PUBLISHING DATE: JANUARY 2017
(Original Submission)
QUINTIN PASTRANA: PAGE TURNER
Image from Maysie Lecciones - https://www.behance.net/gallery/36759275/Dasmarinas-Village-Gazette-2016
I was half an hour early for Quintin Pastrana’s interview. There in TV5’s Bloomberg Studio, I was ushered to sit in the center of organized chaos that counted down the minutes of Quintin and co-anchor Shawn Yao’s show In The Loop. Producers barked orders from across the room, writers scrambled to finish phone interviews, the last five seconds flashed on the digital clock overhead, sighs of relief marked the segment’s conclusion. It’s an industry where multitaskers flourish. And as Quintin approached us after the show with a purposeful gait, a firm handshake, and an introduction of polite succinctness, it was evident he was in a world he fits right into.
“[Today’s show] is one of the most challenging,” Quintin said while we rushed his shoot in the open studio right before the next segment. I spat out my interview questions while the photographer directed his angles and the make up artist retouched in between. Despite the pressed air, he kept his composure and faltered no word. The biggest clincher would have been his background void from any Journalism training, but as his story unraveled from one question to the next, the exactitude we were witnessing emerged a result of a profoundly analytical, creative, and cognizant mind.
“My room in the house is a library with a bed, well that’s how my parents used to describe it,” recalled Quintin growing up. There in his Dasmarinas Village home, he was heavily encouraged to read. The pastime transmuted into a hunger for the realms that literature revealed beyond the confines of the gated locale. “[Books] opened my imagination. My mind expanded beyond the community,” he continued.
Other than reading, his childhood was peppered with memories of carefree play and adventure. “I remember venturing out with my old BMX with my neighbors and school mates. It’s a tightly knit community,” he mentioned. It was in those instances he honed his skills in football, tennis, and now rowing (he is currently the Secretary General and National Team Manager of the Philippine Rowing Association). Dasma contributed to forming the Quintin we are now familiar with, one that exudes the ideal balance of intellect, creativity, and athleticism. However, more than these personal traits, it’s the awaking of a life calling that Quintin owes to growing up in Dasma the most.
Quintin has made an indelible mark in the energy, minerals, and policy sectors, having over 18 years of experience working for the likes of Senator Raul Roco, the Office of The President, Chevron, and Gold Fields. His insatiable craving for knowledge led him to take Master’s Degrees in Georgetown University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge. He soon rekindled his passion for the written word when he took his Master’s Degree in Literature in University of Oxford. “I figured that if I [didn’t take up Literature then], I may never had,” he shared. Through it, he relived his experiences back in his Dasma home, “Being in a intimate space where the mind was allowed to wander in a quiet and serene environment, I realized growing up, and when I worked in government for a long time, that not everybody has that privilege. So I said ‘okay, let’s create that same opportunity for other people.’ Because to me, the most resonant experience in my life was reading, learning, and my imagination. Having [my Dasma memories] as a touch stone led me to think that other people should have that kind of opportunity as well.” Soon after, the Library Renewal Partnership (LRP) was born.
LRP is a public-private partnership that empowers Philippine communities with accessible community education centers. The government provides the infrastructure and manpower, LRP injects verve in these structures with books and materials made possible through their partnerships with Adarna House, National Bookstore, Bato Balani Foundation, and many more. Quintin serves as the LRP’s Founder and Managing Director, and after its inception in 2010 with a target of developing 200 libraries by 2020, they’re already half way that target today.
Inspired with the country’s own literature history and evolution through LRP, Quintin then established Firetree Press, an independent publishing house “bridging Asian voices and global audiences in the literary, visual, non-fiction, and scholastic fields.”
We finished the shoot in one of LRP’s projects the Sta. Ana Library in Manila, a quiet space in the midst of the bustling plaza. Filled with every book imaginable and a reflective ambiance that shut the deafening world out, I can now picture the kind of reclusion that made little Quintin’s imagination wander. This time, however, instead of an exclusive community, it was a place open to all as Quintin envisioned.
As swiftly as we took Quintin’s last frame, he was off to another meeting for developing an e-commerce website for supporting LRP. From rising at 3 in the morning daily for Bloomberg TV Philippines to working on his social causes and endeavors throughout the day, there’s no pause just yet for his conscientious mind constantly at work. And with our society's current state, we can only hope more visionaries like him keep going.
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