The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Jesse C. Ong
Proudly staring at the enormous establishments he built over the years on US soil, 69-year-old Orlando Cruz is still in disbelief that the once seemingly impossible dream of fashioning a lucrative construction business in the “land of milk and honey” has turned into huge reality.
From his humble beginnings as a carabao-riding young boy tilling farmlands in his native Lubao town in the province of Pampanga many years ago, Lando could only reminisce fondly how his serious resolve to live a comfortable life someday inspired him to work hard to achieve it.
“Sabi ko sarili ko noon, hindi ako mananatili lang sa probinsya at mamumuhay lang nang pangkaraniwan gaya ng iba naming mga kababayan. Noon pa man, hapakataas ko nang mangarap at ipinangako kong magsisikap at magpapayaman balang araw (I told my self before that I wouldn’t just stay in the province and live a simple life like some of our townmates. Even then, I already had lofty dreams and I promised myself to work hard and be rich someday),” he narrated.
Even if food was always on their family’s dining table, life had been very difficult for the young Lando that he was not able to fully enjoy his childhood. He had to work as a farm helper for a relative to support his way through high school. And practically with nothing but his burning desire to escape poverty, Lando endured a measly income from serving as truck helper to be able to take up a civil engineering course in college.
During the early 80s, he was involved in the construction of various housing projects initiated by then First Lady Imelda Marcos, who headed the Ministry of Human Settlements. But while he enjoyed a regular income with his employment under the Marcos administration, Lando’s childhood dream of living a life of opulence with his family never left him.
“Kumikita man ako nang sapat noon sa pagtatrabaho sa ilang proyekto ng administrasyong Marcos, parang may kulang pa rin at hindi ako kuntento. Kasi nga gusto ko talagang yumaman at ayaw kong maranasan ng sarili kong pamilya ang hirap na pinagdaanan ko (I may be earning enough then by being involved in several projects of the Marcos administration, but I still wanted to earn more and was not contented with what I was receiving. It was because I really wanted to become rich and didn’t want my own family to experience the difficulties I went through), said the father of three.
When an opportunity to migrate to US presented itself in 1993, Lando packed his bags and took chances in starting afresh in the country that would later become “the promised land” in the attainment of his dreams.
Earning decent income, however, had not been easy for Lando during the first few years of his stay in the US, and he had to do manual labor with his father Licario for quite some time, building huge fences for several clients.
When he had made enough from doing small construction jobs and words got around about his excellent works, bigger clients came in droves and before he knew it, Lando has been erecting buildings under his own firm in San Diego, California named OMC Construction.
Over the years, the fortune he built around his highly successful construction business in the US enabled Lando to purchase a 1,000-square meter property in Bataan and a total of 11 vehicles – luxuries he could only dream about given the difficult life he lived when he was a child.
“Sa sobrang hirap ng buhay na naranasan ko noon, napakasarap sa pakiramdam na nakamit ko ang kaginhawaan na pinapangarap ko lang noon sa pamamagitan ng ibayong sipag at tiyaga at higit sa lahat, pananalig sa Diyos. Walang pangarap na mahirap abutin kung hindi tayo susuko at patuloy na magsisikap (With the extreme poverty that I experienced, it feels great that I was able to attain the comforts that I could only dream of through hard work and most of all, belief in God. No dream is unreachable if we don’t give up and continuously persevere), he concluded.