Operation Big Brother Foundation Inc

 

The Betan Superman

by Mon Mamaril'97

[Special thanks to the contributors: Lloyd Dizon, Jig Reyes, Jason Justo,

 Jay Hidalgo (Raffy's wife), Ron Justo, Rolly Reyes, Pete Danao, Tatang Vergara]
 

 

I don’t want to hear that Beta Sigma died in your generation.” Those were the first words I heard from Rafael Robert C. Hidalgo some 16 years ago, when our batch was serving as neophytes in the UP Beta Sigma Fraternity. Then would come a number of visits from the outspoken master, each giving us a better understanding of the Fraternity and a growing admiration for the man whom we would soon call brother.

Who is he? Raffy Hidalgo is a product of UP Elem and UP High and would later take up BS Biology in UP Diliman. He joined the UP Beta Sigma in 1986, a time when a lot of Brods were leaving the campus because of graduation and what not. This, together with several skirmishes with other groups eventually took a toll on our numbers. Thus in 1987, together with Brod Manny Casaclang, they engineered the revival and he became GP a year after. In a few years, that group of seven grew to almost a hundred Beta Sigman residents in the early 90s!  In his words, “we gave so much of our lives to the cause.” They went to extremes just to make sure that Beta Sigma will continue to thrive. Because of this, Raffy spent a good 10 years in the University serving the Fraternity day in and day out before starting his professional career. Despite having several important positions in the corporate world, Raffy continued to support Beta Sigma, specially the residents. He is the founding Chairman and President of the Operation Big Brother Foundation (OBBF), which we founded in 2002, and is still the incumbent Chairman. He also served under Brod Dan Lachica in the heydays of the Metro (David Wico) chapter and was also part of the JC SOMA revival batch that trained under Brod Johnny Chiuten. 

Raffy has worked in senior positions in operations and sales in several industries, including export, pharmaceuticals, publishing and education.  He also took his Master in Management Degree from the Asian Institute of Management (MM Class of ’99). In the same year, he joined the SteelAsia Manufacturing Corporation (SAMC), the biggest manufacturer of concrete reinforcing steel bars or rebar consumed by the Philippine construction industry. SteelAsia is the single biggest international buyer of steel billet (raw materials) around USD 50 million a month, in the Asian region and certainly one of the biggest in the world. He joined the company as a Management Trainee and later had responsibility over several functions within the group such as Corporate Communications, Sales and Marketing, Information Technology and Human Resources. He also headed the Sales Department of the Eastern Steel Fabricators Philippines, an offsite fabricator of rebar, for one year. The last position he had prior to this new appointment was Vice President of Corporate Development for SAMC and its affiliates, reporting to the Office of the President.

Last August 31 in Mets Bar and Grill Makati, a fellowship night was held in celebration of Raffy’s appointment as the new Chief Operating Officer of the SteelAsia Manufacturing Corporation (SAMC) and its affiliate groups New Carcar Manufacturing, Inc (NCMI), HighStreet SPVAMC, Inc. (HS), and Plaridel Steel, Inc. (PS). Being at the helm of SAMC’s operations, our Brod now also plays a key role in national development, as their company provides more than 80% of the steel bar requirements for land, air, sea, power, and communications infrastructure and is the preferred supplier of the largest contractors and property developers in the Philippines. He will also be spearheading the aggressive USD 270 million expansion project in Davao, Bulacan and Cebu, which will nearly triple their current manufacturing capacity.

We wish Raffy more success in this new role. May his leadership further push SteelAsia’s rank in the list of the Philippine’s biggest companies, which today is in the Top 25-30 vicinity. May his tribe increase and may he continue to inspire both residents and alumni to become great Beta Sigmans in the future. Cheers to Raffy, he’s so good!!!

 

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Dorbs,

Our very own BROD RAFAEL "RAFFY" HIDALGO was recently promoted as COO of SteelAsia Manufacturing Corporation, the country's largest steel producer. He is the chairman emeritus of OBBF, our young professionals of good and noble men who are stakeholders in our aspirations to play an major role in nation building.

 

The OBBF led by Brods Philip Marfil and Nonoy Tagaro organized a surprise "We Are Proud of Raffy" fellowship at The METS Bar in Makati City.

 

Congrats to Brod Paeng - UPBSFI Central's Man of Steel!

Kindly browse:

(to download album, click the downward arrow at the extreme right corner that reveals options, then select download album)

(Brods Mon Mamaril and Ron Justo will write the full story)

BACKGROUNDER:
SteelAsia supplies rebar to around 70% of the Philippines' infrastructure, high-rise, commercial mall, school, factory and power plant construction. The responsibility entails ensuring that it's rebar of the highest quality and are always available. SteelAsia makes determined effort to bring down its cost to help lower the cost of construction and support economic development. SteelAsia innovates to add value to its product, increase delivery speed and reliability, and make the buying of rebar easier for its customers.

Please see corporate profile of SteelAsia and its set of officers:

 

SteelAsia is among the TOP TEN IMPORT TAXPAYERS OFTHE PHILIPPINES
01. Petron Corp
02. Toyota Motors
03. Nestle Philippines
04. Tanduay Distillers, Inc.
05. Procter & Gamble
06. Steel Asia Manufacturing Corp.
07. Heindridge Trading Corp.
08. Samsung Electronics Philippines
09. Globe Telecom, Inc.
10. Hewlett-Packard Philippines

RGR66, 8-31-13


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Thank you brods for all the well wishes and congratulations.

Thanks also to Philip81 and Nonoy77 for organizing the party and to El Presidente Rolly66 for posting the pictures taking time out of his busy schedule to join the loud and annoying group of young (but starting to age) brods from the 80s, 90s, 00s, whom I also thank for being there - loud and annoying as ever. Special mention to Greg Palis 71, and to Nilo Punzalan73 who crooned and made the Sigma Deltans present swoon.

By the way the reason why there were Sigma Deltans there was because my wife (she is the tall one in black in Rolly's pics) helped organize the get-together. Her guests, batch 86 of Sigma Delta were celebrating 27 yrs in the sorority and her own recent promotion as Office of the Ombudsman Director of Division 5 at the Sandiganbayan.

Cheers
Raffy86, 9-01-13

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Cheers to Raffy, he's so good, he's so good!!

 

 

 

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