Trusted & loved • Yvonne Dayrit-Romualdez

MANILA, Philippines - Ask Yvonne Dayrit-Romualdez what she considers her most distinct characteristic and, without blinking, she will tell you this: “My being trustworthy.”

“To be trusted,” says Yvonne, “is one of the best gifts you can give your loved ones, your friends, your associates. Trust is the foundation of every successful relationship. It gives birth to love, to integrity.”

Yvonne grew up in a family that gives premium to trust. After all, her family owns Miladay Jewels, a 47-year-old fine jewelry company that thrives on trust. In their family business, Yvonne handles one of the most sensitive positions — that of being the chief finance officer.

“I believe my siblings and our employees trust me enough to do my job. I owe it to them to perform my job with distinction,” says Yvonne, a Business Management graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University. It was from Ateneo where she also learned to become an award-winning sharpshooter when she became a member of the Philippine National Shooting Association. She later pursued her MBA at the Boston University.

She says, “Our parents, who passed away 20 days apart from each other of lung cancer in 1997, taught me and my sisters Jaqui, Michelle and Christine and our only brother Mark to love each other, to be there for one another in good and bad times. On their deathbeds, they also told us to take care of our people.” Yvonne and her siblings have remained faithful to their promises to their parents.

Because trust is also the other name of faith, Yvonne knows that her commitment with God to deliver faith in action should be encompassing. Part of their company’s CSR is to help send to school the 365 students of the Divine Healer Academy in Cabid-an, Sorsogon. 

Yvonne’s faith, further strengthened by her Assumption education in high school, is unflinching.  “St. Marie Eugenie taught us that we are all called not only to know, love and serve God but to make Him known, loved and served. 

“Because of this, I feel the need to be an ambassador of Christ,” she humbly says.

Because her faith makes her whole, Yvonne, at the end of each working day, joyfully comes home to the warm embrace of her husband, businessman Rafael Ma. Romualdez, and their two precocious kids, Carin, 12, and Cito, seven.

“My husband teaches me to be a better person in many areas in my life. He is considerate of other people. And he reminds me to be the same,” Yvonne says. She feels secure in the love that her husband shows her. “When I forget to charge my phone at night, I just see it charging the next morning.”

“My children teach me how to love more. They also teach me how to see the world with the eyes of a child,” she says.

In the company of her loved ones, Yvonne celebrates quality time that’s filled with love. And trust.

Photography by MAU AGUASIN • Creative direction and styling by LUIS ESPIRITU JR. • Makeup by BOBBY CARLOS, national makeup artist for Max Factor Philippines •

Hairstyling by JIM GUERRERO of L’Oréal Professionel • White dress by TC ALVAREZ-SIBAL • Jewelry by MILADAY JEWELS  • Shot on location at the RAFFLES LONG BAR