Pablo Olivarez’s life is like a never-ending tennis game. It’s a constant “match point” situation, where he’s hoping to win by scoring the next point. The twist: he’s only playing with himself. Olivarez, at the young age of 32, has already achieved so much, that his only real competition is topping his last achievement. His youth was spent on the tennis courts, where he played professionally for the Philippines. By his early 20s, he was already the COO of his family’s business, Olivarez Homes—a real-estate company that builds quality affordable homes for the Filipino family. Finally, just this year, he has entered the world of politics as Paranaque’s number 1 City Councilor. What can’t the prodigy do?

The young man started playing tennis at the tender age of 6. He is from the Olivarez clan, who has built their name in the world of competitive sports for generations. “I’m third generation,” he says proudly. “It started with my lolo, then my dad. We were all Philippine Team. I was groomed at an early age, and started competing when I was 8.” While studying in Zobel, he was ranked 1 at the Juniors division of the Philippines. He was also ranked one of the 100 best players in the world. Eventually, his excellence in sports and glowing grades captured the attention of the Western Michigan University, who gave the athlete a fully-paid scholarship. He took up Civil Engineering (it was only natural because of the family business), while competing for the school. He graduated magna cum laude in 2013 before returning home.

“When I came home, I tried professional tennis for a year or two,” he explains. “I did the Asian circuits. It was crazy, and I really got burnt out.” Having already dedicated his life to representing the country on the world stage since he was a child, Pablo decided it was time to start a new chapter. In 2014, he started to work for Olivarez Homes, where he was given the position of COO. “I came in, and I didn’t know what to do,” he quips. “But my parents had been working for 35 years, and it was finally our turn to step in.  I learned everything—from operations to acquiring property, feasibility studies to planning, building the houses to [getting] permits. [I even conducted] seminars for our brokers. I spent time studying the functions of our people, because I didn’t want them to say something like: “Why would we respect you? You don’t know what we do.” I went with our staff to everything—to line up at BIR, to go to City hall, and all the small inspections. But I was lucky that I had good mentors in my parents.”

Because of his down-to-earth nature, the company COO was quickly able to garner the trust of his employees. Today, they run like a well-oiled machine, allowing Pablo to be out on the field, where he plans and executes housing projects. He says his managerial style, is to “duplicate himself”. “The way to do that is to empower and trust your people,” he says. “Give them a sense of responsibility. Give them something to look forward to. Trust them. I don’t like micromanaging people. I don’t care how you get from Point A to Point B, as long as you can explain the process if I ask. That’s what I always tell my engineers and project heads: “You decide, but when I ask you, know how to explain it.’” 

Pablo helped the company bloom through his well-planned projects and inviting managerial style. In fact, when he first began, the retail prices of their homes were between 1-2 million pesos. Today, they’ve graduated to a midrange price tag of PHP 2-7 million. While Olivarez’s Homes exponential growth makes him very happy, Pablo says what truly brings him joy is providing quality homes for our working class Filipino families. “Like our nurses and teachers, who go to office every day. I love that we’re able to give them subdivisions with wide roads, a club house, and basketball courts—safe gated neighborhoods similar to [wealthier subdivisions],” he says with a big smile.

Recently, the young man has added two new roles onto his life’s resume: husband, as well a City Councilor for Paranaque. “It’s been a challenge these past few weeks. I recently got married, we had a honeymoon, and I was out for three weeks, right before two-months of campaigning. I have a lot of backlog,” he says with a nervous laugh. “But now my focus is learning the government and public service. Once you enter something, you have to learn. My [time] allocation between this and the company is 70-30. Hopefully, I can balance it more as I move forward, but right now, learning the government and how to be effective is what I’m focusing on.”

While he’s still finding his footing as City Councilor, Pablo already has so many ideas on how to better his community. He wants to help the Philippines achieve the same quality of life as other First World countries, by improving the local infrastructure. For him, it all starts at Paranaque, where he is part of the committee that handles landscaping and zoning. Pablo mentions Macapagal, a new area in the city built on reclaimed land, and how he hopes to gear it towards the future. Other things on the young politician’s “to-do list” includes passing ordinances that will help the city recover during the on-going pandemic, help strictly implement current laws (like the one where every local business must have a workforce comprising of at least 40% Paranaque residents), and generating more jobs and incomes for local families.

Politics isn’t unfamiliar territory for the young man. His grandfather and father have both served as city mayor in the past. Now that it is his turn, he hopes he can make them proud by leading the Paranaque people towards a brighter future. “During the campaign, I’ve always said I’d do three things,” he explains. “First, I want to empower the people. That’s the first step. Then, as a public service, I believe that it’s our mandate and responsibility to bridge the people and the government. Thirdly, I want to give the trust back for the people to the government.”

Pablo’s longing to always better himself was certainly born from his time as a competitive athlete. “At a very early age, I was lucky enough to be in an environment where I had to be goal oriented. At the age of 6, I would wake up in the morning, train, go to school, then tutor, then train again, then sleep. I had a routine, because I wanted to do well in tennis. That’s how I became goal-oriented,” he shared when asked how he survives wearing multiple hats.

 If most young people were like Pablo, perhaps the Philippines would a better place. He is the perfect example that our countrymen should stop competing with each other. Instead, compete with only yourself. As your only competition, the 0nly way is up! It’s exciting to see where the competitive edge will bring Pablo next. Tennis champ? Check! COO? Check! Home builder? Check! Loyal public servant? Check! What’s next? It’s your move, Pablo. Match point!

Get in touch with Pablo Olivarez through:

pao_olivarez27@yahoo.com

—alike.com.ph

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