From the Stands – Domini M. Torrevillas – The Philipine Star August 11, 2020
I had an interesting conversation with Angel Lazaro III, managing partner of Angel Lazaro International, one of the country’s top engineering consulting firms, about the effect of the enhanced community quarantine on his company and family. He said the announcement of ECQ last March “was so sudden that most people were caught by surprise and were unprepared. That included me and my family and we more or less just floated around the first few days, not knowing what to do.”
But life had to go on, he said, “and pretty soon my wife was her old busy self running things in the house, although under drastically changed conditions. All things considered, we were all right, with all our basic needs provided for.”
After the initial shock, one of Angel’s first thoughts was the office. What to do with the company’s 50 employees? “The pressing concern was the payroll. With no output there would be no income. We had no idea how long the lockdown will last. We had funds for about two months, stretchable to three if we did not give the full salaries. We decided to do the three-month option, meaning we would run out of funds by June 15.”
“By June 1 restrictions were eased to general community quarantine (GCQ) and work resumed. We were also able to have just enough collections to support the payroll. This has been the situation up to the present time, where every month everyone would be praying for collections for the next payroll. So far, so good.”
Angel’s daughter Michelle, the firm’s junior partner who lives in Massachusetts and comes to Manila often, but can’t come this time due to the pandemic, has been very much involved in keeping the ALAI office safe and as COVID-free as possible. “We disinfected the office and imposed all the necessary health protocols. We encouraged and tolerated work from home stations and provided a shuttle service so nobody takes public transportation.”
“We had some tense moments when people exhibited symptoms and tested positive. We tried our best not to panic and take each episode as a learning experience. So far we have successfully addressed all cases, and the office is still running.”
Angel took over the management of ALAI after his father, the famous Angel Lazaro Jr., who founded the firm, passed away a few years ago. Angel III describes his father as “an architect and civil engineer (whose record) will probably never be equaled by anyone in the Philippines. With very few exceptions, he always achieved the highest possible result in everything he did. He combined a superior intellect with a prodigious capacity for hard work.”
Angel III rarely goes to the ALAI office and communicates with his employees mostly by digital modes. The quarantine has afforded him time to revisit his autobiography which he has been writing for the last five years, and is now in the editing stage.
His autobiography shows he is not just the son of his famous father. He will turn 77 on Aug. 23. He finished the Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1964. Then he obtained two master’s degrees from Princeton University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1971, at the age of 28. He finished all three degrees without his spending a centavo, as he had scholarships and research assistantships. These were miracles, not coincidences, he said.
