A ‘Precious’ celebration
Preciosa “Precious” Silverio Soliven’s 77th birthday celebration was typical of this amazing woman: it was unique, it was festive, it was lively and it was organized.
From the directional signs to the venue in Alfonso, Cavite, to the reception line (where cold towels, bottled water, floral hair grips and sun screens were waiting), to the buffet, to the program, to the farm tour, no stone was left unturned to ensure that guests would be entertained and taken care of.
Held at the Preziosa Botanic Park and Farm Resort in Alfonso Cavite, the Polynesian-themed celebration brought together the Soliven family, their closest friends, and the OB Montessori Center (OBMC) family. Guests were garbed in the most colorful Hawaiian shirts and summer dresses, a bloom tucked in most of the ladies’ hair. The celebrator joined her staff in a native dance as Polynesian folk songs were played throughout the breezy affair.
The 16-hectare farm, which grows vegetables, fruits (like sweet pineapples and dragon fruit) and herbs, also boasts camping sites and guesthouses. Soon, the Max Soliven Library and Museum will rise in the property. Behind the farm, designed by landscape architect Paulo Alcazaren, is a flowing river and a rocky hillside where you can go rappelling.
It also includes a pavilion with four function rooms. Asianthemed villas (Japanese, Thai and Balinese) and Mexicaninspired staff house were also put up. These are venues for spiritual retreats, company team building activities, weddings, parties and family vacations.
The farm is the fruit of Precious Soliven’s vision and mission. She has always espoused self-sufficiency and encouraged her students to be productive and to learn how to work in and out of the classroom. In fact, that is one of the things her daughter Sara Solivende Guzman (chief operating officer of OBMC) admires about Precious, her courage “in putting up a non-traditional school.” Precious trained in Perugia, Italy for the Montessori method of education. The school got the two letters “OB” from Operation Brotherhood, whose “father” Oscar Arellano had encouraged Precious to start educating young children in the Philippines the Montessori way.
Established by Maria Montessori, the “Montessori way” encourages the child’s creative imagination and the development of useful skills aside from just playing with toys.
As Max shone as a journalist, becoming its brightest star, Preciosa also glowed in her own firmament.
Today, there are f ive OBMC school campuses — Greenhills, Sta. Ana, Las Piñas, Fairview and Angeles City — with about 5,000 students! She was proud to be Max Soliven’s wife and he glowed with pride whenever he introduced her. But she was her own person, defined by her own achievements — something Max encouraged because he offered to take care of their baby Rachelle so she could pursue her studies in Montessori education in Perugia, Italy in the ‘60s. In Max’s biography, Maximo V. Soliven: The Man and the
Journalist, writer Nelson Navarro writes, “Precious was sweet sixteen and pretty as a movie star when Max met her.”
“A born romantic like his father and brothers, Max treated Precious like a princess from the very beginning. He called her ‘my Precious Silver,’ a literal play on her name,” Navarro writes. Though she at first wanted to be a nun, Precious became Max’s bride at the St. Anthony’s Church in Singalong, Manila in 1957.
I remember reading that when Max was “invited” to Camp Crame when martial law was declared, Precious was said to have reminded him to wear a barong, so he would look dignified before the foreig n press who wo ul d surely flash the report around the world. He was put in the same cell as Ninoy Aquino, and was incarcerated for 70 days. Precious was both mother and father to their daughters during Max’s absence. “I admire my mother’s courage to confront different situations with grace under pressure — martial law, putting up a non-traditional school, a foundation for the poor children and an educational farm and botanical garden. Against all odds…” says Sara.
Still arrestingly beautiful at energetic at 77, Preciosa Soliven shows us that a busy woman is a beautiful woman, and that being driven by a purpose is an elixir.