ADMIRAL TOMAS CLOMA FATHER OF MARITIME EDUCATION & DISCOVERER OF FREEDOMLAND/KALAYAAN ISLANDS CHAPTER 6 JOURNALIST, LAWYER, EDUCATOR, BUSINESSMAN PMI Colleges, Inc. Table of Content: • Journalist, Lawyer, Educator, Businessman. • Slide 1....................................................................Page -7 • Slide 2..................................................................Page 8-12 PMI Colleges, Inc. 2 Journalist, Lawyer, Educator, Businessman Indeed, Tomas went through hardship and pain in the first years after he left Panglao, Bohol to follow his dream in Manila. He was only in his teens and early twenties. But even when he felt discouraged he knew there was no turning back. He drew strength from his faith,invoking God’s loving help at every downturn. He derived inspiration from the stories of famous men who had gone through many trials and failures on their way to the top. Certainly, he could not forget the promise he had made to his mother before he left Bohol not to return home until he had become a lawyer and his family could be proud of him. All of this drove him to work very hard to overcome and to succeed. PMI Colleges, Inc. 3 By now in his mid-thirties, working for the Manila Bulletin and raising a family, Tomas enrolled at the Lacson Law School in Pasay for his pre-law studies. It had been his boyhood dream and ultimate ambition to become a lawyer. The moment had come and dnothing was to stop him. He was lucky his wife was able to dispose of some of her jewelry to support him again from Lacson Law School he went on for his law studies at the Far Eastern University. While he was shipping assistant editor for the Manila Bulletin and taking up law studies, Tomas realized that he could make money as broker handling incoming and outgoing cargo at the local ports. His earlier brief stint with the International Brokerage Company had given him experience for his new business venture. Now he was a budding entrepreneur looking out for business opportunities and finding ways to turn them into a profitable venture. PMI Colleges, Inc. 4 Business Finally, he would have his braks. Beginning in 1933,Tomas Cloma returned to the Manila Bulletin as assistant editor for its shipping section. Otherwise known as the “pink pages,” the daily supplement was printed on eight pages of pink paper. Under the section editor, Florencio Navarro, Tomas covered the country’s business waterfront and the shipping offices of local and international shipping lines until 1941 when World War II broke out. His beat included the shipping offices of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha, the Osaka Yusan Kaisha, the Compania Maritima of the Fernandez family, the Madrigal Shipping Company of Don Vicente Madrigal, the American President Lines, and the shipping lines of De la Rama, Escaño, and Yangco. PMI Colleges, Inc. 5 5 Continue… It was as a Manila Bulletin reporter on shipping that Tomas heard about and personally met Teodoro R. Yangco, the grand old man of Philippine commerce and the leading Filipino philanthropist of the time. Yangco came from a wealthy family in Bataan, studied abroad and later on took over and expanded his family’s interests in shipping and commercial real estate. Many years afterward, Tomas would reveal that Yangco was one of the business leaders who had inspired and challenges him to succeed in business. In fact, Tomas dreamt of becoming a shipping magnate as he occasionally met with don Teodoro while covering the latter’s shipping company. PMI Colleges, Inc. 6 1960, Tomas purchased a brand new cargo ship. For a while the M?V Dagohoy, later renamed the M/V Philippine Admiral, was one of the largest cargo ships in this part of the world. Later on, several ships were added to his domestic shipping lines. These were the PMI Master, PMI Registrar, PMI Director, PMI Cadets, PMI Colleges, and M/V Faculty, among others. The profitable routes served by these vessels meant the steady growth of Tomas’ shipping enterprise. At one point, the monthly income of the province of Bohol. He supposedly earned $50, 000 daily. He even acquired ships from Norway to beef up his fleet. PMI Colleges, Inc. 7 Education and Related Ventures Among all of Tomas Cloma’s enterprises, the PMI Colleges has flourished and become the most successful, with campuses in Manila, Quezon City, and Tagbilaran, Bohol. It earned him the distinction of being called the country’s “Father of Maritime Education.” The PMI Refrigeration, Sales and Service was set up to repair air conditioners and refrigerators. The business also served as a vocational education shop for the PMI. It became redundant as manufacturers set up their local assembly plants and offered service for their products. the PMI Engineering and Iron Works fabricated steel frames, windows, grills, wrought iron furniture, and some metal spare parts. Technologically left behind ceased as a business and its more useful assets became part of the College of Marine Engineering of PMI colleges. PMI Colleges, Inc. 8 The Corporation itself lasted only five years, until 1952, for Tomas had in the meantime started something more challenging and promising to do. This was the founding of the Philippine Maritime Institure (PMI) in 1948, later renamed the PMI Colleges-which would make him highly successful and well known as pioneer and leader in marine or nautical education. Tomas used the vessels of the Visayan Fish Corporation for the training of the marine and nautical students of PMI. It was also during the fishing explorations of the company and PMI training vessels that Tomas Cloma and his brothers. Capt. Filemon, discovered Freedomland. The Father of Maritime Education. PMI Colleges, Inc. 9 Tomas Cloma’s PMI Colleges, which is an outstanding success as an educational institution and a business enterprise, and a few other ventures whose assets were put to good use or have greatly appreciated in value over the years, his other business ventures lost and folded up. They had started crumbling in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In his declining years, Tomas lost his grip and stayed home most of the time to be with Luz, while his sons and daughters took over their management. The family feuds that ensued would inevitably affect the management of his enterprises. PMI Colleges, Inc. 10 Tomas Cloma co-founded the Philippine Association of Maritime Institutes (PAMI) in order to have a stronger voice in the maritime education and the maritime industry. PAMI would later dub him “Father of Maritime Education.” Around this time, Tomas also became a key figure in the shipping industry. He was elected President of the Philippine Chamber of Maritime Commerce. In 1968, in a series of article published in the Philippine Herald Shipping Travel, Cloma criticized the national Development Corporation’s decision to award twelve brand new war preparation ships to two shipping companies under the most liberal terms and conditions. He challenged the government to explain why small individual shipping companies, like his own, were not given enough protection by the government. PMI Colleges, Inc. 11 Finally, in 1941, after years of struggling as a working student, Tomas fulfilled one of his boyhood dreams. He passed the bar and became a lawyer at the age of thirty-six. He had been too busy working at the Manila Bulletin and his Commercial Information Service, so he took the bar examination without the bar review and passed. Suddenly, he needed a break from the at race. it was also time, at long last, to visit the folks in the Cloma homeland in Panglao, Bohol. Time to make good what he had solemnly promised his mother in 1919. that he would only see her again as a lawyer and a successful man. Two decades had passed since he left home. Rarely had they exchanged letters, although occasional messages were conveyed through visiting relatives, including some brothers and sisters who came to Manila to work and study. His sisters, Genoveva (Bibay) and Aurelia studied to be a teacher at the Philippine Normal College and stayed in his home on Constancia Street in Sampaloc, Manila. Tomas and his brothers in Manila Narciso, Pedro, and filemon would visit each other. PMI Colleges, Inc. 12 End Of CHAPTER 6 Thank You Presented By: Mangampo Alexander Myles Germanes, John Andrey Garcia, Dylanrey Guarino, John Mark Section: MEJ1-A2 Professor: Jenny Jasmine 13 PMI Colleges, Inc.
