Great Men Make Great Strides
- Jerry Tundag
- Jan 23, 2020
- 3 min read
Great men make great strides 📷📷📷TO THE QUICK - Jerry Tundag () - February 20, 2009 - 12:00am
On a trip to the United States many years ago, I and 16 other journalists from as many countries participating in the International Visitor Program of the US government were made to go on a 30-minute boat cruise around Tampa Bay in Florida.
It was supposed to be one of the cultural sidelights of the program, meant to break the monotony of the main course, which was to get the inside track on how print journalism in the US worked.
At first I balked at the idea. We were each asked to fork over $18 for the 30-minute boat ride. At the time $18 was a stiff price to pay for something Filipinos do quite regularly in their lifetimes -- which was to ride boats.
The Philippines is an archipelago and the primary means of getting around the islands was by boat. The prospect of cruising around Tampa Bay for 30 minutes at $18 did not seem very appealing to me.
But I was a good sport. I was not about to make the Philippines, of which I was the lone representative, be killjoy in the group. Anyway, I can understand why everybody was all agog about the cruise but me -- I was the only "boat person" among the participants.
Taking a boat ride is one of several inevitable things that Filipinos do. Even foreign tourists and visiting Balikbayans will find that no trip to the country is ever possible or complete without, at one time or another, having to take a boat ride.
Fortunately for the Philippines, great strides have now been taken to improve maritime travel in the country. Emerging young leaders in the shipping industry have brought down old policies and practices, making the industry now truly world class and competitive.
One such young leader is Chester Cokaliong. At the helm of Cokaliong Shipping Lines, he steered his company to become one of the most awarded and admired in the country. Fittingly, he was named to the finals of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2007.
Cokaliong has a sterling reputation that precedes him but it was not until quite recently that I got to meet him and validate by experience and first-hand observation some of the incredible things people say about him and how he runs his business.
But with so many likely topics and so little space, let me just pick cleanliness since that is what his company has been awarded for many times over. And I can say in all honesty that in the one time I sailed on a Cokaliong ship, I was truly disoriented by the cleanliness.
In all my years of travel, I have never come upon a ship so immaculately clean that the experience was shocking. I never expected a ship to be this clean. I am not kidding when I say it was so clean one can even sleep in the toilets. Check it out if you don't believe me.
 Actually, this policy of cleanliness says many things, especially about safety. For if a company is a stickler for cleanliness, then it follows that it must place an even greater premium on safety, especially if the man at the top is as uncompromising as Cokaliong.
 According to the Cebu Yearbook 2009 published by SunStar Publications, Cokaliong begins and ends each day seeing off his ships from the port and meeting those that arrive. I know that to be true because I saw him that night when I made a trip on one of his ships.
It was drizzling but Cokaliong, without an umbrella, was walking up and down the port, barking instructions through his cellphone, probably to ship crew as they prepared to sail with their precious cargo of people and goods and do their share in the task of nation-building.
As my ship moved away from port, I saw Cokaliong finally calling it a day. He went to his SUV, opened the door, sat on the seat, but left his legs dangling outside. He took off his muddied shoes, put them in a plastic bag, and then pulled his legs inside. He is what he says.
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