Saturday, August 29, 2009
Sy, Villar, Marcos allies in RP's 40 richest
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MANILA - The recent Forbes Asia magazine's accounting of the wealth of the Philippines' 40 richest people just might be an indication of economic recovery.
Published last August 25, Forbes Rich List showed that the total networth of the country's wealthiest has reached $16.4 billion, higher than last year's $14.2 billion.
Nine of the top 10 and 25 of all 40 in the list posted higher wealth compared to the previous list available last October 2008.
Forbes attributed this to signs of recovery as various industries benefited from continuously growing money sent home by Filipinos working abroad and healthy consumer confidence that kept Filipinos spending.
It also cited the 52% uptick in the Philippine Stock Exchange composite index since the beginning of the year and 67% increase since bottoming out in October 2008.
Share values are still 26% off the 2007 peak, but Forbes said the current levels are "enough to begin to turn around the fortunes of the country’s richest."
Forbes based the networth calculation on share prices of companies listed in the stock market and an estimation of the worth of privately held assets if they were listed. The figures also included the share of the individuals in their family's fortunes.
Share prices and exchange rates were based on prevailing rates as of August 14.
Mall power
Retail mogul Henry Sy again topped the list. His wealth increased by $700 million more since Forbes' last list in October 2008.
His current $3.8 billion networth was attributed to the appreciation of the share prices of his main holding family, SM Investments, which appreciated by 28% since October. SM Investments has stakes in banking, insurance, property, and malls.
The Sy family has the widest network of retail outlets - from malls to hypermarkets - nationwide. Four of his over 100 malls in the Philippines and China are included in the world's biggest malls.
The wealth culled from the retail business has propelled a new entrant, Marian Rosario Fong, into the Top 40 list.
Fong, who grabbed the last spot, was a former partner of Sy's supermarkets and still has a 1% stake in SM Investments, Forbes noted.
These accounted for her networth of $38 million, which Forbes said is still higher than the $30 million networth of the person who held that last spot in October. The networth of the last on the Philippine list again made the Philippines the easiest to make in all 14 countries in Asia that Forbes tracks for its Rich List.
Meantime, tycoon Lucio Tan (#2) and Ayala conglomerate's chairman emeritus Jaime Zobel de Ayala (#3) took the next slots.
Both used to clinch the top spot.
Tan, who is of Chinese descent, has interests in tobacco, beer, and banking. He is also in highly regulated industries, including aviation. Philippine Airlines, where he has a controlling stake, has been having financial troubles as it faces tougher competition and after hedging fuel supply when prices reached record highs last year.
On the other hand, Zobel de Ayala, who is of Spanish descent, has left the day to day management of his family's interests in property, retail, banking, telecommunications, and water to his children. He is now an art advocate and is into photography.
Business and politics
A notable member of the top 10 is Sen. Manuel Villar (#9) who is a May 2010 presidential aspirant. He has interests in real estate, which includes listed home developer Vista Land and Lifescapes.
Villar and his wife, Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, have been topping the list of richest solon with a P1.05 billion combined networth as of 2008.
However, Forbes calculate his current wealth at $530 million or about P25 billion.
Richer than Villar are two more politically connected individuals: Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. ($660 million, #7) and Enrique Razon Jr. ($620 million, #8).
Razon is into the ports business through International Container Terminal Services Inc. He emerged into prominence due to his closeness with First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, a golf buddy. Razon also helped in a recent campaign of senatorial aspirants who are allies of President Gloria Arroyo.
The closeness of the Arroyo couple and Razon is apparent as the latter would even include official visits to countries like Brazil and Syria, which have little trade or migrant labor relationship with the Philippines. Razon recently started operating ports in these countries.
Razon also won a concession for the power transmission business, a recently privatized monopoly. Roberto Coyuito Jr. ($290 million, #18), who was recently part of the consortium behind the transmission business, also made it to the Forbes list.
Razon and Coyuito's consortium was previously dragged to court by nickel businessman Salvador Zamora II for allegedly being favored by the state agency overseeing the bid. Zamora and his partners eventually lost the bid.
Zamora's $20 million fortune last year put him at the 32nd slot. This year, Forbes lumped his wealth with that of his brother, Manuel Zamora.
The Zamora brothers' combined $110 million networth pushed them to the 27th slot.
Marcos' allies
Cojuangco was an ally of former President Ferdinand Marcos who allowed Cojuanco to monopolize commodity businesses in the Philippines, including coconut. About 20% of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation, which he controls, is still under litigation for allegations of ill-gotten wealth.
Cojuangco made a bid for the presidency in 1992 but lost. He has since focused on regaining and growing San Miguel, and has become a kingmaker of sorts. He is currently chairman of the political party Nationalist People's Coalition.
Another Marcos ally that made it to the top 40 is Benjamin Romualdez ($70 million, #30), younger brother of Imelda Marcos. Romualdez is still battling various sequestration cases, but his sons are well-entrenched in politics and business: Benjamin heads a high-profile mining industry federation and Martin is a Lower House member as representative of hometown Leyte.
Martin Romualdez was recently dragged into a scandal for allegedly picking a $20,000 dinner tab for President Arroyo and her entourage in a recent official visit to Washington. The dinner cost became hot topic amid increasing hunger rates and widening national budget gap.
One notch richer than Benjamin Romualdez is President Arroyo's trusted ally Tomas Alcantara ($75 million, #29). Forbes considered his interests in mining, power, property, energy, and agriculture, all housed under Alcantara Group. Alcantara is said to have migrated to Canada.
Forbes also noted David Consunji (#17) as one of the big gainers. The stock price of his construction firm, DMCI, has doubled, propelling his networth by $300 million. This figure is $200 million more that his networth last year.
DMCI's mining related assets may have not grown as much due to declining mineral prices, but it had been clinching deals left and right. It has already expanded into water and tollroad businesses, where it sealed partnerships with the likes of San Miguel Corporation and other Manila's biggest conglomerates.
Poorer and missing
Nine of the Top 40 are poorer than a year ago. This includes married couple Rolando and Rosalinda Hortaleza who founded personal care products company Splash.
The couple's combined networth of $39 million was considerably lower than their $90 million last year. Forbes attributed this to the weak performance of Splash, best known for skin whitening products. Share price of Splash dropped by more than 50% since last October.
The Hortalezas slipped to the 39th spot this year from 27th last year.
Noticeably absent in the list this year is Manuel Pangilinan. He previously held the 37th slot in 2007 with a $35 million personal fortune and the 39th in 2008 with $39 million.
He is considered one of the highest paid executives in the country and the only professional who had been included in the Forbes list.
Pangilinan runs the leading telecommunications firm in the country, Philippine Long Distance Company where he represents the interests of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Holdings Inc. The latter is controlled by the Salim family of Indonesia.
Up to 80% of First Pacific’s investments are in the Philippines, essentially proving how much the Salims trust Pangilinan. Aside from telecommunications, Pangilinan has since clinched deals involving the juiciest businesses in the Philippines. Through another First Pacific unit, Pangilinan has added health services, property, water distribution, power distribution, tollroads, mining, media, and more to the business portfolio.
by Lala Rimando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak
Published last August 25, Forbes Rich List showed that the total networth of the country's wealthiest has reached $16.4 billion, higher than last year's $14.2 billion.
Nine of the top 10 and 25 of all 40 in the list posted higher wealth compared to the previous list available last October 2008.
Forbes attributed this to signs of recovery as various industries benefited from continuously growing money sent home by Filipinos working abroad and healthy consumer confidence that kept Filipinos spending.
It also cited the 52% uptick in the Philippine Stock Exchange composite index since the beginning of the year and 67% increase since bottoming out in October 2008.
Share values are still 26% off the 2007 peak, but Forbes said the current levels are "enough to begin to turn around the fortunes of the country’s richest."
Forbes based the networth calculation on share prices of companies listed in the stock market and an estimation of the worth of privately held assets if they were listed. The figures also included the share of the individuals in their family's fortunes.
Share prices and exchange rates were based on prevailing rates as of August 14.
Mall power
Retail mogul Henry Sy again topped the list. His wealth increased by $700 million more since Forbes' last list in October 2008.
His current $3.8 billion networth was attributed to the appreciation of the share prices of his main holding family, SM Investments, which appreciated by 28% since October. SM Investments has stakes in banking, insurance, property, and malls.
The Sy family has the widest network of retail outlets - from malls to hypermarkets - nationwide. Four of his over 100 malls in the Philippines and China are included in the world's biggest malls.
The wealth culled from the retail business has propelled a new entrant, Marian Rosario Fong, into the Top 40 list.
Fong, who grabbed the last spot, was a former partner of Sy's supermarkets and still has a 1% stake in SM Investments, Forbes noted.
These accounted for her networth of $38 million, which Forbes said is still higher than the $30 million networth of the person who held that last spot in October. The networth of the last on the Philippine list again made the Philippines the easiest to make in all 14 countries in Asia that Forbes tracks for its Rich List.
Meantime, tycoon Lucio Tan (#2) and Ayala conglomerate's chairman emeritus Jaime Zobel de Ayala (#3) took the next slots.
Both used to clinch the top spot.
Tan, who is of Chinese descent, has interests in tobacco, beer, and banking. He is also in highly regulated industries, including aviation. Philippine Airlines, where he has a controlling stake, has been having financial troubles as it faces tougher competition and after hedging fuel supply when prices reached record highs last year.
On the other hand, Zobel de Ayala, who is of Spanish descent, has left the day to day management of his family's interests in property, retail, banking, telecommunications, and water to his children. He is now an art advocate and is into photography.
Business and politics
A notable member of the top 10 is Sen. Manuel Villar (#9) who is a May 2010 presidential aspirant. He has interests in real estate, which includes listed home developer Vista Land and Lifescapes.
Villar and his wife, Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, have been topping the list of richest solon with a P1.05 billion combined networth as of 2008.
However, Forbes calculate his current wealth at $530 million or about P25 billion.
Richer than Villar are two more politically connected individuals: Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. ($660 million, #7) and Enrique Razon Jr. ($620 million, #8).
Razon is into the ports business through International Container Terminal Services Inc. He emerged into prominence due to his closeness with First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, a golf buddy. Razon also helped in a recent campaign of senatorial aspirants who are allies of President Gloria Arroyo.
The closeness of the Arroyo couple and Razon is apparent as the latter would even include official visits to countries like Brazil and Syria, which have little trade or migrant labor relationship with the Philippines. Razon recently started operating ports in these countries.
Razon also won a concession for the power transmission business, a recently privatized monopoly. Roberto Coyuito Jr. ($290 million, #18), who was recently part of the consortium behind the transmission business, also made it to the Forbes list.
Razon and Coyuito's consortium was previously dragged to court by nickel businessman Salvador Zamora II for allegedly being favored by the state agency overseeing the bid. Zamora and his partners eventually lost the bid.
Zamora's $20 million fortune last year put him at the 32nd slot. This year, Forbes lumped his wealth with that of his brother, Manuel Zamora.
The Zamora brothers' combined $110 million networth pushed them to the 27th slot.
Marcos' allies
Cojuangco was an ally of former President Ferdinand Marcos who allowed Cojuanco to monopolize commodity businesses in the Philippines, including coconut. About 20% of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corporation, which he controls, is still under litigation for allegations of ill-gotten wealth.
Cojuangco made a bid for the presidency in 1992 but lost. He has since focused on regaining and growing San Miguel, and has become a kingmaker of sorts. He is currently chairman of the political party Nationalist People's Coalition.
Another Marcos ally that made it to the top 40 is Benjamin Romualdez ($70 million, #30), younger brother of Imelda Marcos. Romualdez is still battling various sequestration cases, but his sons are well-entrenched in politics and business: Benjamin heads a high-profile mining industry federation and Martin is a Lower House member as representative of hometown Leyte.
Martin Romualdez was recently dragged into a scandal for allegedly picking a $20,000 dinner tab for President Arroyo and her entourage in a recent official visit to Washington. The dinner cost became hot topic amid increasing hunger rates and widening national budget gap.
One notch richer than Benjamin Romualdez is President Arroyo's trusted ally Tomas Alcantara ($75 million, #29). Forbes considered his interests in mining, power, property, energy, and agriculture, all housed under Alcantara Group. Alcantara is said to have migrated to Canada.
Forbes also noted David Consunji (#17) as one of the big gainers. The stock price of his construction firm, DMCI, has doubled, propelling his networth by $300 million. This figure is $200 million more that his networth last year.
DMCI's mining related assets may have not grown as much due to declining mineral prices, but it had been clinching deals left and right. It has already expanded into water and tollroad businesses, where it sealed partnerships with the likes of San Miguel Corporation and other Manila's biggest conglomerates.
Poorer and missing
Nine of the Top 40 are poorer than a year ago. This includes married couple Rolando and Rosalinda Hortaleza who founded personal care products company Splash.
The couple's combined networth of $39 million was considerably lower than their $90 million last year. Forbes attributed this to the weak performance of Splash, best known for skin whitening products. Share price of Splash dropped by more than 50% since last October.
The Hortalezas slipped to the 39th spot this year from 27th last year.
Noticeably absent in the list this year is Manuel Pangilinan. He previously held the 37th slot in 2007 with a $35 million personal fortune and the 39th in 2008 with $39 million.
He is considered one of the highest paid executives in the country and the only professional who had been included in the Forbes list.
Pangilinan runs the leading telecommunications firm in the country, Philippine Long Distance Company where he represents the interests of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Holdings Inc. The latter is controlled by the Salim family of Indonesia.
Up to 80% of First Pacific’s investments are in the Philippines, essentially proving how much the Salims trust Pangilinan. Aside from telecommunications, Pangilinan has since clinched deals involving the juiciest businesses in the Philippines. Through another First Pacific unit, Pangilinan has added health services, property, water distribution, power distribution, tollroads, mining, media, and more to the business portfolio.
by Lala Rimando, abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak
Labels: ayala, forbes asia, henry sy, lucio tan, philippine news online, richest filipino
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Saturday, August 01, 2009
Corazon Aquino, Philippines President, dead at 76
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MANILA, Philippines - Former President Corazon Aquino, who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on Saturday, her son said. She was 76.
The uprising she led in 1986 ended the repressive 20-year regime of Ferdinand Marcos and inspired nonviolent protests across the globe, including those that ended Communist rule in eastern Europe.
But she struggled in office to meet high public expectations. Her land redistribution program fell short of ending economic domination by the landed elite, including her own family. Her leadership, especially in social and economic reform, was often indecisive, leaving many of her closest allies disillusioned by the end of her term.
Still, the bespectacled, smiling woman in her trademark yellow dress remained beloved in the Philippines, where she was affectionately referred to as "Tita (Auntie) Cory."
"She was headstrong and single-minded in one goal, and that was to remove all vestiges of an entrenched dictatorship," Raul C. Pangalangan, former dean of the Law School at the University of the Philippines, said earlier this month. "We all owe her in a big way."
Her son, Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, said his mother died at 3:18 a.m. Saturday (1918 GMT Friday).
Aquino was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer last year and confined to a Manila hospital for more than a month. Her son said the cancer had spread to other organs and she was too weak to continue her chemotherapy.
Supporters have been holding daily prayers for Aquino in churches in Manila and throughout the country for a month. Masses were scheduled for later Saturday, and yellow ribbons were tied on trees around her neighborhood in Quezon city.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is on an official visit to the United States, said in a statement that "the entire nation is mourning" Aquino's demise. Arroyo declared a period of national mourning and announced a state funeral would be held for the late president.
TV stations on Saturday were running footage of Aquino's years together with prayers while her former aides and supporters offered condolences.
"Today our country has lost a mother," said former President Joseph Estrada, calling Aquino "a woman of both strength and graciousness."
Even the exiled Communist Party founder Jose Maria Sison, whom Aquino freed from jail in 1986, paid tribute from the Netherlands.
Aquino's unlikely rise began in 1983 when her husband, opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was assassinated on the tarmac of Manila's international airport as he returned from exile in the United States to challenge Marcos, his longtime adversary.
The killing enraged many Filipinos and unleashed a broad-based opposition movement that thrust Aquino into the role of national leader.
"I don't know anything about the presidency," she declared in 1985, a year before she agreed to run against Marcos, uniting the fractious opposition, the business community, and later the armed forces to drive the dictator out.
Maria Corazon Cojuangco was born on Jan. 25, 1933, into a wealthy, politically powerful family in Paniqui, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) north of Manila.
She attended private school in Manila and earned a degree in French from the College of Mount St. Vincent in New York. In 1954 she married Ninoy Aquino, the fiercely ambitious scion of another political family. He rose from provincial governor to senator and finally opposition leader.
Marcos, elected president in 1965, declared martial law in 1972 to avoid term limits. He abolished the Congress and jailed Aquino's husband and thousands of opponents, journalists and activists without charges. Aquino became her husband's political stand-in, confidant, message carrier and spokeswoman.
A military tribunal sentenced her husband to death for alleged links to communist rebels but, under pressure from U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Marcos allowed him to leave in May 1980 for heart surgery in the U.S.
It was the start of a three-year exile. With her husband at Harvard University holding court with fellow exiles, academics, journalists and visitors from Manila, Aquino was the quiet homemaker, raising their five children and serving tea. Away from the hurly-burly of Philippine politics, she described the period as the best of their marriage.
The halcyon days ended when her husband decided to return to regroup the opposition. While she and the children remained in Boston, he flew to Manila, where he was shot as he descended the stairs from the plane.
The government blamed a suspected communist rebel, but subsequent investigations pointed to a soldier who was escorting him from the plane on Aug. 21, 1983.
Aquino heard of the assassination in a phone call from a Japanese journalist. She recalled gathering the children and, as a deeply religious woman, praying for strength.
"During Ninoy's incarceration and before my presidency, I used to ask why it had always to be us to make the sacrifice," she said in a 2007 interview with The Philippine Star newspaper. "And then, when Ninoy died, I would say, 'Why does it have to be me now?' It seemed like we were always the sacrificial lamb."
She returned to the Philippines three days later. One week after that, she led the largest funeral procession Manila had seen. Crowd estimates ranged as high as 2 million.
With public opposition mounting against Marcos, he stunned the nation in November 1985 by calling a snap election in a bid to shore up his mandate. The opposition, including then Manila Archbishop Cardinal Jaime L. Sin, urged Aquino to run.
After a fierce campaign, the vote was held on Feb. 7, 1986. The National Assembly declared Marcos the winner, but journalists, foreign observers and church leaders alleged massive fraud.
With the result in dispute, a group of military officers mutinied against Marcos on Feb. 22 and holed up with a small force in a military camp in Manila.
Over the following three days, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos responded to a call by the Roman Catholic Church to jam the broad highway in front of the camp to prevent an attack by Marcos forces.
On the third day, against the advice of her security detail, Aquino appeared at the rally alongside the mutineers, led by Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and Lt. Gen. Fidel Ramos, the military vice chief of staff and Marcos' cousin.
From a makeshift platform, she declared: "For the first time in the history of the world, a civilian population has been called to defend the military."
The military chiefs pledged their loyalty to Aquino and charged that Marcos had won the election by fraud.
U.S. President Ronald Reagan, a longtime supporter of Marcos, called on him to resign. "Attempts to prolong the life of the present regime by violence are futile," the White House said. American officials offered to fly Marcos out of the Philippines.
On Feb. 25, Marcos and his family went to the U.S.-run Clark Air Base outside Manila and flew to Hawaii, where he died three years later.
The same day, Aquino was sworn in as the Philippines' first female leader.
Over time, the euphoria fizzled as the public became impatient and Aquino more defensive as she struggled to navigate treacherous political waters and build alliances to push her agenda.
"People used to compare me to the ideal president, but he doesn't exist and never existed. He has never lived," she said in the 2007 Philippine Star interview.
The right attacked her for making overtures to communist rebels and the left, for protecting the interests of wealthy landowners.
Aquino signed an agrarian reform bill that virtually exempted large plantations like her family's sugar plantation from being distributed to landless farmers.
When farmers protested outside the Malacanang Presidential Palace on Jan. 22, 1987, troops opened fire, killing 13 and wounding 100.
The bloodshed scuttled talks with communist rebels, who had galvanized opposition to Marcos but weren't satisfied with Aquino either.
As recently as 2004, at least seven workers were killed in clashes with police and soldiers at the family's plantation, Hacienda Luisita, over its refusal to distribute its land.
Aquino also attempted to negotiate with Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines, but made little progress.
Behind the public image of the frail, vulnerable widow, Aquino was an iron-willed woman who dismissed criticism as the carping of jealous rivals. She knew she had to act tough to earn respect in the Philippines' macho culture.
"When I am just with a few close friends, I tell them, 'OK, you don't like me? Look at the alternatives,' and that shuts them up," she told America's NBC television in a 1987 interview.
Her term was punctuated by repeated coup attempts - most staged by the same clique of officers who had risen up against Marcos and felt they had been denied their fair share of power.
The most serious attempt came in December 1989 when only a flyover by U.S. jets prevented mutinous troops from toppling her.
Leery of damaging relations with the United States, Aquino tried in vain to block a historic Senate vote to force the U.S. out of its two major bases in the Philippines.
In the end, the U.S. Air Force pulled out of Clark Air Base in 1991 after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo forced its evacuation and left it heavily damaged. The last American vessel left Subic Bay Naval Base in November 1992.
After stepping down in 1992, Aquino remained active in social and political causes.
Until diagnosed with colon cancer in March 2008, she joined rallies calling for the resignation of President Arroyo over allegations of vote-rigging and corruption.
She kept her distance from another famous widow, flamboyant former first lady Imelda Marcos, who was allowed to return to the Philippines in 1991.
Marcos has called Aquino a usurper and dictator, though she later led prayers for Aquino in July 2009 when the latter was hospitalized. The two never made peace.
By HRVOJE HRANJSKI, Associated Press Writer
___
Associated Press writers Jim Gomez and Oliver Teves contributed to this report.
Labels: Cory Aquino, philippine news online, Philippines, President Corazon Aquino, Tita Cory
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