You can’t miss them actually. Buildings bear their names, foundation after foundation exult them as every deserving scholar’s benefactor and every crook in and out of government has them on the priority list for extortion or kidnapping activities. Forbes magazine prints out their names annually as the movers and shakers, saviors and even destroyers of the local economy.
Taipans are mostly of Chinese descent going by the familiar names of Gokongwei, Tan, Sy, Yang, Ang, Go, Yuchengco, Gotianun and every syllable available in the Chinese dictionary. But there’s no reason to be sinophobic. The Kastilaloys could boast of the Zobels, Ayalas, Rufinos Madrigals, Aboitizes and the Ortigases. Not too far behind are the native born like the Lopezes, Ramoses, Reyeses, Sarmientos, Jimenezes, Aguiluzes, Cruzes or Santoses in whose lineage every Indio bravo tries to establish some kind of relationship.
They are not only the captains of industry – they are the industry. While navigating their respective flagships in the rough and tumble seas of Philippine business, their crew consists of hundreds of thousands of workers and spur business activity for the benefit of millions of Filipinos whose livelihood are often intertwined with them, whether as consumers or suppliers or even moochers. Where they go, so goes the local economy.
Karl Marx would probably raise an eyebrow over their predominance in our nation’s life but the taipans are undoubtedly the single class of individuals who can prove that generating wealth – and even spending it – need not give capitalism a bad name that it had already earned since the slave labor days of the Industrial Revolution.
After all, the fruits of the taipans‘ labors, mostly built over several generations, have been shared, one way or the other, with the country and with the people in the form of taxes, employment, cheaper commodities and business opportunities for entire communities.
Some would even claim that when the taipans start raking in the moolah, everybody should lie in wait at the stand-lines ready to pick up or feast over the leftovers and crumbs of cash the taipans leave behind.
In a way, their riches could be considered as our own as the same trickled down to far more people other than the immediate members of their families while the caramels of their generosity could be legendary and have in fact, bankrolled the careers, education, livelihood, food, shelter, clothing and housing of thousands who live and work off the excess calories and fats of the taipans‘ perpetually burgeoning enterprises.
Except for the herederos and the rent-seeking biglang-yaman types, most taipans pride themselves on having originated from humble beginnings. The often reviled and misunderstood Lucio Tan was scoffed at by Manila’s elite decades ago for being a mere magbobote.
Well, he still is, only this time, he is in command of one of the largest breweries in Asia, serves as chief pilot of PAL, owns huge tracts of realty in Australia and the US protectorate of Guam might someday consider changing its name to Republic of Tan.
Enrique Zobel drove a karitela and eked out a living in the gutters while being constantly plagued by bouts of hunger during wartime Manila until he nursed back his family’s businesses at peacetime to transform them into one of the most integrated agribusinesses in the country.
Big John Gokongwei, on the other hand, never thought that he had a Chinaman’s chance to build an empire against the fast-dwindling fortunes left behind by his family until he, on his own, ventured into retailing anything and everything under the sun. Well, the monuments to his success include a string of malls, a cellular phone corporation, food processing factories, a bank, a publishing house, groceries and an airline company, are no chicken feed for one who struggled selling among others, well, chicken feed.
The saga of starting from scratch or near scratch and evolving into one of the wealthiest people in the Philippines and in the world is hardly something to sneeze at. The local taipans have been sources of awe and inspiration for the common folk for their ability to play with one hand tied against their backs and still show that they have the Midas touch.
Taipans always swear that they have arrived after much backbreaking labor and after sweating out every grain of energy in the salt mines coupled with the indomitable entrepreneurial spirit and the desire to succeed. Nobody disputes that. What every entrepinoy wonders half-aloud is how the taipans were able to amass so much wealth in a single lifetime.
The taipans‚ billions may be hard to match but their spirit and dose of risk-taking can very well be rivaled by a new generation of Filipino entrepreneurs who aspire to reach the taipanhood in half a lifetime and thank the taipans for blazing a trail for many others to follow. As it were, the worth of the taipans to many Filipinos is not usually measured by their billions. Their worth lies more in their ability to stand as role models for countless entrepreneurs who can dream the impossible dream of seeing his or her carinderia become a McTsibog food chain, stocking up the lowly sari-sari store into an air-conditioned convenience store, expanding the tiangge into a retail enterprise.
The taipunks or the wannabe taipans could someday give the taipans a run for their money. Well, let’s pray that they will make hay and make the day for the entire economy.