Mariquita hailed among top Filipinas

CEBU, Philippines — Cebuana philanthropist Dame Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung was named among the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World by the Global Filipina Women’s Network (FWN).

Yeung received the prestigious award during the 16th Annual Filipina Global Leadership Summit in Paris, France last October 31, 2019.

She was nominated under the Founders and Pioneers Category which honors Filipina women in their capacities as the chief executive, president, executive director or founder of a company, community organization, non-profit, or business venture that they helped start, build or significantly grow.

This award category is for the trailblazers who have marshaled resources and applied innovative practices, processes and/or technologies in a new and groundbreaking way to address significant business or organizational opportunity.

Yeung is the founder and chairman of MSY Charitable Foundation, Inc. and MSY Holdings Corporation. She founded MSYCFI in 1991 which puts laser-focus on healthcare and education.

Among the projects of the foundation is the yearly Operation Smile, a local brew for outreach program touching the lives of children born with cleft lips, cleft palate and other facial deformations to undergo reconstructive surgery which has since deployed medical missions to 70 cities and municipalities.

Yesterday, the Cebu Provincial Board passed a resolution congratulating Yeung for receiving the award. The resolution was sponsored by her nephew, PB Member Francis Edward Salimbangon, the president of the Philippine Councilors League-Cebu Chapter, and the son of Yeung’s brother, former congressman Benhur Salimbangon.

“She brought pride and honor most especially to the Cebuanos by reconstructing the lives of children in underserved communities, one smile at a time,” read the PB resolution.

Yeung grew up in Barangay Curva, Medellin, Cebu. She attended high school in Tindog, a barangay next to Curva, and studied for an education degree at the University of San Carlos.

Her father Martin Salimbangon was a schoolteacher. She met her husband Carlos Yeung, a Chinese businessman, when she was visiting her sister-in-law in Hong Kong.

Along with nine other Cebuanas, she was conferred the title Dame of the Order of St. Sylvester on May 25, 2011, for charity work and service to the church. This conferment is one of the five Papal Awards of Chivalry.

The FWN100 Award recognizes those who have reached status for outstanding work in their respective fields and who are recognized for their leadership and achievements in the global workplace and their local communities.

The FWN100 Award was conceived in the United States at the 2006 Filipina Leadership Summit as a result of its Future Search and the launch of the Pinay Power 2012 Campaign.

The first U.S. FWN100 awards were given at the 2007 Filipina Leadership Summit in Washington, DC.

In 2013, FWN launched its global search after the culmination of its Pinay Power 2012 Campaign in 2012 and kicked-off of its Pinay Power 2020 Mission: A Filipina woman leader in every sector of the global economy.

The Pinay Power 2020 Reunion will be held in San Francisco where the FWN100 search was launched in 2007.

Many of the awardees have reportedly reached the pinnacle of their careers in politics like Vice President Leni Robredo and former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker and now Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia. (FREEMAN)