History

Roberto Velayo Ongpin and Jaime Velayo Ongpin

By Rafael A. S. G. Ongpin

This is the story of two brothers, who very likely started out just like you. They went to high school on scholarship, worked hard, found success, and became significant figures in Philippine business and history. The Roberto V. Ongpin and Jaime V. Ongpin Scholarship or RVO-JVO Scholarship, is named in their honor. Here is the story of the two brothers who gave you this gift and opportunity.

Roberto’s nickname was ‘Bobby’, and Jaime’s nickname was ‘Jimmy’. Bobby was born in 1937, and Jimmy was born in 1938, the second and third child, respectively, of Luis Roa Ongpin, who was then an accountant, and Lourdes Morales Velayo, a homemaker. They have an older sister, Cynthia, and four other siblings followed them: Deanna, Luis Jr., Elaine, and Rene.

The Ongpins, in that era, were not wealthy. Bobby and Jimmy did not grow up in luxury. They had hard times during the Japanese Occupation in World War II, and could not often eat well. After the war, when their father Luis was able to find better employment, the family gradually regained a typical educated middle-class status.

The Ongpins are descended from a single Chinese ancestor, Ong Yak Pin, who was born in Tsi Mang Village, Jinjiang, Fujian in 1819, and arrived in Manila in the early to middle 1840s. He married a Chinese mestiza, named Sinforosa Tambensiang, and was baptized with a Christian name, Simón Ongpin.

Simón worked hard as a candlemaker and trader in that era when there was no electricity in Manila. Simón became wealthy, and a civic leader. He was appointed ‘Gobernadorcillo de Chinos’, making him the leader of the Chinese immigrant community. Simón returned to his ancestral village in China with his wife, Sinforosa, and there he died in 1882. His son, Román, would become even more prominent than his father, amassing a fortune in Manila based on hardware and retail.

Román was closely associated with the educated ilustrados, Filipinos who had studied in Europe and acquired the ideals and values of the Enlightenment, including the idea that all men were created equal, and thus, that all natives of the Philippines should be considered Filipinos, not just those of Spanish race. He considered himself and his family to be Filipinos, and was thus very nationalistic.

Román secretly supported the Filipino revolution against Spain, by financing and providing arms to the Katipunan. He was first imprisoned by the Spaniards, and later by the Americans. He died in 1912. He is recognized as a hero of the Revolution. Calle Sacristia, the main street of Binondo, Manila, was renamed Calle Román Ongpin in his honor, in around 1918.

Roman’s eldest son, Alfonso Tiburcio Domingo Ongpin was Bobby and Jimmy’s grandfather. He was a highly educated scholar, writer, documentary photographer, and a noted patron of the arts. ATO, as he was known, is considered the Philippines’ first art historian.

By the time Bobby and Jimmy were born, the family fortune was diminished. Their father, Luis, the eldest son of Alfonso, was a clerk in a stock brokerage at the Manila Stock Exchange. World War II hit the family hard, because the stock exchange was closed, and Luis could only find work as a clerk. The brothers recalled that they often did not have enough to eat during wartime, and would go to bed hungry.

When the war ended, Luis was able to get another job at the stock exchange, and their financial situation improved, but they were still, by no means, wealthy. They grew up in a rented house on J.M. Basa street in San Juan. During this period, the family had no household help, and Lourdes did everything, eventually getting her children to help in the household chores like cleaning, cooking, setting the table and washing dishes, and sweeping the yard, when they came of age. Bobby, Jimmy and their brother and sisters attended San Juan Elementary, a public school, which is still on N. Domingo, close to their house on J.M. Basa, about a ten-minute walk.

Their mother, Lourdes, told us grandchildren that Bobby was a physically active and often mischievous child, “magulo” in Filipino. When he was around five or six years old, he slipped and fell down the stairs in their home, and in doing so, nearly bit off his own tongue. They brought him to the hospital, where doctors were able to repair his tongue. It healed with no lasting injury.

While at San Juan Elementary, Bobby made friends with one of the kids there, named Joseph Ejercito. They remained friends for life, and Joseph, who changed his name to Erap Estrada when he started his movie career, later became President of the Philippines.

She said that Jimmy, on the other hand, was obedient, well-behaved, and had a sunny, friendly disposition. He was “matakaw”, during their San Juan years, and grew plump, although he lost the weight after he entered high school.

The boys did well at San Juan Elementary, and got high grades. When it came time for Bobby and Jimmy to attend high school, their mother, Lourdés, was determined that they should go to an elite school, as it would improve their chances of success. She applied to the American Jesuit head of the Ateneo de Manila, Father William “Bill” Masterson, S.J. Family lore has it that she called or visited Fr. Masterson almost daily, in her relentless effort to get her sons scholarships. 

Fr. Masterson finally found them scholarships, and Bobby and Jimmy were admitted, Bobby in 1950, to the Ateneo High School Class of 1953, and Jimmy in 1951, to the Class of 1954. Fr. Masterson never revealed who the anonymous donor was, and the family suspected that it might have been Masterson himself, but he refused to say.

When Bobby started high school, he initially commuted from San Juan to the old Padre Faura campus of the Ateneo de Manila. This campus was almost completely destroyed during the Liberation in 1945, and the classes were held in Quonset huts, which were large, round temporary storage sheds designed and built by the U.S. military, who had used the campus as a warehouse area.

The Jesuits built a new campus in Loyola Heights in Quezon City, and they formally opened it in 1952, although high school classes started there in 1951. Thus, Jimmy started high school there. He and Bobby, who were then 13 and 14 years old, would take a jeepney from San Juan to the end of Aurora Boulevard, from where they had to hike 600 meters down Katipunan Avenue, which at that time was just a dirt road through tall talahib grass, just to get to the gate of Ateneo. From the gate, they had to hike another kilometer, down another dirt road (which is today called Father Masterson Drive) to the high school.

Both Bobby and Jimmy had academically successful careers at Ateneo High School, and they made many lifelong friends there. One of Bobby’s friends was his young professor Emil Jurado, who became a prominent journalist, and turns 96 in 2024. Jimmy had his own barkada, who were fond of giving each other comical nicknames. They called Jimmy “Lumpia”, because he was still chubby when he entered high school. Some other members of this barkada included “Tigidig”(long face like a horse), “Tenga”(big ears) and “Mata” (bulging eyes).

Jimmy and Bobby were able to continue to Ateneo de Manila University, still on scholarship. Bobby graduated, cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science, Major in Accounting, in 1953. Jimmy graduated, also cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts, major in Commerce, in 1954. 

Jimmy claimed that he met his future wife, Maribel García, when they were both cast in a college play (around 1956 or ’57) produced and directed by Father James B. Reuter, S.J., who was the godfather of theater at the Ateneo. This play was a joint production of the Ateneo de Manila and the Assumption Convent, and thus the female parts were played by the Assumption girls. Before the 1950s, in Ateneo theater, the female parts were played by boys in women’s costumes. At any rate, Maribel insists she does not recall meeting him then, although she remembers the play. Jimmy says that he even had one line in the play, which was “¡Adelante, caballeros!” (Forward, ye knights!)

Both brothers worked for about a year after college, at Procter and & Gamble Philippines/ Philippine Refining Corp (P&G/ PRC).

Bobby was assigned to the Finance department, befitting his accounting degree. Jimmy was assigned as Brand Manager for Star Margarine. It was at P&G where Jimmy and Maribel met (to her recollection, at least), and began dating. Maribel was a secretary to one of the senior executives. 

It was Bobby who first applied for, and won, a place at Harvard Business School, under a Fulbright Scholarship. He went in 1958, and graduated with a Master’s degree in Business Administration in 1960. He encouraged Jimmy to join him, and Jimmy got a place and a scholarship for 1959-61. By that time, he and Maribel were steadily dating, and Jimmy convinced her to also apply for school abroad. She successfully won a place at Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

At Harvard Business School, both brothers made friends, Jimmy with some Filipinos, who would also become lifelong friends. One of these was Manolo Agustines. One day, Manolo went to the dorm room, which they shared, as roommates, and saw mestiza Maribel asleep on the couch. He turned to Jimmy and said, “Saan mo naman napulot itong Peace Corps na ito?” [‘Where in heck did you pick up this Peace Corps volunteer, here?’] Jimmy laughed, but Maribel, who, of course, understood Tagalog, was quite miffed.

At Mount Holyoke, Maribel got to be close friends with a beautiful Chilean girl, named Monica Arellano, who was in the same English Literature program. They both loved books and reading, and would speak to each other in Spanish, which was Monica’s first language, and Maribel’s second. At some point, Maribel brought Monica down to meet her boyfriend, Jimmy, and his brother, Bobby. Monica and Bobby immediately liked each other. They dated, fell in love, and got married in 1961, after their graduations. Jimmy and Maribel, meanwhile, married right after their graduation in 1961, at St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston.

Both Bobby and Jimmy stayed a year or two in the U.S. after graduation. Bobby went to work in Los Angeles, California for an accounting firm Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte), while Jimmy worked for Allen and & Co., a prominent investment bank in New York City, which had interests in the Philippines. Jimmy returned first, to work for Engineering Equipment, Inc., a subsidiary of Benguet Consolidated Mining Co., which was at the time still majority owned by Allen & Co.

As freshly minted MBAs, both Bobby and Jimmy had good management opportunities in Manila. Bobby eventually returned, recruited by Sycip, Gorres, Velayo & Co., already the largest accounting firm in the Philippines. Bobby’s uncle Fred Velayo was one of the founding partners, but Bobby was interviewed by the formidable Washington SyCip, who, even then, was considered the Godfather of Philippine Business. 

They met in SyCip’s office, and spoke for an hour, during which SyCip asked Bobby many questions. Finally, at the end of the interview, SyCip told him he was hired, and asked, “Do you have any questions you’d like to ask me?” Bobby smiled, and said, “Just one. How long before I sit where you’re sitting?” SyCip was Chairman of the firm. He told Bobby, “That depends more on you, than me.” 

The story was often retold by SyCip, who considered Bobby a protégé. He said it showed how Bobby was smart, confident, and ambitious, even at the beginning of his career. Bobby would go on to become managing Director of SGV, at the age of 29, in 1966, and served in that position for thirteen years. During his term, the firm experienced rapid growth both in revenues and geographic spread. It became the largest accounting firm in Southeast Asia, and one of the largest in the world.

Jimmy, meanwhile, started out as a junior executive, and eventually became president, at Engineering Equipment, Inc., a foundry and fabrication shop in Mandaluyong that specialized in making and importing mining equipment. It had been acquired by Benguet Consolidated after the war, and had begun to falter, because it wasn’t well run by the previous American managers. Jimmy turned it around, and after a few years, it not only became Benguet Consolidated’s most profitable subsidiary, its revenue grew almost to the size of the parent company.

The board of directors soon appointed Jimmy as Treasurer of Benguet Consolidated, a position equivalent to today’s Chief Financial Officer. In 1974, they made him President of Benguet Corp., then one of the largest companies in the Philippines.

Bobby was recruited away from SGV to join the Cabinet of President Ferdinand Marcos in 1979. At the age of 41, he was the youngest to ever hold the Commerce portfolio, later renamed Ministry of Trade & Industry. 

He said that when he met with Marcos, he told him, I’ll only agree to join if you give me full authority to do what I need to do. I can’t do it if I need to ask you permission for every move. Marcos agreed immediately.

In later years, Bobby said he never regretted his public service, or his decision to work for Marcos. He was never very political, but he admired Marcos’ intellect, trusted his judgment, and said he was the best leader the Philippines had, to that point. He acknowledged that Marcos was a dictator, but he insisted that Marcos was a dictator the Philippines needed.

He also said that Marcos was in and out of a coma when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated, and believes that Marcos had nothing to do with it. He had first-hand information, because prior to this period, he would have face-to-face meetings with Marcos once a week, to brief the president on what he was doing. The meetings suddenly stopped, and Bobby knew the president was in the hospital, contrary to Malacañan Palace’s announcement that the president had gone on leave ‘to write a book’.

Jimmy was also not originally political, but he started to get drawn into politics because of economic developments. In particular, the giant Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines, led by Marcos crony Rodolfo ‘Rudy’ Cuenca, had started to fail, largely due to an over-ambitious expansion financed by behest loans, and Marcos directed that the government bail it out by nationalizing it, and lending it government money. This bailout, over several years, would have involved about 5% of the entire Philippine money supply. It was gigantic. Jimmy said, in a speech, that lending it further government funds was “throwing good money after bad.”

In 1980, Jimmy started speaking publicly about these issues. He coined the term “Crony Capitalism”, and made statements to national and international audiences about how Marcos’ economic mismanagement threatened the Philippine economy. Already, the Philippines had a record high foreign debt, and key indicators showed that the economy was drifting, not growing. At this time, he was a lone voice representing the business sector. Others, who were opposed to Marcos, would not come out in public, because they were afraid of what Marcos might do to them and their businesses.

This situation came to a crisis point when Ninoy Aquino was murdered at the Manila International Airport, on August 21, 1983. The stock market crashed, there were bank runs, and the peso collapsed against the dollar, as anyone who had any money began smuggling it out of the country, in a massive flight of capital. 

The economy soon collapsed, and the government was forced to declare a moratorium on debt payments in October, and later take emergency loans from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, just to be able to continue its operations.

Bobby took a key role in the countermeasures against capital flight. At that time, the Central Bank was supposed to control all foreign exchange in the market, by setting and enforcing the peso-dollar rate. However, in reality, the black market for dollars was many times larger than the official market controlled by the CB. Bobby knew that this black market, which was jokingly called “The Binondo Central Bank”, was run by about nine Chinese Filipino currency traders. 

He engineered an intelligence operation in which one night, all of the nine were rounded up, arrested at home, and brought to the Philippine Constabulary Headquarters at Camp Crame. They were assembled in a room, when Bobby strode in. He barked and cursed at them, saying that what they were doing was not only illegal, it was treason and economic sabotage, and they could face the death penalty for it. This was so dramatic that one of the traders had a heart attack and dropped dead, right there, on the floor.

Bobby hardly paused. He said, ‘I’m going to offer you a deal. From now on, you work for us. We set the rates, and you continue to trade, but under our supervision. In other words, the Central Bank will regain control of the foreign exchange market. You will still profit, but reasonably, not the huge profits you have been making. You choose this, you can go home, and go back to business. If you refuse, you stay here in jail, and we will prosecute you for economic sabotage.’

Naturally, the traders all agreed to work for the government. In this way, the flow of dollars outside the country was significantly reduced. 

This incident, which later led to many court cases after the fall of Marcos, showed Bobby’s audacity, creativity, and brute political power in executing a daring and unconventional solution to a serious economic problem. It worked. He was acquitted of wrongdoing in the last of the cases, 30 years later.

Jimmy and others started a business sector group, called Manindigan! [Stand up!] in 1984. The founding members were all prominent leaders from business and the academe, including Ramon del Rosario, Jr., Alfredo “Alran” Bengzon, Emmanuel “Noel” Soriano, Fr. Joaquin Bernas, Ricardo Lopa, Patricia “Tati” Licuanan, Jesus “Chito” Ayala, Narcisa “Ching” Escaler and Narzalina “Narz” Lim, with Atty. Adolfo Azcuna as legal counsel. This was significant because it was the first time that the previously apolitical middle class decided to confront national politics, and also that business leaders dared to come out in the open, in opposition to Marcos.

Jimmy continued to speak out against Marcos, and this time, he was joined by many, who were encouraged by the millions who had come out in protest during the funeral of Ninoy Aquino. The anti-Marcos movement had started in earnest.

It was thought by many observers that during this period, the brothers were feuding with each other. The truth was, they continued their close relationship, and met often, with their families, rarely discussing politics, more often sharing fine wines, which they both liked. Each respected the other’s opinion and stand, even if he did not agree with it. 

President Marcos himself had asked Bobby, behind the scenes, if he could convince Jimmy to stop talking against the government, but Bobby said Jimmy was entitled to his own opinions, and he had to respect them. There were several occasions where the brothers played the role of back-channel emissaries between the Marcos camp and the opposition, but these were minor matters. They were never major political negotiations.

The turmoil of 1983 continued until Marcos announced the snap election of 1985. Jimmy led the Convenor Group, which successfully united the moderate elements of the population behind Cory Aquino as the opposing candidate to Marcos.

The fall of Marcos in the People Power event (at that time called a revolution) of 1986 was sudden and catastrophic, because the government came to a complete halt.

Jimmy was asked by Cory Aquino to serve as Finance Minister. He wanted to go quietly back to business, but she insisted that he had made her run for president, so he had to help her run the country.

Bobby had been in Washington, trying to negotiate aid for the Philippines, when Marcos fell. He called Jimmy to ask if it was safe for him to come home. Jimmy replied, of course it’s safe, as long as you have nothing to hide. Come home, we need to talk.

For a few weeks, Bobby would go to Jimmy’s house for dinner, and the two of them would finish a bottle of whisky between them, as Bobby discussed how to deal with the crippling national debt, and giving Jimmy the contacts of who to talk to among the international banks and finance ministries. He also told Jimmy who the key people running things in the Marcos government were, and who could be trusted, and who shouldn’t be. He talked about the factions in the Marcos government, which had formed when Marcos came close to death. There was Imelda and General Fabian Ver on one side, and Enrile and military officers on another side. It wasn’t an orderly handover of power, but it was a handover. 

It should be said that Jimmy also met several times with the outgoing Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Cesar Virata, and he was as helpful as Bobby, having held both posts for almost 20 years.

Jimmy served Cory Aquino as Finance Minister for slightly over a year. He made a lot of progress in reforming and energizing the financial sector, and the economy was doing well, in part because of these reforms. 

He had managed to get better terms for the country on the foreign debt, despite criticism from the political Left, who felt the debt should be “repudiated”, or not paid at all. Jimmy argued that refusing to pay the debt would destroy the economy, as the Philippines would be cut off from the global economy, no one would buy Philippine exports or sell goods to be imported, and no more investment capital would enter the country. Jimmy was a hardworking, resolute leader, with the business experience to back it up.

Shortly after one of the several attempted military coups d’état, Jimmy was asked by Cory to resign, amidst political infighting. Several members of her cabinet were found to be involved in corruption, and she had to get rid of them. One of them agreed to resign only if his enemy Jimmy Ongpin were made to resign as well. Cory could have stood firm. But she didn’t. Jimmy became a casualty of politics, in the end. 

On December 7, 1987, Jimmy was found dead in his office, from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was 49. It was ruled a suicide, and the likely cause was said to be clinical depression, although some members of the family still believe he was murdered. The tragedy rocked the family, and the nation.

In the face of tragedy, Bobby headed on to conceptualize and build ambitious projects. He moved to Hong Kong where he made the deals that brought the Kuok Group’s Shangri-La into the Philippines. He would eventually partner with a local group to build Tagaytay Highlands despite many observers thinking it was too risky. He would eventually succeed and prove them wrong. His next project was setting-up PhilWeb, which soon became the country’s largest technology firm, and accelerated it into a multi-billion peso company in a few short years. He would eventually sell it off in 2016, but this did not bring him down as he moved into other projects, including one that eventually would be his crown jewel."

Earlier in the 2000s, Bobby had gone back into property development. He found financial backers and set up Alphaland, which then pursued a number of high-profile projects. It successfully executed several high-rise complexes in Makati, but its crown jewel was Alphaland Balesin Island Club, a super-exclusive resort on a 50450-hectare island off the coast of Quezon province, reachable by a half-hour flight from Manila. 

Balesin Island was owned by Bobby’s good friend Ed Tordesillas, who at one time had served with Bobby as an undersecretary in the Ministry of Trade & Industry. He had developed a good, small resort there in the 1970s, and Bobby was an enthusiastic customer. He had bought a beachfront property from Ed, and constructed his own house. He even brought a tricycle from the mainland to serve as his island runabout. He would bring his family there for vacations. When Ed passed away, he asked Bobby, on his deathbed, to continue the project.

Bobby’s vision for Balesin was a huge project, involving many thousands of workers to build the place, and a small navy of vessels to transport materials, and establishing a small airline to serve the island. Today, Balesin houses seven separate village resorts, each with a distinct theme. It can handle close to 2,000 guests simultaneously, and offers a legendarily luxurious experience. 

It would turn out to be Bobby Ongpin’s last hurrah. He passed away peacefully in his sleep, at his Balesin home, on February 4, 2023, at the age of 86.

Both Bobby and Jimmy were big believers in education. They believed education had given them the chance and the opportunity to find success and lead productive lives. This is why Bobby put up the foundation in 1988, to give chances to bright young people whose families could not afford to send them to the best schools, just as Jimmy and Bobby could not afford to go to Ateneo, until they got scholarships.

The Roberto V. Ongpin and Jaime V. Ongpin Scholarships will be our fondest memory of these two distinguished Filipinos, both of whom served their country and their fellow man.

Luis Roa Ongpin and Lourdes Morales Velayo Ongpin with their children

Clockwise from the left: Cynthia, Bobby, Deanna, Luis Jr., Elaine, and Rene

Not in photo: Jimmy

Copy obtained from: https://www.thediarist.ph/the-real-bobby-ongpin-he-was-interested-only-in-the-impossible/

Jimmy and Bobby Ongpin 

Copy obtained from: https://www.thediarist.ph/the-real-bobby-ongpin-he-was-interested-only-in-the-impossible/

Roberto 'Bobby' V. Ongpin in an undated photo most likely from his SGV years: He remained sharp and undiminished by age, all the way to his last day.

Copy obtained from: https://www.thediarist.ph/the-real-bobby-ongpin-he-was-interested-only-in-the-impossible/

Roberto V. Ongpin with Maria Isabel Garcia Ongpin, Father Presidents Roberto C. Yap SJ, Jose Ramon T. Villarin SJ, and Manuel A. Uy SJ, school administrators and the JVO Scholars in School Year 2018-2019 from seven Ateneo high schools – Ateneo de Davao, Ateneo de Iloilo - Santa Maria Catholic School, Ateneo de Manila, Ateneo de Naga, Ateneo de Zamboanga, Sacred Heart School - Ateneo de Cebu, and Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan – during the JVO Scholars’ Gathering hosted by RVO at The City Club, Alphaland Makati Place, on 10-11 November 2018