to your fullest capacity.”
“He’s a son of a bitch as a professional,” Jem adds. “He’ll exact and
exact and exact and he’ll exact some more. But if you can withstand
it, if you cut through all the bull, the mind games, and you really
focus on the heart of the matter, what you’ll see is somebody who
really wants to get the best out of you.” PMC is particularly tough
on agency people, but as Jem explains, “he believes that a service
provider will give you the kind of service that you demand. So
kung di mataas ang standards mo, basura ang ibibigay sa ’yo.”
For those who managed to withstand PMC, many of whom are
now top management themselves, the will to endure was worth
the training they gained in exchange. Many are quick to admit
that they have PMC to thank for who they are as leaders today,
whether in dealing with their own staff or the higher-ups. They
42
A Teacher By Example
are unanimous in saying that because of PMC, they are made of
sterner stuff. “Kung di Boy de Claro ang boss ko o chairman ng
company, hindi ako natatakot. Basta di sila si Boy de Claro, di ako
masyado masisindak,” says Pinky.
If there is a fundamental lesson PMC impresses upon those
privileged to work under him, it is think big. Vision is what triggers
the birth of new ideas and allows the unimaginable to enter the
realm of the possible. Vision is what transforms achievements from
memorable to historical. “If you’re in corporate, you have to think
as the next level. If you’re a product manager, you have to think as
head of marketing,” Jem explains. “Your opportunities are as big
or as small as you envision them.”
Perhaps this is why PMC handles a company as if it is his own,
which, according to Pinky, is a lesson that she continues to take
to heart: “If you were the owner of this business, what would
you do?” This is a question she asks herself when making crucial
decisions; it insists on answers that are of the highest quality, based
on thorough market research and instincts sharply attuned to the
43
 Portrait of a Man
needs of the company. It is a safeguard against mediocrity. To stay
true to your vision is to resist the lull of complacency, and it is this
commitment on PMC’s part that has paved the way for companies
like J&J and Wyeth to enjoy their golden ages. Pwede na has no
place in the vocabulary of those who work for PMC, and he would
be the first to send anyone with such an attitude out the door. He
can be meticulous to the point of stubbornness at times, but better
to push rather than settle.
Once, Pinky recalls, they had to present to PMC a commercial—a
storyboard put to life—for Johnson’s Baby Lotion. As they were
watching the girl in the ad apply lotion to her skin, “he went straight
to the screen and said, ‘Don’t you see she has a moustache?’” No
matter how closely they looked, there was simply no moustache in
sight, but PMC was insistent. “He was the only one who saw it,”
says Pinky, “and we’re like, ‘Oh no, what are we gonna do with
this imaginary moustache that Boy sees. We have to remove it and
we don’t even see it!’”
They dealt with the problem by airbrushing what PMC saw to be a
moustache, and when the commercial was shown to him again, he
44
A Teacher By Example
approved it. “What I learned from him was if you’re uncomfortable
with something, you have to say it. Don’t say ‘pwede na ’yan,’” says
Pinky. “The littlest thing that’ll make something almost perfect,
or really good overall, don’t let it go. That’s what I teach now the
people who report to me. If there’s something that makes you
uncomfortable, you have to try to fix it.”
On quite a number of occasions, PMC’s refusal to budge has driven
his people to tears. For a time in J&J, Pinky says, he made it clear
that he wouldn’t approve any television commercial that cost more
than a million pesos. This, of course, posed problems, especially in
light of his extremely high standards. When Pinky and the account
executive (AE) from the agency presented a proposal to PMC, he
questioned them so aggressively about costs that the AE broke into
tears and had to step out of the room. It took a lot of willpower for
Pinky not to cry herself. She continued to defend the project, and
they eventually arrived at a compromise budget. “There are times
that he really pushes. Siguro when he feels it’s the right way to go.
But the thing is,” Pinky clarifies, “he’ll really listen to you. And
it’s not listening for the sake of hearing you out. There would be
exchanges. He won’t just say ‘yeah yeah.’ He’d ask, ‘What do you
45
 Portrait of a Man
think? And if you do this, do you think it’ll be this way?’ He can
be convinced.”
Tessa Artadi, Assistant Vice President and Creative Director of
Adformatix, Wyeth’s sole agency, agrees. “He never leaves a
meeting na hindi ka tinanong o tatanungin, ‘What do you think?’
Nararamdaman mong may respeto at nakakatuwa na iniisip niya
anong tingin mo.”
There lies the paradox in the mentoring of PMC. Because he
can be single-minded and uncompromising, convincing him to
think otherwise when he has already made up his mind can be
the most futile of exercises. On the other hand, he expects no less
than the same kind of conviction on your part, the same kind of
commitment to what you believe is a good idea. Tessa learned
this lesson when her team presented to PMC an ad that had gone
through countless revisions because they accommodated the
comments of all the offices prior to PMC’s that had a say on the
matter. By the time the material got to the top man, the original
idea was mangled beyond recognition.
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A Teacher By Example
There was some hemming and hawing on her team’s part as they
were presenting the ad. They were clearly not confident enough and
PMC was getting impatient. Finally, they showed the ad. “PMC
sees it and asks Clients A, B, C to J for their comments. Then he
asks me, ‘What do you think?’ I didn’t know what to say!” Tessa
recounts. She herself could no longer see the vision behind the
material they created. PMC then said to her, “Man, they’ve really
worked on you.”
The experience was an eye-opener to Tessa, who got the message loud
and clear. Compromise is a reality, but too much compromise isn’t
worth it, not when you yourself no longer believe in the material.
Although pleasing the client is part of the job, it shouldn’t prevent
the team from defending what they believe to be a good concept
against a skeptical client. After all, they weren’t hired to agree with
the client, but to provide their expertise.
Tessa considers PMC her best client in her many years of advertising
because he knows what he wants and he will fight for an idea. The
agency, as she points out, is only as good as its client lets it, and
some of her team’s best work is the fruit of their efforts to meet
47
 Portrait of a Man
PMC’s demands.
PMC may be the boss, but he is the ultimate worker. Everything
he has, everything he has done, he can—without exaggeration—
attribute to the fact that he worked hard. “He’s not a political
person. He just goes to work. He does everything he can for the
company to make it better but doesn’t hobnob just to get what he
wants or to move up. He’s not scared of the regional people or the
foreigners,” says Pinky.
“I think you admire his courage largely because he didn’t accept
the regional bull that always comes the way of multinationals. He
fought for what he believes in, even if, many times, it was to his
own detriment in terms of career advancement. There were several
jobs I think which he could’ve gotten but they passed him up
because he was probably tagged as somebody difficult to manage,
not a team player,” says Jem. “He wasn’t afraid to call a spade a
spade. If a white guy comes in here and tells us to raise quotas by
20 percent and we know that the market can’t take it, he wasn’t
afraid to do battle with the person and not accept it simply for the
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A Teacher By Example
sake of accepting it. I think it’s a trait you find sorely lacking in
today’s managers.”
No matter how intimidating, ruthless, sometimes even offensive
PMC can be in the workplace—in fact, people have resigned over
feeling assaulted by what they consider his cutthroat demeanor—
there is a soft side to him that still manages to reveal itself to those
who stick around. Back in J&J, he would take the staff out after
business reviews and during Christmas. He would attend parties
organized by the staff, where “he’d be really quiet and let us be, let
us do our own thing,” says Pinky. “Sasali rin siya pag may game.
He was like the father. He’d be the last to eat kasi he’d make sure
everybody’s okay.”
One thing PMC would never admit and may not even be conscious
of, according to Jem, is he is harder on the men than the women in
the workplace. “Boy has two daughters,” Jem speculates, which to
him is reason enough for the boss to go easier on the women in the
team. Whether this is true or not, some of the women who have
worked for PMC—Pinky and Tessa, to name a few—undoubtedly
49
 Portrait of a Man
have a soft spot for him. Both of them speak of PMC with fondness
and view him not just as a mentor but a father figure.
While there are countless lessons to be learned about marketing
from PMC, one important value he possesses that stands out to
his colleagues and staff is his devotion to family. However grueling
the load may be, PMC ends each workday on the dot, walks out
of his office, and heads home. “He has touched my life most with
stories of family,” Jojo says. “How important it is to be together for
each other, how everything is of lesser consequence once a family
member needs help, how family meetings are important.”
Pinky agrees. She recalls how PMC once told her, “With my kids,
when they were growing up, if they decide to eat out together,
then it’s on me, even if I’m not there.” When she asked him why,
he explained that it was his way of encouraging his children to
bond, to know each other and be together. Pinky pauses upon this
recollection, visibly moved. When she speaks up again, she says, “I
think I’ll do that too. When my kids get bigger, I’ll tell them.”
50
Chapter Four
Friendly Fire
“Meron siyang friends, pero wala siyang close friend. Di ko kilala
kung sino best friend niya, someone to hang around with most of
the time.” When Rammy makes this observation about his father,
his tone is without judgment. More than anything, he is curious
about his father’s choice—and with Boy, it must be deliberate,
nothing is the way it is “just because”—not to maintain close ties
with people other than his family. He is all the more intrigued
when he considers how his father keeps his distance from others
while simultaneously encouraging him to go out and spend time
with his friends. To Rammy, not having a close circle, or anyone
to turn to and say “pare, may problema ako,” would be hell. His
father must feel the same way; otherwise, why would he want his
son to forge close friendships?
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 Portrait of a Man
Boy may be a homebody who enjoys doing certain things—like
driving and watching television—alone, but he is not a loner. He
may not jump at the first opportunity to attend a gathering—he
doesn’t drink (and has long quit smoking), doesn’t play golf or
poker—but he does enjoy being in a crowd. As a high schooler,
former teacher Joe Guerrero recalls, “he was exuberant and loved
to talk,” a quality typical of Ateneans. Ed David, who rode Bus
#16—covering the Tondo-Caloocan-Philamlife-Kamias-Loyola
route—with Boy back in high school, recalls, “He was always
seated somewhere in the first four rows to the right. I was close to
the back on the right side as well.” They didn’t become friends then,
but riding the bus with Boy everyday allowed Ed to get a glimpse
of his personality. “He was very jolly, very gregarious. Maingay.
Makwento.” Now that they are both members of Couples for
Christ, Ed has gotten to know Boy better. To this day, Ed thinks,
Boy is exactly the same.
It is typical for people from his social circles to describe Boy as
boisterous and palatawa. His laughter is hearty and infectious,
and he can be mababaw, as in biling-bili lagi ang mga jokes. The
catch, says Pet Bautista, “is he forgets them so the fine joke is never
52
Friendly Fire
passed around.” He is a smooth talker, and conversations are never
dull when flavored by his wit and charm. “He can repartee with
the best of them,” says Pet.
Boy can easily be the life of the party, and certainly, on more than
a few occasions, he is. People are drawn to his confidence and his
engaging manner of storytelling, but this is not to say he is the
center of attention. “For all of his being sociable, he’s a very private
person,” notes Tony Lorenzana. “You will know enough of Boy
on a need-to-know basis. He lets you know only what you have to
know about him.”
Put Boy in a room with another person and he would be far more
interested in getting to know him or her than talking about himself.
Oh, he’s going to do some talking—a lot of it, even—but it is
talk geared toward getting the other person to feel comfortable.
At work, he may easily forget that minutes earlier, he gave you a
hard time over a less-than-satisfactory presentation, but he won’t
forget to ask how you are if he’s heard you’re feeling under the
weather. “He has very strong EQ,” says Ed. “He’s very good with
53
 Friendly Fire

people.” Adds Tony, “He would make you feel that he enjoys your
company. He’s a very good listener. He empathizes very well.”

”Many people think Boy is an extrovert, but really, he’s not,” says
Corito. He is genuinely interested in and deeply sensitive to other
people. He is curious about the ideas of others—how they think,
what they believe in, and why. It is unusual to find a man so
accustomed to power who still treats people as individuals rather
than audience. But then again, Boy has never really been less than
unusual in many aspects of his life.

Fr. Lennie Sumpaico is one of Boy’s oldest friends, having known

him for over fifty years. They were classmates in grade school in
the Ateneo, but it was in high school that they spent more time
with each other and became close. Together, they were altar boys
who worked for the Sanctuary Society. “We’d serve mass in the
early morning, around 5:30 or 6:30. We didn’t serve mass because
we wanted to be holy but because they served good food after
that.” To the two boys with healthy appetites, the American
breakfasts—ham and eggs, sometimes even steak—were too
The de Claros often play mahjong with friends Ed and Ting Mañalac,
and Gus (not in photo) and Vicky Nilo
55
 Portrait of a Man
good an opportunity to pass up. Such was their love for food—
something Fr. Lennie and Boy share to this day—that they would
even opt to spend their ten-centavo bus fares from school to home
on canteen food instead. And then, they would walk the distance
home—Kamias for Boy, and Cubao for Lennie.
In high school, Boy was part of 4-F, the semi-honors class, which,
former class moderator Joe Guerrero quickly clarifies, has students
of practically the same IQ as those in honors class. Those in semi-
honors class tended to glide along in their schoolwork because they
weren’t under the same pressure as their counterparts in honors
class to make it to the dean’s list and graduate with honors. Joe told
his students they were just as bright and talented, and encouraged
them to compete in the arena of excellence. “Even if you try to
motivate people, they may not be able to respond,” notes Joe. “But
Boy had the capacity to lead. The important thing is not to depend
very much on the moderator but to do the planning with the class
and for the class.”
Boy wasn’t the smartest guy in class. He didn’t get the best grades.
He didn’t win prizes in literary or oratory contests. He wasn’t
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Friendly Fire
into sports. In class discussions, he could be laid back or be a
livewire. If he felt strongly about the topic discussed in class, he
would speak up, “red-faced and all,” says Fr. Lennie. But he was
definitely a leader. He took charge of such things as package drives
or Christmas drives or concerts with the students’ own bands to
raise funds. His big contribution was as editor of the Blue Book,
the school yearbook. Another of Boy’s oldest friends, Buddy
Braganza, who worked on the yearbook with him, says that even
then, “he was a hard worker, goal-oriented and focused on getting
the job done.” In fact, they completed the yearbook on time.
A project back then of the Sodality, an organization made up
of “the better, brighter, more virtuous boys” of which Boy was
part, involved taking care of the delinquents at the Manila Youth
Center. Together with students from La Salle, St. Theresa’s, and
Maryknoll, the Ateneans spent Saturday mornings teaching
kids—from the very young up to ages 13 to 14—reading, writing,
arithmetic, and religion. “Boy was a very active leader of the people
who volunteered,” recalls Joe. “He was also a social leader.” Boy
took the lead in organizing what around 20 to 25 boys and girls
would do for fun—their gimiks—after the morning’s service. One
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 Friendly Fire

such activity was going over to Joe’s house to eat. “As a matter
of fact I got to know some people from the other schools better
because they were friends of his. He had a friendliness which was
infectious.”

“The most memorable time of his life I would imagine was when
he met Corito through our caroling group,” says Tony. They—
together with fellows like Pompey Adamos, Jun Africa, Ernie Co,
Peping Mallari, Felipe Diego, Toti Tanchoco, Bert dela Cruz, Tito
Santos, Perry Cecilio, Dom Aspillera, Bernie Violago, and Buddy
Braganza—were members of Student Catholic Action (SCA), and
the caroling group was made up of SCA students of various schools.
“Medyo sintunado si Boy. He was part of the caroling but that
doesn’t mean he could sing. Pero marunong siyang makisama.”

Girls, of course, were a major preoccupation of Boy and his

friends in college. They didn’t take their studies for granted; Boy,
an Economics major, always set target grades for his courses and
worked hard to meet them throughout each semester, but there
was also always time for fun. And fun meant soirees, which Boy
Boy with a former teacher and Buddy Braganza

59
 Portrait of a Man
had a hand in organizing. These soirees took place in the houses
of the girls or the boys, and the food was potluck or somebody
would offer to sponsor it. Thanks to these gatherings, romantic
relationships were formed.
To the ladies, Boy was the epitome of a gentleman. “He would
attract a lot of girls but he would spend time more in conversation
than dance with them,” recalls Buddy. “He was a communicator
and he made the girls think and feel that they were special. He
always gave them respect and treated them well.” Of course, there
was one girl na binakuran ni Boy when he finally got the chance to
talk to her in one of the socials. When Corito snagged Boy’s heart,
he was relentless in his pursuit—calling her up, asking her out on
dates—until eventually, they became inseparable.
Away from the girls, Boy and his friends hung out at Buddy’s house,
where they sang and played guitar, called up their girlfriends on
Buddy’s phone—even listening in on each other’s conversations—
patched up strained relations with their girlfriends, or strategized
on how to patch up strained relations. But unlike some people, who
were more than eager to spill on the details of their love lives, Boy’s
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Friendly Fire
lips were sealed when it came to his romance with the “dignified,
well-behaved, and mysterious” Corito. They were a sociable pair
who enjoyed attending parties with their friends, some of whom
were also couples. But, Tony notes, “They kept their romance very
private.”
It was in college that the makings of the man Boy is today became
evident. In the way he expressed his thoughts and accomplished his
academic work, he was clearly an intellectual, although he didn’t
parade himself as such. His persuasive skills also grew in sharpness
and prominence. “He could convince people,” says Fr. Lennie,
“and not convince just to convince but convince people that there
was something to be done, a mission to be accomplished, that
there were higher objectives.”
It seemed, also, that Boy recognized then the role his education
would play in charting his life. He wanted certain things—to
make his parents proud, to have a successful career, to drive fast
cars—and he knew that if there was one place that could serve as a
laboratory from which he could emerge more capable of achieving
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 Portrait of a Man
his goals, it was school. “He worked hard,” says Fr. Lennie. “All
that he had in his life was his brains. Some people sit on their
brains. It’s a good thing he didn’t sit on it.” Boy milked his Ateneo
education to the fullest.
“And then, of course, if you get married to a girl like Corito, there’s
no way but to excel because Corito comes from a well-heeled
family,” says Fr. Lennie. There was double the pressure to prove
himself, but the fact is, Boy was his own toughest critic and fierce
motivator. Any external source of pressure was simply subsumed
under the already enormous expectations he had of himself.
This single-mindedness registers in the way he carries himself even
in situations that are not work-related. Pet, a friend of Boy from
the eighties, when they and their families were living in Jakarta,
recalls being struck by Boy’s forthrightness during a meeting with
parents to talk about changes in the curriculum of the Jakarta
International School. “Naturally the questions were asked mostly
by the Americans until Boy raised his hand and asked a question
which directly affected the Filipino community. The question
made a distinct impression on me and told me that here was a
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Friendly Fire
person who thought quite clearly and communicated his thoughts
well.”
“When he speaks to you, it’s almost like he’ll nail you first to the
wall so you’ll listen to him. That’s how engaging he is,” explains
Fr. Lennie. “He’d stare at you, say ‘ganito ’yan pare, ganyan.’
Literally, if he had big thumb tacks, he’d pin you on the wall so
you won’t move and then he’ll talk to you and convince you.”
Boy is persistent in seeing an idea through its articulation, and
seeing that it is communicated effectively, convincingly. He won’t
tire until what he has in mind is translated into concrete terms,
whether it be in the form of more clarity in the curriculum of his
children’s school or understanding—better yet, agreement—in a
person he is trying to convince.
This relentlessness is a key quality that makes Boy an exceptional
marketing man. “Some people get successful because they’re
entitled to it, because they’re anak-mayaman, they have contacts,”
says Fr. Lennie. “Pero si Boy, pure hard work yan. Kayod yan.
Parang Batangas yan, talagang purong kape yan.” He was fueled
by ambition, and it took him very far. “Boy was able to plan his
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 Portrait of a Man
career very well, to his satisfaction,” adds Tony. “He never lost
focus. He never pretended to be what he was not. He never also
bragged about what he was.”
Given Boy’s stature in the marketing world, it is easiest to refer to
his accomplishments in the workplace as what most vividly defines
the man. Even those who know him in more informal settings
cannot help but turn to his reputation on the job when speaking
about him. It is precisely because of their friendship, however, that
his peers’ admiration for him goes far deeper, beyond his identity
as boss and colleague and into his particular humanity.
“He loves to eat,” says Pet. “His girth is proof of that.” He devours
desserts—despite being diabetic. He and Corito throw the most
spectacular parties at home, where the food always lives up to the
couple’s exquisite culinary tastes. Fred Dael, a former colleague of
Boy and a friend for over forty years, notes that Boy and Corito
are amazing hosts with such a passion for food that they would
go to extraordinary lengths to indulge their friends’ dining needs.
“When I returned to the Philippines the first time, I missed Pinoy
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Friendly Fire
food very badly that Boy went out of his way to pick me up and
drive me to Santo Tomas, Batangas—at lunch—just so I could
have the best bulalo. And this happened about twice a week for
three months!” A true-blue Atenean, Boy is a huge basketball fan.
He can shout himself hoarse watching UAAP games with son
Rammy. His zest for life is irrepressible.
He is a spiritual person who, with Corito, has raised his family
to be God-fearing and socially aware. “His children are evidence
that a good tree will bear good fruit,” says Pet. “They are so nice,
respectful, and loving.”
All his friends attest to Boy’s generosity—how casual and discreet
it is. It comes naturally to him, so when Boy helps out, it really
is no big deal. “How many times have we been invited to stay in
their various homes, both here and abroad, to their parties, where
the fun and food never disappoint?” says Pet. Gus Nilo, another
expat like Boy in Jakarta in the eighties, recalls that when his
family first arrived, they were looking for a secondhand car for his
wife’s use. Without any fuss, Boy came to the rescue, volunteering
a company car that was for sale. “He delivered it to us without
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asking for payment, trusting we would settle at our own time,”
says Gus.
“As a priest, if I need help, I know who to go to for help,” says Fr.
Lennie. “I’ve never been disappointed. Even if I don’t need help,
he’d sidle up to me and ask me if I needed help. Sometimes I’d
say no. He’d just get something out of his pocket and put it in
my hand or my pocket. He says you might need something in the
future even if you don’t have any needs now. He’s always been like
that. He doesn’t want to be seen doing it.”
“I consider him as my brother more than a friend,” says Fred, who
describes Boy as extremely loyal. “He typed out my first resignation
letter in May of 1970. He was barako even then. In fact, I gave that
nickname to him.” He is not only generous with his resources, but
also with moral support and compassion when his friends need
it. “When I was too naïve in the ’70s when a colleague was busy
trying to destroy my reputation,” recalls Fred, “it was Boy who
stuck by my side, went to war beside me, and counseled me.”
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Friendly Fire
Now that he’s moving toward retirement, Boy has more time to
spare, and he is more than willing to spend this time on worthy
causes, which are educational in bent. Fr. Lennie has tapped
Boy to be part of the Board of Advisers of the Xavier Institute
of Technology, knowing fully well that he can contribute greatly
to revitalizing and marketing the program. His work with Ed as
one of the members of the Professional Schools Committee in the
Ateneo is valuable in pushing the university’s already excellent
programs to greater heights.
And then, as Gus points out, “Boy is concerned about the poor,
the country, and the future of both.” He is proof that a person can
make a difference, as shown by Boy’s current passion, Operation
Big Brother, a project that makes quality high school education
accessible to the brightest underprivileged students. “One has to
have an advocacy that will somehow, no matter how small, change
people’s lives for the better,” explains Pet. “Boy attacked his
Operation Big Brother with so much zeal that people around him
couldn’t help but join in the crusade. OBB took a lot of his time
but he didn’t care—too much was at stake. During the course of
its execution, when corrections had to be made, he made them,
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showing that he was a listener, and that nothing was sacrosanct

and that one had to come to terms with reality.”
Buddy sees Boy’s advocacy as an outgrowth of his spirituality. “He
shared with me that joining God in heaven is the ultimate goal,
but we can also have heaven on earth. As long as we love God
and our neighbors and live a life for the greater glory of God, this
is possible. And we do it in our own little way, not by saving the
country or the world, but helping and loving the people around
us.”

When Rammy wonders if his father does have a best friend, he’s
looking outward at the members of Boy’s various social circles.
Maybe he is simply so used to their closeness that it doesn’t occur
to Rammy to look for the answer closer to home—inside it, in fact.
After all, when Boy found his best friend, he married her. Even as
a young woman, Corito believed she and Boy were destined to
spend their lives together. There were convergences so uncanny,
she couldn’t help but read them as signs. “First of all, he’s Perpetuo
and I’m Socorro. His birthday is July 20 and mine is July 21. I met
Boy the year my brother died. The birthday of my brother is the
The young Boy and Corito

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 Portrait of a Man
same as his,” says Corito. “When my mother heard about those
things, even she thought we were meant to be.”
And what a wonderful team Boy and Corito are. They balance each
other out—she’s the tough one at home, while he’s the kunsintedor.
She keeps her cool when they’re in public, and so she’s able to rein
him in when his temper flares. They love to eat together (Pancake
House is a favorite haunt), and are looking forward to traveling
leisurely together—a big step up from the many years of work-
related traveling (Boy’s work, mostly) that they’ve done in the last
couple of decades.
At the end of the day, Boy’s pleasures are simple. He wants to
spend time with his wife, to talk and toss ideas with friends. His
friends, meanwhile, appreciate the simple pleasure that is knowing
Boy. “Boy and I have shared so many lunches and dinners, just
shooting the breeze, talking advocacies and pet peeves and there is
nothing I don’t like about him,” says Pet. “Except maybe that he
owns a sports car, and the he doesn’t play golf. But hey, nobody’s
perfectly likeable.”
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Chapter Five
The Lives of Others
Ruby Capulong knows she has it good. She has a stable job as a
medical representative at Wyeth Philippines. She drives her own
car, a luxury she never dreamed she would enjoy when, just a few
years earlier, she could barely afford the pamasahe to and from
school. She is a spirited young woman with many dreams ahead
of her. She knows it’s tough to make a living, let alone emerge
successful in her career, but with a good education under her
belt—Ruby graduated with honors with a degree in Biology from
De La Salle University—she is confident that the odds are in her
favor.
Ruby goes down in history as the first college graduate of Operation
Big Brother (OBB), an ongoing project that is the brainchild and
pet project of Boy. OBB works on the simple premise that education
is the best enabler. It also acknowledges the reality that the public
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school system in the Philippines leaves much to be desired. If the
brightest among the underprivileged children are given the same
quality of high school education as their counterparts in good
private schools, then they actually have a fighting chance of getting
into the top three universities in the country: the University of
the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, and DLSU. A good
college education translates into better opportunities upon entering
the workforce, and better opportunities translate into, among
other things, better quality of life and increased productivity as
members of society.
The bounty that arises from a good education is as boundless as the
loaves and fish in the well-loved Bible story. Boy is a firm believer
in this and living proof of it. It is no wonder then that when he
rounded up a group of friends who shared not only his desire to
help the poor but also his willingness to transform the desire into
concrete action, education was the hands down choice, and the
public high school system was a good place to start. Unlike dole-
outs which come with an expiry date, there is no shelf-life attached
to the benefits of education. To invest in education is to level the
playing field for children of various backgrounds. To help one
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The Lives Of Others
generation is to help the generations to come.
OBB may very well be the first of its kind in the country, says
Marshall Valencia, DLSU professor and Project Director of OBB.
Other programs typically focus on a single facet of education—
teacher training or facilities, for example—but OBB, which follows
an “adopt-a-school” concept, is far more ambitious in scope and
covers all bases necessary to simulate private school education in
public schools. Offered in cooperation with La Salle, OBB takes
the top 40 students of a public school and places them in a special
honors section beginning freshman year. Throughout their stay in
high school, these students are taught the same curriculum, given
the same facilities, and provided the same materials and resources
as students from La Salle Greenhills, on whose curriculum the
OBB program is based. “Kung anong meron sa La Salle, linalagay
namin dun sa public school,” Marshall explains. The students even
attend a weekly values-formation class, and are sent to youth and
discovery camps.
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The best teachers from the public school are made to take their
master’s degrees in La Salle and trained to administer the program.
They undergo an intensive training each summer, and their
teaching is overseen by the OBB staff. Everything, down to the
exams they give, is monitored closely for quality control.
OBB was first launched in three schools, a section each in G.
Perfecto High School and Arellano High School, and two sections
in V. Mapa High School. Halfway through the pilot program,
three schools were added: Bagong Silang, Bagong Silangan, and
Kalayaan High School. Since its inception eight years ago, OBB’s
tally of graduates has reached 800, of which around 25 percent
make it to the top three universities, a huge leap compared to the
handful who made it to the same schools prior to the program.
Granted, not all OBB students who gain admission into the
top three universities get to attend college because they have no
resources. OBB, in its limited capacity, has tried to solicit funds
and find scholarships for these students. Much remains to be done,
but much has already been accomplished.
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The Lives Of Others
This year, Leo Sarion of Arellano High School made victory for
OBB so much sweeter. He graduated summa cum laude from
DLSU with a degree in Biology. His honor proves that there really
is no glass ceiling; with some assistance and their own drive to
help themselves, underprivileged students can compete with the
best of them and make it to the top.
There is a book whose hero, a man named Gideon, is very much like
Boy, says Ting Mañalac, a good friend of the de Claros. “Gideon
was an ordinary bloke who one day had an extraordinary vision of
the path to heaven as a huge river flowing toward its source instead
of away from it. You could jump in any time, but you could also
stay back on shore or get hold of overhanging branches to linger
where you were. Needless to say, the vision changed Gideon’s life
in many unexpected ways.”
“Boy knows where he’s going,” continues Ting, “and it’s to the
source of that river of life. He may not see the end, or rather, the
beginning of the river yet, but he’s made a decision to get there.
And getting there he is. He’s in that river, paddling as fast as he
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can and he’s shouting to everyone who can hear him—this is the
right way! I’m shining the light, he’s saying, watch and listen, and
we’ll get there together!”

In other words, “he’s a visionary,” says Marshall. “He has a way

of making people move towards what he’s imagining. His passion
for that vision is contagious. Kami, nadadala.” From personally
accompanying Marshall and the OBB staff to fundraising
endeavors—“madalas, mga kaibigan niya rin hinihingan namin,”
says Marshall—to facilitating meetings of the OBB staff, Boy is
a hands-on leader and participant, eager to put in time, thought,
and energy to push his advocacy.

It is easy to turn a blind eye to poverty, its prevalence

notwithstanding. Those with the privilege of wealth can literally
erect barriers between themselves and the poor by entrenching
themselves in their gated communities. Out of sight, out of mind.
Those more exposed to poverty, on the other hand, can slip into
numbness, a general detachment from tragedy seen everyday. The
problem of poverty in the Philippines is so huge, so overwhelming,
that it can be difficult to imagine any role one can play to alleviate
The young members of Gawad Kalinga mentored by Boy

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it. “Honestly, when I started, it was simply a project for me,” says
Marshall of beginning his stint with OBB. “But it altered even my
own personal vision. My life aim became different sa kakakausap
ko kay Mr. de Claro. I realized that there’s something bigger there
that we can all contribute to.”
And OBB is Boy’s own attempt at addressing the complicated
matter of poverty. Far from sitting back and basking in the fruits
of his success, he sees his stature and resources as opportunities
to uplift the lives of others. This outlook can be quite inspiring
to those around him. “My life vision became bigger in scope,”
Marshall continues. “My love for country became really strong.
Nakikita ko kasi sa kanilang mag-asawa. Pilipino talaga. They’re
so nationalistic. They’re doing this to help build the country in
their own way.”
Despite the scope and success of OBB, Boy continues to push
the foundation to expand its service to the poor. A recent project
initiated by Boy is Tambayani, a community-based program where
learning centers are set up and people from the community trained
to teach the youth in the area. The program is administered by
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The Lives Of Others
OBB and Gawad Kalinga.
Tony Meloto, founder of Gawad Kalinga, first met Boy and Corito
as members of Couples for Christ. In 1996, the couple took a great
interest in the work Tony and some others were doing for the out-
of-school youth and the rehabilitation of gang members in Bagong
Silang, Caloocan City. After a short visit in which they met the
young people being helped and heard their stories, Boy and Corito
responded in a manner that amazed Tony. “They asked to meet
with me the following day, gave me a check with zeroes that I
couldn’t count in one hand,” he recalls. At the time, the work they
were doing with the poor was still informal, and this prompted
Tony to return the check, saying he didn’t want to receive money
he didn’t know yet how to spend. He expressed hope that once
the project’s needs were clarified, the donation of Boy and Corito
would still be available.
“What was important to me,” notes Tony upon telling the story,”
“was not the money but the sincerity of Boy and his wife to help.
Not just help by giving charity but by investing a significant amount
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 The Lives Of Others

of money for something that was meaningful and sustainable.

Even then I realized that the couple knew what they wanted—not
just to give charity because they were kind-hearted but to invest
in the potential of the poor to learn, to help themselves and one
another.”

As members of the board of Ancop Foundation, which oversees

GK, among other programs, Boy and Corito have always been
supportive of projects such as Sibol, a preschool program, Sagip, a
program for grade school children, and Siga, a program for the youth.
Certainly, education continues to top the list of their advocacies,
but Boy and Corito also know that empowerment begins at home,
and when people live in slum areas under subhuman conditions,
they cannot begin to recognize their potential as human beings,
and may even turn criminal and predatory. GK dreams of “land
for the landless, home for the homeless, food for the hungry,”
and its own contribution to this ideal of social justice is to uplift
the living conditions of the poor. In fact, its central project is
GK777—700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in 7 years (2003-
2010). In building communities, GK is playing a direct role in
nation-building.
Gawad Kalinga aims to build 700,000 homes
in 7,000 communities in 7 years
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 Portrait of a Man
“The impact of GK that Boy saw first of all was that when you
do social engineering and you restore human dignity, you have
peace,” explains Tony. True social justice means the squatters
will have land and decent homes, which in turn allow them the
space to have dreams and aspirations for their children that would
motivate them to work. “The beautiful environment is an antidote
to crime. From ugly communities, we turn them into beautiful
GK communities. From the dangerous areas, we are now building
safe communities. GK paints houses, landscapes gardens, puts
pavers because we want the impact that the squatters are no longer
squatters, the barong-barongs are now beautiful homes, former
drug addicts are now in school, gang members are now working
and becoming peaceful citizens of their own communities.”
Tony sees in Boy a sincere and loyal friend, one whose remarkable
generosity he has experienced personally. “He offered me, several
times, because he knows my limited means, to send my daughter
to Ateneo. He also offered to buy me a car because he saw how
much time I was putting into GK,” says Tony. He refused both
offers; his daughter was already on scholarship and he himself had
long ago made the decision to live a simple life.
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The Lives Of Others
Aside from his generosity, Tony admires Boy’s vision. The two have
in common a passion for and dedication to the dream of a better
Philippines, and they often exchange ideas and formulate plans to
achieve this ideal. “As a CEO Boy understands vision. We click
because we’re both marketing people. And we also both believe
that we have the best marketing product in the world, that’s the
Filipino. And that we also have the most beautiful country in the
world, and that’s the Philippines. It’s all a question now of coming
up with the right product formulation and better packaging.”
Boy currently heads the Partnership Management Group of GK,
which oversees partnerships of GK with over 350 companies that
help and sustain the project. GK is moving toward becoming a
global brand; as a vehicle for nation-building, it hopes to build
a first-world Philippines and a first-class Filipino, to attract
both Filipinos and foreigners all over the world to support the
ambitious endeavor, and to serve as a template for other developing
countries.
“I think Boy likes challenges and he is bored with the run-of-the-
mill, the conventional,” Tony continues. It is only logical then that
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he be involved in GK because it has been a major disruption to

conventional thinking, a radical alternative to comfortable charity.
“He loves ideas. He loves people with ideas. Being a person of great
passion, he also likes other passionate people,” explains Tony. “We
share the same vision for a better society and we’re both not afraid
to be different. When people would go for the safe projects—feed
the children, take care of the women—we go for the rehab of gang
members. We go to the lair of the akyat-bahay. Bagong Silang
is the biggest university for criminals being the biggest slum in
the country that’s home to some of the toughest gangs. So when
people go for the safe places, we go for the most dangerous.”

Boy is a regular fixture in the GK office; he is there at least twice a

week. “He has told us that he will make himself available anytime
for us—and he is really true to his word,” says Issa Cuevas-Santos,
who works for GK. “We have asked for meetings at 6 am, in
the middle of Holy Week, in between his foreign trips when we
know he needs to rest. When he says anytime, he really means it.”
Tony echoes this observation, noting that Boy, “being the very
passionate and sometimes impatient person that he is,” has been
To Boy, boats represent collaboration—teaming up with others on a
journey out to sea, where the conditions are unpredictable and challenging
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 Portrait of a Man
nothing but patient with the GK staff, nurturing them through
various mistakes and lessons learned.
A true mentor to the younger top leaders of GK, he is there to
offer encouragement when the going gets rough, and there to
offer expertise when the situation calls for it. “His humility shines
through in every meeting,” says Issa. “He always tells us that
he is only there to facilitate and to guide, but we have to make
the difficult decisions. When we meet, he is the one who takes
down notes, acts as the timekeeper, and basically puts order to the
organized chaos of GK.” Unlike the temperamental boss that he is
known to be in the corporate world, Boy is a much gentler figure
in GK, someone that those who’ve come to work closely with him
can view with tenderness and amusement. For such a formidable
man, Issa muses, “he just learned how to text this year. I don’t
think he knows how to read nor answer his emails without Ms.
Net.” And of course, amid the voluminous tasks that need to be
accomplished to meet GK’s goals, there is always time to take a
break and enjoy Boy’s favorite pleasure. “He loves food,” says Issa,
“which is a perfect match for GK workers.”
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The Lives Of Others
Like mahjong, Boy’s favorite game, “life is really a game of chance,
but skill counts and luck, and your personal attitude about how
to live it,” says Ting. “When Boy plays mahjong, he is totally
absorbed in the machinations that define the game: there are risks
to take, strategies to map out, other players to read, choices to
make, expressions to behold, and most of all, a game to enjoy.
Win or lose, it’s the journey that counts—it’s the trying, and the
helping others to try, the victories to savor, the losses to learn from,
the food to eat along the way, the good companionship to relish,
the pleasure to be grateful for, and the satisfaction to feel at the
end of a game well played.”
And when Boy plays the game, these are the staples: integrity,
vision, and passion. As he begins his 60th year, there are bound to
be significant changes in his game, particularly in the way he spends
his time and the amount of time he can spend on various interests.
The thought and energy he used to expend in the workplace, where
he developed the career he loved to the fullest, can now be devoted
to other matters close to his heart. Now there are hours spent at
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 The Lives Of Others

his own leisure, building his model boats or driving around alone.
There are days consumed by playing mahjong with friends or
enjoying the company of his children and grandchildren. There
are weeks to spare for extended trips abroad with Corito, meeting
up with family and old friends, or taking in the many sights the
world has to offer.

But there are things about him that remain the same, and rightly
so. Boy is still the man who practices what he preaches. He is still
the man who walks his talk. He is still the man who will pursue
what he believes to be important fervently and single-mindedly,
regardless of the inconvenience it may cause, controversy it may
stir, or disapproval it may elicit. He is still the man who recognizes
in his life both the fruits of his hard work and the luck of his
fortune. And each day, as he gives back what he has gained, he is
constantly reminded that it is simply not enough to thank God for
his beautiful life.

The de Claro family today

Standing (left to right): Marco, Rammy, Dave, Jill, Maia, King
Seated (left to right): Boy, Aria, Nico, Corito
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 Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the following people whose generosity

with their time and thoughts on Boy made this book possible:
Tessa Artadi, Cora Aycardo, Pet Bautista, Jem Bengzon, Buddy
Braganza, Neri Calimon, Ed David, Fred Dael, Joe Guerrero, Elvie
Guzman, Pinky Laurena, Tony Lorenzana, Tony Meloto, Gus
Nilo, Jojo Ocampo, Andrew Santos, Issa Cuevas-Santos, Grace
Soyao, Fr. Lennie Sumpaico, and Marshall Valencia. Thanks to
Net Rull for compiling the photos used in this book.

We would also like to thank Jojo Gisbert and Ting Mañalac for
their valuable comments and suggestions during the writing of
this book.

Text by Conchitina Cruz * Layout by Adam David * Cover Photograph by Levi Lacandula