In this time of the pandemic, people expect that those who have much can share even more.
But let’s see who among the Filipino businessmen in the 2020 Forbes’ Top 10 billionaires’ list had much to share with their countrymen during this global health crisis.
Sy Siblings
Forthe 11th straight year, the top billionaires are the heirs of Henry Sy Sr. (founder and chairman of ShoeMart, now SM Group) with six siblings having a combined networth of $13.9 billion. This father of retail industry died at the age of 94 on January 19, 2019.
Their business spans from real estate, retail and shopping malls, hotels, banking and supermarkets.
In 2020, when the pandemic hit the country hard, the SM Group was most active in providing relief to the people by donating over P2 billion to the government and private entities; distributing PPEs, masks and other medical supplies and equipment, relief packs, emergency quarantine facilities, and food items to medical and non-medical frontliners in the hospitals and diagnostic centers as well as law enforcement people manning the quarantine checkpoints.
The SM Group was also the first to offer the MOA Arena as swabbing facilities for its entire workforce of several thousand people. SM Prime waived rental fees and BDO waived (interest and penalties) charges.
Manny Villar
Former Senate President and presidential contender Manuel Villar landed second in the Forbes list of Filipino billionaires with total networth of $5 billion. He grew up in Tondo to a middle-class family (contrary to the hype his publicists played up of being a slum dweller) which could explain why he lost to President Benigno Aquino III in 2010 because people did not buy the rags-to-riches tale.
His road to great wealth was paved with his housing projects, banking, hotels, real estate, public utilities (water and power in provinces) and telco (the Villars’ telco—named Streamtech Systems Technologies, Inc.—launched in 2020 took over the internet systems operations of Planet Cable Inc., a multi-system operator offering cable TV services, cable internet and digital video broadcast.
In 2020, the Villar family donated disinfecting apparatus to nine government hospitals in Metro Manila; 200,000 face masks; and daily supply of bottled drinking water to the government through the Department of Health. Villar has lately been reporting through populist media entities his source of great wealth coming from bitcoin or internet-based financial transactions which is still widely unacceptable to audiences here and around the world.
Enrique Razon
Enrique Razon reached third with total networth of $4.3 billion derived mainly from pioneering and innovating of port terminals here and abroad.
His International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is the biggest port operation in the country and has subsidiaries in Europe, Africa, and America.
He also owns Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels, which developed and operates the Solaire Resorts & Casinos.
In 2020, the ICTSI port management group donated P350 million to national and local government agencies, immediate communities, employees, and port stakeholders for PPE sets, ventilators, test kits, disinfectants, food and other essential supplies to truckers and vulnerable communities. It was also part of Project Ugnayan, of the business groups and the Catholic Church.
In addition, his Bloomberry Cultural Foundation donated PCR machines for COVID testing to the Lung Center, PPE, ventilators, rapid test kits, more PCR machines, medical equipment and essential supplies to hospitals. The company also retrofitted the Ninoy Aquino Stadium and Rizal Memorial Stadium, which will serve as quarantine and treatment facilities for coronavirus patients. It procured essential goods worth P100 million for distribution to poor families as well.
Gokongwei Siblings
The six Gokongwei siblings—Lance, Robina, Lisa, Faith, Hope, and Marcia —landed fourth with total networth of $4.1 billion left by their father, John Gokongwei Jr. who died in 2019 from businesses like Cebu Pacific (the largest low- cost carrier in the country), Robina Farms, Robinson Retail (malls and supermarket chains) the largest snack maker– Universal Robina Corp., the food & beverage that started from a cornstarch plant in 1957 and Robinsons Resorts Holdings.
Lance runs JG Summit as chief executive while older sister, Robina is chief executive of Robinson’s Retail.
Together the conglomerate (hardest hit from Cebu Pacific’s forced closure due to the lockdown) pledged P100 million support to national and local frontline health providers through the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation for PPEs and rapid test kits; URC donated products like coffee, crackers, cup noodles, mineral water, Vitasoy drinks to health workers and those manning the checkpoints throughout the country; IRC Sugar and Renewables also donated sanitation and hygiene products to checkpoints and disaster risk reduction and management offices in Negros Occidental, Oriental, Batangas, Panay. and Tuguegarao in Cagayan.
Robinsons Land waived rental charges for all non-operating tenants in its malls during the lockdown.
Jaime Zobel de Ayala
Coming from an old-rich clan, Jaime Zobel de Ayala’s 2020 networth was $3.6 billion but the Ayala conglomerate has been a top contributor to the Filipino people and our country, alongside the Sys, during the 2020 pandemic.
As of April 2020, Globe had contributed over P255 million in donations, employee support, connectivity needs, and promos. It also provided a 60-day credit extension to customers to ease their worries on bill payments.
Globe also had a donation drive through this app, where subscribers can donate rewards points to help medical workers in the country. The Globe Rewards donation drive was able to raise over P35 million for 11 hospitals in the country.
The company installed free GoWIFI services in 68 hospitals nationwide. It waived charges for calls to government numbers and health hotlines such as the DOH COVID-19 hotline, national emergency hotline, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council trunk line, Hopeline 2919, and KonsultaMD.
Together with Singtel, Globe also matched its employee donations for a total of P27 million. The money will be used for the World Trade Center COVID-19 hub and more PPE sets.
Ayala Corp., the largest and oldest conglomerate allotted P2.4 billion for the wages of its employees and partner employers during the Luzon lockdown. Ayala Malls also waived rental fees, worth around P1.4 billion, of businesses that are not allowed to operate.
Through Ayala Healthcare Holdings, over 10,000 N95 masks were distributed to public hospitals on March 16. Around 5,000 employees of Ayala Land also participated in the ALI Pays it Forward campaign, which aims to generate donations for public hospitals in Metro Manila through Project Ugnayan.
Andrew Tan
Born poor and lived most of his young life in an apartment in Hong Kong with other families, Andrew Tan literally rose from rags to riches.
He is now ranked by Forbes as 6th Filipino billionaire with networth of $2.3 billion from his businesses in F & B, gaming and real estate.
His Alliance Global holding company has interests in Haiwan, Taiwan, Dubai, Singapore, Nigeria, Africa and Kuwait. His local business empire includes Megaworld (a successful real estate and infrastructure company) and McDonald’s chain of fastfood stores.
AGI donated over P603 million to various efforts of the country to fight COVID-19 that includes P100 million donation to Project Ugnayan (in food vouchers to thousands of urban poor families) P250 million worth of alcohol for hospitals, LGUs, government agencies and organization; P60 million of Megaworld to Red Cross for brand-new COVID-19 test laboratories that can conduct 10,000 tests per day P125 million worth of PPEs, gears for medical frontliners and grocery bags for poor communities by Resorts World Manila, and P3 million of food and groceries for healthcare and security forces and construction workers and free transport to medical frontliners.
Through the McDo Kindness Kitchen program, McDonald’s Philippines pledged 50,000 meals for health workers, police, LGU volunteers, government agencies, and local communities.
Its charity Ronald McDonald House Charities is also now accepting cash donations from individual and corporate donors who wish to support McDo Kindness Kitchen.
Lucio Tan
Lucio Tan (full name Tan Eng Tsai, landed 7th with total networth of $2.2 billion, born in Fujian province, heads companies like Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery, Allied Bank and Philippine Airlines.
He worked as a janitor in a cigarette factory before his promotion to tobacco “cook,” regulating the product mix. In 1966 Tan started his own tobacco company, Fortune Tobacco Corp. In 1977, he acquired the insolvent General Bank and Trust renaming it to Allied Banking Corp. and three years later, he launched Asia Brewery.
Lucio Tan became chairman of PAL in 1995, temporarily lost it but regained it in 1996.
During the lockdowns and pandemic, the flag carrier suffered much as with the tourism industry, which is why he laid off more than 500,000 employees of PAL.
But the LT Group donated 190,000 liters of alcohol, almost 200,000 liters of distilled drinking water and 2,000 pieces of N95 face masks to frontline health workers through its disaster relief program called Help Flows. LT Group also coursed its donations through DoH and GMA’s Kapuso Foundation.
Ramon S. Ang
Ramon Ang, president and co- chairman of San Miguel Corp., a highly diversified group, placed 8th with networth of $2 billion. He also owns Cyber Bay and Eagle Cement. His group employs over 24,000 employees in over 100 facilities in the Asia Pacific.
In 2020, the Group allocated P500 million for PPEs (the first 10,000 were locally produced and donated to PGH) but in all it obtained 54,000 PPE sets from suppliers in China donated to over 100 hospitals in the country; it donated ventilators to 5 hospitals; repurposed its liquor company, Ginebra to produce 70 percent ethyl aclohol.
Ramon Ang’s SMC allocated P500 million to buy PPE sets for health workers. The first 10,000 were locally produced and were donated to PGH.
On April 23, the conglomerate said 54,000 PPE sets from suppliers in China were also donated to over 100 hospitals in the country.
The conglomerate also donated ventilators to 5 hospitals. Amid the shortage of disinfectants, SMC repurposed the manufacturing facilities of its liquor subsidiary Ginebra San Miguel to produce 70 percent ethyl alcohol producing over 1 million liters worth P83.3 million. The company donated P15.37 million worth of powder disinfectant to LGUs and hospitals.
As of April 23, its alcohol donations have reached over 1 million liters worth P83.3 million. The company has also donated P15.37 million worth of its powder disinfectant Protect Plus Gold to various LGUs and hospitals. As of April 23, its total donations to COVID-19 reached P1.147 billion.
Tony Tan Caktiong
Tony Tan Caktiong, founder-chairman of Jollibee Foods Corp., that later acquired successful local and foreign food brands and the Double Dragon Properties landed 9th with total networth of $1.9 billion. He founded Jollibee, which now has 3,000 stores here and abroad, in 1978.
In 2020, JFC donated P220 million worth of food from its brands Jollibee, Chowking, Mang Inasal, Red Ribbon, Greenwich, Burger King, Panda Express, and PHO24 to frontliners and communities.
The company also released an emergency response fund worth P1 billion in advanced one-month salary and 13th-month pay to cover all work teams, as well as partner employers in stores.
Couple Lucio & Susan Co
In Number 10 was Lucio and Susan Co, owners of Puregold chain of 280 stores—which cater more to the hoi polio for its affordable prices for not-so premium products on the store shelves.
Their networth was $1.7 billion from their companies— Puregold Price Club founded in 1998 and now has 350 stores; Cosco Capital, an oil and mineral exploration and development corporation which later became Alcorn Petroleum and Minerals Corp. S & R membership stores and Lawson in collaboration with Ayala Land opened a mall-based upscale supermarket called Merkado, Liquigaz (Premier Wine & Spirits) and real estate.
Their companies suffered much during the pandemic (except for Puregold which enjoyed brisk sales and temporarily even S & R).
But with the lockdowns, business closures (including their dine-in restaurants), their bottomline suffered heavily.
This could be why it was not able to contribute much, if at all, to the efforts on COVID-19.