Ex-negotiator now a busy entrepreneur
By Margie Quimpo-Espino
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:40:00 11/23/2008
Filed Under: People, Economy and Business and Finance
MANILA, Philippines—To say that he is multifaceted may be an understatement.
Some eyebrows still tend to go up when his name crops up. Blame it partly on his close association with Joseph Estrada, the only Philippine president convicted of plunder, whom he practically grew up with.
But this was largely because of a suspicion spread by some that he and Estrada pocketed $15 million belonging to Libya, one of the most feared governments in the world—a country that does not allow a wrong done to it go unnoticed.
That claim angered him so much he wrote a book about the whole event.
But that experience catapulted him from a virtual unknown to one with a 90-percent awareness rating nationwide.
But that was years ago. These days Robert Nabing Aventajado is busy being an entrepreneur.
His name has been in the sports pages because he is with the group of businessman Art Macapagal, which seeks to change the current leadership of the Philippine Olympic Committee. Aventajado is probably the longest reigning National Sports Association president, having been head of the Philippine Tae Kwon Do Association for over two decades. The sport has become one of the biggest in the country.
Recently, his name landed on the business pages because of his involvement in a huge project of Korean firm Heung-A in Subic—the development of a $1-billion resort community that will involve the group of high profile businessman Donald Trump.
Discipline, respect for authority
He’s a busy man, but when he meets with you, he gives you the time you need. At a recent breakfast interview, he spent three hours with SundayBiz talking about his life as Presidential Adviser on Flagship Enterprises during the Estrada administration and his beginnings.
He shared anecdotes about Estrada—something he plans to write about in a book—and talked candidly about his life and passions. He was the architect of a lot of Estrada’s moves, but he says he left when he felt he was no longer being listened to.
Aventajado is the son of a self-made man—a carpenter who eventually put up his own construction firm. His father then became a councilor when Joseph Estrada was mayor of San Juan. That was when his friendship with Estrada started.
Aventajado was influenced by two things when he was growing up—his father and the Boy Scout movement.
From his father he learned discipline.
“My father was a disciplined man. He had no vice.”
From being a Boy Scout, he learned “respect for authority.”
He was supposed to be with the group of boy scouts who were killed in a plane crash in 1963 while they were on their way to a jamboree in Greece, he adds.
At the last minute, his mother told him not to go and he complied, he recalls.
It was no surprise then that he wanted to be a soldier. He had already laid the groundwork by becoming the corps commander of the Citizens Army Training unit of the Far Eastern University High School. That was to be his stepping stone to the Philippine Military Academy.
Answered prayer
To attain his goal, he prayed that he be given someone who was good in Math and was a good student to help him through military school.
His prayer was answered, but not in the way he expected.
He was a year shy of the acceptable age of 17 to qualify for the PMA so he took the University of the Philippines entrance test and took up Engineering, as his father wished.
It was then he met Teresita A. Santos, a BS Math student in UP who became his wife of 37 years.
But he was not happy in Engineering, so he transferred to the UP School of Economics. He thrived and got high grades.
Later, he realized that his fate was to become an entrepreneur, not a general. And the path he took from one business to another was a series of serendipitous events.
After graduating with a degree in economics, he took up his MBA in UP. That was in 1971, the height of the First Quarter Storm, with the university at the center of it all. He quit his studies and later, decided to marry Teresita, his college girlfriend.
It is true that many entrepreneurs become successful when they pursue their passion—an arena that interests them and from where they can profit.
For the 57-year-old, it was a desire to save money that led him to the real world of economics.
“I had a car in college that burned. The dashboard short-circuited and it would have cost a lot of money so I had it repaired at my house.”
That literally started a garage business.
One of his clients happened to be a mini bus operator who eventually sold his buses to the young Robert.
With a small transport business, he forayed into tire importation and got the distributorship of Yokohama tires.
Expansion
Robert wanted to expand his bus operations, to open a bus franchise to Bicol, so he surveyed the place taking the South Road which was not yet paved. It was a rough ride of over 10 hours on unpaved roads.
Car rallyist Dante Silverio (who brought Toyota to the Philippines) was a client for his Yokohama tires. He invited Robert to a car rally from Manila to Davao, shortly after his Bicol trip.
With business in mind (promoting Yokohama tires) and fresh from the experience of driving through the South Road, Robert joined the rally.
That changed his life. He was bitten by the racing bug.
“I developed tenacity. Sometimes it would take two to three nights to drive 100 kilometers. It was man against man, man against nature.”
He does not fail to acknowledge that it was wife Teresita who made his passion possible.
“She was my kitchen cabinet. She would stay in a tent with a generator. All of my three sons would be with us. My eldest son would be taking my time, the two younger ones would be sleeping. It was family thing for us.”
He became a national champion rally driver from 1983 to 1986, and even trained under the Finnish world rally champion driver Penti Airikala.
His expensive passion was supported by his business venture of supplying vehicle license plates for the Land Transportation Office from 1981 to 1987.
Serendipity
How that happened was again serendipity. The arena for the tire business changed, and he could no longer import the tires. But his Japanese supplier liked him and gave him exclusive distributorship of a line of reflectorized stickers.
He did not know what to do with it until somebody told him it could be used for license plates. He decided to bid for the plates.
According to Robert, the other bidders had already talked among themselves to clinch the contract for the plates. They needed Robert’s bid to legitimize the process.
He was able to convince the group to make it into a two-pronged fight—them against 3M Phils., then the largest supplier of stickers in the country.
He won the bid. The following day, newspapers reported that he allegedly rigged the bidding. That, he says, was his first brush with media. But he says he won fairly, so, for the next six years, he was supplying the stickers for the license plates and, later on, he went on to supply the traffic signs.
By this time, he had given up the transport and real estate business, which he started in the 1970s.
Robert was also able to indulge in another passion—tae kwon do. A body building buff in his late 20s, Robert had a friend who introduced him to Sung Chon Hong, the man who popularized tae kwon do in the Philippines.
Robert got hooked, and Hong encouraged him to go all the way until he clinched a black belt. Hong wanted Robert to take care of the Tae Kwon Do Association, which was then in its infancy.
Both his passions—racing and tae kwon do—contributed a lot to the other businesses he went into and, in particular, to the biggest role he had to play in his life: In 2000, he was the country’s representative tasked to negotiate the release of 10 Europeans, nine Malaysians and two Filipinos who were abducted by the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf from the Sipadan dive resort in Malaysia and brought to Philippine shores.
140 days
It took him 140 days to secure the release of the hostages. But instead of a thank you, what he got from some of the hostages were accusing fingers that he pocketed the ransom money.
But critics had no proof to back their claims. Also, the representative of the Libyan government, which eventually paid the ransom, had his eyes on the cash every step of the way.
That story was recounted in his book, 140 Days of Terror.
Robert became chief negotiator because he had Estrada’s trust, having been appointed chair of the Presidential Committee on Flagship Programs and Projects, also known as the Flagship committee. He was tasked to oversee the implementation of around 288 projects worth several billions of pesos nationwide.
In 1987 he was asked by Estrada to run for mayor of San Juan. But when the elections were postponed for 1988, he brought his family to the United States for a vacation.
Teresita did not want him to run, so they stayed on in the United States for four years.
In the East Coast where they stayed, Robert started a business selling packaging machines made by his Japanese supplier Kanematsu. But that business took a long time to turn in a profit. So he went into another business that would provide for their daily needs.
He then started selling antique furniture from Europe. The high-end furnishing he sold were used by residents of South and East Hampton, homes of the rich and famous. His most famous client was Barbra Streisand. Because of their discreet dealings, her identity was hidden under the codename Barwood.
But Estrada could not be without his pal, and he called for Aventajado in 1992 when he decided to run for president. He put Robert in charge of the Chinese funders, but Robert knew they were being taken for a ride and no money was forthcoming.
That was when Estrada decided to run for vice president and won.
Aventajado says he avoided going into business when Estrada was vice president. He says that although he was given an allowance, Aventajado relied largely on his savings.
He thought of running for the Senate and worked hard to ensure that his name would not be tainted—but the Sipadan incident marred his plans.
Today, he has come full circle going back to one of his first businesses—real estate, with the $1-billion Subic Neocove Corp. project.
He says that, ironically, it was a failed venture that pointed him to this direction—he was building a columbarium on Araneta Avenue but his partners decided not to pursue the project, so Robert, on the brink of losing the mortgage of the property, sold it to former Metro Pacific Corp. president Ric Pascua. Robert now owns 15 percent of the Ascension Columbarium.
On top of all his involvement, Robert has made sure one activity will not be affected—his Marriage Encounter movement commitments. Yes, he was also criticized here, accused of using it for political motives.
But Robert simply said, “If I’m going to use this for politics, should I just not choose a big group I will spend my time in?”
He does not get angry because he says his father always told him, “Look at people’s good side and be trusting.”
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