My Ultimate Boss, Veronica

By: Joe Mauricio

 

When I heard that the University of the Philippines Alumni Association in America (UPAAA) was accepting nominations for outstanding UP alumni for its Distinguished Award selection for its 20th annual Convention and Grand Reunion to be held in San Francisco, August 30 to September 2, 2019, I thought it was a no-brainer to select my wife, Veronica Leighton, for the Mass Communication award.

As many know, Veronica has been the recipient of so many awards, but what you might not know is the countless hours she puts in publishing Via Times and producing CPRTV, to succeed. That she stays up so late and wakes up early to finish her media projects and other business problems to tackle in her daily grinds. There have been so many times I watch her guide some friends through helping and solving their personal or community at-large problems by talking them through a solution, business, personal, or otherwise. She is great and natural about coming up with ways to sensitize or de-sensitize a desperate friend in need in a nonchalant way but always with her sincere, deep compassionate nature. A nurturer with whatever she touches, she nurtures her friends and loved ones from seedlings to full blossoms, always trying to make them better each year, caring and feeding them her TLC, whether near or far.

Her professionalism and integrity have made her a well-respected media business owner in the community. Always displaying a great positive attitude, she is adept in using positive reinforcements to bring out the best in people. She has the skill of balancing authority with freedom, thus providing guidance and direction to the best they can be, while staying true to the goals and missions of Via Times and CPRTV, two of the babies she has nurtured for her service to the community that she loves.

Veronica is focused and driven, and believes in providing many people out there (who look up to her as a role model and inspiration) with tools and knowledge to become self-sufficient and successful like her. Being the only Filipino woman in the entire U.S. (and maybe the world), to be successful in the journalistic field in a serendipitious way (she is not a Journalism graduate of UP), Veronica has gone a long way. One blessed thing, she has remained humble and has taken to heart any community issues that she encounters and gets involved in. When you approach her, you would see immediately her heart and her soul, and she bares it all to listen to you and to help you out.

Veronica is the Ultimate Boss (my and VT & CPRTV’s staff boss), the Ultimate Community Person, the Ultimate Friend to have, and the Ultimate Woman, as my Wife.

Congratulations to one of the Most Distinguished Alumni of the the University of the Philippines Diliman (awarded in 2019), Venus Veronica Bacatan Leighton Mauricio!