The Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2017 has concluded its search for the country’s most inspiring entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines is a program of the SGV Foundation, Inc., with the participation of co-presenters Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippine Business for Social Progress, and the Philippine Stock Exchange. In the next few weeks, BusinessWorld will feature each finalist for the Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2017.

Liberito EspirituThe Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2017
President, DATEM, Inc.

BEHIND the success of Liberito Espiritu, 60, president of DATEM, Inc., is a combination of the four principles that his company takes to heart: integrity, innovation, excellence and malasakit (a Filipino concept which he defines as passion for one’s work and compassion for one’s people).

Mr. Espiritu’s interest in construction started early in his life. As a young boy, his grandfather (a mining and civil engineer) and his father (a geodetic and civil engineer) would always take him to construction sites. This inspired him to be an engineer, and he eventually obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of the Philippines (UP).

When he was 25, Mr. Espiritu joined an engineering and construction conglomerate as a project manager. At the time, lumber was typically used as the framework for buildings. His team thought of a way to expedite construction and decided to use steel forms with steel rods as frame, scaffolding, posts and beams, which were sturdier and faster to make, pioneering a new method of construction. His first project was the twin 27-story Ritz Tower in Makati City. With this innovation, the team completed the project ahead of schedule with substantial savings in time and cost.

Realizing that he possessed the right tools and mind-set to develop innovative building technologies, Mr. Espiritu decided it was time to blaze his own trail in the industry.

Together with an architect and three engineers he met at his previous job, and a classmate from UP, he started DATEM. This was in 1984 when other companies were struggling to stay afloat due to the economic recession in the country.

Despite the tough business climate, Mr. Espiritu and his co-incorporators focused on providing total-value engineering services. They introduced prefixed structural and architectural reinforced concrete precast wall systems, transfloor half-slab precast system, and reinforced concrete precast intermediate beam systems for the structural component of their projects.

They started with low-cost housing projects like the La Paz Housing in Laguna; Villa Pasadena in San Juan City, Metro Manila and Tirol Residence in Antipolo City. Completion of these developments led to bigger projects like Gateway Business Park.

DATEM got its big break in the early 1990s when the Gateway Business Park recommended the company to ABS-CBN. After successfully building their sound studios within the required timeframe of 30 days, they were contracted to build the Eugenio Lopez Junior (ELJ) building in Quezon City using the precast system as one of the pioneers of the precast technology in the Philippines.

“That was a challenge for us. Our precast technology allowed us to compress the project schedule, since it’s faster than the conventional system. That was the start of our relationship with ABS-CBN,” Mr. Espiritu narrates.

Mr. Espiritu’s fast-paced outlook and DATEM’s track record allowed the team to thrive in a competitive industry, attracting new customers and winning contracts even when its bids were not the lowest.

Among DATEM’s  noteworthy developments are One Rockwell; The Mind Museum; Discovery Primea; Discovery Shores; One Shangri-la Place, among others.

After 33 years in business, DATEM is now one of the fastest growing construction firms in the Philippines.

With innovation as one of DATEM’s core values, Mr. Espiritu continuously finds new ways and technologies to stay ahead of the game. He personally attends or sends his staff to worldwide construction forums and trade shows to stay up-to-date on trends in building technology.

He encourages his employees to make idea generation a top priority at every level of the organization. After all, they introduced the precast technology to the Philippine construction market, which even their bigger competitors have since adopted.

Seeking to help the community through construction, Mr. Espiritu supports organizations like the Habitat for Humanity and the Marriage Encounter Community. He also helps build churches for various religious organizations. However, he still prioritizes the community he helped build: the DATEM community.

Besides providing scholarships to the children of their workers, the company also offers free medical services for them and their immediate families.

Mr. Espiritu is also involved with relevant organizations such as the International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors’ Associations (IFAWPCA) and the UP Alumni Engineers Association, in which he helped establish the “Study Now, Pay Later” program to support financially challenged UP engineering students.

Although his company has sustained steady growth, Mr. Espiritu expresses interest in diversifying DATEM, following the establishment of new subsidiaries including DATEM Homes, which will be involved in mid-rise and affordable housing projects; DATEM Water, which will supply potable water; and DATEM Mineral Resources, which will delve into gold and copper mining.

For his efforts to upgrade the construction industry in the Philippines, Mr. Espiritu was recognized as the recipient of the BizNewsAsia’s Real Estate Who Is Who award in 2015.

Believing that values stand for one’s philosophy and, in his experience, the pillars of success, Mr. Espiritu’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is “to live by good moral principles because if one does so, everything else will follow.”

The official airline of the Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines 2017 is Philippine Airlines.

Media sponsors are BusinessWorld and the ABS-CBN News Channel.

Banquet Sponsors are Bench; Bounty Fresh Food, Inc.; CDO Foodsphere; Fiori Di Marghi; Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc.; Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc.; Intermed Marketing Phils., Inc.; Jollibee Foods Corp.; LBC,;SteelAsia and Universal Harvester, Inc.

The winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2017 will be announced on Oct. 18 in an awards banquet at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. The Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines will represent the country in the World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 in Monte Carlo, Monaco in June 2018. The Entrepreneur Of The Year program is produced globally by Ernst & Young.

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