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Philippines mourns loss of two corporate luminaries
November 15th 2019
Industry pays tribute to Cebu Pacific founder and PAL boss of three weeks after their passing earlier this month. Read More »
This week, the Philippines business community is commemorating the lives of two of the country’s corporate luminaries who passed away within three days of each other.
Lucio “Bong” Tan Jnr’s death, at age 53, was sudden. He collapsed last Saturday while playing basketball and died in hospital after suffering a brain aneurysm on Monday. John Gokongwei Jnr died the day Tan collapsed. He was 93.
Fujian-born Gokongwei built a vast Philippines business empire, JG Summit Holdings. It straddled manufacturing, retailing, real estate and transport. In the mid-nineties, when Philippine Airlines (PAL) enjoyed a monopoly in Philippines aviation, he funded a new airline based in his home city of Cebu.
In the next two decades, LCC Cebu Pacific not only broke up the PAL monopoly, but also developed into one of Asia’s most consistently profitable airlines and the biggest carrier in the Philippines.
Lance Gokongwei told Orient Aviation in our May 2016 cover story, Delivering On His Dynastic Destiny, that his father bought four DC9 passenger jets and told his only son “to go start an airline”.
After running the airline and associated businesses for 20 years, the younger Gokongwei, who has honors degrees in economics and applied science from the University of Pennsylvania, was appointed CEO of JG Summit Holdings in 2017.
Three weeks ago, Tan Jnr was named president of PAL owner, PAL Holdings, an appointment many in the industry expected to go to Lucio Tan Snr’s eldest son, Michael Tan (54).
Tan Snr, aged 85, bought back PAL from brewer, San Miguel, three years ago and re-appointed former PAL boss, Jaime Bautista, to stabilise the struggling carrier. Bautista retired last year and the Chinese-born billionaire has been positioning several family members in senior roles at the holding company that controls PAL.
