Death of the dragons: The passing of an era

MANILA, Philippines — Most of them came from Fujian, China and migrated to the Philippines before World War II to escape the difficult life in their motherland. Some were born in Manila but to Chinese descendants from the mainland who migrated to the Philippines.

Their stories have a common thread – they worked hard and persevered and built their respective conglomerates. 

And what sprawling empires they have built – from retail giants to airlines to snack foods to banks and what-have-you. 

But over the past three years, many of these first-generation tycoons – whose combined net worths have accounted for almost 10 percent of the Philippine economy – have passed away. They have surrendered to the dying of the light, making their respective grand exits from a life well lived and leaving legacies that are mostly larger than life itself. 

The question now in the minds of many is whether or not their successors would be able to continue their legacies and if so, would it be in the same thread that these founding fathers imagined it would be? 

Will their second and third generation scions be able to spew enough fire to keep their legacies burning?

Six dragons

This is the story of six ethnic Chinese-Filipino taipans who migrated to the country before World

War II -- John Gokongwei Jr., Andrew Gotianun, Henry Sy Sr, Lucio Tan, George Ty, and Alfonso Yuchengco.

They came to be collectively known as the six taipans behind the Asian Emerging Dragon Corp., a powerhouse company formed in 1993 during the time of President Fidel V. Ramos.

The group was supposed to submit an unsolicited proposal for the construction of a third terminal at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). 

Their project did not push through but individually, these taipans would achieve so much more than just a controversial airport terminal. 

Their respective empires have created jobs for tens and thousands of Filipinos and their success trickled down to the domestic economy.

Of course, some of these taipans were not without controversies -- from labor disputes, crony capitalism to tax problems -- but nothing they were not able to overcome. 

In the end, they were mostly vindicated and those who have passed were given an endearing farewell by generations and generations of Filipinos.

Andrew Gotianun Sr. 

The roster of Filipino-Chinese tycoons who passed starts with Andrew Gotianun Sr. who died in March 2016. 

Gotianun was born in 1927 to Chinese descendants who migrated to Cebu. He was a Chinese-Filipino entrepreneur who had a net worth of $900 million in 2015, the year before he died. He was the founder of Filinvest Development Corp., a long established conglomerate with interests in property through Filinvest Land, Inc.; banking through East West Banking Corporation; and power through FDC Utilities. 

Alfonso Yuchengco

A year after Gotianun passed away, another taipan died. This time, it was Alfonso Yuchengco, the man who founded the Yuchengco Group of Companies, another big conglomerate.

Unlike the other taipans, Yuchengco was born into a wealthy family. His father was Don Enrique Yuchengco, an immigrant from Fujian.

He went to La Salle for his primary and secondary education and was driven in a fancy car by the family chauffeur.

Known as “AY” in business circles, he inherited a bustling insurance business from his father which he expanded into banking, construction, and other industries after the war. He had a net worth of $400 million, according to Forbes.

George Ty

In 2018, it would be tycoon George Ty’s turn to make his grand exit. 

Ty is the visionary who founded Metrobank, the country’s second largest bank and who brought Japanese automotive giant Toyota to the Philippines. He passed away at the age of 86. 

Ty was born in Hong Kong in 1933. When he was six years old, he traveled to Manila with his parents Norberto and Victoria Ty, to settle in Tondo. 

 In 1962, then only 29, Ty founded and organised the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Company with partners Don Emilio Abello, Don Pio Pedrosa and Placido Mapa, Sr.  

He then went beyond banking and went to form a diversified business conglomerate which now includes Toyota, AXA insurance and Orix Metro Leasing to name a few. 

At the time of his death, he had a net worth of $2.5 billion.

Henry Sy

The country’s richest man Henry Sy is the legendary rags-to-riches taipan who built a mammoth retail empire from selling shoes. He died in early 2019 at the age of 94.

At the time of his death, Sy had a net worth of $7.2 billion and was the country’s richest man for more than a decade.

He was touted as the father of Philippine retailing but his story about his humble beginnings was no secret and served as an inspiration to generations and generations of Filipinos and to future tycoons. 

Sy was a poor boy from Fujian. He was a young boy of 12 when he came to the Philippines in 1936 to join his father who escaped from poverty that was sweeping their homeland. 

His father set up a sari-sari store in Echague St. in Quiapo, in the heart of Manila’s belly. The 12-year old young Henry  helped his father in the store and thought of ways to increase their income by developing small portions of products — the retail scheme. 

After the war ended in 1945, Sy started selling American shoes, brought by enterprising GIs. He peddled the shoes around the streets of Manila. 

He would later build a single shoe store and later on grow this to become one of the country’s biggest conglomerates, SM Investments Corp. which now includes banks, supermarkets, condominiums, house and lots, hotels and gigantic malls. 

John Gokongwei Jr.

The most recent death is that of John Gokongwei Jr. who died on November 9 at age 93.

Known as the Big John, Gokongwei was big in many ways. He built a conglomerate that spanned the areas of property development, food and beverage, retail, air transport, power, media and petrochemicals.

He is credited for disrupting established industries such as airlines and telecoms.

Founder of the listed conglomerate JG Summit Holdings, Gokongwei was the third richest man in the country with a net worth of $5.3 billion, according to Forbes.

He was not born poor but his father, who was a businessman in Cebu, died when he was only 13 years old.

For the family to survive, Gokongwei and his mother opened a small stall in the market, selling a wide array of goods including soap and candles. 

In 1957, at age 31, he ventured into cornstarch manufacturing which would become the foundation for JG Summit.

EL Kapitan: The lone survivor 

Lucio “El Kapitan” Tan, 85, is not the oldest in the group but  is now the lone survivor among the six taipans.

He is no doubt the most formidable, surviving many challenges in his empire including labor strikes in his flag carrier Philippine Airlines, tax cases involving his cigarette giant Fortune Tobacco and very recently, the death of his son and namesake Lucio “Bong” Tan Jr. 

With the recent death of Gokongwei, he is now the lone surviving ethnic Chinese-Filipino taipan who migrated to the Philippines.

The late Jaime Cardinal Sin once wrote that the life story of Tan is like the proverbial mustard seed: “it began small but emerged bigger than most of the shrubs and trees.”

Indeed, Tan had humble beginnings but would later emerge as one of the most successful industrialists in modern Philippine history. 

It was no surprise he would earn the moniker El Kapitan.

The eldest child of Chua King Ha and the late Tan Yan Kee, he was born in 1934 in Fujian. When he was barely four years old, his family joined the Chinese Diaspora to escape the invading Japanese Imperial Army.

Thus, they moved to Manila.

In 1955, he graduated from Chiang Kai Shek High School and later found a job at the Bataan Cigar and Cigarette Company to finance his Chemical Engineering studies at the Far Eastern University. Later, he became the chemist of the cigarette firm.

Having learned the ropes of the cigarette business, he set-up Fortune Tobacco in 1966. 

This humble venture, which was started in a small hut in Marikina proved to be the enterprise that would catapult Tan to success. 

From this business emerged numerous successful ventures that would turn into a sprawling conglomerate -- from tobacco to airlines, beer to banking, energy drinks to Greek-style yoghurt and hotels and skyscrapers. 

Human Triumph

The stories of these six taipans are stories of hardship, perseverance and most of all, human triumph. 

Their lives have proven that nobody is born a loser and that everyone has the capacity to succeed. 

And succeed, they did.

The next test is whether or not their success would continue beyond their lifetime. Will their successors deliver? Will it be a good succession? Someone once said that success without succession isn’t success. 

The answers to these questions are still up for anyone’s guess.

(To be continued)