Johnnie Walker launches special business award

Global brand of premium Scotch whisky,Johnnie Walker, is launching a special award for social entrepreneurship, a new field in this country.

The first awardee is social entrepreneur Illac Diaz, who founded and operated the Pier One Seman’s Dorm in 200 for his social enterprise project for a masteral degree in the Asian Institute of Management. The award was sculpted by Ramon Orlina, one of the country’s leading visual artists.

Johnnie Walker, which was founded 200 years ago by John Walker from a mere retail shop inherited from his father that he expanded into a malt whisky blending venture which his sons pursued and perfected to this day, is a global name that is synonymous with excellence through persistence.

"We chose Illac Diaz as out first awardee in this field because we saw that Diaz espoused the same vision and passion for excellence that John Walker and address the need of this marginalized sector for a decent roof to stay in while waiting for their next employment. Now it has 700 beds.

A year later, another dorm of 300 beds was put up in the vacant eight story building along T.M. Kalaw Ave. owned by United Overseas Bank, which he rented for until 2006. The bank wanted Diaz to pay P50 million upfront for it, but he does not have that much money to pay for it. He might even lose the building in two years if the bank succeeds in selling it to another buyer.

These same people, which the government regards as "modern day" heroes are left to fend for themselves while waiting for their jobs, often sleeping in mats or cartons at open fields or public parks and playgrounds so they could queue up early the next day at the manning offices, Diaz said.

And when they return, there is no place where they could acclimatize themselves from the drastic weather change, which is why many of them end up getting ill upon docking in the piers, he added. The dorm has airconditioned rooms with sheeted foamed beds for these kinds of seafarers.

So the dorm became not just a sleeping quarters but a multi-faceted service center that also provides the applicants with a ready list of skills needed by companies. This way they are spared from lining up office hours. The center also has an activity area for TV viewing and chess games, which becomes a chapel with Sunday mass services.

Diaz has no doubt been earning from both sites of his seafarers’ dorm but his earnings are plowed back in upgrading the facilities and services so that these modern day heroes will have a second home to stay in.

Diaz’s vision is to have a permanent international seafarers’ center – similar to those available for seamen in the world – where they can identify and be easily contacted by global shipping companies needing their expertise and skills.

And as Diaz envisions, the center should not just have a web site so that seamen would no longer apply for jobs in person but it will also have testing facilities for AIDS-HIV to ensure that they do not spread these highly contagious viruses to their families and communities.

Diaz’ study shows that 25 percent of arriving seamen carry the HIV-AIDs virus and might spread the disease to their families and communities.