MANILA, Philippines—From dusty back lots of Cagayan de Oro City to the hallowed grounds of the Margaret Court Arena in Melbourne, Australia, Filipino tennis sensation Francis Casey Alcantara has come a long way.

On Saturday, the once scrawny 16-year-old who had to bulk up over the holidays, became the first Filipino to win a Grand Slam event after pairing with a Taiwanese for the boys doubles title of the Australian Open tennis championships.

Alcantara, known to friends as Niño, paired with 17-year-old Cheng-Peng Hsieh to demolish Mikhal Biryukov of Russia and Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan, 6-4, 6-2, in the final match to achieve what no Filipino has done before. En route to the championship, the duo did not drop a single set and only twice did they have to play a tiebreak.

“I don’t know what to say. I’m very happy. I guess it still has to sink in,” Alcantara, the Philippines’ top-ranked junior player and No. 20 in the world, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer over the phone from the bus back to his hotel.

Filipino youngster Felix Barrientos reached the semifinals of the Wimbledon juniors singles in 1985, the year he was ranked No. 1 in the world in the junior circuit. In 1953 tennis great and Hall of Famer Felicisimo “Mighty Mite” Ampon won the Wimbledon Plate—a tournament for first- and second-round losers of the Wimbledon mens singles.

Alcantara’s triumph drew appreciation from local and foreign-based Filipino tennis fans who swarmed the Australian Open website with a deluge of congratulatory messages.

The doubles title more than made up for his first-round upset loss to unseeded Swede Daniel Berta in the boys’ singles where Alcantara was seeded 10th.

New teamup

In the doubles he and Hsieh, last year’s champion with a different partner, were seeded seventh as a pair. The Asian pair, which teamed up only this year, bowed out in the second round of the tune-up event, the Nottingham Invitational, two weeks back.

“The general plan was to be aggressive and to attack the net,” said his coach Junjun Toledo. “The opponents are bigger so we can’t afford to play their game.”

That’s what the 5-foot-7 Alcantara and the 6-foot Hsieh did as they broke their opponents right in the opening game and held on to take the first set.

Alcantara said they were prepared for a tough time in the second set, but after posting a 5-1 lead, he said he could already smell the victory.

3rd Grand Slam title

The match was over in just 44 minutes in the sweltering Australian summer heat, which two days earlier reached 45 degrees Celsius and caused the quarterfinal match between them and German’s Kevin Krawietz and Dominik Schulz to be postponed.

It was Hsieh’s third Grand Slam boys doubles title. He won in Melbourne and in Wimbledon last year. The 15th seeded Taiwanese was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the boys singles draw.

Alcantara is the eldest of three children. He learned to play tennis from his father who passed away six years ago.

“I dedicate this to him,” said Alcantara whose mother Sarah, a government employee, was there cheering him at the sidelines.

Davis Cup prospect

It was also an advanced birthday gift for the young netter who will turn 17 on Feb. 4. They are scheduled to arrive home late Sunday and return to his studies at the Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City where he is a high school senior.

Already, there was talk of him getting a slot in the Philippine Davis Cup training team, something Toledo welcomed.

“That’s great news, I played in the Davis Cup before and I know how it will help him with his confidence,” said Toledo. His stint in the Australian Open was sponsored by Cebuana Lhuillier and tennis patron Oscar Hilado.

It was complete domination for Alcantara and Hsieh, who combined to make 87 percent of their first serves against Biryukov and Uchiyama’s 72 percent. They also posted 60 percent accuracy in second serves against their opponents’ 41 percent.

Soon after Alcantara fell to Berta (3-6, 4-6) in the boys singles, his tandem with Hsieh went full steam ahead, beating Toni Androic of Croatia and Sudarwa Sitaram of India (6-3, 6-4) in the first round and James Chaudry of Britain and John Morrisey of Ireland (6-0, 6-3) in the second round.

They also hurdled Krawietz and Schulz, 6-4, 7-6 (5), and booted out Austria’s Maximilian Neuchrist and Tristan Samuel Weissborn, 7-6 (4), 6-4, in the semi-finals to barge into the championship match. Inquirer.Net

MANILA, Philippines—This police officer is only too glad to disappoint those who look down on Filipinos.

Senior Supt. Benigno Durana Jr. seizes every opportunity to disprove the seeming First World impression that the Filipino could not do anything beyond the menial.

And he does so in Caucasia as deputy chief strategist at the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), helping reform the restive nation’s traditionalist police force through lessons he learned back home.

“This is my opportunity to disappoint people who look down on Filipinos. This is the best time for us to prove them wrong,” said 44-year-old Durana, a Philippine Military Academy cum laude graduate, who has spent 18 years in the police force.

Show the best

“It’s an opportunity to show the best in the Filipino, when many foreigners look down on Filipinos. But no, we can do better than you. Let’s not be trapped in the mentality that ‘I am just a Filipino.’ So what if I have this dark skin? I can deliver,” said an impassioned Durana in an interview in Camp Crame’s Program Management Office, the police force’s reform arm he had helped pioneer in 2005.

Durana, once the police chief of crime-plagued Cubao District in Quezon City and the provincial director of tourist haven Aklan, joined UNOMIG in September last year as deputy senior police adviser. The six-month tour followed his stint as chief of strategic information for the UN contingent in East Timor.

Russia-Georgia war

One of three Filipino policemen contracted by UNOMIG, Durana arrived in the former Soviet state when the dust had yet to settle between Russia and Georgia, which engaged in armed conflict over the latter’s breakaway regions—south Ossetia and Abkhazia.

UNOMIG was born 15 years earlier to oversee Georgia and its breakaway regions’ compliance with a 1993 ceasefire agreement.

The observer mission also maintains a ceasefire zone between Georgia and its separatist territories.

Community-oriented police

Arriving on the heels of heavy bombardment in the conflict zone, Durana was assigned to help reform Georgia’s police from brute force to community-oriented policing, a perspective he had introduced in previous assignments in the Philippine National Police.

With Durana on the mission are Supt. Jose Rony Forro, also a police adviser, and Dr. Nerino Daciego, a Russian-speaking superintendent at the PNP Crime Laboratory.

But the Filipino policemen had no worries about their security, citing the UN’s role as a neutral organization in the conflict.

“We are out of harm’s way. We are not there to enforce the law, but we are there to ensure that the peace agreement is observed by both parties,” said Durana, who obtained a doctorate in Peace and Security Administration at the Bicol University.

Problem as opportunity

By “looking at every problem as an opportunity,” Durana is at the frontline of orienting Georgia police to the kind the United Nations wants its member-states to pursue: “Democratic policing, where officers do their job to serve the people, not to impress their bosses.”

“I would like to help them realize that the ultimate goal of policing is to improve quality of life, not just catch criminals, making arrests one after another,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Jan. 16, on the eve of his flight back to Georgia to finish his tour that ends in April.

Citing the PNP’s exposure to training under Western expertise, Durana said: “The PNP has a lot to offer to these emerging law enforcement agencies.”

Public servant

This turnaround from commando to public servant is what the PNP has also been aiming to instill in its 120,000 members through the Integrated Transformation Program (ITP), which Durana helped put together three years ago.

The program encourages the development of leaders at all PNP levels, from the headquarters to the station “because the PNP [head office] can’t provide you with everything,” said Durana, who faced this first-hand as city and provincial police chief.

“The police in Georgia are very mission-oriented, very military, traditionalist in approaching their job because of the security environment. Right now, we’re starting to build rapport first,” he said.

Lessons are packaged as bite-size ideas to avoid overwhelming the usually stern-faced Georgian police officers, who are used to gauging success based on their arrest count.

“They won’t care about what you know unless they know you care,” he said.

Quality circles

Borrowing a PNP practice, Durana also organized “quality circles,” an informal discussion group proven more effective than traditional lectures to translate ideas into “doables.”

He learned this during his years as top cop in the Cubao commercial area, known to be a hub of robbers, pickpockets and illegal trade. Through his campaign “Police Cubao, Love Kayo,” Durana helped improve public perception of cops and encouraged community participation in fighting crime.

Within his term, from 2003 to 2005, Durana also enforced the “No Take” policy, a campaign against bribery known to have been rampant at the Cubao police station at the time.

Bribe offers

And to show that he practiced what he was advocating, Durana said he constantly rejected several bribe offers from business establishments and illegal rings in the area, among them jueteng (illegal numbers game) operators, nightclub owners and illegal vendors.

Monthly offers ranged from P80,000 to P100,000.

In his last year at the station, Durana was among the “Country’s Outstanding Policemen in Service” in the national search of the Metrobank Foundation Inc. and the Rotary Club New Manila East. Also in 2005, Durana was declared Best Senior Police Commissioned Officer for Operations in all of Metro Manila.

Boracay

As police chief in Aklan from January 2007 until early last year, he imposed a centralized port system for commuter boats in Boracay, banning the usual practice of docking straight at the beach.

Despite resistance from stakeholders, Durana said he succeeded in enforcing the scheme and finally cleared the white sand coastline of docking boats.

“We should stop the “tama na yan, OK na yan” thinking,” said Durana, sharing a lesson by which he has been raising his children Miguel Christian, 14, and Kristina Mae, 12.

“Reform will take generations, but the seeds must be sown. Allow it to germinate and think about the future generations that will reap it,” he said. Inquirer.net

Necessity is the mother of invention.

For Antonio Mateo, he invented the “Direct Rainwater Catchment System Module” to help solve the impending water shortage in the country over the next five years, specifically potable water.

Mateo said the lack of clean drinking water has been a problem for kids in remote areas who do not have the convenience to buy distilled water from purifying stations.

He cited how kids from the mountains, like the recent death cases in Baler, die from drinking unsafe water. Most of the kids in the mountains do not even reach the age of five, he lamented.

Having been involved in water system technology development for 20 years, he said it is imperative to invent a module that will allow Filipinos to access clean water resources, especially rainwater.

The use of rainwater even at 50 percent utilization would allow savings and would secure surface and groundwater sources, said Mateo.

Using the module, demand on fresh water needs supplied by utility companies in urban areas or by groundwater wells and streams in rural areas will be reduced.

His family, for instance, uses rainwater for 80 percent of its total water supply for household use over five years now.

“Rainwater harvesting is a method of collecting, storing and processing rainwater for human consumption and use,” said Mateo. It allows the provision of fresh water at or near the point of its use, such as the individual household, farm, industrial and commercial establishment.

The concept is nothing new; rain harvesting has been used a long time ago, said Mateo.

“Rainwater harvesting seeks to put rainwater to good use rather than be wasted through floods or natural runoff,” he said. He mentioned that the perennial rains in the Philippines can help supply water in many areas, thus benefiting people.

Mateo said that rainwater passes 14 out of the 16 parameters of potable water. Rainwater just needs to address two factors — reduction of acidity and purification from disease-causing microorganisms — for it to be potable, Mateo said.

According to Mateo, the rainwater becomes non-potable because when it falls on catchments such as roof, it usually washes adhering pollutants such as, dirt, soot, insect and animal manures — which all goes into the rainwater storage tanks or cisterns causing microbiological contamination. Added to these are dissolved solids in the atmosphere that initially comes with the first rainfalls.

To extend the use of rainwater for drinking, Mateo said the module can purify rainwater of sediments using different layers of ceramic filtration and remove, if not kill disease-causing microorganisms, such as E. Coli via a purifying chamber with non-pathogenic solution.

In rural areas, the purifying chamber can be replaced with malunggay seeds, Mateo said. The seeds are disinfecting and cleansing agent. Through three stages of rainwater purification of the module, he said rainwater can be used for watering plants and irrigation, bathing and flushing toilets and finally drinking.

Mateo said the rainwater harvesting industry will grow over the next five years.

Currently, he is looking for suppliers who can mass-produce the module design. He built the prototype with P100,000 budget.

Future plans for enhancement of the module include operation of the catchment’s roof by hydraulics or pneumatics, which can spread out when humidity changes as detected by sensors. – Inquirer.net

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA — DeWart, DeMole and now—de-cancer.

By reformulating his amazing cream that gets rid of warts and moles without surgery, Rolando dela Cruz, 71, came up with DeBCC that combats skin cancer.

Doctors from the Philippine General Hospital have certified the DeBCC cream as a viable treatment for basal cell carcinoma (BCC), the most common type of skin cancer.

On Friday, Dela Cruz received the World Intellectual Property Office gold medal for DeBCC as an outstanding invention during the closing ceremonies of the National Inventors Week.

When he was a child, Dela Cruz asked his mother why his hands got burnt when he cut a raw cashew nut he found in their backyard.

“I was trying to open the raw cashew nut by striking it with a stone. The oil from the nut splattered on my hands and some areas of my hands got burnt,” he recounted.

Dela Cruz would often refer to this story as how the idea for his invention started. He was able to formulate a cream to remove warts and moles on the skin and later, a painless treatment for the most common type of skin cancer, which the Department of Science and Technology recently hailed as the outstanding invention of the year.

A former barber in Caloocan City, Dela Cruz recalled seeing scars on the faces and necks of his clients, and would ask them about the imperfections.

“I compared my experience of getting burnt from cashew nut oil to the scars of my clients who had their warts cauterized,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on the sidelines of the closing ceremonies of the National Inventors Week on Friday.

“I asked them about the cauterizing machine. I had no idea what it was because I was only in second year high school,” he added.

The cauterizing machine and the cashew nut oil seemed to have the same effect, he figured. Using extract from the cashew nut, he removed the warts and moles of his clients at the barber shop.

In 1997, Dela Cruz and his family started marketing the products as DeWart, a cream to remove warts, and DeMole, a cream to remove moles, his son Rommel de la Cruz said.

In a separate interview, the younger Dela Cruz narrated how they joined an exhibit at the Greenhills Commercial Center in San Juan.

“[At the beginning] we didn’t even know how we would pay for the rent of the stall,” he said. “But in that exhibit, we learned how to price our products and how to sell them. It was a valuable experience.”

DeMole and DeWart were later recognized by the DOST, with the creams winning the Tuklas (Discover) award in 1998.

Doctors also deemed the creams as possible treatment for warts and moles after completing clinical trials and studies on patients, he added.

Then an odd thing happened.

“Patients diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma insisted on trying the DeMole treatment. They even signed a waiver [absolving us from responsibility] so they could apply the cream to their BCC,” the younger Dela Cruz said.

He and the staff charted the results and said the treatment “had a good, albeit, small effect on the growths.”

“In 2003, Tatay reformulated DeMole by adding other ingredients and increased the strength of the cashew extract. We called the cream DeBCC,” the younger Dela Cruz said.

According to the US-based Skin Cancer Foundation, skin cancer is the most common kind of cancer in the United States with over a million cases reported annually. One in five Americans could develop the disease, the foundation said.

Surgery, chemotherapy and radiation are the usual treatments offered to BCC patients, but doctors encounter difficulties removing growths in sensitive areas like the face and genitalia.

Dela Cruz’s cream made the removal of BCC easier. A clinical trial at the PGH validated the viability of the treatment.

It was documented in the study, “Anacardium Occidentale (Linn. Cashew Nut Extract; DeBCC ®) in the Treatment of Basal Cell Carcinoma or Skin Cancer” by University of the Philippines doctors Eric Talens, Orlando Ocampo, Daniel dela Paz, Horacio Estrada and Porfirio Tica.

The DeBCC cream was also chosen as one of 11 “Posters of Exceptional Merit” last year during the 93rd Annual Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons held in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Despite his success as an inventor, Dela Cruz has never forgotten his humble beginnings. Poverty has made him a stronger person, he said.

“Those were trying times. I even experienced living at La Loma cemetery, sleeping in a cold, open ‘nitso (tomb),” he said. During those nights, he dreamed of becoming a doctor.

“And even though I never had a chance to take up medicine, my inventions allowed me to team up with doctors and find treatments,” Dela Cruz said.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

HONG KONG — A novel by Filipino author Miguel Syjuco, which touches on 150 years of often turbulent Philippines history, has won a major Asian literary prize, organizers said.

Syjuco’s “Ilustrado” was awarded the second annual Man Asian Literary Prize, which is open to novels from the region not yet published in English.

“Ilustrado seems to us to possess formal ambition, linguistic inventiveness and socio-political insight in the most satisfying measure,” the panel of three judges said in a statement, after awarding the $10,000 prize Thursday.

“Brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed, it covers a large and tumultuous historical period with seemingly effortless skill. It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humor.”

The story is a fictional account of a young Filipino investigating the life of his mentor Crispin Salvador, a real-life writer and thinker, after the man’s death.

It examines the disappearance of Salvador’s manuscript about the corruption behind rich Filipino families.

Syjuco beat off competition from fellow Filipino Alfred A. Yuson for “The Music Child,” Indian writers Kavery Nambisan for “The Story that Must Not be Told” and Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi for “The Lost Flamingoes of Bombay.”

Chinese writer Yu Hua was also shortlisted for “Brothers.”

The panel said the shortlist of five novels had shown the “great vitality” of the novel in a region “undergoing hectic and unexpected transformations.”

Last year’s inaugural prize was won by Chinese author Jiang Rong for his novel “Wolf Totem,” which has since been published by Penguin.

The prize is backed by the company that sponsors the prestigious Booker prize, based in Britain.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The Miele Guide was recently launched at the Grand Hyatt in Singapore, over an exquisite dinner prepared by three of Asia’s top chefs (whose restaurants made it to the Guide’s Top Ten list). The 350 guests comprised Asia’s most respected restaurateurs and chefs, plus some food writers.

The red book was creatively and literally served to each of the guests on a silver platter. The best part for us: Many Filipino restaurants were included in the list.

Here are Asia’s Top Ten Restaurants:

1. Iggy’s in Singapore
2. L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Hong Kong
3. Les Amis in Singapore
4. Gunther’s in Singapore
5. Mozaic in Indonesia
6. Robuchon a Galera in Macau
7. Garibaldi in Singapore
8. Yung Kee in Hong Kong
9. Hutong in Hong Kong
10. Antonio’s Fine Dining in Tagaytay, Philippines

The Filipino restaurants that made it are: Margarita Fores’ Pepato in Greenbelt, Jessie Sincioco’s Le Soufflé in Rockwell, Ariel Manuel’s Lolo Dad’s in Manila, Rolando Laudico’s Bistro Filipino at the Fort and La Cocina de Tita Moning near Malacañang.

Restaurants from hotels such as Prince Albert at the Intercon; Heat and Shang Palace in Shangri-La, Makati; and The Fireplace and Li Li at the Hyatt in Malate, were also included.

There was also a good showing of mall restaurants: from Greenbelt are Sugi, People’s Palace, M Cafe, Via Mare, Italiannis and The Chateau Group’s Sentro 1771 and Chateau 1771; from Serendra there’s Larry Cruz’ Abe; and at the Podium, Casa Armas.

ISCAHM’s Aubergine at the Fort also made it, as well as Old Swiss, near the Manila Pen. Pasay Road favorites El Cirkulo and Tsukiji were also on the list; as well as Salcedo Village’s favorites, Elbert’s Steak Room and Apartment 1B. Three restaurants from Tagaytay (or near Tagaytay) were also included: Sonya’s Garden, Kanin Club and Antonio’s Fine Dining.

Disappointed

How did the Miele Guide come about?

A few years ago, some of Asia’s food writers, chefs and restaurateurs were tapped, with food writers, chefs and restaurateurs around the globe, to vote on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Two of the restaurant authorities tapped were husband and wife photographer, writer and editor tandem Aun Koh and Tan Su-Lyn of Singapore. When the results came out, they were disappointed to see that only five restaurants from Asia made it to the World’s 100 Best (not even the Top 50).

In his blog, chubbyhubby.net, Aun mused, “In addition to profiling the world’s top 50, Restaurant magazine also lists the next 50 (i.e. those ranked between 51-100). This year, only 5 restaurants in Asia made it to the top 100; all are ranked in the bottom half of the list. Bukhara, in India, at #55, continues to hold its place as Asia’s top-ranked restaurant. Iggy’s, in Singapore, is in second place, at #77.

“The next three Asian restaurants are all situated in Hong Kong. Pierre Gagnaire, Robuchon a Galera (technically in Macau) and Zuma are ranked at #88, #98, and #99 respectively… Each year, when these results are announced, I have the same reaction. While it is always cool to scan the top 10 or 20 restaurants and pat myself on the back for having visited several of them, the thing that irks me is the question, ‘Surely, Asia has more than just five world class restaurants?’”

In 2006, Chubbyhubby came up with his own survey of Asia’s best restaurants based solely on online voting through the chubbyhubby blog. Incidentally, the first comment on the post that revealed the results said, “Finally, indeed… what I would do for a luxe-style travel and pocket guide edition of this!”

Thus, the Miele Guide was born.

Controversial

Aun Koh said at the dinner, “We expect that this list will be controversial… we expect people to dispute the rankings and to criticize us. But the more people talk about our Top 20, the better. The overarching goal of The Miele Guide is to help the restaurant industry in Asia grow.”

Controversial or not, what we should note here is that the turnout from the Philippines was great. The international press especially took note of Antonio’s as they were surprised that a Filipino restaurant made the Top Ten.

Thanks in great part to our wonderful food blogging community (and to the fact that we Filipinos just really love food and dining out), a good number of Filipino restaurants made it to the Miele Guide.

Hopefully, with our best chefs at the helm of this voyage, we can become a destination not only for our beaches, but also for our food!

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines— A spellbinding victory for Philippine cinema.

Visitors to the Cable News Network entertainment website voted Ishmael Bernal’s “Himala,” which starred Nora Aunor as a simple provincial girl turned faith healer, as the best movie of all time in the Asia-Pacific region, outclassing such greats as Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” and Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Others in the top 10 that vied for the honor, in which “Himala” was the only Filipino film, included Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s “Mou Gaan Dou (Infernal Affairs)” from Hong Kong, Chan-wook Park’s “Old Boy” from South Korea, Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film “Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away)” from Japan, Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” from India, Peter Weir’s “Gallipoli” from Australia, Wong Kar Wai’s “Chung Hing Sam Lam (Chungking Express)” from China, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s “Gabbeh” from Iran.

According to the CNN website, critics, industry insiders, Asian film stars, and CNN viewers chose the movies that landed in the shortlist of ten films. The online poll that ran in October determined the winner.

The Filipino classic, which was written by Ricky Lee and originally released in 1982 for the Metro Manila Film Festival, was announced the top vote-getter in the popular vote and named the winner of the CNN-APSA Viewers Choice Award for Best Asia-Pacific Film of All Time on Tuesday at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Hundreds of film industry luminaries from around the world attended the event.

Inquirer.Net Blog: Being Filipino

IT is said that one could find a Filipino in almost every corner of the world. And in a charming little corner in southwest Brittany, France called Quimper, a provincial lass from Mauban, Quezon sparkles.

Quimper pronounced “kem-pair” is a quaint, medieval town with cobbled streets, low flat bridges that cross the river that glides along the impressive Saint-Corentin cathedral.

Half-timbered buildings are festooned with geraniums and chrysanthemums this time of the year. Within this ancient city, the oldest cities in Brittany actually, are ultramodern buildings that blend tunefully with the city’s old world charm. Quimper is a storybook land from the medieval quarter. And this is where Margo Calderero-Palud’s story unfolds.

Down the boulevard of cafés and creperies, and among pottery shops and other tourist attractions is a much loved jewelry store, owned by a humble yet feisty Filipina. In fact, Margo Calderero-Palud heads and runs not just one but three well-known shops in this fabled city, in southwest Breton — Bisoux, which sells high end, fine jewelry pieces, Kisso Kisso, which specializes in the more fun and funky trinkets and charms, and Pilgrim, a jewelry, fashion accessories and fashion store.

Margo’s fairy-tale like story began in 1992, when she married Intercontinental Manila’s celebrated French Executive Chef Michel Palud. After 4 years, the couple flew to France to start their own restaurant, Le Spices. Margo, a University of Santo Tomas Fine Arts graduate and stranger to a foreign land, was determined to support her husband no matter what. And as a dutiful wife and partner, she summoned every fiber in her body to help make their restaurant a success.

Expectedly, Michel was lord of the kitchen, while Margo worked on the concept, interior, packaging, marketing and entertaining. See? She was into multi-tasking even before the word became every career woman’s mantra! So it wasn’t a surprise that in 12 years, Le Spices became a one of the town’s more adored spots. But just when Margo thought that her life would continue its storybook sequence, a chapter suddenly ended! Her husband Michel decided to sell the restaurant and move on to bigger ventures abroad. It was probably the artist in her kicking in, for this time, Margo decided to stay in France instead of joining him. She wanted to etch a name for herself and made a name, she did.

Guided by instinct and thrilled to venture on her own, Margo saw the light when she came across a jewelry store that was for sale. She knocked on their doors but instead of buying it lock, stock, and barrel, she asked the owner if she could work there for a few months to check its profitability. Here’s a great tip from Margo: “When buying a business, don’t take the owner’s word for it. Experience it firsthand, then give your price.”

In three months, the sales of that store doubled! The secret? Surely, it was Margo’s innate charm and her attention to clients’ needs. One can probably add the Filipino’s inherent hospitality into the mix. She explains further, “In the resto, I did my best to know my diners by heart. I knew how they liked their meals cooked, or what time they would come in for their café.” Margo adds, “this attention, I used in the jewelry store, so sales flourished. And because it did, the owner decided not to sell!”

Downcast, she thought of moving back to the Philippines. But she remembered her commitment to succeed in foreign shores. Talk about faith and Fate! Soon after, another jewelry store was up for sale. Margo snapped up the chance. Without missing a beat, she flew home to Mauban, Quezon, sold her property and this time, bought the business lock, stock, and barrel. There was no turning back for this feisty self-proclaimed probinsyana.

Bisoux was born and a new chapter in her exciting life had begun.

The store was a labor of love. Margo painted the walls, assembled the furniture and fixtures herself. She asked suppliers to place their merchandising in her store. The result was a quaint shop where shoppers would walk in, chitchat with this warm Filipina, and walk out with their fine purchases.

Initially, she was into selling certain pieces she got in Manila’s Greenhills tiangge (mini stalls).

Today, she purchases her wares from South Africa, Columbia and Italy. She also attends shows in Hong Kong, Paris and Italy to keep updated with the trends. However, her thrust now is to promote and sell the Philippines’ Pride — golden south sea pearls and indigenous Filipino jewelry to Europe through her stores. Not forgetting her roots and wanting to give back, Margo also initiated a livelihood program for her townsfolk in Mauban.

Tapping on Filipino ingenuity, she created a cottage industry of jewelry pouches from old Barong Tagalogs, and made jewelry hangers from the local woodcraft. And that wasn’t enough. Margo also established the Ninong and Ninang Foundation, to help provide education to Mauban’s children. The mandate is simple: French sponsors adopt a child for a year and provide for his or her education and educational needs. Imagine. She started with 5 kids, now her foundation has sent 32 kids to school this year. Margo knows education is important in shaping children’s young minds. She has two wonderful kids herself, Natalie who is 16 and Christof, aged 20.

So what can be gleaned from Margo’s heartwarming story? That every Filipina who has talent, a strong belief in one’s self, and the determination to make it no matter how big or small the odds, can become successful anywhere in the world. And like Margo Calderero-Palud, sparkle and shine.

But wait! Margo’s love affair with jewelry and the ancient beauty of France isn’t over yet. The next interesting chapter is still being written. And she hopes you won’t miss it.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — Mac, the Filipino-made explosives disposal robot, has just succeeded in first mission.

The one-armed, night-seeing robot developed by students from the Mapua Institute of Technology won the top prize in the recently held First World Cup of Computer-Implemented Inventions in Shanghai, China, said Senior Supt. Gilbert Cruz, Makati City police chief.

“We have prepared a hero’s welcome for Mac and the team,” Cruz said over the phone Wednesday.

According to Cruz, Mac beat entries from 84 countries which joined the event.

He said Mac — short for mechanical anti-terrorist concept — and his team of creators from Mapua led by John Judilla–arrived Tuesday night via Philippine Air Lines.

Cruz himself commissioned the development of the robot to help members of the city’s Bomb Disposal Unit handle bomb threats that business establishments in Makati receive every week.

The robot was unveiled in Makati’s business district last week.