Bully for You // Ornusa Cadness in UNO’s October ‘09

Bully For You
an alternate editors note from RJ Ledesma

If the schoolyard adage “Knowledge is Power” holds any weight, then Washington “Wash” SyCip is the undisputed heavyweight of the schoolyard.

Wash—born in China, reared in the Philippines, and sworn in as an American citizen—has always been ever so familiar with the sweet science of success: He graduated college in two years at the age of seventeen with an accounting degree from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) summa cum laude. He began teaching at UST while also earning his master’s degree at his alma mater. Although Wash passed the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) exam at age 18, he was too young to receive his license to practice (You can be old enough to turn your liver into a punching bag, but not old enough to balance books, go figure) so he opted to pursue his doctorate in Columbia University.

While working on his dissertation, Wash’s studies were rudely interrupted by history: Pearl Harbor and Clark AirBase were bombed. When his father, Albino (yes, Albino) was arrested by the Japanese, he joined the Second Filipino Infantry Regimen of the U.S. Armed Forces. Although Wash wanted to fight on the front lines, he was told that he was overqualified for infantry work (read: he was too damn smart), so he was put to better use in the U.S. Armed Forces as a Japanese language code breaker out of a squadron stationed in India (Did I mention he had to learn Japanese first before taking on the intelligence work).

After the end of World War II, Wash returned to Manila and was enthused over the great opportunities that arose for the country’s reconstruction efforts. Bucking the trend of joining the big British-owned accounting firms of the time, Wash established his own firm. “Those firms were all Caucasians, and they had a fairly general policy that partners were Caucasians. From my viewpoint, I was as good as anyone and should not be subjected to discrimination in my own country.”

So, on the fifth floor of he Trade and Commerce Building in Binondo, Manila, Washington SyCip put up his shingle (“W. Sycip & Co.”) in March 1946, and the rest is business history.

Along with his longtime friend Alfredo M. Velayo, the firm was renamed SyCip, Gorres & Velayo (SGV). By building on Wash’s principles of emphasizing merit, training and integrity (which is something the current administration needs to take remedial classes in) SGV – later the SGV Group – became the country’s biggest and most prestigious accounting and consulting firm. And, under Wash’s leadership, SGV became Asia’s largest accounting firm – he was responsible for the firm’s expansion into Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. He was responsible for SGV’s partnership in 1985 with Arthur Andersen, one of the largest professional service organizations in the world (at that time).

SGV’s reputation as a firm has been so rock-solid in that managing partners and directors have been spirited away from the SGV to serve as technocrats over the past five administrations (and many of these technocrats have also left administrations that were not as rock-solid as they claimed to be). Meanwhile, Wash continues to be on a first name basis with the leaders of big business, including the Lopezes, Ayalas, Sys, Tys, del Rosarios, Gokongweis, Aboitizes, Gotianuns, Tans, Cosetengs, Sorianos, Cojuangcos, Kuoks, Delgados, Yuchenghocs Uytengsus, Yangs, Chiongs, Roxases and many others. And Wash is probably one of the few men who can bring together the country’s top political, economic, society and cultural elite on one table for a reasonably quiet dinner. And perhaps a good bottle of scotch.

Wash has been retired since 1996. But that doesn’t stop him from coming to office everyday at 6:30 am. Or from continuing to serve as the Honorary Consul of Austria to the Philippines. Or from being a fashion model for couture barong-makers Silk Cocoon. From still being. Or from being a big fan of the transvestite performers at Club Mwah. Really.

***

I blame pop culture for all of my conditioned fears. I blame the movie Jaws for my perennial fear of swimming by myself even in a kiddie-sized pool for fear that a 40-foot great white shark might just appear and turn me into lunch. I blame the move The Changeling for my fear of bathtubs because I might see a dead boy floating inside the tub. But for my biggest fear—the fear of sleeping by myself with the lights closed—is because of Freddie Aguilar.

When I was about four years old, I remember watching a (sort of) music video of Freddie Aguilar’s song Anak. The music video featured the drawing of a giant eating little boys. To my 4-year old mind, this image was terror epitomized, and I could not sleep with lights closed because the image of that toddler-eating giant would replay itself in my mind’s eye. I have not had a good night’s sleep for the past 31 years. Thank God for night-lights and (now) my wife.

Unfortunately, no amount of lighting or spooning can make me any less frightened reading the stories in Yvette Tan’s first collection of short fiction, Waking The Dead. The award-winning fictionist was one of the names we named in our ’52 Women On Top’ list in our June issue. Her recently released book, which features a fair amount of monsters (both mythical and the all too real), certainly marks her out as one of the dark stars of Philippine literature. For that reason we’ve asked her to guest-edit our October issue—only fitting given that we celebrate the pagan heresies of Halloween this month. Who better guide to the season than a lovely and talented witch like Tan? (Anybody who reads her prose knows there’s some black magic at work there; and, not very long ago, at least one of the stories in her book would’ve easily gotten figuratively “burned at the stake” if not realistically incarcerated.)

So, set aside your Necronomicons for a while, and peruse UNO’s October issue. Turn up the lights then, don’t be selfish. You want those around you—even in your seemingly empty room—to see the pictures properly.

UR FOC!!! 1,000 Facebook friends = a special UNO treat!

RJ Ledesma, former child star and UNO Editor in Chief has something special for our male readers if we get our Facebook profile to exceed 1,000 fans. Clem Castro and Sarah Gaugler seem to agree.

This is the first in a series of UNO’s Really Funky Online Content (aka UR FOC!!!)

Add us up at facebook.com/unomagazine!

An Evening with our Contributors and Internet Friends

If you could strip a magazine naked, spread it wide open and linger onto the sensual aroma of its paper stock, you’d probably, at one point, realize that it really takes a whole bunch of crazy people (like us) to revamp a magazine — a men’s magazine specifically in this highly competitive and discerning market.

So apart from our usual clubbing events, we decided to hold a sort of meet and greet to two important sets of people — our panel of excellent contributors who have smeared the magazine with their various talents. Together with the editorial team, they make up the lifeblood of UNO.

Also as important are our friends from the Internet community — bloggers who have helped spread the word about UNO’s revamp, attended our events, and even participate in our community reviews for some of our articles.

We overloaded with Krispy Kreme donuts and coffee. As an added treat, Arnold Arre treated us to a special screening of his first short film, Chapter One.

Barrage of photos to follow:

The photos are also up on our Facebook page and Multiply.

UNO Does Dos: Relaunch Photos

Complete set of photos with beautiful people can be found in our Photo Gallery I, Gallery II, Gallery III, and Gallery IV.

The newly reformatted UNO Men’s Magazine was recently launched in an exclusive black tie affair at the upscale Mercedes-Benz showroom in Bonifacio Global City last June.

The magazine’s new Editor-in-chief RJ Ledesma dubbed UNO Magazine Version 2.0 as “The ultimate in men’s lifestyle magazines.” In front of a capacity crowd at the Mercedes-Benz showroom, RJ shared what prompted his new editorial team to reshape the five-year old publication. “We think that there is an opportunity to provide a magazine that the Filipino male can graduate to from the racier men’s magazines. So think of UNO Magazine as dispatches for the discerning man.”
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UNO Relaunch Photos Part IV

Here are links to Part I, Part II and Part III of the photo set.

UNO Relaunch Photos Part II

For the first part of the gallery, click here.

Singular Sensation

It began with the Japanese Monster Sex Show.

This was what a rather harmless looking baby-faced man with a perennial scowl, a slight paunch and a predilection to wearing rock music t-shirts two sizes too large for his baby damulag body recommended, nay, demanded that I use as the title of the monthly music column that he would write for me in my previous stint as an Editor-in-chief of a now defunct men’s magazine (Although I still fail to see what the title of his column had to do with music unless the squeals of three hundred foot tall monsters in the throes of love sounded like heavy metal).
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Behind the B&W Curtain

Had the trusty LX3 during our editorial meeting — some behind the scene shots with myself, Shawn, Luis, Ramon, Denise, France, Juan, RJ and Butch.

Dinner was Magoo’s. Fantastic.

P.S. — If you look closely, there’s a small easter egg somewhere