Edited version
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Disclaimer: This wasn't written by the blogger but by someone else. The blogger just edited it as best as she could given the limited time given her.
Wilfredo “Willie” Fernandez and Bettina “Chingbee” Mangcucang were truly meant for each other. He first met her, a management graduate of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), when she was asked to pinch-hit for a job in a travel agency, one of several companies owned by him.
He recalls, “I just arrived from the States. While enjoying the luncheon meeting and briefing session with my executives, one of them told me about the presence of this attractive, smart temp. They suggested that I drop by the office so I could personally interview her. My curiosity was aroused. When I reached my office in Manila, I noticed this beautiful young lady at the front desk. She was answering phone calls. I knew it was she so I rushed towards her.”
Amused at his recollection of their first meeting, Chingbee says, “The office was buzzing that day. Everybody seemed to be in a frenzy, uneasy and pretending to be busy. The office was also unusually spic and span. I wondered what the commotion was all about. Later, I learned that the man who just walked in was the company owner. He was looking at me, but I looked away.”
Willie says, “While interviewing her, I found out that she was a rare combination of beauty and brains. At 21, she struck me as a very confident lady.”
Chingbee received the UST Rector’s Award when she graduated magna cum laude. She was also the valedictorian of her graduating class.
Willie, now a top public relations practitioner, confesses that he has “a soft spot for smart women so I immediately transferred her from the travel agency to my Makati head office. I saw that she was better than most of my managers, so I kept promoting her. ”
Chingbee’s quick ascendance in the company became the talk of the company until she became the object of envy and intrigues. Once, before he left for a business trip to the United States, he gave her a huge bag of chocolates, and said, “Bring this home and share it with your family.” Every day, he called her from the States.
When he returned several weeks after, he asked her to arrange dinner at his house in Ayala Alabang Village, Muntinlupa City, for some Japanese businessmen. She did as instructed.
Willie says, “I was impressed. She certainly knew how to arrange things tastefully at such short notice.”
The new girl in the company also created waves in his circle of friends. When a politician friend invited Willie to his birthday party, his friend asked Willie to bring her to the party.
Chingbee recalls, “I honestly told him I could not join because I had no formal clothes for that party. He matter-of-factly instructed the cashier to release funds for me. I ended up buying a ready-to-wear outfit.” She laughs at the memory.
When Willie inaugurated his Cebu office, he brought members of his staff, including Chingbee. Gradually, she became his constant companion in business meetings, even in his travels abroad.
On one of her birthdays in July, he sent her 12 dozens of roses in the color of peach. He had written on the card, “To my Superwoman, Happy Birthday!” But the sender’s name was not signed.
“I didn’t presume that the roses came from him,” she says. Chingbee later found out who the mysterious admirer was when Willie admitted that the bouquet came from him.
Not long after, he took her home to her pad in San Juan, Rizal, but during one of those regular trips, he took a detour and brought her to a jewelry store. He gave her a one-karat diamond ring.
She says, “By then, I understood what he was trying to say. I accepted the ring.”
The hardest part was dealing with her parents, Antonio and Florefida, who were conservative and strict Catholics as some folks from a province like Marinduque are. They were disappointed that their youngest daughter, on whom they pinned their high hopes, was seeing a much older, still married man. They knew that there was no divorce in the Philippines. After discussing the situation with them over long,lingering Japanese lunch, Willie made clear his honorable intention to marry their daughter after settling legal stumbling blocks.
Claudine, Willie and Chingbee’s daughter, was born in 1990. Five years after, his marriage annulment papers arrived. Not long after, on November 23, 1995, which fell on the American Thanksgiving Day, Willie and Chingbee exchanged marriage vows in a garden wedding in their home in Alabang. Mayor Toting Bunye solemnized the wedding. The principal sponsors were mostly friends. Claudine, then five years old, read the special prayer. Congressional Rep. Eduardo Zialcita was the designated wedding singer while his lovely wife, also named Claudine, sang “One Love” during the wedding march.
For her wedding, Chingbee wore an Inno Sotto gown in the color of milk. She had a bouquet of flowers in many colors from Rustan’s designated florist. El Comedor catered the intimate dinner reception for friends and family members. Heny Sison’s elegant cake served as the centerpiece.
After the wedding, the couple resumed working, he acting as the president and chief executive and she, assisting him by being his trouble shooter, representative at meetings with clients, brainstorming projects, among other duties.
They had their share of business problems. Willie says, “This was about the time of the Asian crisis. We had a cash flow problem, but that period was brief. What we did was consolidate our resources, sell some of our companies and streamline the operations of the flagship company to allow better financial control.”
In 1997, as friends approached him, seeking help with handling the media, the couple decided to put up their own public relations company. Today, that company, Concept, is known for its expertise in crisis management. Willie, the company head, consults with Chingbee on all facets of the job. “But it is he who has the final say,” she clarifies.
Willie says, before breaking up laughing, “She used to address me ‘Sir.’ Now, I call her 'Ma’am.'”
He says of this second marriage, “It is made in heaven. We are soul mates, and we are inseparable as the best of friends. We constantly communicate as we are together twenty-four hours a day. On the few times when we are apart, we miss each other so we burn the phone lines talking.”
From her parents’ marriage, Chingbee says, “I learned that once you are married, you are married.” Willie says of his own parents’ relationship, “I saw how happy my father, Liberato, was with my mother, Justiniana. That’s why I value my marriage to Chingbee. A man deserves to be happy.”
It is a unique marriage filled with lessons that they have learned over 20 years. She says, “If you love a person, you decide to be with that person. You fight for that decision. I was the youngest in our family, and my relationship with Willie from the start was not what they had expected. In the end, they learned to accept him because I stood by my decision. Willie proved himself by being a good husband to me and a good father to our child. To illustrate how our daughter immensely felt his love, on one occasion when her aunt advised her to look for a future partner better than her Dad, she answered quickly, ‘There can be no one better than my Dad.’” Claudine was only 10 then.
She continues, “In hindsight, I believe my father can actually understand my choice. When I was younger, I remember he always prodded me to befriend older people as I would learn more from their experiences. I guess I am a good listener. I chose Willie.”
Willie affirms that their marriage is a success because “we give and take. As we are partners in watching our company grow, we enjoy the fruits of our labor. What is the point of keeping our money? I believe in giving my child a good education to prepare her for life. I don’t believe in giving money. After all, I built my own fortune. My father did not leave me a single centavo. Instead, he inculcated in me the value of good education and hard work.”
Chingbee agrees, saying, “My husband and I are determined to send our daughter to the best school we can afford.”
Claudine has done well in her academics so far. She first went to the British School Manila before she moved to the US for college. She is now at Princeton University in New Jersey where her major is operations, research and financial engineering. A talented young lady, she also dabbles in graphic design.
Willie and Chingbee travel frequently and almost always in the company of Claudine.
Willie recalls, “When our daughter was growing up, we brought her to Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida every year. That was practically her playground. We also went a lot to Europe because we thought that would prepare her for her eventual studies in the United Kingdom, but as it turned out, she preferred to go to Princeton.”
Chingbee and Claudine are very, very close. The mother says, “She once called to ask permission to go on a date. I kept quiet while she cried, perhaps due to the uneasy silence on my side of the line. Then I emailed her a long letter, reminding her how we worked hard to be where she is now. No one can serve two masters at the same time. I wrote in bold letters that she is in the US primarily to study. For some reason, she did not pursue the subject and she never brought the intended date to any gathering in or out of school.”
Willie has learned from Chingbee, too. He says, “Values and traits like understanding, patience, compassion and treating people well. I used to be very arrogant until she came into my life. She provides the balance in my life, keeps my feet firmly planted on the ground, a good influence.”
On weekends, they stay home, relax and sleep. They love to laugh, share funny stories or make fun of themselves. Occasionally, she whips up some of her specialties for Willie from the most ordinary pasta with fresh red tomato sauce to the more sophisticated caviar pie or the more complicated roast turkey.
She says, “He eats anything while I try to stick to vegetables, seafood and brown rice. I drink a lot of fruit juice, too.” Her diet is what keeps her slim.
During Christmas, she prepares the holiday fare where she shows off her culinary skills. Since they were married on Thanksgiving Day, they always celebrate that occasion whose date changes every November, depending on what Thursday it falls on.
She continues, “We are homebodies/home buddies in the sense that we enjoy decorating our home together. We buy knick-knacks together and go to the grocery together.” They also like to listen to oldies’ music, watch movies and television, read the newspapers and root for the same basketball team, golfer or tennis player.
“We enjoy doing things together, even going to the salon,” he says. They go to church on Sundays, while “she goes alone on Fridays,” he adds. Chingbee is a devotee of the Santo NiƱo and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. When Claudine was a baby, she brought her to church on Fridays.
The couple like working out in the gym, but Willie spends more time playing golf. On the rare occasion when a non-golfer can tag along, Chingbee accompanies Willie for a round of golf.
They shop together for personal items, “I want him to see what I buy,” the wife says. “He happily carries all the shopping bags and packages for me.”
About her love for shopping, Willie says, “I used to travel light with barely any luggage. Today we always have excess baggage.”
He does his best to make her happy. Theirs is a relationship forged in fire, in a manner of speaking, and they have emerged triumphant. The fact that Willie is older than Chingbee by 18 years has proven to be a blessing and an advantage. He, in a way, plays the role of Pygmalion to her Galatea. He has shaped her into the sophisticated woman that she is today.
Chingbee looks back on her life, saying, “When I was young, I did not ask for anything specific. I just prayed for a better life. Now I see that Willie is the answer to my prayers.”
Willie feels very much the same way about her, saying, “I have always sought happiness. When Chingbee walked into my life, I realized that I had found what I was looking for.”
The greatest blessing that they share is their daughter Claudine whose academic success reflects the upbringing that they have given her. Willie and Chingbee look forward to many years more years of happiness together as they continue to pray that their dear Claudine will find her place in the sun someday.#
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