Schwarzenegger's son, school shoes & a solar car

“They can because they think they can.’  — Virgil

It is sad to witness the recent breakup of the marriage of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, former TV journalist Maria Shriver (whose mother was the younger sister of President John F. Kennedy, Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy).

The Governator is a rags-to-riches success story who was born in Austria, became a world-famous bodybuilder, Hollywood actor and Republican politician. His net worth is estimated to be at least US$1 billion.

This writer had the privilege to interview the award-winning TV journalist Maria Shriver in Santa Monica, California in 2001, and she told me that one of her unforgettable interviews was with the late President Cory C. Aquino.

One member of the Schwarzenegger family whom we should admire is their 17-year-old son Patrick Schwarzenegger who, two years ago, co-founded an entrepreneurial venture called Project 360 with 2010 net profits already in mid-five figures, with its T-shirts, bracelets and hoodies sold in Bloomingdale’s and Henry Bendel.

What is unique about Patrick Schwarzenegger’s business is the donation of 10 percent of all sales to a variety of charitable causes. He learned this idea of donating 10 percent from his grandmother. He has also just signed on with LA Models, which plans to push Patrick for the Ralph Lauren and Armani campaigns. Will he become America’s next Hollywood or political star?  

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‘Shoe king’ gives advice on buying shoes

At a dinner reception recently, I sat beside immigrant rags-to-riches industrialist and Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry director William Castro, also known to his Chinese friends as Ong Dien Kiao. Although low-profile and media-shy, the Marikina-based Castro is virtually the Shoe King of the Philippines, because of the phenomenal success of his leading brand Gibi Shoes for schoolchildren and now even for fashionable women.

Castro’s sister firm Stefano is also the exclusive Philippine distributor of Florsheim Kids USA, which is said to be about 30 percent higher in price than the local brand Gibi shoes and targets the high-end market.

Since self-made business leader Henry Sy Sr. of SM Group started out mainly selling shoes with his Shoemart in post-World War II Manila, his family still now has the SM shoe brand called “Parisian.”

What’s their advice to families buying shoes for their kids? William Castro and his marketing head Genevieve Sy suggested it is best to buy shoes for children that are “one size bigger,” because kids grow fast. They said buying leather shoes is better because these are “breathable and have pores,” compared with synthetic shoes. It is also “ideal to actually let children wear and measure shoes, not to use drawing on paper as a guide when buying kiddie shoes.”

Gibi boss William Castro said the average woman buys one pair of shoes every month; for school children it’s almost once every six months — during school opening and Christmas; while men buy new shoes once every two years. Although Gibi shoes sold in all SM malls have become famous for school kids, children only make up about 40 percent of their sales while women’s shoes actually comprise 60 percent of their sales.

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Businessmen support creation of sikat II solar car

Who are the most powerful tycoons in the Philippines or business people who are the biggest in the power industry? Federico “Piki” Lopez of First Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group said to me that the No. 1 now is San Miguel Corp., led by Ambassador Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. and President Ramon Ang, “because of the IPPA contracts they bought, they’re the largest in the country in terms of total kilowatt hours.”

The fourth child of 81-year-old billionaire historian and book lover Oscar Lopez (who last May 16 climbed Mt. Kota Kinabalu in Borneo), Piki Lopez added that their Lopez family and Cebu’s Aboitiz family are “either top 2 or top 3.”

In terms of electric power distribution, the king is PLDT/Smart boss Manuel “Manny” V. Pangilinan of Meralco, in which the Lopez family still has substantial minority stockholdings. Meralco has monopoly on power distribution and is the largest in the Philippines.

When this writer asked why we consumers and even business people in the Philippines pay Asia’s most expensive electricity rates, Piki Lopez said that we lack indigenous energy resources like those of our oil-rich neighbors Brunei or Indonesia. I also asked whether the higher costs of Meralco’s monopoly situation all these many years or past various governments’ inefficiencies with the power sector are being passed on to us consumers?

Philippine Solar Challenge Society chairman Piki Lopez, vice chairman Henry Co (also the boss of Ford Philippines), president Ramon Agustines and others recently told this writer at the Rockwell Club that their group urges the Philippine government and the rest of Philippine society to promote solar energy for a better, long-term economic future to help lower power costs. They said that although this alternative source of energy seems more expensive for now, it is sustainable, environmentally safe and abundant in our tropical archipelago.

One of the fascinating and visionary non-profit projects of the Philippine Solar Challenge Society is the creation of the Philippine-made solar car in cooperation with the faculty and students of De La Salle University. The name of this solar car that will compete internationally on Oct. 16 is Sikat II. The global race will start in Darwin City and end up 3,000 kilometers away in Adelaide City.

When this writer asked whether our car-loving bachelor President Noynoy Aquino will be invited to test-drive the Sikat II solar car, Ramon Agustines replied, “He may not fit.” Piki Lopez added: “Our solar car is very tight.”  Although only La Salle college students assembling it will be able to ride it for competition, they said, “It would be an honor to have President Noynoy Aquino as our guest of honor at the car’s launch.”

The businessmen behind Sikat II hopes that their multi-million peso project will help promote “better national awareness about science, technology, the need for more research and development, and the importance of solar power as alternative and clean energy source for the Philippines.”

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E-mail willsoonflourish@gmail.com or follow WilsonLeeFlores on Twitter and Facebook.