Richest Filipinos, the top 40

This is posted in one of my discussion yahoogroups. Someone lifted this list from an article by Tony Lopez, Editor of BizNewsAsia. According to Forbes magazine, the richest Filipinos and their respective networths, 2009:

1. Henry Sy Sr., $5 billion (SM malls, Banco de Oro, SM condos, etc.)

2. Lucio Tan, $2.1 billion (PAL, Fortune Tobacco, Allied Bank, PNB, etc.)

3. John Gocongwei, $1.5 billion (Robinsons malls, Cebu Pacific, Sun Cellular, Universal Robina, etc.)

4. Jaime Zobel de Ayala, $1.2 billion (Ayala malls, BPI, Globe Telecom, Ayala Land, etc.)

5. Andrew Tan, $1.2 billion (Ever malls?...)

6. Tony Tan Caktiong, $980 million (Jollibee, Chowking, etc.)

7. Enrique Razon, $975 million (MCTSI,...)

8. Beatrice Campos, $840 million (Unilab?)

9. George S.K. Ty, $805 million (Metrobank, Federal Land, etc.)

10. Eduardo Cojuangco, $760 million (SMC, agri-business companies,...)


11. Inigo and Mercedes Zobel, $730 million;
12. David Con-sunji, $715 million;
13. Emilio Yap, $665 million;
14. Andrew Gotianun, $500 million;
15. Vivian Que Azcona, $445 million;
16. Oscar Lopez, $420 million;
17. Manuel Villar, $380 million;
18. Jon Ramon Aboitiz, $360 million;
19. Mariano Tan, $330 million;
20. Robert Co-yiuto, $310 million;

21. Roberto Ongpin, $300 million;
22. Alfonso Yuchengco, $260 million;
23. Betty Ang, $165 million;
24. Enrique Aboitiz, $150 million;
25. Gilberto Duavit, $145 million;
26. Menardo Jimenez, $143 million;
27. Felipe Gozon, $120 million;
28. Alfredo Ramos, $117 million;
29. Manuel Zamora Jr., $116 million;
30. Wilfred Uytengsu, $115 million;

31. Benjamin Romualdez, $110 million;
32. Wilfredo Keng, $100 million;
33. Tomas Alcantara, $99 million;
34. Bienvenido Tantoco Sr., $95 million;
35. Frederick Dy, $70 million;
36. Eugenio Lopez 3rd, $68 million;
37. Lourdes Molina, $65 million;
38. Luis Virata, $57 million;
39. Jesus Tambunting, $55 million; and
40. Philip Ang, $50 million.

Filipinos with Chinese and Spanish blood are the richest Filipinos. Gone are the days of the landed elites, the "comprador bourgeousie" in the words of a famous Filipino Maoist, and the politician-feudal lords.

It's hard work, efficiency, entrepreneurship and luck that drove those men into high financial positions. Those guys should also have some good political connections so that the level of government intervention will not chock them. Or such intervention will prevent the entry of new big players, especially the multinational players. But nonetheless, it's mainly hard work and efficiency more than politics and political connections, that brought them up. Except for a few guys perhaps.