John Gokongwei dies, 93

John L. Gokongwei Jr., the tycoon who built one of the most diversified consumer business conglomerates across Asia and the Pacific, passed away “peacefully” Saturday night, 9 November. He was 93.

In an early Sunday report by Esquire Philippines, a Gokongwei-led publication, Gokongwei’s only son Lance confirmed his father’s death through a text message.

“Our beloved husband, father, and grandfather John Gokongwei, Jr. passed away peacefully 11:41 pm, November 9th, at the Manila Doctor’s Hospital surrounded by his loved ones. Please pray for the repose of his soul. Details of his wake to follow. Rest In Peace, Mr. John,” Lance was quoted saying.

He now joins the stars he followed in sailing the wooden boat of his youth, guiding brave Filipinos who follow his example that for success to be achieved, one must leave the sight of the shore.

In a report by Forbes, John was named the third richest tycoon in the Philippines with an estimated net worth of $5.3 billion.

He founded the Gokongwei Group of Companies, which includes the holding firm JG Summit — is the parent firm of airline Cebu Pacific, food manufacturer Universal Robina Corporation, real estate company Robinsons Land, Robinsons Bank, JG Petrochemicals, and Global Business Power.

Apart from those, John has also stakes in the country’s largest telco PLDT through JG Summit. He also acquired stakes in the country’s largest power distributor Meralco, and the Singapore-listed United Industrial Corporation, the parent firm of Singapore Land.

The taipan is also the founder of Robinsons Retail Holdings Incorporated (RRHI), the second-largest retailer in the country featuring department stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, hardware stores, pharmacies, coffee chains, and specialty shops.

Some of the known brands under RRHI include Robinsons Supermarket and Department Store, Ministop, Toys’R’Us, True Value, True Home, South Star Drug, the Generics Pharmacy, Topshop, Shiseido, and Benefit.

In a press statement following his demise Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto described John as a “national flag carrier who impressed other people and inspired his own.”

“Mr. John was a national flag carrier who planted Filipino greatness in other lands and in the minds of his people that yes, a poor promdi like him can.

We can tally the jobs his business created, the taxes paid, and the earnings it generated, but the inspiration he gave our young was the most important bottom line that was hard to quantify,” Recto said.

“He started a phone company because he believed that the Filipino consumer has the right to unli choices and launched a Filipino airline because he believed that sky is the limit is for the Filipino entrepreneurial spirit,” the senator added.

In 2017, the Management Association of the Philippines named him Named Man of the Year “due to his business acumen and management qualities which steered the Gokongwei Group into remarkable growth through his foresight and exceptional ability to launch new ventures and transform existing ones to better adapt to challenging times and an unpredictable future.”

“Just a few years ago, the conventional wisdom was that family-run businesses could not be as well-managed as non-family-run businesses.

But the research has shifted, and our experience as a group shows that a hybrid of family-led publicly-listed businesses works,” John said in his acceptance speech.

John said being family-managed had given his businesses stability to see its investments bear fruit.

Apart from that, John was also recognized for his “leadership in making the Gokongwei’s Group a substantial contributor to national development.”

His two firms —JG Summit and RRHI — alone help created at least 60,000 jobs.

Everything about John was big—vision, dreams, kindness—yet he never tired of punching above his weight, and the obstacles he toppled paved the way for others.

But this taipan was also a colossus of generosity. Sans fanfare, he founded schools and scholarships, so that poverty will not interrupt schooling the way it did his. He spoke softly but wrote large checks.

John is survived by his wife Elizabeth, children Lance, Robina, Lisa, Faith, Hope, and Marcia, and grandchildren.