Mr. Pio Sobrepena Acampado Jr.

Pio S. Acampado, Jr. was born on February 28, 1933 as the youngest in the family. They were a family of five children knitted in the womb of their parents, Pio O. Acampado, Sr. and Eduarda Sobrepeña. His siblings were Paulina, Pia, Paz – 3 elder sisters in that order, followed by his only brother, Primo.

Pio, Jr.’s family is rooted in Eastern Samar, initially in the Municipality of Oras where his father was Municipal Treasurer and mother, a teacher trained by the Thomasites, before his parents and eldest sister returned settling in retirement in Sulat, nearer the provincial capital of Borongan.

The family upped and resided in Sta. Cruz, Manila when the children were of school age, with Pio, Jr. the only child born in Metro Manila at the San Juan De Dios Hospital in Pasay City. Pio, Sr. was Bookkeeper at the L.R. Aguinaldo main office in Echague Street by the Pasig River. All siblings had public school education up till their secondary level, with Pia and Pio, Jr. enrolling in college at UP Manila and eventually the new campus in Diliman.

Pio, Jr. was the managing editor of the UP Philippine Collegian for two successive years, 1951-52 with his opinion column “Personal or Otherwise”. He was recruited to the Beta Sigma Fraternity. He also had special courses in marketing and professional management, and has well-deserved reputation for his leadership skills that keep a team cohesive and highly motivated -- believing that leadership is about more than taking charge but equally important as well, it is about building teamwork that paves the way with new ideas and real solutions….

He was a consultant in marketing, advertising, public relations and other allied marketing communications services. He was Vice-President and member of the management committee at J. Walter Thompson Company (Philippines) where he started his advertising and marketing career. In time he was managing many of JWT’s largest clients, including Unilever Philippines, Inc., Richardson-Vicks, Ford Philippines, Seven-Up Bottling Company (Phil.), S. C. Johnson, Development Bank of the Philippines, Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, and Kraft Foods (Phil.).

In the summer of 1980, he left J. Walter Thompson Company after over 15 years of service and moved on to Asia-West Marketing Communications, Inc., a medium-size advertising agency, as its Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer and eventually became its President and Chief Executive Officer in 1984, where he steered the agency through the crisis years in the country’s political and economic uncertainties during those turbulent times. As President of Asia-West, Pio, Jr. led and managed a team of top-calibre professionals in growing the agency’s clients’ business among which were: Universal Robina Corporation (Nissin’s Ramen, Jack and Jill Corn Flakes, Piattos Corn Chips), Carnation Philippines and Procter & Gamble Philippines.

He left his life in the Philippines to tread a new path in Canada. Here, together with his wife, he immersed himself with different Filipino organizations in the hope of helping uplift the profile of the community by promoting Filipino pride (through SIKAT Cooperative bringing the best of Filipino products in Canada and others) and assisting small Filipino businesses by giving them strategic directions and counsel. He coined the phrase: Angat, Pinoy, Angat.

He commanded attention, having such presence about him that inspire people, engaged them in meaningful dialogue and moved them to act.

Sadly, as his health deteriorated, he needed to let all these involvements go and live a life of solitude. Focusing on his prayer life. He is deeply devoted Catholic and an avid reader. He spent his last years reflecting, writing and on his spare time watching movies at home with his wife.

And with the priest’s final blessings, “O Lord, free his soul”, he breathed his last and died peacefully on November 4, 2023 at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.

Goodnight, my lonesome dove. I love you. ‘Til we meet again.

He is survived by his loving wife, Stephanie. As well as his children, grandchildren and extended family.

Family, friends and others whose lives were touched by Pio are invited to Forest Lawn Funeral Home from 4:30pm to 8:30pm on Friday, November 24, 2023 to reminisce, grieve and support each other.

His Celebration of Life will follow the next day, Saturday, November 25, 2023 and will be held at Forest Lawn Cemetery at 1:00 pm. Followed by internment at 2:30pm

In his own words: Suffering and death is not the last chapter in a Christian

By Pio S. Acampado Jr.

March 18, 2016

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

One of the remarkable points of convergence in the writings of many saints is the high value they put on meditating on the sufferings of Christ as an inexhaustible source of insight, consolation, motivation, and strength.

The confidence in God that I have gained through Jesus Christ comes with the empowering thought that, indeed, it's true that the poor are blessed. Compared to my previous worldly life of being self-centered in most of my years, when I was mostly pre-occupied in creating my own world of excess and consumption, I now have accepted the kind of "career-change" or vocation which the Lord has blessed me with - my present life of poverty and absolute dependence on God's gracious will.

Being brought down to my knees and humbled in the process, I have learned deeply what it means to be poor, not only in spirit, but materially as well. My present poverty in the kind of simple living, which I now have embraced, comes from a deep trust in God's fatherly love and merciful kindness. My poverty comes from the confidence that God is with me through all my joys, my afflictions, and helplessness as a result of my deteriorating emphysema, prostate enlargement (BPH), chronic back pain, hip, and swelling of feet which is now beyond the pale of any medication or medical treatment. This confidence has carried me through my whole lot of struggle and pain, my joys and my sorrows making me more open to God's will, and no longer my own. This confidence is all because of grace, a gift from the Holy Spirit that now directs my heart to God the Father by the fire of his Spirit. A confidence that assures me that, "all things work together for good" for those who trust in him. This confidence couldn't have been possible on my own stride, but for God's loving intervention . . . a light that now shines in my life, warm as the glow of the sun, despite the looming darkness in a world of negativity, temptations, chaos, and strife around us. For I believe that in my poverty, he has given me the confidence that I can always depend on God's providence, not losing my joy and trust in him and that he is here with me always to take care of me into the next life when he sees fit. Thus, as Joseph Newton once put it, "God did not make us to be eaten up by anxiety, but to walk erect, free, unafraid in a world where there is work to do, truth to seek, love to give and win." A win, a victory, over this age of growing immorality, corruption, and culture of death. There is no more space for grumbling and complaining, no time for envying the good fortune of others, but only appreciation and gratitude for what I have received and acceptance of God's Will. And, finally, all this state of blessedness will help qualify me, I pray, to lead a quiet prayer life of ministering in spirit about fulfilling his covenant with us. A life of prayer devoted for the conversion of souls and the salvation of the world. A life of prayer devoted to loving him and neighbour that he may be glorified in everything I do. And satan can do his worst, for, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond comparison." - 2 Corinthians 4:7-9; 16-17