Ruffa Gutierrez on teaching kids the value of money

Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. — Ayn Rand

It is best to teach children the value of money early in life, and one of the best ways to do it is to give them a chance to work for it — not just keep giving them money so freely. Another way is to set a good example by working hard and not overspending.

Unknown to most people, actress/ TV host/ beauty queen Ruffa Gutierrez is well-read and also entrepreneurial. A single mom who sends her daughters Lorin and Venice to top schools like British School Manila and Everest International Academy, Ruffa has recently gone into a 50/50 joint venture with fashion designer Rajo Laurel to come out with the “Love Collection,” party dresses for kids.

Ruffa said that she believes in training children to learn the value of money and work. Her daughters, nine-year-old Lorin Gutierrez Bektas and eight-year-old Venice Gutierrez Bektas, helped design the Love Collection.

The actress said that she herself was eight or nine years old in the US when she helped her parents Eddie Gutierrez and Annabelle Rama sell kaldero or pots and pans, set the table and smile at guests. Ruffa recalled that she was paid US$5.

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GOTIANUNS PLANT 7,000 TREES IN ALABANG

One of the most successful yet low-profile business families in the Philippines is that of Filinvest Group/ East West Bank founders, the Gotianuns. Their matriarch Mercedes Tan-Gotianun always tells me, whenever I meet her socially, that she and her husband, business visionary Andrew L. Gotianun Sr., prefer not to be written about.

However, I really feel I should write about what the Gotianuns have done to their 244-hectare corporate/retail/IT/lifestyle project Filinvest City in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, such as planting 7,000 trees (including 3,000 date palm/canopy/rain trees), plus creating a 1.6-kilometer greenbelt.

For me, the many trees are more impressive than Filinvest City’s six hotels, like the new five-star Crimson Hotel, the expanding Festival Supermall, three hospitals, the Northgate Cyberzone or the new events place Filinvest Tent.

Aside from the greenery and holistic master plan for Filinvest City in Alabang, Filinvest president and CEO Josephine Gotianun-Yap said, “You can ask asthma doctors: the area has the lowest level of pollution in Metro Manila because the stretch of land between Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay is the shortest.”

Josephine Gotianun-Yap studied BS Business Management at the Ateneo de Manila University and has a master’s in Business Administration, major in Finance, from the University of Chicago. Her husband, top Filinvest executive Joseph Yap, earned his MBA from Harvard University.

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FIRST FILIPINA BOSSES FOR MICROSOFT PHILS. & IBM

Last Oct. 30, Microsoft Philippines, led by its first female managing director, Karrie Capellan-Ilagan, launched Windows 8 at the Genting Club of Resorts World Manila with a lot of celebrities and VIPs, from Makati Mayor JunJun Binay singer Christian Bautista, hosts KC Montero and Daphne Oseña-Paez, among others.

Ilagan was promoted to head Microsoft Philippines on Aug. 24. Coincidentally, IBM Philippines also this year appointed its first female boss in Mariels Almeda-Winhoffer.

In early September, I was invited to Microsoft’s regional headquarters in Singapore for a special preview of Microsoft 8 by American executives, but I was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement then because Bill Gates’ firm was planning a global launch in late October. Back then I was already impressed with the unique innovations of Windows 8.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said there are now “670 million Windows PCs just waiting to be upgraded to Windows 8,” while analysts are predicting sales of another 400 million new PCs in the next year. Ballmer expects these to be using Windows 8. Indeed, I agree that Windows has an exciting future; businesses may take some time to transition to it, but Windows is already so much a part of the corporate infrastructure it will do well.

Customers in the Philippines will be able to experience Windows 8 from a range of new device models such as the Lenovo Idea Pad Yoga, Samsung ATIV Tab, Acer Aconia W510, ASUS Vivo Tab, Dell XPS Duo 12, HP ENVY x2, and others.

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DAVAO DEL NORTE ELECTRIC CO-OP MEMBERS ASK FOR HELP

I recently received a letter plus a two-inch-thick folder of documents from member-consumers of the now troubled Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (DANECO), who said they are readers of The Philippine STAR there in southern Philippines and asking help to bring their plight to higher authorities for justice.

I verified with a respected Liberal Party politician in Mindanao and he told me that DANECO indeed has 125,000 households in the two provinces of Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte as cooperative members, and that “they really feel victimized. They had held a referendum and huge assemblies to assert their rights.”

In a letter signed by DANECO chairman, engineer Abenir O. Labja, he said, “DANECO and its member-consumers are currently experiencing a dilemma.”

The letter said, “DANECO was able to register, as stock cooperative, with the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and issued its Certificate of Registration on May 21, 2012. One of the significant changes of the issuance of Certificate of Registration to DANECO is that the National Electrification administration (NEA) lost its regulatory and supervisory powers over DANECO.”

The letter continued: “However, even after the issuance of the Certificate of Registration of DANECO, NEA continues to deliberately interfere with the affairs of DANECO, causing so much chaos to the management and operation of DANECO. As a result of which, DANECO is suffering serious damage and grave injury and the most affected of the situation is its member-consumers.”

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