A vibrant middle class
 11 Oct. 2007

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Last Monday (October 8, 2007), was the turn for Pampanga’s youth to have a foretaste of entrepreneurship, and to hobnob with the hugely successful and most inspiring Kapampangan entrepreneurs, whose achievements ranged from halo-halo to furniture to energy and power.

Of course, another outstanding and over-achieving Kapampangan, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, would not miss that occasion, and she was there to present the Ladder of Entrepreneurship Trophies to the awardees.

The trophy, designed and executed by renowned artist, Kenneth Cobunpue, is actually a ladder growing out of a box, a literal rendition of the lives and careers of the awardees, who mostly succeeded by thinking out of the box. Recipients of this trophy is a virtual who is who in Filipino enterprise.

The awardees in Pampanga were: Dr. Emmanuel Angeles of the Angeles University Foundation; Teresa Carlos-David of the Bank of Florida; Fatima del Rosario of Sasmuan Delicacies; Michael Escaler of PUSUDECO; Prudencio Garcia of Mekeni; Lolita Hizon of Pampanga’s Best; Peter Nepomuceno of the Nepo Group of Companies; Ryan Razon of a restaurant bearing his surname but better known for its halo-halo; Wilfredo Tan of Hausland Dev.; and Jaime Uy of Savers Group. They are 11 of Pampanga’s best entrepreneurs, serving as inspiration and beacon to the youth who crammed very available space, including the aisles, at the Bren Guiao Convention Center.

I thought that the spillover crowd at the earlier Go Negosyo Caravan in Manila’s Philamlife Auditorium could not be topped. There, students from every school that mattered filled the auditorium to the rafters. And for spill over, TV monitors were set up on the hallway.

In San Fernando, the snake-like queue outside the Bren Guiao Center just kept on growing longer, long after the venue was filled to capacity. Some were coming in school buses, but most were just walking, in groups that were distinguished by their school attires and uniforms.

Truly, it is never too early to start them on the road to enterprise.

As the President laid out to them the vision of an exciting world of entrepreneurship, and the role they could play in it, she also stirred their sense of historic pride in the Kapampangan’s being the most outstanding Filipino entrepreneurs, according to earlier studies.

The Go Negosyo Caravan was on its 5th leg in Pampanga, after kicking-off in Cebu, followed by Bacolod, Baguio and Manila. Up next is Cagayan de Oro City on October 19.

The Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, co-founded by Presidential Consultant for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion III, is the driving spirit in putting entrepreneurship on top of everybody’s mind.

For our part in government, the MSME programs, particularly at the micro level and the SMEs, are all in place.

The enthusiasm of the youth, sparked by the experience and example set in programs like Go Negosyo, can create the vibrant middle class the President hopes to leave behind at the end of her term.

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