Email: alecklim01a@yahoo.com

It is no wonder he died so peacefully, so quietly, without pain or sickness, having lived his life in full service to humanity, and to God, his Master.

Yesterday, with deep sadness in our hearts, we laid to his final rest a man, who for nearly a century, lived with us and walked with us and became a symbol of simplicity and humility and honest prosperity in the annals of Bohol’s history.

Antonio Ong Guat, the man who started the Bohol Quality (BQ) store (now a prominent Mall) when Tagbilaran was yet an insignificant dot on the Philippine map, returned to his Creator last week. He was 94 and he had lived his life so well, so fruitfully that his genius and legacy will always be a landmark of business success in our province.

Manong, as I fondly called him, was unmistakably a man worthy of our emulation. His business empire started from a very humble beginning. Who could have thought that the once small Bohol Quality Store, which used to sell mainly school supplies more than fifty years ago, is now a giant mall situated at the very heart of the City?

The birth of BQ was just the beginning of the man’s success story. Today, OG Holdings is behind many other successful business ventures, most notably the Metro Centre Hotel and the Panglao Island Nature Resort.

Manong’s story is a testament to man’s resilience to rise from the bottom. He arrived here in Bohol before the Second World War without a definitive roadmap that could unlock the province’s undiscovered potentials. But this ordinary man from China yet with extraordinary determination to rise from poverty was not intimidated by a plethora of life’s uncertainties welcoming his arrival on Bohol.

Bohol then was an unlikely place to start a retail business. But Manong was a visionary. He saw Bohol’s untapped potentials at a time when the province was still practically isolated from the rest of the Philippine provinces, at a time when the economic activity of the province was limited to traditional agriculture.

Despite lacking formal education, Manong managed to run his business venture as if he were endowed with an MBA wisdom. It simply shows that even if a person does not have a formal schooling, success is not an unreachable star if he would work hard and live a modest life and trust God in all endeavors.

Of course, the main ingredient of any success story is man’s unyielding faith in God. For without the blessings of the Almighty God, it is impossible to see the completeness of our dreams and aspirations.

Manong was a man of faith. In the legal battles that his corporation had intermittently fought, in the allegations hurled by those who were perhaps envious of his success, Manong was never a vindictive man and at all times he maintained his utmost humility in dealing with his legal problems not of his own making.

Not that Manong happened to befriend a good lawyer who, like him, shares the same belief that the best way to face difficulties is to exercise the virtue of humility and calmness of mind, the business patriarch of the province who had made a great impact on the life of his family’s loyal lawyer, was a quiet man, a friend to many, particularly to his employees, and to many whom he had extended help.

Manong had this habit of secretly making donations to charitable and religious institutions but he was careful not to let others become aware of his kindnesses.

At his passing, and in looking at his invaluable contribution to the lives of many Boholanos, Manong, in more ways than one, has helped much in transforming a sluggish province into a vibrant hub of investments in the Philippines today.

As God has blessed him much, Manong has also become a source of blessings to many.

It is no wonder he died so peacefully, so quietly, without pain or sickness, having lived his life in full service to humanity, and to God, his Master.

Reflecting on the man’s illustrious life, I am humbled by the fact that he left this world with successors who are equally gifted with business acumen, and have the same infusion of humility and modesty in their veins.

Fred Ong, one of Manong’s children, has answered the call of immortalizing the legacy of his father.

In the end, I’d like to quote one author who pens: “I maybe here for a short while, gone tomorrow into oblivion or until the days come to take me away. But, in whatever part you play, be remembered as part of a legacy...of sharing dreams and changing humanity for the better. It's that legacy that never dies.”

Manong’s legacy will never die.