Purpose-Driven

In their family’s Rublou Group of Companies (RGC), she leads in various areas. Ticman-Canson is president of Lucky Realty Development Corp., a subsidiary of Rublou, and RGC’s vice president for administration and finance where she oversees various business units, including human resources, marketing, and accounting. At the same time, she is the managing director of the firm’s real estate and leasing group where she looks after their commercial buildings, community markets, and rentals.

Ticman-Canson was born a day before the EDSA People Power Revolution concluded in 1986. “My dad (retired Gen. Luizo Ticman) was a soldier with the Philippine Constabulary (PC) then,” the self-described EDSA baby recalls in the vernacular. “He was in EDSA (Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, where the revolution took place). While the People Power uprising was happening, his PC unit helped maintain peace and order in affected areas. My mom (Ruby), on the other hand, was in the hospital a few kilometers away waiting to give birth to me.”

Most of her birthdays as a child were celebrated with the country on red alert status. “It was in anticipation of any rallies,” she explains. “It’s like I became allergic to the term ‘red alert’ because my dad will always be away working. He was always out serving the country and the people.” The instability in the country during the late ‘80s almost led her family to migrate at the insistence of her mother Ruby, but

her father did not want to leave as he wanted to be in the country where it matters in times of socio-political upheavals.

“At some point, I hated it, to be honest,” she reveals of her father’s profession. “I barely saw him as a child.” Aside from his police work, her dad was also busy with the family’s business. Ticman-Canson recalls feeling that her parents worked 24/7 when they established their company in the early 1980s. Her mother also gave up her career as a nurse.

It was in college when she appreciated her father’s calling more. The elder Ticman was involved in the investigation of the 2008 siege in The Peninsula Manila where former defectors from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) occupied the hotel to voice out their concerns and allegations against the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and the explosion several months earlier in a section of the Glorietta Mall in 2007.

“Learning about what he did in the search for truth and justice” had an impact on Ticman-Canson. “I understood that he was doing it ultimately for the country and for his family to give us a better future. I could not imagine what he went through back in the 1980s, with the coup d’état and maybe the work-related threats he received.” She adds that her father’s profession provided her with unique experiences that helped mold her personality, including living in a camp where she played with the children of prisoners, soldiers, and other PC officers.

Ticman-Canson actually dreamt of becoming a lawyer. But her parents influenced her to specialize in a field that will allow her to be part of the family’s business. She took up Humanities and majored in Management at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P).

Not long after, the fresh graduate received an invitation to join politics from some leaders in Cainta, Rizal where her father is well known. It was while serving as vice-chairman of the Cainta Municipal Tripartite Council as Rublou representative that she became involved with government organizations. The then 22-yearold was reluctant to get into politics and her father was opposed to the idea, too. The elder Ticman told his daughter that she would never be allowed to use the name and resources of the family business should she pursue public office. She obeyed her father’s wishes but informed him that she will consider joining politics in the future. She did not want to regret not running for office and possibly blaming her father for it, in case it becomes a missed opportunity. She already followed their request to take a course that was not her primary preference and immediately joined the family’s company instead of exploring other firms.

“This time, I wanted a decision that I was going to make for myself,” she shares. “I wanted to tread my own path. My experience was limited to our company and I was always looked at as the child of General Ticman. I wanted to prove something and make a name for myself. I wanted to find my purpose.”

Ticman-Canson ran for public office in 2013. “I saved up for it and wrote my father a letter to inform him of my decision,” she remembers. To her surprise, the former general later formed a team to help her bid. She received the highest number of votes among the candidates for councilor in the municipality.

Shorly after her victory, the neophyte politician realized that politics was far from what she envisioned. “It was a difficult place to be in for an idealistic person such as myself,” she explains. “You want to make changes but what can you do when you are just a councilor? I realized that politics was not for me at that time.”

“I wanted to tread my own path. My experience was limited to our company and I was always looked at as the child of General Ticman. I wanted to prove something and make a name for myself. I wanted to find my purpose.”

Eventually, Ticman-Canson looked for ways to influence people and make her voice heard as a civilian. The former member of the Junior Chamber International Philippines, an organization that provides “opportunities for young people to develop leadership skills, social responsibility and fellowship necessary to create positive change,” according to the Philippines Jaycees, Inc. website, has been a Rotarian since 2013.

 “Every opportunity that I get to do something for the community and for the country, I’m willing to do it,” TicmanCanson says. “I want to do things that will not make my child feel that there is division in our country. It should be a country she will be proud of.” She believes in positive campaigning and says she never engages in gutter politics. Ticman-Canson has declined previous offers to run for public office again although she is not totally closing her doors to public service.

THE FAMILY BUSINESS

The Rublou Group of Companies was established in 1984. It started as a “small meat dealership,” according to the former councilor. Her father eventually built a service facility to process and distribute their products to wet markets and supermarkets. The business expanded into real estate and leasing around 1996. It was in 2006 that the Ticmans started to build community malls and markets.

“I’m very proud that my sibling and I were able to help our parents expand the business and professionalize it,” TicmanCanson says. She was able to help craft policies, publish employee handbooks and organizational manuals since joining the firm. She had to put things in order and while she did not want to be the “bad cop” in doing so, she had no choice but to perform that role. Her father and brother are both generous and at times, they were not able to monitor how much money employees were borrowing from them.

“It took us years to change some habits and instill discipline. You have to explain why you are doing certain things. You have to speak your employees’ language, especially since our policies apply to everyone, from our meat cutters up,” she explains.

Ticman-Canson also leads the corporate social responsibility arm of the RGC. It’s her favorite role because she is able to work for the company and help the community at the same time. “I am able to quench my thirst to help because it’s like public service,” she explains. “We are able to do more when we collaborate with other organizations and the government.

How does Rublou do it? Sixty percent of the spaces the company leases out prioritize micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). “Instead of having them on the streets, we help legalize their business by allocating space in our community malls or markets,” she says. “And when we build other community malls or commercial spaces, we ask them if they want to expand. I am proud that several former ambulant vendors are now their own bosses and employers of more people. It’s a good feeling that we are able to do this. They are able to send their children to school and earn decently. You empower them to progress.”

“We advise our team to help people who are interested to get into business. We give suggestions. We guide them. We look at them as business partners. We want them to be part of our success. Especially when the pandemic hit and we were on lockdown, it was very challenging for all of us. We had to push them to evolve, including those without Facebook pages, and those who refused to offer delivery services. We told them that we had to adapt or else we will not survive. I found my purpose somehow in helping these entrepreneurs.”

The company also has partnerships with the indigenous people of Antipolo and Baras. They are working with the local government and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to help tribes make their livelihoods sustainable and have less interference from middlemen. Ticman-Canson says their company is supportive of protecting the environment and collaborating with all parties to help boost the economy. “We have to encourage small businesses,” she says of her advocacy. “I find satisfaction and fulfillment when I see others also become successful and prosper, even if you just give them an opportunity.”

In closing, Ticman-Canson is looking forward to the time when the pandemic is better controlled. “We’ve got a little bit of a stop in real estate. But that’s one thing I am looking forward to in the future—to put up more community malls, and work with more entrepreneurs.”