Jack’s restaurant, Jack’s buses

5 MIN READ

From now on, roads will roar to life once again with Dangwa Tranco buses. No, not quite, Jack’s buses.

Jack Dulnuan, premier and pioneer Igorot businessman/restaurateur, just bought the Dangwa Bus company and if the rest of Cordilleran Igorots stick their stakes with Jack’s, then his ultimate agenda will come to reality: big-time business by, of, and for the Igorots.

When the Dangwa Transportation Corporation was put up for sale, Dulnuan did not hesitate to buy it because he thought, since in the beginning this has been a business built and developed by and for the Igorots, no one else but Igorots themselves should own this business.

Confidence in the Igorot

Dulnuan’s confidence in Igorot entrepreneurship is intense: they have the money to invest; he himself, has the managerial acumen and style for business success; and, he intends to perpetuate the peculiar Dangwa tradition of kinship and community in the conduct of business.

Dulnuan said that already, big-time investors swarmed him with offers. But he is cautious. He said that he is offering shares at low prices, an amount almost everybody can afford, because he prefers those having smaller amounts of investments and so that more can invest; otherwise, his purpose will be defeated. A share is worth P100 and each investor is allowed a minimum of five shares.

Dulnuan theorizes that if people knew his beginnings, people would trust him. His appeal is only for people to trust him. Actually, he does not need to appeal for people’s trust, to be introduced, to assure and to prove his integrity and trustworthiness. The Igorot populace who has known him since way back in the 1950s would attest to his humble beginnings: a one thousand-peso start up capital; a High School diploma, the ambition and drive and the character and discipline – frugality, resourcefulness, industry. Truth is, entrusting stakes on Jack Dulnuan is already a winning proposition because Jack’s reputation of success is legendary. He insists that if he made it with P1,000, then why can he not make it with P1,000,000,000?

Dulnuan added that if he was thinking only of himself and his family, he does not need to buy Dangwa Tranco. But all he is thinking of is a business for the Igorot community, of saving the Cordilleran economy and employment that once depended so much on Dangwa Tranco. He dreams of economic success for every Igorot. “No one else but the Igorots themselves should own this bus company,” he emphasized.

Dulnuan is amused at his share of belittling and small-talks: he was even doomed to failure from the start. But he broke free from that doom. When the time came, tongues wagged: “He won the sweepstakes!” “He struck gold!”

Listening to his Chinese mentor

What work ethic and character and business acumen he has, he inadvertently and ironically earned from the Chinese he worked for. In a sense, he worked his way up the ranks, so to speak. He was once a farm and poultry boy and delivery boy. His Chinese boss told him that if he wanted to have money in his pocket, then he must not put any in his pocket when he would go to town. This would be the fool-proof way to curb the urge to give in to his whims and caprices. Obviously, young Jack listened to his mentor. These have proven useful later when he had his own business.

In his early years of marriage, he was branded as stingy and selfish, even by his own wife. But Jack had something else in the back of his mind. Later, he turned over the family coffers to his wife when she could spend all she could to her heart’s content.

Not that he despises the flower industry but his one other advise he gives is to use time wisely in producing food for the table. He said that camote should be planted in the pots, instead of flowers! Plant the ginger, onion, garlic, tomatoes, pechay, beans also in the pots then all you have to buy are rice, sugar and salt.

This writer has been eyewitness to Mr. Dulnuan’s shortpant days and of course has been earwitness to the murmurings that such stinginess in attire is actually wealth concealed. What Dulnuan says of his short pants: to spare his wife from the difficulty of washing off mud; to spare him from frequently changing his clothes especially that he jetsetted; and to save on soap.

Jack’s Rice: frugal beginnings

His famous Jack’s Rice, his lucky charm also traces roots to his frugality and conscientiousness. The story goes that this homebred ala carte was a serendipity that bode well with Jack’s customers. One day Jack requested his kitchen staff to instead put all in one plate his rice, veggies, chicken and pork. A keen customer, having noticed, wanted the same meal preparation and so placed the same order until others caught on. Thus, the birth of Jack’s Rice. Just imagine the effort and time saved in washing less dishes and utensils.

Once long ago, this restaurant business he started – catered to Dangwa Tranco employees. He started serving brewed coffee at P0.05 a cup. His customers clamored for bread so he added bread. Again at his customers’ suggestion, he added meals. Then because his restaurant demanded much meat, he built a piggery and a poultry. Inevitably, he produced the eggs needed. Inevitably too, he branched out into farming because of the need for vegetables. By then, the one kitchenette that was burned in Lakandula near the Dangwa station in the city (of Baguio) branched out to the Soliman Street and Magsaysay Avenue. The small one he began at Km. 6, in La Trinidad was renovated and enlarged. Today, his big restaurants are in Km. 4 in LTB, at the Centermall and at the other building beside it, at what used to be the Empire Theatre at Abanao Street, and the newest is located at Mabini Street, where once stood the Olympian Bowling Lanes. Lately too, his daughter Rose, opened a Jack’s branch in Dagupan City.

Full-circle turn

Today the circle has turned fully and he bought the Dangwa Transportation Corporation.

In a way of legacy, with due respect to the good name, Jack was well-meaning in wanting to keep the business name and to perpetuate the Dangwa tradition of lofty ideals.

In days of old, the foremost image conjured, at the mere mention of Dangwa Tranco, was honest and trustworthy drivers, conductors and employees. Called “paw-it,” the farmers had only to leave their produce by the roadside and never doubted a bit that the Dangwa employees will see to the farm-to-market-to-back-to-the-farmer transaction be consummated. The farmer never doubted a bit of the conductor’s remittance of every single cent earned from the sale of the produce.

And hardworking. This is to say of the conductors assisting passengers every step of the way from carrying luggage to seating them to safety and comfort, then seeing to it that they alight from the bus safely.

Dangwa’s kinship culture also cuts across the good business partnership he had with the Manila-based GoodFire kerosene stove factory. It being owned by a co-Kapangan, ferried the employees, also mostly Kapangans, home and back to work.

Of old also, employees themselves were shareholders in the company. So employees enjoyed in a sense, double compensation. No doubt these too, Mr. Dulnuan might consider to adopt to keep the good name.

Six Jack’s Kitchenettes, Five Jack’s Restaurants -and counting- after, no doubt Jack’s Transport System, Incorporated will be a success. And why not add to the roster a cruise ship in Philippine waters when the time comes? # Contributed by Esther Dawn Paclim