MANILA, Philippines - Three businessmen friends, Jimmy Laya (company independent director), Mar Lao (handicraft exporter), and Bert Bravo (office equipment distributor), launched a book on their private collections titled Hidden Treasures, Simple Pleasures.
The authors’ interests include a wide range of objects from coins to paintings to sports cars, from excavated porcelain to travel souvenirs, from a golf cap autographed by Tiger Woods to a full-fledged golf course in Dumaguete.
Speaking for the authors, Laya said the book features “objects we hold dear and the simple pleasures we take in them. These are objects that for some reason, we like — mementos of people who loved us, the people we loved, the heroes that we worshipped. Souvenirs of distant places, works brought from across the seven seas. Reminders of happy times. Things that we thought as little boys to be unattainable, impossible dreams.”
Held at the Manila Polo Club, the launch was attended the authors’ friends from the business circle, the diplomatic corps, and Manila’s social whirl.
Present were Spanish Ambassador Luis Arias Romero, Italian Ambassador Rubens Anna Fedele, Czech Ambassador Jaroslav Ludva, and former German Ambassador and Mrs. Herbert Jess, and former First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos, who is still recovering from a recent eye operation.
They were joined by art enthusiasts Senator Manny Villar and Congresswoman Cynthia Villar, Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Fe Barin, National Historical Institute chairman Ambeth Ocampo, Intramuros Administration head Ana Maria Harper, and Cultural Center of the Philippines president Nestor Jardin.
Copies of the book were formally presented to National Library director Prudenciana Cruz and CCP president Nestor Jardin.
Proceeds of the launch went to ABS-CBN Foundation Bantay Bata, Bais Farm School, Dual Tech Training Center Foundation, Heart Center Foundation, and Marinducare, Inc.