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Rufino Bomasang Featured Among Modern Day Filipino Heroes*
By Lambert Sagalla
Posted Dec. 22, 2008
Eng. Rufino Bomasang, also
known as Boomie to close friends and associates, was among 44 living
Filipinos featured as modern day heroes in a book entitled "Modern Day
Filipino Heroes (Values
They Live By)" by Maria Rosa “Bing” Nieva Carrion-Buck. The book was
launched on November
30, 2008, Philippine National Heroes Day.
The living Filipino
Heroes, which include former President Fidel Ramos, Cardinal Vidal,
Governor Panlilo, Governor Padaca and Manny Pacquio, were selected on
the basis of their exemplary accomplishments in their respective
professions and the values that they have lived by. Engr. Bomasang was
the only one selected from the Energy Sector and the indigenous
communities.
This article is an attempt at further highlighting Boomie's accomplishments, his works/concerns for his indigenous
community roots, as well as the values he lived by, in support to his
selection as a living Filipino hero.
I.
Energy
Sector Accomplishment.
Engr. Bomasang’s selection
as a living hero was, no doubt, in recognition of his efforts towards
helping reduce Philippine dependence on imported oil through the
development of indigenous energy resources ( i.e. coal, geothermal,
petroleum, and renewable energy). Coal has displaced oil in most
Philippine power plants and in all Philippine cement plants, while the
Philippines is now the world’s second largest user of geothermal energy,
a renewable energy source for power generation next only to the United
States.
Boomie is particularly
famous for his leadership role in the “development of the Malampaya
gas-to-power project, considered the largest
single infrastructure project in Philippine history with total
investments of 4.5 billion US dollars. The fruition of the Malampaya
project has substantially reduced oil dependence in the power sector,
ushered in the era of clean natural gas, and now contributes about a
billion US dollars to the Philippine economy annually in terms of direct
government share and foreign exchange savings.”
Boomie held the
distinction as the only top executive from the government sector who
had been continuously involved in the Malampaya gas development project
from gas discovery to gas production. This reflected the respect and
confidence on Bomasang’s expertise and leadership on energy resources
development held not only by top management of the foreign companies
involved in the project (i.e. Shell, Chevron, and PNOC-EC), but more
impressively by five political regimes in the Philippines from
Presidents Marcos to Arroyo. The latter is a communications management
feat in the field of politics by Boomie considering the fact that the
tenure of political appointees, like himself, were at the discretion of
the incumbent President and usually is based on the “who you know” and
not “what you know” credentials as exemplified in the constant changing
of top government officials with every change in Presidency in the
Philippines.
How Engr. Bomasang
survived five Philippine political regimes may be gleaned from his Book
entitled “ From Gathering Firewoods to Managing Energy Resources “. Here
he stated that as the Philippines representative in energy sector
projects, he made sure that a newly elected President and/or newly
appointed Secretary of Energy understood and fully supported the
national importance of energy sector projects, while ensuring that the
projects were managed as efficiently as possible without interference
from government officials. He believes that this was one of the key
reasons why the Malampaya project was finished on time, well within
budget constraints, and untainted by corruption, or scandal. This rarely
happens in infrastructure projects, particularly mega-projects, in the
Philippines.”
 Engr.
Rufino Bomasang (2nd from left in left picture) had also been
involved in the government’s program of promoting the development of
renewable sources of energy in far flung areas of the Philippines,
especially in isolated areas where electricity is not available. Said
program has led to successful projects, such as the
25 MW wind farm in Bangui,
Ilocos Norte, the first major wind farm to be installed in Southeast
Asia; the Tulgao-Dananao Micro-hydro systems (up to 100 KW) in Kalinga
Province; and the PNOC Solar Home Systems Distribution Project (PSDP) in
remote areas throughout the Philippines. In the Cordilleras, the PSDP
was availed of by, among others, 2 remote areas in the Cordilleras –
Kibungan, Benguet and several municipalities in Eastern Ifugao.
During his 28 years as a
public energy official, Engr. Bomasang led several Philippine
delegations to periodic meetings of energy ministers, senior energy
officials, energy experts, and top executives of energy companies from
the Pacific rim countries which includes China, Japan, South Korea and
members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) comprised
of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Even after retiring from
PNOC-EC in 2004, Mr. Bomasang continues to be a “much-sought-after”
consultant by companies involved in oil exploration, coal development,
and renewable energy development in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific
region. Currently, he is either a Chairman, member of the board, or
senior adviser in five such companies.
II.
Values He
Lives By
The values exemplified by
Engr. Bomasang in the article written about him by her two daughters,
featured in the book Living Filipino Heroes by Ms. Carreon-Buck, and
from congratulatory emails from his co-alumni from St. Mary’s School of
Sagada [SMSS], include: diligence, strong preference for quality
education, tolerance, humility, family first and sense of giving back
particularly to his indigenous community roots.
Intelligence,
Diligence and Good Quality Education.
Engr. Bomasang
is a naturally gifted student who took full advantage of quality
education, embedded in Christian values, administered by Anglican
missionaries or American educated teachers in his hometown Besao and adjoining town Sagada, Mountain
Province where he finished his elementary and high school educations,
respectively. Notwithstanding coming from a poor family and having to
contend with the barest of living conditions in order to attend school,
he was consistently a top student in his elementary and high school
years. His high school contemporaries remember him as a study-focused
student avoiding the loitering and "liquor-drinking-prone" student
“barkadas” (gangs) of his time.
After graduating from St.
Mary’s School, Sagada in 1958, he topped the Commission on National
Integration (CNI) examination, making it possible for him to enter the University of
the Philippines, considered by many as the country’s premier university,
where he obtained his mining engineering in 1963. He went on to top the
Philippine Mining Board exams in 1964 with a grade of 85.79% - the
highest score since 1953. It took a few more years since 1964 when this
score was surpassed by another Igorot mining engineer from Besao –
Frederick Villanueva.
Apparently one of the firm believers that education is a never ending
process, Boomie enrolled in the Strategic Business Economics Program (SBEP)
at the Center for Research and Communication, now the University of Asia
and the Pacific (UAP) in 1984. He finished a Masters degree in Business
economics in 1985, in record time. Normally students of the course were
allowed to finish the required thesis within four years. Boomie
finished his thesis entitled “A Proposed Strategic Plan for Accelerating
Philippine Coal Development” in four weeks.
Later on in his book
entitled “From Gathering Firewood to Managing Energy Resources”, Mr.
Bomasang credited the quality education he obtained from St. Mary’s
School, Sagada as a key factor in overcoming numerous obstacles in
his professional life.
 Ethnic
Roots, Tolerance and Humility.
Engineer Bomasang traces his ethnic roots to Kankana-ey Igorot
parentage from Besao, Mt. Province, Philippines. Igorots have, for
centuries, been the object of ridicule or ethnic derogatory
stereotyping such as primitive, beyond civilizing, beggars, and
unclean. Bomasang took these all in stride, knowing pretty well that
these are more the product of ignorance or myth rather than meanness or
disrespect. He never succumbed to the derogatory stereotyping which pressured not a few faint hearted Igorot professionals to deny
their ethnic identity. Neither does he begrudge those who tend to look
down on Igorots. Instead, he patiently explains that Igorots are not
that bad pointing to himself as an example, that an Igorot can be as good
and helpful as anybody else.
It seems Engr. Bomasang
has successfully ingrained the value of tolerance and humility to her
daughters. In their article entitled “What Boomie Taught Us; Lessons
from our Father’s Remarkable Life” they state: “Respect
for others and tolerance of differences have guided us through the
respective paths we have taken. Today, we are both married to men of
different nationalities, religions, and cultures, but these are
differences we welcome and accept, and have never posed any issues.”
Giving
Back. Cognizant of the importance of quality education in
propelling him to what he is  now, Engr. Bomasang has committed himself to
helping promote quality education in the Philippine Cordilleras
starting with St. Mary’s School of Sagada, his high school alma mater.
It was mainly, through Boomie’s fund-raising efforts from his corporate
network as well as from SMSS alumni and friends, that St. Mary’s School
of Sagada is now well on the way of reclaiming its stature as a source
of quality education for children of indigenous communities in the
Cordillera mountain ranges of Northern Philippines.
Boomie
had also been getting his friends and corporate contacts to donate books
and computers to sister institutions of SMSS such as Besao Elementary
School; St. James School, Besao; All Saints Elementary School, Bontoc;
Easter School, Baguio City; and even to a public school in La
Trinidad, Benguet.
Engr.
Bomasang, likewise, continues to explore possibilities of helping
promote the development of the Cordillera Administrative Region’s (CAR's)
vast but largely untapped renewable energy sources. He is convinced that
such development efforts constitute an even more immediate means by
which to reduce poverty and/or uplift living standards of indigenous
communities in the region. The most recent of such efforts include the
following:
1. The possibility of getting a Japanese wind turbine manufacturer
to donate a new small wind turbine in a pilot area in the Cordilleras
with possible funding from a Japanese aid agency, JICA.
Small wind electric turbines ranging from 300 watts to 10+ kilowatts are
extensively used internationally, but virtually unused in the
Philippines. They are well-suited for water pumping for small
irrigation, battery charging, and hybrid power systems.
Big wind farms are found in Europe and North America, where one turbine
can generate as much as one and a half megawatts. In the Philippines,
the first wind farm in Southeast Asia has in fact been built in Bangui,
Ilocos Norte and is currently generating as much as 40 megawatts.
2. Continued support to promotional efforts of the now world famous
PNOC Solar Home Systems Distribution Project (PSDP). The PSDP is
essentially a rural electrification project in support of the
government’s electrification and social reform agenda.
As of May 31, 2004, 2435 PSDPs had been installed all over the
Philippines, of which 1012 had been installed in the Cordilleras: 669 in
Ifugao and 343 in Abra. Of all Philippine provinces, Ifugao, in
fact, had the largest number of PSDP installations followed by
Palawan at 547.
The PSDPs in Ifugao are spread across far-flung barangays in the the
municipalities of Aguinaldo, Asipulo, Hingyon, Kiangan, Lagawe, Lamut,
Mayoyao and Tinoc. In Abra, the systems are spread throughout the
municipalities of Bangued, Boliney, Bucay, Lacub, Baay, Malibcong,
Penarubia, Tayum, and Tubo, but mostly in Tubo and Malibcong.
PSDP is expected to have the following positive impacts: pollution
reduction through reduced use of oil products; catalyst for
agricultural, industrial, and commercial development; increased income
for greater income generation; improved literacy; improved health; and
improved situation of women, who are most often the ones inside the
house.
3. Continued support to identifying, with the end in view of future
development, of good potential areas for mini hydro projects in remote
areas of CAR such as the Tulgao - Dananao micro hydro electric project
in Kalinga Province. So far Preferred Energy Incorporated (PEI), a
non-profit corporation where Boomie has served as a board member for
more than 5 years and is currently the board chairman, has identified 5
good potential areas in Mountain Province: Lias, Barlig, 40 kilowatts;
Lunas, Barlig (56 kilowatts); Tamboan, Besao (88 kilowatts); Tuboy,
Balangao, Natonin; and Sabangan (96 kilowatts).
The cost of developing each of the identified areas is estimated to
range from 254,000 US dollars for Lias to 505,900 US dollars for Tamboan,
including project development, community organizing and training, hydro
construction, and livelihood projects. The bulk of the funding for said
projects can be obtained from donor agencies and PEI says that it can
help secure said funding. Igorot entrepreneurs may want to consider
investing in these projects in joint venture with major energy companies
who want to go into decentralized power generation.
Family First.
A strong
sense of family ties and disciplined upbringing of children were the
defining traits which Engr. Bomasang exemplified in raising his family.
Through these values he was able to help mold her children to the
successful individuals they have become.
Emily, her elder daughter,
successively finished BS Biology at UP, took up Medicine at the UE Ramon
Magsaysay Medical Center, specialized in Internal Medicine at Cardinal
Santos Memorial Hospital, sub-specialized in Infectious Diseases at the
Philippine General Hospital, and obtained a Master of Science
in Virology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
She then worked for several years at the Rizal Institute of Tropical
Medicine and later practiced as Consultant on Infectious diseases at
Cardinal Santos Hospital, St. Luke's Hospital, and Medical Center
Manila. In early 2007, she married John Layno, a natural born American
of Filipino (Tagalog) descent now working as a senior systems
engineer with Sentel. They currently live in Falls Church, Virginia.
Ellen, her younger
daughter, finished Economics at UP. After graduation, she worked in
Petron Corporation and later Energy Development Corporation, both
subsidiaries of PNOC. She then obtained a scholarship and took up a
Masters degree in Policy Science at Saitama University in Japan.
After finishing her master's degree, she worked successively in Japan
with the Institute of Energy Economics, in the Philippines with First
Philippine Holdings, and later in the United States with Alternative
Energy Development Corporation and Winrock, a renewable energy company
where she is currently Program Manager. In 2000, Ellen married Myoung
Soo Son, her Korean boyfriend at Saitama University, now a Senior
Director in the Korean Ministry of Transportation and Construction
and is currently on assignment as Korea's Construction and
Transportation Attache in the United States. They have two sons, Ernest
(7 years old) and Andrew (11 months old). They reside in Oakton,
Virginia. 
Boomie is married to the
former Madelene delos Santos of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, a
former school teacher at the Santa Lourdes Elementary School near the
Palawan Quicksilver Mines where he was Mill Superintendent from 1964 to
1967. After they got married in 1967, Madelene retired from her teaching
job and became a full time wife and mother. Madelene’s parents were both
born in Palawan, but her grandfathers on both sides originated from
Iloilo and were married to a Chinese and a Cuyonin (the largest ethnic
group in Palawan) with Spanish blood, respectively.
Boomie’s and Madelene’s
grandchildren, therefore, have mixed Korean, Igorot, Ilongo, Cuyonin,
Chinese and Spanish blood. How’s that for ethnic differences, acceptance
and tolerance.
Concluding Remarks.
Congratulations, manong Rufino. May you continue to be an inspiration to
the countless economically handicapped students of the Cordilleras –
that through the values you have exemplified in life, they too can
become living heroes even if only to their own family circles and
friends. For all self-respecting Igorots, you are a worthy addition to
the likes of Marky Cielo, Mauricio Domogan, Alfredo Lamen, Sinai
Hamada, Bishop Francisco Claver, Macliing Dulag, Mateo Carino and others
who treasure their Igorot ethnic identify as a badge of honor and with
whom we would like our youth to emulate. May your tribe increase.
*Reference
materials: “From Gathering Firewood to Managing Energy Resources” by
Rufino B Bomasang; “What ‘Boomie’ Taught Us: Lessons from Our Father’s
Remarkable Life” by Emily Bomasang-Layno & Ellen Bomasang-Son; a presentation paper by Boomie at IIC-6 entitled “Empowering
Indigenous Communities Through Renewable Energy”; related emails from the SMSS Yahoo emailing group;
and personal communications with Boomie.. |
