List of richest Pinoys-excluded in Forbes List
It’s not exactly the fault of Forbes magazine if it excluded several wealthy Filipinos from its list of the Philippines’ 40 richest in its Dec. 25 issue. Henry Sy of the SM group topped the magazine’s list with an estimated net worth of $4 billion while Manuel Pangilinan, or MVP, chief executive of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., ranked 40th with a net worth of $25 million, or maybe more.
Financial information about the country’s wealthiest are difficult to obtain, especially if their companies are not listed on the stock exchange. Creditor banks may hold critical information on the assets and liabilities of known wealthy Filipinos but they are the last to disclose such details because of the bank secrecy law.
Many of the rich Filipinos who did not land on Forbes’ list, however, are widely recognized in their respective industries. Very few will argue that they could have easily made it to the list.
Take sugar baron Jose Mari Chan, for example, whose family runs a large sugar empire in Negros Oriental and Iloilo provinces in the Visayas. Mr. Chan, who is also a noted song composer, inherited the business empire from his father, Antonio, who immigrated to the Philippines from China when he was 14 years old.
The Chans, who are among the country’s biggest sugar traders, own Central Azucarera de San Antonio (Casa), which operates a sugar mill in Iloilo and a refinery in Negros Occidental. Casa is investing P1.2 billion in a biomass co-generation plant capable of generating 14 megawatts of electricity and is putting up a state-of-the-art P1.6-billion sugar refinery in Negros Occidental. The Chans also own Hyatt Regency Hotel.
True-blooded entrepreneurs
Bookstore magnate Alfredo Ramos, one of the successful entrepreneurs in the Philippines, is qualified to join Forbes’ list. He is chairman and president of Atlas Mining and his family owns National Bookstore, the biggest bookstore chain in the Philippines. Mr. Ramos owned the defunct Daily Globe broadsheet.
Ambassador to Laos Antonio “Tony” Cabangon Chua’s worth is certainly more than P2 billion. Cabangon-Chua, founder and chairman emeritus of the Fortune Group of Companies and publisher of Philippine Graphic magazine, owns the fledgling Business Mirror and operates popular hotel and motel chains in the country.
Antonio “Tonyboy” Cojuangco will also easily qualify to the Forbes’ list. Tonyboy reinvested his “windfall” in Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. and Piltel after acquiring medium-sized Bank of Commerce and Associated Broadcasting Co., which operates ABC-5. Tonyboy also owns Dream Cable and has joined the call center business.
Corazon Ong, another successful entrepreneur, steadily built CDO Foodsphere to become the second-biggest meat processing company in the country after San Miguel’s Purefoods.
Former Trade and Industry Minister Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin could probably be among the 10 wealthiest Filipinos in the Philippines today. Bobby earns lucrative fees and commissions as an investment banker. He was one of the senior advisers of Asian billionaire Robert Kuok, who owns the Shangri-La hotel chain. Ongpin, whose family partly owns SGV auditing company, is now heavily investing in the local IT sector with investments in Eastern Telecoms, ISM Communications and Philweb.
Wealthiest Pinays
The Forbes issue named four Filipinas in its list. They are Betty Ang (net worth: $115 million), Vivian Que Azcona ($80 million), Lourdes Montinola ($50 million) and Marixi Prieto ($30 million).
Ms. Ang is president of Monde Nissin, maker of instant noodles, biscuits and snack food while Ms. Azcona’s Que family owns the Mercury Drug chain, the country’s largest with over 500 outlets.
Ms. Montinola’s father, Nicanor Reyes, founded Far Eastern University in 1928. She served as sixth president and is the largest shareholder of the school.
Ms. Prieto’s family, meanwhile, is majority owner of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which claims to be the biggest broadsheet in the Philippines.
