True blue Atenean
Santos, who graduated with a degree in management engineering in 1970, was a star basketball and football player for the Blue Eagles in the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the 1960s, a period in college football marked by “problems such as eligibility of players and interscholastic hooliganism.”
In 1968, Santos, alongside Celso Lobregat, the future Zamboanga City Mayor, and Bobong Velez, later founder of Vintage Enterprises, helped Ateneo secure the men’s football title.
Mentor and supporter
Stepping out of the court and the pitch, Santos was a staunch supporter of and fatherly mentor to the Ateneo men’s basketball team, taking under his wing the likes of LA Tenorio, Enrico Villanueva, Chris Tiu, and Kai Sotto, among others.
Said Santos in a 2017 interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer: “I kept on telling them not to forget their studies. Remember they are student-athletes, not just athletes. Books and balls must complement each other.”
With his unwavering support and mentorship where he established a “model program that emphasized continuity and discipline,” the Ateneo Blue Eagles would bag 10 University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) titles from 2002 to 2022.
“An athlete’s glory is to win the crown and the success of a student is to earn a diploma. This is the true example of a student-athlete,” Santos further said.
A Captain of Industry
After graduating, Santos began his career in the shipping industry with the then fledgling Baliwag Navigation, Inc. (BNI), an offshoot of the Baliwag Transit bus company. Rising to managing director of BNI, he played a pivotal role in the company’s growth and expansion.
It was as an entrepreneur, however, that Santos would leave his mark in the competitive shipping and transport field.
In 1993 a retired Santos, prompted by growing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) demand from China, together with his brother Rene, who had shuttered his own crewing company, formed “with very minimal invested funds” Southwest Maritime Corp. with other investors, owning and operating LPG tankers.
Later diversifying into ship management via SWAN Shipping Corp., Santos showed much optimism in his newest venture. “Many are looking towards Manila, and with the right partners, these shipowners can now seriously take into consideration moving their business here. We have the people to do it, we have the expertise, and most important of all, we offer cheaper yet quality services to these businesses.”
In 2018, it was reported that Dennis Uy’s Chelsea Logistics acquired Southwest Maritime Corp., particularly its fleet of roll-on, roll-off or RoRo vessels, a move that Uy initially denied in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. Santos would later serve as consultant to the Chelsea board of directors.
Advocate for maritime safety
Advocating for reforms in the maritime industry, Santos successfully lobbied for the government to mandate the use of double-hulled vessels by oil companies for transporting petroleum products.
He also championed the modernization of the RoRo industry and, in collaboration with Alfonso Cusi, developed what was described as "the most ambitious private sector-led RoRo modernization action plan." This initiative aimed to discourage RoRo operators from importing second-hand vessels, promoting the use of newer, safer ships that would meet local coastal shipping area conditions.
Many RoRo operators in the Philippines used repurposed World War 2-era landing craft to transport vehicles from port to port. These vessels have flat-bottomed hulls which made them unsafe in heavy seas.
At Southwest Maritime and Starlite Ferries Inc., Santos worked with Japanese naval engineers to design RoRo vessels that could navigate the choppier waters of the Philippine archipelago without risk of capsizing. They cost more, he pointed out, but said it behooved the owners of RoRo firms to invest more to safeguard the lives of Filipino passengers and seafarers.
He was also a tireless advocate of pushing the local shipping to stop using older single-hulled ships as tankers for crude oil and petroleum because these vessels were more likely to cause oil spills if they ran aground or collide with other ships.
Santos was always pushing maritime industry regulators to mandate the use of more expensive double-hulled ships — basically a ship within a ship — for tanker duties, as they were less likely to leak their toxic cargo into the sea in case of accidents.
During the early days of the pandemic, Santos was an active voice in the protection and repatriation of Filipino seafarers stranded abroad.
“Arben was always concerned about our country,” writes Rapa Lopa, a cousin of Arben’s wife Celda, in a Facebook post.
Hall of FAME awardee
In 2010, Santos was enshrined to the Federation of Ateneo Management Engineers Hall of FAME, an honor reserved for distinguished management engineering alumni who have advanced their respective professions or enterprises while ameliorating the common good.
“I will miss his random offer to help whenever our country faces times of uncertainty,” Lopa said.
Features Reporter
