By Digoy Fernandez

There are many compelling reasons for continuing education, and this is true for executives meant for higher positions, aging dinosaurs of the corporate world, but especially for crusty entrepreneurs who have built up businesses from scratch. When we wanted to change the mind-set of the middle and top executives of a particular organization, we would start by sending junior executives to school for either short courses or full-scale MBAs. Before long, the more progressive among the middle managers demanded some form of continuing education of their own. After a few years, different levels of management and staff were undergoing complementary management education, and our organization spawned a generation of decision makers and thinkers who could self-start or handle crises on their own.

When we first proposed computerization, the immediate answer was that it would cost too much. This was in the early late 70s and early 80s, mind you. An opening occurred when we were loaned some versions of the early word processors by a client. These WPs were strategically distributed by my office to a select of group of senior executive secretaries…who became enamored with their new toys and demanded that they be kept with their offices permanently. Faced with certain rebellion from the senior secretaries’ ranks, senior management caved in to this first thrust in favor of automation.

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BECAUSE of the excitement generated by the Tomorrow Leaf, one guesses that so many people are indeed looking for relief from the many ailments that plague them or their loved ones. Of course, my doctors always stress that the best way to avoid getting sick is to simply diet (eat the right food and avoid junk food) or exercise (walk walk walk, or just move move move!).

But then, weak mortals that we all are, we do indulge once in a while – sometimes more than just once in a while–in delicious ice cream, candies, pork rinds, and many other wonderful food that add to our weight and calorie levels. Thus, the rush to look for those “miracle herbs” like the Ashitaba medicinal plant that seems to tackle so many of the ailments that plague us in this modern age.

One day, I requested Wilson Ang, the generous proprietor of Bio-Research, to lend us his lovely daughter Charlene to deliver a short spiel on the Ashitaba plant to the Tahanan Village Garden Club. She came with some fifty newly established plant stems and proceeded to explain the history of the plant and its healing properties.

Needless to say, the Ashitaba has quietly become a hit in our village and is now sought after by many of its residents, especially since the once young contemporaries who settled the village have grown older over time. Others took our advice and have gone to Bio-Research in Sucat to obtain their own plants for both propagation and ingestion.

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THE response to my initial blog on the Ashitaba Medicinal herb, otherwise known as the Tomorrow Leaf, seems to have generated a great amount of interest. This is probably an indicator of the number of people who need assistance in the healing of certain physical ailments. This particular blog will serve only as a quick response to some of the queries posted by those who read of the wonderful qualities of the Tomorrow Leaf. A longer response will be forthcoming, complete with pictures of the plant – albeit, a small one at that – and the turnover of a number of them by Ms Charlene Ang, daughter of my classmate Wilson Ang of Bio-Research, to our village Garden Club.

First, Wilson Ang propagates the Tomorrow Leaf as an avocation, and distributes the plant (one plant for each visitor or depending on need) FOR FREE to those who go to his Bio-Research plant in Sucat, Paranaque.

Second, Wilson Ang DOES NOT SELL the Ashitaba plant, but makes it available to those who go to his 4-hectare office FOR FREE as an advocacy, his own way of giving back to the community that has supported his business for so many years. The staff of Bio-Research also hand out a primer on the Ashitaba plant that contains some instructions on how to consume it. But for the sake of clarity, I will make some other recommendations based on what I have heard from Wilson and Charlene, and my own observations after a few weeks spent with the plant.

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WHEN times are tough….people buy lottery tickets! Even with the most recent huge jackpot of about P347 Million (a little over $7 million), long lines can still be seen in lottery outlets as the public hopes to be the next lucky person to win a big prize in the other games still playing with relatively large jackpots.

Many times, people ask me if I have ever won in either the Lotto (pari-mutuel game) or the Numbers (fixed odds games) games, and I have had to answer in the negative. I am not, after all, a gambler at heart, but do wander off to a nearby lottery outlet to take my chance once in a while. Those who ask the question are the ones who somehow know of my involvement in the conceptualization of the online lottery game in the country.

It began with an invitation by my uncle Norberto Quisumbing, Jr. to help him when he had just taken over PAGCOR upon the assumption of power by the Cory government. He had in mind the transformation of PAGCOR into an authority able to operate like the Nevada state gaming authority.

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WHEN certain buddies of mine decided to once again take up the hobby of setting up and maintaining tropical fish aquariums, we vectored directly to our usual complete source for this enervating undertaking, our schoolmate Wilson Ang, founder and head of Bio-Research. This was after a fairly long hiatus, mind you, because time and circumstance had managed to pry many of us away from this hobby. In my case, I lost all my fish (accumulated over many years and placed in a humongous 400 gallon tank and a smaller 110 gallon tank) to a wrongly applied cleaning agent by a contractor many moons ago. Right then and there, I decided to spend more time – and money – in my other hobby, serious amateur photography, with the Camera Club of the Philippines as an ideal venue for this avocation. But this is another topic for another time.

While in the main corporate offices of Bio-Research in Sucat Road in Paranaque, we realized that our good friend Wilson had gone beyond his traditional setting of tropical and marine fish. He had managed to accumulate distributorships for what looked like a serious water pump and waste-water treatment business, among other things. But more important, he managed to convert his 4 hectare property into what he hopes will be a suitable habitat for the various flora and fauna he has accumulated – and continues to accumulate – over the years, some for sale and some for keeps. (Read about some of what he is doing in this area in my son Jayvee’s blog, A Bugged Life.

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