Henry Tan Chi Sieng Sy, Sr. known as Henry Sy, Sr.

was born on
October 15, 1942 in Jinjiang, Fujian, Republic of China. Henry Sy
migrated to the Philippines with his family at the tender age of 12. He
immediately began working alongside his father in their small sari-sari
store in Quiapo, Manila. This early exposure to retail instilled in him a
strong work ethic and a keen understanding of customer needs.
However, their life took a dramatic turn during World War II when their
store was destroyed. While his father returned to China, Henry made a
bold decision – he would stay in the Philippines and build a new life. Despite the
devastation, young Henry Sy didn't wallow in despair. He used his meager savings of 10
cents to invest in his education, learning English and Filipino languages alongside
courses in commerce. This newfound knowledge, coupled with his natural business
acumen, proved invaluable in the years to come.
He started small, selling surplus boots and gradually transitioning into the shoe trade. By
identifying a local supplier and venturing into shoe imports, Henry Sy displayed a
remarkable ability to adapt and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
In 1958, Henry Sy's entrepreneurial spirit took a major leap – he opened his first shoe
store, aptly named Shoe Mart. Felicidad, his wife and a pillar of support, played a crucial
role in managing the business. Shoe Mart's success laid the foundation for what would
become a retail empire. However, Henry Sy wasn't one to rest on his laurels.
He recognized the growing demand for a wider variety of products and envisioned a more
comprehensive shopping experience. This vision led to the opening of the first SM
Department Store in 1972, just two months after the declaration of Martial Law in the
Philippines.

The early years of the department store were challenging. Building a new business amidst
political uncertainty was no easy feat. Yet, Henry Sy remained steadfast in his long-term
vision. He viewed limited opportunities for property acquisition as an investment in the
future. His calculated risks and unwavering focus on steady progress laid the groundwork
for the SM brand's phenomenal growth.

The journey wasn't without its obstacles. Construction delays and the Asian financial crisis
of 1997 presented significant hurdles. However, Henry Sy's unwavering commitment to
his vision propelled him forward. In 1985, a pivotal moment arrived with the opening of
SM City North EDSA, the first of many SM Supermalls. These iconic shopping malls
transformed the Philippine retail landscape, offering a one-stop destination for Filipinos
across all walks of life.

As a result, his company is a big presence in the Philippine economy today. In addition,
The Henry Sy Foundation empowers the youth and fosters the culture of achievement
and excellence by giving grants to educational institutions to drive Philippine social
development.
 Socorro Ramos, also referred to as Nanay Coring, is a well-
known entrepreneur from the Philippines and the creator of
National Book Store, the country's biggest chain of book stores.
Nanay Coring, who was born on January 13, 1923, in Sta. Cruz,
Manila, has a unique story to tell about his tenacity and love of
reading. Her commitment to encouraging literacy and giving the
Filipino people access to affordable books has had a long-lasting
effect on the educational and cultural landscape of the nation.
Nanay Coring found comfort and inspiration in books as a young child and grew to love
reading. She pursued her studies with unflinching determination despite the difficulties
presented by her low living situation because she believed in the power of information
and the transforming potential it held for her. Her early years lay the groundwork for her
future ambitions as she set out on a remarkable journey to transform the Philippine
bookselling sector. She helped her parents and grandmother in their small businesses
since she was a child. She graduated from Arellano High School in Manila and worked
as a shop girl in the Ramos Goodwill Book Store, where she met her future husband José
Ramos. In 2006, she received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities from Ateneo
de Manila University for her contributions to Philippine literature and culture.
When Socorro Ramos was 18 years old, she worked as a salesgirl at a bookshop and
began her career in publishing and retail. She was employed by Jose Ramos, her brother-
in-law and operator of the Ramos Goodwill Bookstore. Despite the opposition of her
family, she wed Jose in 1940, and the two of them used P200 to start their own bookshop
in Escolta. They named it National Book Store and sold books and school supplies to
students. However, their business faced many difficulties during the Japanese occupation
and World War II. They had to hide their American books from the Japanese censors and
sell other items like soap and slippers. Their store was also burned down during the Battle
of Manila in 1945. They had to start over with the books they had saved and rebuild their
store at a new location on Rizal Avenue. Unfortunately, a typhoon destroyed their store
again in 1948. In spite of these obstacles, Socorro and Jose continued. They added a
mezzanine to their reconstructed store and increased their selection of goods to include
greeting cards, magazines, toys, and gifts. They also hired more workers and opened
new branches in other regions. They made the company a family affair by involving their
three kids, Alfredo, Benjamin, and Cecilia. They had roughly 50 branches nationally by
the 1990s. They employed more than 3,000 people and had 145 branches by the year
2020.
Business and profit aside, the National Bookstore chain founded by Coring and Jose,
reconstructed the longstanding difference between a bookshop and a bookstore
successfully innovating it into a much more viable means of learning by instilling the traits
of both the former and the latter into a single establishment. Moreover, the chain brought
books that were international best sellers at the time, to the Filipino readers. Furthermore,
Socorro Ramos also participated in charitable activities; establishing a “charity event”
every year such as the Project Aklat, and the Buklat Aklat mobile library, in which people
are encouraged to donate books for the less fortunate. School supply kits, and well
discounted books for the public are also the given on the said event.
 Tony Tan Caktiong is the Founder of Jollibee, one of the biggest fast food
chains of Philippines. He owns approximately 1500 stores all over the
world that include the Red Ribbon, Greenwich, Mang Inasal, Manong
Pepe's, Tita Frita Uling Uling, Chowking. Tan was born on January 5, 1953
in a family of Chinese immigrants, originally from Fujian. He did his high school from
Chiang Kai Shek College. Tan has a degree in chemical engineering from the University
of Santo Tomas. Tan was involved in the family restaurant business from an early age.
Tan started his career with a small ice cream parlour, ‘Jollibee’ at the age of 22. He
expanded his business by adding dishes such as French fries, fried chicken and
hamburgers. Tan bought the franchise of the Magnolia Dairy Ice Cream and opened a
couple of ice cream parlours. He added sandwiches and hot meals to the menu on the
popular demand of his customers. Tan founded Jollibee in the year 1978, three years
after establishing an ice cream parlor. He acquired the Greenwich Pizza Corp, entering
the pizza and pasta food market. Jollibee Foods Corp bought the remaining shares of
Greenwich Pizza Corporation in the year 2006 and became a 20% stake-holder. He
bought out the shares of his partner, Greenwich for a cash amount of P384 million. Under
the leadership of Tan, Jollibee has become the most popular chain of fast food restaurants
in the country. Today, it is one of the leading fast food chains and dominates 50% of the
food market. Tan acquired the Yonghe Dawang in 2004 and the Chowking Oriental in
2000.
Tony Tan Caktiong did not keep all of his riches to himself. He is known to be a generous
man who gives back to his community. In 2004, he established the Jollibee Group
Foundation. The organization focuses on helping the Filipino people through programs in
agriculture, education, leadership development, housing, community development, and
environment and disaster response. Jollibee Group Foundation developed a “Farmer
Entrepreneurship Program” to help farmers produce goods and increase their income.
According to Grace Caktiong, Jollibee Group Foundation President, "We, the foundation,
come in as a bridge, bridging the market between our company and other food institutions
with the farmers." Since they have noticed that the farmers do not have the market
produce, they used it as a good idea to form a mutual relationship wherein they both help
and benefit from the farmers. Tony Tan Caktiong also wants to help build homes for the
less fortunate; that is why he worked with Gawad Kalinga because they share the same
goals and vision to make the communities better. Gawad Kalinga is known for building
shelters for the less fortunate. Its main goal is to reduce poverty and restore the dignity
of the poor. Jollibee has established two hundred (200) homes for Gawad Kalinga. Tony
Tan said that "As the company grows, we came to the realization that we need to
maximize our resources and strengths of the company and give back to the community
in a more organized manner," so they came up with the program called “Busog Lusog
Talino Program.” This program aims to provide meals to malnourished students in order
to motivate them to attend school. Moreover, this program collaborates with communities
to combat hunger in community school students in grades 1 and 2 to help them stay in
school and learn more. According to the JFC site, as of December 2020, they have
mobilized a total of three hundred million (300,000,000) food assistance equivalent to 4.7
million meals. Jollibee Foods Corporation's programs also include neighborhood
leadership development, grants, feeding programs, and even disaster relief.
 Alfredo M. Yao was born on November 23, 1943, and he was the
eldest among his siblings. At an early age, specifically, at his 12th
year of existence, his father passed away and he was forced to be
the breadwinner of his mother and siblings. This made him sacrifice
his education and started making up printing business at the age of
17 with a capital of 3,000 PHP loan. The printing business in now
known as the Development Bank of the Philippines. At the age of 18, he was already full-
fledged business man that experienced lots of hardships including being a street vendor
and sleeping in the streets with a card box. Yao learned about printing packages
through a cousin that works for a printing press and he learned about printing cellophanes
of wrappers for candies and biscuits. This made him come up with a business venture
of operating printing press business. The business venture thrived for about 20 years until
Yao saw the potential of “doypacks”. In 1979, he discovered doypacks through
a business trip in Europe in which he saw the European technology of packaging.
Doypacks are sealed bag made of plastic and aluminum that’s designed to stand upright.
After seeing the potential of the doypacks, he decided to take the European technology
back home and marketed it to local manufacturers, but unfortunately, no one showed any
interest. Afraid of losing the potential, he decided to take the doypacks in his own kitchen
by making his own juices and packed it using the doypacks he got from Europe. In 1980,
Yao started cooking up his own juices in his own kitchen, and launched Zest-O
Corporation at the same year. The juices were a hit because the mothers saw the
convenience of putting light but tightly-packed orange drinks in their kids’ lunch boxes,
and the kids also loved it.

Today, Zest-O Corp. produced 12 more variety of drinks and command 80% of the
market for fruit juices Alfredo’s business expanded from the Philippines to
other different countries such as China, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Singapore, the
U.S. and Europe. Even though Zest-O Corp. is gradually reaching its success, Alfredo
did not stop making innovations in which made him achieve more success in business.
Yao also looked for another potential investments. At 2008, he launched his very own
airways named as Zest Airways. He was met with major competitions with Philippine
Airlines and Cebu Pacific Airlines, which made him come up with the idea to make Zest
Airways as the first Airway flying tourist from China, and Korea straight to Philippine
destinations without dropping by at NAIA. Yao was also the Chairman of Macay
Holdings, Inc., the parent company of ARC Refreshments Corporation, which handles a
couple of popular beverage brands including RC Cola, and the founder and Chairman
Emeritus of Philippine Business Bank, a bank which focuses on small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) and has over 139 branches as of 2016.
Setting aside his passion for the corporate world, Fred realized then the need to helping
bright and financially strapped students particularly at the Northern Rizal Yorklin School
(where he finished his secondary education). The philanthropist in him eventually
extended to those who personally approached him for financial assistance particularly
those in the pursuit of acquiring a college degree. Together with some close friends and
members of his immediate family who share the same vision , Fred initiated the birth of
the AMY (an acronym which stands for “Alfredo Macam Yao”) Foundation. Its main
objective was geared towards the upliftment, development and advancement of street
children, leading to the granting of academic scholarships to deserving and
underprivileged children of the Philippine society. Likewise, it aims to provide financial,
technical and manpower expertise towards the various projects lined up by the
Foundation in the future.
 Cecilio Kwok Pedro, of Chinese descent, was born on 1953 in the
Philippines. Even when he was young, Pedro already has a knack
for business, selling pens to his schoolmates. Dr. Pedro’s story is
not the rags-to-riches type, but his success is nevertheless
admirable.
He graduated from Ateneo de Manila with a degree in Business Management. It was
around 1975 when Cecilio to put up his own business. He borrowed P20,000 from his
father and founded Aluminum Containers, Inc., supplying collapsible aluminum
toothpaste tubes to Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble, and Philippine Refining
Company. But due to environmental concerns, the companies decided to use plastic-
laminated toothpaste tubes instead in 1985. Cecilio’s company took a huge blow,
prompting him to close his business in the same year.
Dr. Cecilio did not allow this problem to put him down. In 1985, he decided to start again
and established Lamoiyan Corporation. Lamoiyan was the Cantonese name of her
grandmother, whom he loved and look up to. It was her that introduced their family to
Christianity.
The initial plan was to use the machines from his defunct company for epoxy but he
thought that the market was too small. Since he used to be a supplier for a toothpaste
company, this is where he focused the business instead, much to the disapproval of
many. He developed his own brand of toothpaste, Hapee. Contending against well-
known, international brands is a tough one, so Dr. Pedro realized that the only way that
his toothpaste can get noticed is to sell them at a lower price, 50% less that of Colgate
and Close up. The company also developed different fruity flavors of Hapee which
enticed the children. They also manufactured the toothpaste in smaller packs and
sachets; hence, catering to different markets. In later years they also introduced other
variety of products like dishwashing pastes and fabric detergents.

Not only is Lamoiyan Corporation known for creating a Filipino brand of toothpaste, but
also for its commitment to supporting the deaf community. The company employed
hearing-impaired people, and required employees to learn how to communicate with the
deaf. And since he is a devout Christian like her grandmother, Dr. Cecilio also founded
and chaired the Deaf Evangelistic Alliance Foundation (DEAF) which gave scholarship
to the deaf community and introduced them to Christianity, standing by the company’s
motto, “To make a difference for the glory of God.”