Ramonito Pernato: His Journey from the Family Barbecue Business to a Reputable Private Accountant
Posted on Thursday, 28 April 2016
Ramonito Pernato: His
Journey from the Family Barbecue Business
To a Reputable Private
Accountant
by Apolinario Villalobos
For one thing, their family is among the
pioneers whose business acumen has helped developed the city of Tacurong into
what it is now. While other families put up barbers shop, variety (sari-sari)
stores, fish and vegetables stalls, hardware, and small restaurants
(carinderia), the Pernato family chose the chicken barbecue business during the
early part of 1960.
Practically, every member of the family had
a part in the business. While their parents administer the overall operation,
the children contributed their effort in all stages of the business, the final
phase of which saw the broiling of skewered slices over red-hot charcoal pit
till late at night. Mon, as friends would call him, was initiated into the
family business when he was in Grade Four – dressing chickens aside from
running errands.
While other boys of his age were bumming
around the just-weaned Tacurong from her “mothers town”, Buluan, Mon, was doing
a grown up man’s job together with his elder brothers. Later, he learned the
family secret in preparing the marinade for the tasty chicken cuts for which
their restaurant became famous, the “Mauring’s Barbecue”. His participation in
the business went on until he reached high school, during which he had to help
the family till late at night in catering to their patrons. It was only when he
went to college that he left his family to study in Davao City.
In Ateneo de Davao College , Mon took up
Bachelor of Science in Commerce with major in Accounting. After graduation, he
joined Alcantara and Sons (AlSons) in Davao City as a researcher of its
Corporate Planning Division, moved up to the Financial Management Group of the
same entity, then, as Accountant of the Davao Industrial Plantation, one of its
subsidiaries. He later transferred to an Insurance
multinational Company as its Davao Branch Accountant. Finally, his expertise in
accountancy brought him to Metro Drug Corporation as its one of the Internal
Auditors which required him to visit areas as
far as Tawi-tawi, the southernmost province of the Philippines.
Having gained enough exposure to the
intricacies of the world of numbers, he decided later on to be on his own, by
putting up an Accountancy office in Tacurong City from where he reached out to
the rest of the business entities in South Cotabato, particularly, Koronadal
City and General Santos City. As a routine, after checking matters in the
office, he would drive to the mentioned prime cities of South Cotabato.
Not long after he plunged himself into a
flourishing private practice, he got involved in the affairs of the Philippine
Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) as its Regional Director for
Southern Mindanao, then as Vice-President for the institute’s Public Practice
sector, and lately, as Executive Vice-President which is a national position.
During a rare impromptu meeting with Mon, he confided that he will be moving up
as PICPA’s President by July 2016.
Reminiscing on the happy days
once-struggling Tacurong which was yet, in its infancy, he is grateful for the
discipline that his parents instilled in him and his siblings. We were
actually, together in the same section throughout high school that is why, as
an added observation, I could say that he was among my classmates whose
brilliance in numbers stood out, aside from being among the soft-spoken and
well-behaved.
Mon is a contented husband of Mila Jabigo,
who works with the Notre Dame of Tacurong/Sienna, as Guidance Counsellor,
though, having finished BS Chemistry in Colegio de San Agustin (Bacolod City);
and, father to: Ryan Jon, graduate of AB (Political Science, Ateneo de Manila
University-Manila), and on his fourth year in Law at San Beda College-Alabang;
Katrina Mae, graduate of Bachelor of Business Administration and Accountancy at
University of the Philippines (Diliman), and works with Sycip, Gorres, Velayo
(SGV), a reputable Accounting firm in the country; Audrey Ann, graduate of
Business Management (Accounting) at the University of Santo Tomas and Business
in Accounting at La consolacion College; and, Lorena Mae, who is on her second
year in Accountancy at De La Salle University-Manila.
To date, the mark of the “Mauring chicken
barbecue” in Tacurong City is still evident, thanks to Mon’s two brothers who
opened their respective outlets which are happily competing with the rest that
mushroomed. Meanwhile, he prepares for the challenges waiting him ahead… as National
President of PICPA from July of this year, until June 2017. …a remarkable feat
for a guy who started his career in a family business while in Grade Four.
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