Manila Bulletin
Philippines
Senate OKs reso honoring, condoling on death of ex-trade minister Ongpin
Philippines
Senate OKs reso honoring, condoling on death of ex-trade minister Ongpin
Senate OKs reso honoring, condoling on death of ex-trade minister Ongpin
Published Mar 8, 2023 12:53 pm
The Senate on Wednesday, March 8, adopted the resolution expressing the Upper Chamber’s profound sympathy and sincere condolences on the death of former Minister of Commerce and Trade and business tycoon Roberto V. Ongpin.
Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva sponsored Senate Resolution No. (SRN) 468, authored by Sen. Imee Marcos, taking into consideration proposed SRN 523, authored by Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, Villanueva, Pia Cayetano and Francis “Chiz” Escudero.
Ongpin died in his sleep on Balesin Island, Polillo, Quezon, on Feb. 4, 2023, at the age of 86. The resolutions were later unanimously adopted as Senate Resolution No. 51, with all senators made as co-authors.
Ongpin was the country’s youngest minister of Commerce and Industry, assuming the post at the age of 42 during the administration of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
During his term, the former trade minister made significant contributions to the country’s development and defended the currency in the wake of the 1983 financial crisis.
At that time, he established the Binondo Central Bank, a parallel exchange rate system that allowed the government to narrow the rate gap between the dollar’s official guiding rate and the black market rate by directly intervening in the black market currency prices.
After serving in government, Ongpin built business empires, orchestrated deals that brought the Shangri-La Group into the Philippines, and founded Tagaytay Highlands, PhilWeb, and Alphaland Corporation.
Later on, he built his crown jewel, the Alphaland Balesin Island Club off the coast of Quezon province. At the time of his passing, he was working on expanding the resort business to nearby Patnanungan Island.
Ongpin graduated cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School; became a certified public accountant in 1958, after which he briefly joined the Philippine Manufacturing Company, now Procter & Gamble Philippines.
He eventually led SyCip Gorres Velayo & Company (SGV & Co.) to become Asia’s largest accounting firm in the 1970s.
SGV founder Washington Sycip described Ongpin as “one of the most aggressive and effective managers” he has ever known.
In his sponsorship speech, Villanueva hailed Ongpin as a philantropist noting that since 1988, he funded thousands of full scholarships at the Ateneo de Manila, in the name of his brother, Jaime, who passed away in 1987.
In 1993, the Jaime V. Ongpin Scholarship Fund was formally established and had grown to fund 200 scholarships in seven Ateneo high schools nationwide.
“To date, the scholarship fund has helped 2,207 students graduate from high school, enabling them to go to college and have their dreams within their reach,” Villanueva said.
“With RVO’s passing, we lost a great friend, a pillar of the business community and a great public servant, but his invaluable contributions to the development of our country and to the lives of thousands of scholars will never be forgotten,” he added.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s sister Imee, on the other hand, said “Bobby Ongpin was just such an iconoclast upsetting, offending, angering many authorities but he also brought about change, great innovation.”
“And yes indeed he brought forth the truth in many, many cases,” she said.
She said her father and Ongpin “were great friends beyond work and beyond government.”
“He (Ongpin) was his (Marcos Sr.) favorite, if only because they share interest in both women and as well upsetting the establishments in every possible way,” she also stressed.
“Iconoclast at last to the end, controversial always offensive to many of the rich and powerful, history will be Bobby Ongpin’s final judge!” the lawmaker added.
“But the indisputable fact is during the 1980s under my father's administration, Minister Ongpin without doubt saved the country's economy from abject and total collapse,” she said.
“For that, all Filipinos should be grateful,” Marcos stressed.
Cayetano said Ongpin was her former boss, having worked as a lawyer in many of his projects.
“But it wasn’t an easy job. RVO was a tough and demanding boss. You could hear his booming voice across the hall with your door closed,” Cayetano said.