Book launched to help farmers, fishermen in Capiz

In photo: (from right) Mr. Antonio “Tony” Morente, Head of Gawad Kalinga; Architect Jose ” Pinggoy” Manosa; Congressman Ricky Sandoval of Malabon City; Ambassador Jose E. B. Antonio, Philippine Special Envoy to the United States and Chairman of Century Properties Group; Ms. Suzette P. Vivar, book author, and Philip Dizon, pose for a photo opportunity during the unveiling of the “Close to Perfection” book at the Century Mall, Makati City on Thursday (Aug. 16, 2018). (PNA photo by Gil Calinga)

MANILA — Excellent and altruistic – these are the two qualities by which Suzette Vivar wanted other nationalities to describe Filipinos worldwide.

“I have observed that Filipinos lately are getting all the flaks, I thought of something that would at least give the world a different view of the Filipinos meaning that we also have good qualities as Filipinos,” she told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in an interview.

With this goal, Vivar wrote and published a book titled “Close to Perfection” launched on Thursday in Makati City.

In the book, Vivar presented inspiring stories of Filipinos – architects, doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, lawyers and teachers – who had dream and worked hard to reach them and inspired others to do so.

While she found all the stories of her subjects encouraging, Vivar mentioned the story of Ambassador Jose Antonio as exceptional.

“While writing the story of Ambassador, I could sense that he looks at everything in a different way, he always finds something positive even most people are thinking negatively, like during the EDSA revolution when everyone is panicking he puts up his business, he is a game changer,” she said.

Antonio is the country’s special envoy to the United States and chairman of Century Properties Group. He led the construction of Trump Tower at Century City, Acqua Iguazu, Acqua Livingstone, Milano Residences, Century Spire, Forbes Media Tower and Paris Beach Club at Azure Urban Resort Residences. He is also the producer of Revolution – a series of prefabricated structures by other designers, such as Daniel Libeskind, Sou Fujimoto, and Lenny Kravitz which is based in Manila.

Another story Vivar found personally interesting is that of Tony Morente, the social enterprise head of Gawad Kalinga Capiz.

“Tony mentioned about social enterprise like teaching the farmers and fishermen to become a businessman, this was really a shock to me because how will you teach them to be businessmen when all their lives all they knew is to farm and fish, how can you inculcate in them the intricacies of being a businessman, and he slowly explained to me and showed me, I was impressed,” she said.

Being a social enterprise head of Gawad Kalinga, Morente ensures that the recipients of the houses are able to earn a living through the business given to them so they could give back to the foundation and help its other members.

“So, I offered to collaborate with GK through the launching of my coffee table book to inspire people and help the farmers and fisherfolk,” she said.

Stressing that Filipinos’ lives cannot be perfect as issues would rise anytime, Vivar said the title of her book depicts the Filipino journey to perfecting their dreams and inspiring others in the process.

“There will always be problems here and there so the most that you can do is go close to your dream, perfecting your dream, once you’ve perfected your dream you just can’t stop, you still go on so you can help others,” she added. (PNA)