Luigi Quisumbing: Guided by family, driven to serve

It was a busy afternoon in 2003 when I first met Rep. Gabriel Luis "Luigi" Quisumbing. His imposing stature was hard to miss in a room filled with noisy freshmen in the College of Law of the University of San Carlos.

Surprisingly, his size is the opposite of his character. He is humble, reserved, and quiet. In fact, I wouldn't know he was there until I look back, where he usually sits giving consideration to those of us who are vertically challenged. Although, I swear that given his interest and dedication to study, he would have preferred to sit in front.

A few days ago, I was given an assignment to interview Cong. Luigi, and I thought this would be an opportune time to catch up with this gentle giant, since the last time I bumped into him (literally) we had no time to talk. That was during the State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City last year.

This time we had plenty of time to talk, although still limited, considering his busy schedule. The interview was set a few days before his birthday, which was July 12, in Oakridge Business Park along A.S. Fortuna St., a few blocks away from the headquarters of the brand built and strengthened by the Quisumbing clan, Norkis.

Although our conversation was more focused on his efforts as a policy maker, I could not help but notice how Rep. Luigi based many of the principles that guided him in this new career from that taught to him by his grandfather and family who raised him to be a businessman rather than a politician.

The FREEMAN: What motivates Luigi Quisumbing?

LUIGI QUISUMBING: To try to do a good job in my district, politics-wise. Our family business has been, well, this is the 50th anniversary this year and my lolo started Norkis as a very small shop. He worked very hard to try to achieve his dreams, his goals. Ultimately, with the success of Norkis, we were the ones who benefited from it. My parents, their generation, my cousins and I, our generation, we are the ones that really benefited from the success of Norkis over this last 50 years. For now, it is my way of trying to give back to the community. 

TF: You were raised as a businessman, finishing Business Administration at the Center for International Education, any plans of retiring from politics and join the family business?

LQ: Eventually, I'm going to go back and work in the family business, While I still have the luxury of time to be able to pursue my interest I wanted to see how I could help out in making the sixth district an even better place.

Cebu is such a progressive, a wonderful province. If there's any way that I can do for its development, of course I want to do everything I can to achieve it.

TF: How long have you been in politics?

LQ: Three years as a provincial board member and this is my third year. I am on my first term in Congress. So, this is my sixth year in politics.

TF: So, how has it been?

LQ: It's been, as you can imagine, very difficult but ultimately it's an experience that I'm not going to trade for anything in the world. It's so fulfilling to be able to help out the people of my district, whether it be small things like medical assistance or scholarships or even larger infrastructure projects. It's been an absolute honor and privilege to serve the sixth district in whatever capacity that I can.

TF: What is your vision for the district?

LQ: In effect, it's trying to bring the district to a level where we are competitive not just with the rest of the country, but with the world. We have all the tools in place. We have tourism, we have industry, we have a spectacular and very talented populace. Whether it be in terms of blue collar or white collar, manufacturing, IT industries, the Filipino people, especially the Cebuanos, can do it all. It's a matter now of trying to provide the tools to pick these skills and present it on the world stage.

Being part of the national government, I am challenged because it's a motivating factor for me to try to see what I can do to improve education, to improve healthcare, to improve infrastructure to make sure that all of these talented people in our district can harness their skills.

That will always be a work in progress and truly there should not be an end to that goal. We want to make sure that at the end of the day, we continue to be competitive with the rest of the world. As you know, technology competence moves at the speed of light. You could buy a very modern computer chip now that will be obsolete six months from now.

We want to make sure that we continue to be on the forefront on that kind of innovation. We want to make sure that as these developments happen in many industries. We should keep up with all of that and be able to maximize how we can help the people of the sixth district and the people of the province of Cebu.

TF: Any word of advice from your grandfather that you would like to share with us?

LQ: There is no substitute for hard work. You could be as talented or as skilled as you want, but if you don't have the desire to work, you will not get anywhere. That's part of the biggest lesson that I've learned. And he always tells me that in whatever I do I have to do it with honor, because ultimately if the person doesn't have honor in what he does, how can he conduct himself properly? Then, there is really nothing to live for, nothing to live by.

TF: They say that business and politics don't mix, what's your take on this?

LQ: Many times, its true but politics is everybody's business. You know, at the end of the day you have to really try to be able to affect positive change whether you are in the business community or in politics, whether you are the President of the Philippines or a Barangay Captain.

At the end of the day we all have a role to play in making this nation better. Whether you are in the business sector or the government sector, we're all going in the same direction anyway. As far as I was concerned, it was just something that I could really make a direct change in the world around me, in trying to make the district better directly by running for office rather than playing a supporting role, even a primary role in the business community.

TF: What's your biggest challenge as a lawmaker and a politician?

LQ: Everything is a challenge. If it's easy, chances are it's not going to be worthwhile. Most worthwhile things are difficult to achieve. The downside of politics is when politicians work purely for political gain, monetary gain, and it's difficult to deal with people who are like these because at the end of the day their decision making revolves in what is best for them and not in what is best for their area. That is the challenge.

We cover everything from education to health care to social welfare, but for each of those we have specific goals that we want to achieve, like we want to increase the number of ports in our area or lower the incidence of crime, in infrastructure in making the district flood free. There are numerous challenges. Ultimately it's all part of the bigger picture. We want this district to be the perfect district and these are smaller goals that we have.

The challenge is how to get there and it's a challenge worth doing. We are exhausting every effort to get there.