Nearly all of the old-time families mentioned above belonged to Manila’s “400” which flourished before World War II and into the first Marcos regime. Nearly all of the above could afford to send their sons and daughters to boarding schools in England, to the Ivy League universities in the US, and to finishing schools in Switzerland for the girls. This was the set to which Imelda and Ferdinand did not quite belong, and to which the couple, especially Imelda, aspired—or even hoped to supersede. Not that they were mean to her, but it must also have been young Imelda’s insecurities, coming from the poorer branch of the Romualdez family, that made her feel unwelcome into that elite. Back to the list.
7.the Sycips / Yutivo / Yu Khe Thai (GM-Philippines franchise)
8.Don Jose Yulo - (another large, land-owning family – Canlubang Dairy Farms; and one of Imelda’s most faithful Blue Ladies was Cecile Araneta Yulo Locsin)
9.Cu-unjeing (construction)
10.Lichauco – big land-owning family
11.Leopoldo Syquia (successful businessman)
12.the Tambuntings – pioneer pawnshop-owning family (before the Lhuilliers and the Ablazas)
And there was the subgroup of the taipans (Chinese-born businessmen who made good in the Philippines); most were sent or arrived in the Philippines after World War II when mainland China was all but certain to fall to Mao Zedong’s communist troops and did not want to try their fortune in the Nationalist stronghold of Taiwan. Most of the taipans came into their own, or vaulted up the “Richest” list after martial law was declared and foreign currency transactions were greatly overseen, controlled, and limited. Of course, a number of them (like Lucio Tan and Jose Yao-Campos) played ball with Marcos, having been his clients in Marcos’ early law career.
13.Henry Sy – founder of the ShoeMart empire; only the richest man in the Philippines today, per the 2015 Forbes List
14.Lucio Tan – touted as the current 2nd richest man in the Philippines
15.Andrew Tan – self-made billionaire, #3 on the list. Owner of real estate developer MegaWorld; owns the McDonald’s franchise in the Philippines and Emperador Rum Distillery
16.John Gokongwei – Universal-Robina; Robinson’s Malls; telecom
17.Tony Tan Caktiong – Jollibee Corporation
18.Mariano Que (founder of Mercury Drug).
D.the Intelligentsia and Professionals
And then there were the independent thinkers, opinion-shaping families who were not overwhelmingly wealthy but influential enough, especially amongst Manila’s intelligentsia, that their opinions mattered. To this category belonged independent senators like Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, Jose P. Diokno, Soc Rodrigo, and Raul Manglapus, who more often than not would put Marcos in his place – thus Marcos also had special places reserved for them when martial law was to be declared.
There were also the Roceses (The Manila Times, Daily Mirror and Taliba, DZMT, Channel 5); the Guerreros, the Teddy Locsins (Philippine Free Press), the Legardas, the Mapuas, and the Marquezes/Benitezes (Philippine Women’s University and the small St. John’s Academy in San Juan) –often gadflies in the nape of the Marcoses. The number two periodical in the country, The Manila Chronicle, was already owned by the Lopezes, while the third newspaper at the time, The Manila Bulletin, was owned by Marcos groupie, Hans Menzi.
So it was in the above socioeconomic setting that Ferdinand and Imelda stepped in as new rulers in 1965-66, and then created their own bloc of industrialists and multimillionaires through whom they hoped to fully control the economy, making them de facto unchallenged dictators for life.
His and Hers
Of course, each one had his/her set of favored families. Collectively, the most damage inflicted and the biggest spoils acquired went to Imelda’s relations—her various Romualdez brothers and sisters, and one cousin’s husband, Herminio Disini, who reputedly got one of the largest kickbacks in history with a “commission” ranging from $17 million - $30 million from the awarding of the Bataan Nuclear Plant deal to Westinghouse. But let’s start with Ferdinand’s cronies.
There were eight early and most favored cronies of Ferdinand, so they got early pieces of the pie. They were, alphabetically, Roberto Benedicto, Eduardo (“Danding”) Cojuangco, Rudy Cuenca, Antonio Floirendo, Poten-ciano Ilusorio, Alfonso Lim, Juan Ponce-Enrile, Lucio Tan, and Jose Yao-Campos. Two of these, Benedicto and Ilusorio, were Marcos' so-called “brods” or fraternity brothers from the Upsilon Sigma fraternity from U.P.
How was the pie divided? Benedicto was the Sugar and Media king; Cojuangco and Ponce-Enrile split the Coconut franchise; Floirendo, bananas; Campos, pharmaceuticals; Lucio Tan, tobacco, amongst others; Cuenca, construction; Disini, nuclear energy; Alfonso Lim, Sr., logging; the Zamoras and Kokoy Romualdez, mining; Bejo Romualdez, offshore gaming; and others. Of course, Marcos was “King of Kings.”
Roberto Benedicto
From La Carlota, Negros Occidental, Benedicto developed an early friendship with Marcos at the University of the Philippines and Benedicto supposedly treated the struggling Marcos to sandwiches while both were in school. A little kindness, regardless of the stripe of your soul, never hurts. The association continued after both graduated from law school in 1939.
Although he was not a relative, Benedicto became part of the small Marcos circle in Malacañang and was one of the few with complete access to the president’s private quarters. Benedicto became the dictator’s favorite golfing partner. Largely in recognition of his loyalty to the dictator, he was showered with government sinecures and control over the choicest plums of economic activity. An ambassadorship (to Japan), the PNB chairmanship, and control over the country’s top exports formed part of the largesse Benedicto enjoyed.
At the height of his power, Benedicto’s empire consisted of no less than 85 corporations, 106 sugar farms, 14 haciendas, other agricultural lands, the Kanlaon Broadcasting Network (27 radio stations, 16 television stations), seven buildings, ten vessels and five aircraft. Residential lots and house in Ermita (I had been at his main house in Ermita), 14 hectares of real estate in Bacolod City, a penthouse in Kanlaon Towers, Pasay; 13.5 million shares of Oriental Petroleum held through Piedras Mining, and membership shares at exclusive gold and country clubs such as Wack-Wack, Canlubang, Alabang and Marapara. The golf and country club shares alone were worth $491,000 in the mid-1980s.
In return for the favors he received from Marcos, Benedicto served the dictator in a number of ways. On the political front, Benedicto worked as chairman of Marcos’ KBL party for western Visayas since it was organized in 1977 and delivered sizeable votes for Marcos’ candidates in subsequent elections. But the more important service Benedicto rendered for Marcos was as a most trusted front and as associate in many corporations and business deals. Benedicto was anointed a Marcos front man early in the dictator’s career of plunder and was even given a special power of attorney to deal on behalf of Marcos. The PoA, signed on October 14, 1976, gave Benedicto broad powers to act on behalf of Marcos, including the authority to receive payments, manage properties, and run business affairs. Benedicto is also known to have acted on behalf of the Marcos Foundation, a private trust that manages some of Marcos’ assets.
Among Benedicto’s overseas properties were a sugar mill in Venezuela, a trading company in Madrid, bank deposits, mansions and limousines in California, and other properties in Japan and the US. His deposits in Swiss banks alone were estimated to be $200 million. Rafael Salas, Marcos’ executive secretary and Benedicto’s cousin, estimated in 1983 that his cousin had a net worth of $800 million.
(Note: Benedicto’s adopted daughter, Kitchie, was my classmate at the same U.P. in broadcast communication studies. Kitchie went on to head operations of her father’s new network, Kanlaon Broadcasting Network, the only commercial network that was allowed to operate when martial law was declared while the other broadcasting and news outlets were shuttered.)