‘Mr. Future’

Successful entrepreneur Edwin Aroma charts his future by never forgetting his past

By Val G. Abelgas

There is one saying that almost every Filipino knows, but very few really believe in. It says “Ang hindi lumingon sa pinanggalingan, hindi makakarating sa paroroonan.” It basically says, he who does not look back, will not get to where he is headed. The saying contradicts many motivational teachings, which tell people never to look back, but to look ahead to succeed. Edwin N. Aroma, former janitor-turned-entrepreneur, has always looked back and reached back, and he has gone a long way on the road to success. Of course, Aroma looks way, way ahead as he charts his business and personal future, being a dedicated student of several motivational gurus, but he continues to “lumingon sa pinanggalingan (look back from where you came).”

“I have always believed in giving back to the community that gave us the opportunity to succeed,’ said Aroma, who has been an expatriate since he left his native Cebu in 1982 to become financial manager and later general manager of P.T. Hartata Jaya Plywood, the biggest plywood manufacturer in Indonesia. After a four-year stint in Jakarta, Aroma went home briefly to Cebu and then headed for Los Angeles to take on new business and career challenges.

Aroma, who will be inducted as president of the National Association of Cebuanos-USA (NACUSA), an umbrella organization for at least 15 Cebuano groups in the United States, practices what he preaches.

Although thousands of miles away from his native Cebu which, he said, “nurtured him in his growing years,” Aroma has continued to reach out to his fellow Cebuanos. Aroma has established the Edwin N. Aroma and Family Foundation in Cebu, through which he has granted scholarships to 20 high school students and seven college students.

One of his college scholars has graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, while two other scholars are graduating this October in hotel and restaurant management, and business administration.

To ensure continuity of his scholarship program, the Aroma Foundation has secured commitment from the scholars that once they get stable jobs, they will, in turn, sponsor two scholars (even brothers or other relatives). If the graduated scholars fail to sponsor a student, he will be made to pay back half of the scholarship amount he got from the foundation. This amount will be used to sponsor other scholars.

“The NACUSA, under my leadership, will reach out to Cebuanos in our home province,” Aroma stressed. For starters, Aroma said NACUSA will start its own scholarship program for poor, but deserving students in Cebu.

Aroma said NACUSA will also look into the needs of the hundreds of street children in Cebu. “Kawawa ang mga bata (Pity the children),” he said. Aroma said every time he visits Cebu, which is around three to four times a year, the number of street children seems to increase by the hundreds.

Aroma has a special place in his heart for poor children, which is understandable, Aroma having come from a poor background in his childhood in Catmon, Cebu. Aroma was born to a fisherman father and a public school teacher in Catmon. His parents were so poor, they couldn't afford to send him to college. Aroma had to work as a janitor for four years to finance his college education.

“I want other poor children of Cebu to have a chance to study, and to provide a better future for themselves and their family,” Aroma said.

Aroma’s helping hand, however, extends beyond Cebu. As founder and chairman of the Los Angeles-based Children First Foundation, a multi-racial group, Aroma is partly responsible for an international scholarship program run by the Foundation.

Presently, the Children First Foundation sponsors 30 high school students in Bangladesh. The Foundation provides them with tuition, books, and other school needs. Aroma said he intends to step down as chairman of the board so that he can push for a similar scholarship program for the Philippines without being accused of using his position to promote his own countrymen’s welfare.

Aroma is also chairman of the board of Phil-Am Kiwanis of Los Angeles, his second term as chairman after two terms as president. Their beneficiaries at the Kiwanis is a different kind of needy children — the handicapped children. The Kiwanis also has a program for battered wives in Los Angeles.

But Aroma’s priority at this time is to be able to help his fellow Cebuanos in his home province improve their well-being.

Despite his distance from Cebu, Aroma has always had his roots in Cebu. Eighteen years after he left the province to try his luck in Indonesia and later in Los Angeles, Aroma is still very much connected to his home province.

When he went home briefly in 1986 to Cebu, he put up a mango plantation in his native Catmon. Aroma now has three huge plantations in Cebu and another big one in Bohol, totalling 25,000 trees, almost 3,000 of which are bearing 500 fruits each per harvest. The other 22,000 trees are expected to bear fruits for commercial purposes in one or two years.

Still a Filipino citizen, Aroma has numerous business and land holdings in the Philippines. He is president of Imgime-Aroma Mango Ranch in Cebu and Bohol; president of Socsargen Realty & Development Corp., based in General Santos City in Cotabato; president of Southern Mindanao Palm Oil Corp., based in General Santos City; and president of Capital One Financial Solutions Inc., based in Cebu.

Aroma, who is called by acquaintances as Mr. Future because every time he talks to people, he talks about the future, also owns and operates the Chandler Apartments in Phoenix, Arizona, which has more than 100 rental units. He also owns the Prime Appliance Rentals Inc., based in Los Angeles. Aroma is also a managing partner of Worldwide Empire Funding Inc., based in Delaware; and is controller of All Valley Washer Service Inc., based in Van Nuys, California.

Last year, Aroma went to Cebu with State Senior Investigator Fred Argosino and businessman Lauro V. Manigbas to sponsor a seminar among Region 7 policemen on how to conduct investigation at the scene of the crime. Argosino conducted the demonstrations.

Aroma has gone a long way from being a fisherman's son and a janitor in Cebu. A Certified Public Accountant, Aroma has three bachelor's degrees in Accounting (1973, University of the Visayas), Management (1976, University of the Visayas), Economics (1977, University of the Visayas); and three master's degrees in management engineering (1984, University of the Visayas), financial management (1985, University of Singapore), and global management (1988, University of Phoenix-LA).

He is scheduled to finish this year his Doctor in Philosophy in Global Economics from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).

A long way, indeed, from the remote fishing village in Catmon. But on the way to such a successful career, Aroma never forgets to look back to where he came from. “Nakarating sa paroroonan at lumilingon sa pinanggalingan.”