The cable guy is every Pinoy’s guy

If you’re a friend of Paco Magsaysay’s, you won’t be getting anything imported for Christmas. If this young executive had his way, all Filipinos would be buying high-quality, locally-made products – holidays or not.

Chief executive officer of RMJ Development Corporation and Asian Vision Cable Holdings, Paco knows the importance of patronizing local products, both on a personal and national level. "My desire to buy Filipino products is more of an awareness campaign. If only we could get our local small and medium business enterprises, even the larger companies in fact, to patronize local goods, the better it will be for our country in the long run," says the 33-year-old son of Senator Jun Magsaysay and grandson of the late Ramon Magsaysay who came to be known as "President of the Masses."

The idea began as an informal chitchat with peers, which later on became a series of brainstorming sessions. Says Paco, "This is not really a formal project or anything but more of a group of businessmen talking one day and coming up with this unique idea. Friends of mine, such as Nobel Tieng and Prudential Group’s Aly Reyes, were one day talking about the economic situation of the country and we thought of ways to help jumpstart the economy."

One thing led to another and Buy Filipino Products awareness campaign was born. Paco and company are quietly working in the background to get it on the way. They’re not coming out in TV or print ads because they do not want the attention on themselves. "It’s something we want to pass around by e-mail or word of mouth. There is no personal agenda here since I do not own a company that is involved in any type of business."

This low profile stance is not surprising, coming from the young Magsaysay. Although he is part of a famous political clan, the business management graduate has maintained his privacy and stayed away from the glare of the spotlight. While he has had his exposure in politics via campaigning for his dad, Paco has largely remained anonymous.

Expectedly, Paco has been getting feelers for him to enter politics but he is not biting. If ever, he says, he is only going to enter the field when he’s prepared. In the meantime, it is enough that he is excelling in the field he is most at home with – managing the family-owned business – and living by the virtues he learned form his family honesty, honor and hard work.

Paco’s campaign is not new but this time he wants to reintroduce the concept to people. He cites, for instance, companies that are great at manufacturing leather goods such as bags and keychains which can be used as corporate gifts instead of buying cheap, imported products, say, from China or Taiwan.

"The general impression is that Filipino-made products are inferior. We have to correct this because this is not always the case." For his part, Paco tries to buy Filipino always – you will see him in bazaars, Filipino-owned restaurants and other stores.

"This is purely voluntary on our part. Besides talking about it to get the word out, we really have not done anything concrete yet," he admits.

But little things go a long way, and Paco and friends are doing their work slowly but surely – and quietly. Just pure, plain and honest hard work, which is what ultimately counts.