Page 2 - Cocolife Times - ISSUE 2020-08 REV 2

Amid A Crisis, Cocolife Wants to Ensure That No One is Left Behind

“It’s the values we share, the empathy we have for each other, for the Filipino,” says Cocolife President and
lawyer Martin Loon.

When the national government working arrangement befitting the personally connect with each other
declared a Luzon-wide lockdown in new and unpredictable nature of is really a challenge. Thank God for
mid-March, Cocolife President and the economy and of everyday life. It technology.”
CEO, Atty. Jose Martin Azcárraga was a significant undertaking, and a
Loon, decided that he would keep necessary one, to adapt to the crisis. But the 33-year-old chief executive
working from the company’s Ayala But Cocolife is nothing if not resilient. does believe that while this pandemic is
Avenue office rather than from home. unprecedented, it isn’t insurmountable.
With him was a team that comprised “We had to make sure For his part, he’s counting on the very
the company’s skeleton staff, and reason Cocolife has been resilient
together, they took up the task of service continued. We through 42 years: its core principle of
ensuring that Cocolife could continue had to make sure our “Believing in the Filipino.”
serving its policyholders, despite the
limitations. employees were healthy “It’s the values we share, the empathy
and well. We had to we have for each other, for the Filipino,”
Even then, they acknowledged that Martin says. When the coronavirus
these limitations were necessary to make sure no one was outbreak worsened, he drew from
curb the spread of the coronavirus. left behind.” these values, which have kept Cocolife
But Cocolife’s policyholders depended strong all these years. “Our priority
on the company’s approvals for their Founded in 1978, Cocolife is the is to take care of our people and
healthcare and life insurance claims. biggest Filipino-owned stock life policyholders,” he says. “We had to
Moreover, Cocolife had its employees insurance company, and as such, it make sure service continued despite
to think about. The company had to has seen its fair share of crises: natural the lockdown. We had to make sure
keep running. calamities; political unrest; the 1997 our employees were healthy and well.
Asian financial crisis; and the global We had to make sure no one was left
So for the first few days, he and his financial crisis in the late 2000s. The behind.”
team manned the fort. They traded company weathered all these, but
their dress shoes for slippers and set Atty. Loon—who prefers to go by just “We thought that the
up camp at the office, where they Martin—admits that COVID-19 is by
would stay 24/7. This allowed them to far, the greatest challenge that the best way to move
attend to client concerns effectively, country and the world has faced in forward is to emphasize
and to coordinate with other Cocolife recent times, “because of its duration
employees who had already been and its direct threat to human lives.” the faith and trust we
asked to work from home. In this time, have in the Filipino:
the team was also able to establish, “The crises and calamities we’ve
for the whole company, a sustainable Filipino talent, Filipino
overcome in the past, at least for my
generation, didn’t last this long,” he values, the Filipino
2 says. “Also, we are affective human dream.”
beings. Therefore, the inability to