My Heroes of 2009. The Romy Martins of Acre, Inc.

Romy Martin is a friend and colleague from way back. He cracks jokes with the precision and timing of a professional comedian. He is a good friend. As a friend, he stands by you through thick and thin. When I met him, he was a mid-level corporate executive. Eventually, he rose to the top to be the president of one company based in Palawan.

I write about him not because he delivers the punch line very well. I mention his name not because of his success in the corporate world. Rather, I write about him because he was able to rise above all others with limited education and perhaps under difficult circumstances.

From what I gathered, he succeeded for two major reasons – for working hard (harder than most others) and for his loyalty to the corporate mandate. He was on the job whenever and wherever needed. He was present even on occasions and events when degreed and intelligent executives would be vacationing or playing golf. He was among the first on the scene when there was a disaster or an accident. He was literally there when the company needed him – anytime under any condition.

I salute him. This borrowed statuette is for him.

I also offer this symbolic statuette to my staff, the Romy Martins of Acre, Inc., who stood by me until December 31, 2009. Many other employees did their part and sacrificed a lot during the year. I thank them from the bottom of my heart. However, with their permission, I would like to give special mention to those employees who decided to work on the day (December 31, 2009) when everyone else was starting to celebrate the New Year. I salute them. They are shown in the picture below: