The Palaweña’s ‘tubig’ export business

SHI says one must work hard, take some insults sometimes.

Palawan used to be known as a dumping ground for lepers (Culion) and prisoners (Iwahig). Throughout the ’50s, nothing much changed.

Then, only a single propeller Fokker plane visited the capital town. In the ’70s, things began to change. Puerto Princesa, the capital, became a city, and toward the new millennium, an envy to many. Palawan wakes up every day to the sound of progress. Today, almost 20 Airbus flights from Manila fly back and forth to the province.

Palawan’s rich flora and fauna, abundant marine life, stunning white beaches, incredible geographical formations and vast hectares of oil fields under its seabed are magnets to businessmen and tourists alike.

El Nido

In this paradise by the bay, hidden among limestone cliffs  gatherers of “white gold,” most commonly known as swiftlet’s nests (hardened saliva of the bird), highly prized by the Chinese as a delicacy and aphrodisiac.

Traders from Manila and Hong Kong frequent the place for the bounty local foragers collect from mountains jotting out straight from the sea. Gatherers earn quite a sum. The demand would always outweigh the supply and the burgeoning business made enterprising families.

From one of these families emerged a shy little girl who dreamt of being successful some day and came back exactly what she wanted to be.

She is Emilie Palanca Pe-Shi, great granddaughter of Don Juan Palanca Pe Tuan of Coron, Palawan.

“I always dreamt of becoming a very successful business woman,” Shi says from an overseas chat with Global Pinoy. She was able to travel the world, own a real estate chain abroad, given the honor to become an honorary consul general for the Philippines in New Zealand, and finally, exporter of premium bottled water to several countries.

Beginnings

She was born in El Nido and moved to Puerto Princesa where she attended elementary and high school at Holy Trinity College (now a university).  “I needed to be in the city so I packed my bags, took up entrance exams and went to a business school.”

Shi enrolled in the University of the East and majored in finance, marketing and sales.

Focus

“If I can focus on what I really wanted, I knew I would make it, she says. While on her senior year in college, Shi was taken in as an intern at White House Automotive Supply, then Manila’s largest importer of auto parts from Japan and the US. While  attending night school to finish college, she took charge of the import department of the company.

Being active in university activities gave her rewards and just like what she wanted after graduation, her entrepreneurial spirit gave her passport to bigger things. Shi joined a travel agency—Travel and Tours—and stayed for over three years, and was given the privilege of flying to several cities in Europe, US and most of Asia.

The travel business became Shi’s bread and butter, hitting the jackpot soon enough and bagging the biggest travel account her company ever handled—a Chicago tour group for which she organized tours in Manila and other Philippine cities.

“We did not have much competition back in the ’60s and ’70s,” Shi recollects. “Customers were very loyal and they left everything to us to arrange their itinerary and hotel accommodations. I truly enjoyed that part of my career, including my stint with the Philippine Travel Bureau,” she says.

Honorary consul general

She left the country in 1969 right after getting married to a Hong Kong Chinese citizen who studied dentistry at the University of the Philippines. The couple settled in Hong Kong, her husband opened a clinic to practice dentistry while she worked for a Japanese government entity.

About to give birth to her first child, Shi migrated to New Zealand initially doing property business, buying land and developing them. In a span of 10 years until 2007, she has built more than 750 homes with single housing and townhouses in Albany, worth over $100 million in development.

A year after, Ambassador Bienvenido Tejano invited her to be the Philippine honorary consul general in New Zealand.

As the Filipino population grew to almost 50,000, Shi took office in July 2008 in Auckland.

On her first year as consul general, Shi says: “It was like going back to school. It was hard for me to understand all the ropes of the business. I was lucky the embassy had a lot of attachés I could call on to ask for help. The full diplomatic manual was so thick, I fell asleep reading it chapter by chapter.”

“My time was not enough. I devoted four hours of consular time in the morning, the rest of the afternoon, for my own private business,” she recalls.

Love for country

The reason why Shi accepted the job as an honorary consul was “my love for the country and the Filipino people,” she says. It was not an easy job, you have to be a people person or you will lose your patience when people start complaining about consular service.”

The voluntary job for Shi was a sacrifice. “Not many people know we do not receive salaries. I accepted it so that the government can start a consular office for Filipinos who do not need to spend a large sum of money to go and fly to Wellington to get a visa, passport, etc. Today, I believe we have simplified a lot of things.”

What has she observed about Filipinos living in New Zealand? “Filipinos in NZ are quite regional and clannish, very much family-oriented. During my five-year term, I have not heard of bad press about Filipinos. I received a lot of commendations for our nurses, IT engineers, architects, doctors and dentists. The most number of comments she got: “Filipinos are hardworking, and they took care of their families.”

After her tenure, Shi ventured on an ambitious water production business. She tried making the best water in the whole of Antartica available in bottles. After several months and many name studies after, Shih’s KVella brand was born and got the Ministy of Primary Industries’ approval.

KVella

Shi’s KVella premium bottled water is sourced from the Southern Alps of New Zealand, pure water with essential minerals from vapors of ice shelves and drawn from natural artesian system.

The word “KVella” means fantastic in Italian, but actually an acronym of two of her companies joined together (Kesco/Vision) with an added nice sounding word: Ella. The trademark is registered in the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the United States.

She currently ships to four countries and will soon add India and France to the growing list. “We are hoping that we should be able to export more as our prices become very competitive,” she says.

Asked what advice she would give to her kababayan who wish to live in New Zealand or anywhere in the world, Shi says: “Prepare yourself, and ask yourself this question with sincerity: “Will this be better for my country and my family? Will I be able to pursue all my dreams? Shi says one must work hard, take some insults sometimes. Though language could be a problem to some, it could all be overcome. “If you have confidence, you’ll be able to better yourself.”

Lastly, Shih says the government has helped many Filipinos in New Zealand, allowing them to enter with very little money. “Filipino immigrants could apply for housing and job opportunities are plenty. There are so much work at the moment but our kababayan must have qualifications and should be willing to learn,” she says.