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 with the presence of “Nanding’s Barbecue”, 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.
penpowersong 