Honorary Mayor
Lucio C. Tan

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Tomorrow at 10 a.m. aboard PAL Flight 133, the country's top businessman Dr. Lucio C. Tan will arrive in Bacolod heading a party of 50.

Tan is scheduled to be conferred the honor of adopted son of Bacolod and another honor as Bacolod's Honorary Mayor. My friend Carlos Javellana, a close friend of Dr. Tan, called me up, the Honorary Mayor will also turn over three school units with six classrooms each to Bacolod, Murcia, and Victorias.

Dr. Tan will also be the special guest in the first Chinese New Year celebration in Bacolod which Bacolod Mayor Bing Leonardia calls "Bacolaodiat."

The school donation, Charlie Javellana told me, is among the many donations Dr. Tan, a philanthropist, has given especially to the poor.

There's no question Lucio Tan is one of the country's richest men, recognized and respected around the world.

But I don't want to put Lucio Tan on a pedestal because of his money. Like our new hero Manny Pacquiao, Lucio Tan represents the many symbolisms for our people to emulate, especially his humility which Charlie Javellana always speaks with reverence when talking about Lucio Tan.

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Dr. Lucio C. Tan was born in the poor province of Fujian in Southern China on July 17, 1934, the eldest child of Tan Yan Kee and Chua King Ha.

While he was barely four years old, his family joined the Chinese Diaspora to escape the invading Japanese Army and the Philippines was the favorite destination.

In early life he was exposed to all the hardships of life, no stranger to hunger and fear but all these hardships steeled him to conquer every problem encountered.

The hallmark of his life is hard work, persistence, patience, and the fearlessness to turn failure into success.

He was not successful in everything. He encountered failure when he opened an electronics business. But Lucio Tan is a chemical engineer from Far Eastern University and electronics is not his line. When, as a chemical engineer, he opened a trading firm called Himmel Industries, Tan emerged as one of the most successful industrialists in the Philippines.

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From Fujian the family went to Naga City where they stayed for two years. Then Tan finished his high school at Chiang Kai Shiek in Manila.

He worked his way through college. And after obtaining his degree as a chemical engineer he worked as chemist at Bata-an Cigar and Cigaret Corporation which he later owned.

The best tribute given to Dr. Lucio Tan is from the late Jaime Cardinal Sin who called Tan "a proverbial mustard seed which began small but emerged bigger than most of the shrubs and even trees."

Said Cardinal Sin, "His only armament is his faith in God and determination in his work." Indeed, Tan started small with his known humility. Charlie Javellana knows many of these humble acts of Lucio Tan.

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Looking at his biography, he has five honorary Doctorate Degrees and one PhD. in Commerce from UST which is not Honoris Causa, meaning he earned it. I could not count how many businesses he has.

He also has ten achievement awards from different national entities very well known in the country. He is also chairman or president of many socio-civic groups.

Lucio Tan learned early in life the Confucian work ethic of hard work and the value of "ren" the Chinese word for perseverance and the virtues of humility, frugality, and benevolence.

These are what governs the life of Bacolod's adopted son and Honorary Mayor.

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His business success is phenomenal. From Himmel, he set up Fortune Tobacco in 1965. From a humble venture in a small hut in Marikina, it proved to be the enterprise that catapulted Lucio Tan to many successes.

From this flagship emerged successful ventures in agribusiness, airlines and related services, banking, finance and securities, brewery, chemicals, distillery, alcohol, education, food, hotel, real estate, soap manufacturing, steel fabrication, construction, tourism and travel services. There seems to be no big business Dr. Lucio Tan has not gone into. And in all these he reaped successes.

And what is impressive is the philanthropy of Lucio Tan is coursed through a foundation he named after his late father, Tan Yan Kee Foundation, that he put up in 1986 which has given out hundreds of millions.

Get a copy of the biography of Dr. Lucio Tan and read it to your children. They can be future Lucio Tans themselves.*

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