As the Ateneo de Naga HS Class 62 celebrates its 50th graduation anniversary, it is but fitting that our class pays tribute to one member who turned out to be our brightest star and one of the schools most outstanding and most accomplished alumni.

Uldarico V. Brizuela is better known by his nickname Rico.

Rico is one Atenean who has brought honor, glory and goodwill to his alma mater. He joins a long list of distinguished alumni who had done the same thingthe late Raul S. Roco perhaps the most notable of them all, owing to his 2004 run for the Philippine presidency; as well as Sandiganbayan Chief Justice Francis Garchitorena; former Comelec chair Ramon Felipe Jr.; former PCGG chair Ramon Diaz; Camarines Sur Gov. Lray Villafuerte; constitutionalist Joaquin Bernas, SJ; and the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo.

These people had one thing in common. They were all involved in politics and public service.

But Rico is of a different mold. He feels he can contribute more to society by being a productive, caring and law-abiding private citizen, far from the temptations of graft and corruption, which is the bane of most politicians.

Humble beginnings

From humble beginnings in his hometown, Pili, Camarines Sur, he went to high school in Naga City and college at the Mapua Institute of Technology. Through sheer determination and hard work, he found entrepreneurial success in the business of cargo international airfreight forwarding, as chair of Airlift Asia Inc. (AAI). He also became one of the biggest benefactors of Ateneo de Naga.

Even before Rico institutionalized his philanthropy in 2002 by establishing his R.V. Brizuela Foundation Inc., and registering it as a non-stock, nonprofit corporation with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he had already manifested and demonstrated his generosity to his AAI management team and employees by providing them a very competitive salary structure, a fair and objective employee performance appraisal system, and mid-year and Christmas bonuses equivalent to one months salary every time AAI hit its targets and improved the bottom line.

He was also the catalyst behind the formation of an AAI Employee Multi-Purpose Cooperative, because he believed that some of the needs of AAI employees could be met through this type of organization.

And he opened a scholarship program at the Ateneo de Naga for indigent but deserving high school students, as a way of giving back to the school for the valuable education he received from it.

Read the rest here:
Living the Atenean ideal