The resilient ‘El Kapitan’

I was on the same PAL flight with Lucio Tan yesterday, and I have not seen him in a while so I had a nice, long conversation with him. Fondly called “El Kapitan” by the employees of his vast business conglomerate, many people have always been fascinated not only at the billionaire’s humble bearing but most of all, his resiliency, bouncing back at every hard punch life has thrown his way.

It’s hard to imagine that Lucio Tan – number three in Forbes’ list of the 40 richest in the Philippines – practically had nothing to his name when he came to the country as a young boy with his family to escape the wrath of the Japanese forces that had invaded China. Like many of the Chinese who came to this country, he had to endure a lot of hardships, compounded by the war which certainly made life even more difficult for a boy who suddenly finds himself uprooted from his home to settle in a strange land.

In his youth, El Kapitan worked as a janitor, mopping floors to put himself though school. He eventually dropped his chemical engineering degree at the Far Eastern University to work in a tobacco factory – which must have encouraged him to set up his own cigarette company in 1966. This small flagship enterprise saw the beginnings of a vast business empire, with Lucio Tan literally building up his fortune with Fortune Tobacco Company. The business expanded rapidly especially with the introduction of the Hope cigarette brand. This was followed by Asia Brewery sometime in the ’70s which went head-on against giant San Miguel Corp., which has been dominating the beer market in the country. From cigarettes to beer, El Kapitan spread his interest to banking via Allied Bank until his historic acquisition of PAL in 1993.

According to accounts, his rise to the top as one of the country’s most successful industrialists was likened by the late Jaime Cardinal Sin to that of a mustard seed – a plant that starts small but eventually grows bigger than many other shrubs and trees. That’s not to say however that he hasn’t had a taste of failure. On the contrary, it was said that the first two businesses he set up – an electronics shop and a corn starch factory – were unsuccessful. Yet he persisted, seeing opportunity in something that men with narrow vision would have taken as crushing defeat.

El Kapitan says that during the Aquino and Ramos administrations, he had no choice but to start looking outside of the Philippines for investment opportunities since those were the times when hot issues were being raised against him.  Today, his investments extend to China, Hong Kong and even to as far as Canada, with his net worth placed at $1.6 billion.

Among his businesses, PAL of course has become his “baby,” perhaps because he has always been fascinated by airplanes even as a young boy. He is really the captain of the PAL fleet, managing to keep the airline afloat despite having no support form his long-lost friend Joseph Estrada. PAL has staged a remarkable turnaround, emerging from receivership in less than a decade, expanding services and reopening flights to strategic destinations, showing that it is in top fighting form with the recent acquisition of nine Bombardier aircraft to restore its inter-island services.

Filipinos are familiar with Lucio Tan as a larger-than-life business figure whose empire spans so many industries including real estate and property development. But not too many people know about his various charities, mainly through the Tan Yan Kee Foundation which he founded in 1986 in honor of his father. A full-pledged NGO, the Foundation has been donating hundreds of millions for education, providing scholarship grants to college students, infusing funds for the training of teachers, construction of school buildings, hospitals and houses for the homeless.

Filipino doctors are sent to the best medical institutions in the world for sub-specialty trainings; workshops and seminars are conducted to improve the teaching skills of teachers especially in the areas of Math, English and Sciences – underscoring the fact that education ranks high in the priorities of the Foundation and ultimately, Lucio Tan himself. As a matter of fact, he was responsible for the successful turnaround of the University of the East from a hemorrhaging educational institution into one of the most financially stable universities in the country today.

I was informed that the low-key taipan also gave massive assistance to the earthquake victims in China. But people who are aware of the Tan Yan Kee Foundation say there is nothing unusual about this since the Foundation has been giving assistance to families in disaster-stricken areas. It only goes to show that like his businesses, Lucio Tan’s charities also extend to other countries.

This is probably why through the years and despite the odds, Lucio Tan has been reaping a lot of good karma. For a man who is turning 74, he is in the pink of health. Despite the persecution that he had gone through and in spite of the politics that continues to prevail, he continues to believe in the Philippines. And as he had told me, he will keep expanding his businesses in everyway he can to generate more employment for Filipinos. This is a man who has not lost his positive attitude despite insurmountable odds – something which we can hardly say about other so-called taipans.

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