LOOK WHO CAME to the thirtieth-year shindig of Dominguez Marketing spearheaded by its honcho, Imelda Dominguez, recently held at F1 Hotel in Bonifacio Global City.
Before queuing up at the buffet dinner table, I bumped into Wilma Villanueva-Palafox, an alumnus of the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), the same alma mater of Dominguez, who earned her diploma in Journalism while the former got her Economics degree.
Wilma was with her husband, the celebrated and award-winning urban designer, Arch. Jun Palafox.
I had a brief chat with Villanueva-Palafox whom I asked if Dominguez fellow Thomasian Journ graduate Nestor G. Cuartero was coming to the event.
“I wouldn’t know. I was just invited,” replied Wilma.
After getting my food, I looked for available seats to munch my meal.
A table half-filled with guests had empty chairs so I asked the occupants if I could sit on one of them.
A young guy quickly offered the seat beside him.
I found out later that I was sitting next to the creative staff of the Dominguez agency.
I was also reunited, in serendipity or by chance, with Matess Salviejo, who together with former komiks writer and literary genius Reggie Flores, was an erstwhile ABS-CBN writer for Noli de Castro’s “Magandang Gabi, Bayan” and Korina Sanchez’s “Rated K” and “Balitang K.”
Yes, Matess was around and reminisced during the ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs (INCAD) Reunion of old and new men and women last August.
Matess, who is sister to TV, film, stage and soprano artist Beverly Salviejo, was Imelda’s batchmate at Artlets and now works for her as a creative consultant.
That evening, though, the other Salviejo, was the scriptwriter of the show to commemorate the pearl anniversary of the company.
The night was a night of recognitions, revelations, milestones and throwbacks.
During her speech, Imelda welcomed the presence of one of her friends from the media and civil society, Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda.
Yes, the Kumander Liway herself, in flesh and blood, the inspiration of screen heroine played by young actress Glaiza de Castro in the prizewinning 2018 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival’s main competition entry, “Liway” directed by the son of the freedom fighter, Kip Oebanda.
Imelda’s other batchmates in UST were around, the most conspicuous was former Philippine Daily Inquirer’s newsman and freelance writer Chito de la Vega who graduated with a degree in Communication Arts, the UST MassCom version of the course.
Imelda revealed in her inspirational talk that before putting up Dominguez Marketing, she was into selling pastries on orders.
To build an empire, she realized, needed professionalism, creativity, compassion, hard work, foresight, common sense etc., the same tools she learned academically and experientially.
From there on, the Dominguez doyenne has been proud of the creative minds she has nurtured from day one with the able support of friends and associates.
Most of these professionals are thriving in the media business like graphic artists, screenwriters, copywriters, and other technical and creative programmers here and abroad or who have either shifted to other endeavors or ceased to work totally but the discipline they obtained from the Dominguez work ethics is still intact.
Imelda’s headway into the advertising and promotion of products and services saw the light of day in the early 1990s when her adprom agency presented to the public the digital wonders of HP and other cyber items.
“We are just beginning a new decade of service and beyond,” Dominguez beamed with pride.