Mr.

Paulino Ong Tan is a Chinese entrepreneur who owns and manages a merchandising

business who sells construction materials. His business was named Remington Hardware which is

located in Poblacion North, Solano, Nueva Vizcaya. Technically, this business is considered as a sole

proprietorship because it is only owned by Mr. Tan.

Last June 21, we got the chance to meet Mr. Paulino Ong Tan personally, a pure-blooded Chinese

and his family migrated from China. At 8 am in the morning and have an interview about his business.

When he heard that he’ll be interviewed about his business, the first words that came from his mouth

are “sipag at tyaga”. According to him, these are the most important values an entrepreneur must have

to achieve a successful business. He told us that he does not have a bachelors degree that’s why he

cannot explain everything to us briefly. He is married to Ms. Racquel Regara who graduated also in Saint

Mary’s University (formerly Saint Mary’s College) and had 5 legitimate children and also he has 2

illegitimate children, all of them earned a degree and also a successful businessman like their father.

Mr. Tan came from a family who owns a business managed by his uncle and his father. He said

that during his young age, his interest was not on studying and stopped attending school after second

year high school. At the age of 19, he started working as a checker under his brother, who owns a lumber

business and who is also a contractor. As a part of his brother’s job as a contractor, they went to Lagawe

and it’s where his business started. His brother helped him to put up his own business by lending him

P15,000 as his capital and built his hardware shop from the excess lumbers of his brother. He named his

first business as Lagawe Solex with only three people working under him. It took him 8 years to pay his

debt from his brother because of the small profit he earns from that town. In 1970, he moved to Aritao.

After eight years, he noticed that his business is more productive if he will move in Solano and

had the opportunity to get loans to make his business bigger and more progressive. He also changed his

business name to New Remington Hardware. Since he is a Chinese citizen, his business is legally owned
by his wife but managed by him. After a number of years of working hard, he was able to establish other

branches located in Solano and Bayombong which is also managed by his children. He was able to earn a

minimum of 2-3 million yearly as a result of the progress of his business. And also, that day he sold bags

of cement worth one hundred thousand pesos before we arrive and another one hundred fifty thousand

pesos while we interview him. He explained to us that dirty hands (preferring to dirt) earns a lot of profit

for his business and he added that those products can be sold within a month or a year except for liquid

products which are not for long term in the storage rooms like paints and other liquid products. The

hardware products such as nails, screws, power sprays and construction materials would increase the

price as time passes by, that’s why he likes his business.

When he arrived in Solano, the hardware that became his competitors were Cosmos, Asia

Lumber and Masagana. These top competitors were the reason why Mr. Tan and his hardware doesn’t

earn much sales back then. His target customers were mostly, the contractors in the Solano.

He wants to expand his business more and to be managed by his other children, but his other

children don’t like to manage in that kind of business. His 2 other sons were managing a business. The

first child is managing the sub main of hardware, now called “Hardware ng Bayan”. The second child is

now managing a weld shop in Solano. According to him, the second child is the most successful than him

so he is so proud for the achievement of his second child. He considered himself lucky in the business

because his second child, sales are way up more than he expected and have his business grows in

Cagayan province.

Running a business includes taking risks. There are also times were the sales decreases like

during rainy seasons due to the danger of doing construction works in this season. He also borrowed

from a bank and it is also a problem because he paid it for a long time. But according to him, with this
kind of products which are construction materials which will be always in demand, he never experienced

loss of profit and always gains just enough.

He gave us a piece of advice if we were to put up a business in the future, he said that “Sipag at

Tyaga lang.” He also said that ‘Wag hintay oras, habol oras dapat.”