Cecilio Pedro: David of Philippine Business

Cecilio Pedro is the chief executive and president of Lamoiyan Corporation. The first Christian businessman who have successfully competed against the giants in terms of toothpaste manufacturing in the world.

An inspiring words from him: "We are competing against the giants. Without faith and without the intervention of the divine, it is really difficult to survive in this industry."

For eight years his former company - Aluminum Containers Inc., was the major supplier of aluminum collapsible toothpaste tubes to multinational consumer goods giants Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever Philippines. It was founded on 1977. Unexpected turns of events have eventually turned this profitable company into junked when in 1985 their alumninum packaging was replaced by plastic laminated tubes. But this Christian businessman did not stop there instead he managed to overcome this obstacle by utilizing his equipment and the most logical option was still to make toothpaste. He was forced to create his own brand locally. This was the beginning of Hapee Toothpaste brand now considers globally as the colgate of Asia.

In 1987 he opened the Lamoiyan Corporation.

For all the logic and deliberation that went into building Lamoiyan, Pedro acknowledges another important factor to his success is FAITH.

A longtime Christian, Pedro has made Lamoiyan an instrument helping him spread the GOOD NEWS, "People who get close to God introduce the gospel to other people," he notes. As such, his employees attend Bible studies every week and the company, on top of providing the expected personnel benefits, also sees to the spiritual growth of its people. "We are careful in choosing people who in certain ways will be working with Lamoiyan," he adds. "They have to principally believe in God," In fact, Lamoiyan's corporate motto is "To make a difference for the glory of GOD"