Ayala : the Philippines' oldest business house

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THE PHILIPPINES" OLDEST BUSINESS HOUSE

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COVER:

From carabaos to computer chips, such is the range of technology for Ayala Corporation in these recent 150 years. Purchased in 1858, as attested by this handwritten, illustrated receipt, the carabaos were used by Domingo RO,\:as to till his farm estate in Calatagan, Batangas.

From this arm came the raw m~,p,.iCJI "1fT1 n~ "1; (' or the spirits I I I endeavors distiller hat was he /T1cep throug e gener lions. Toda\' R( , as des(('ndants TlId/l< ~e the Ayala Grouph h has rit路d llll/'it I. - /1'1)/,/ f(',ll ('st,,/I' /o!J; king to insurance to food production to varIOus manu.(acturing efforts includin ("'r路~ Desigll - FG Cabadi.

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THE BOOK A T I ON. I NC

THIS IS THE STORY of the Ayala family of the Philippines and of the business - now vast, varied and multi-sectoral- which they hal e been running for the past 150 years. The story of the family melds into the story of the business; the growth of the family parallels the growth of the business.

Into the Ayala family as it is today flows three main bloodlines Spanish, German and Filipino. They represent three ancestral sources - Ayala, Zobel and Ro;<as, the patriarchs of which shere one distinction: they were primarily business pioneers.

It must be said that the Ayala Corporation has been the enterprise of three strong families that had come together.

From this combined family tree sprung individuals of strikingly different personalities - stolid counting house merchants and artists, social lions and very private men. They walked where the timid and hidebound feared to tread. Yet they were not merely efficient tycoons, indifferent to the finer aspects of life.

In the manner identified with aristocrats, the Ayala familythrough these 150 years - patronized the arts, lent their support to civic activities and were active in charity work.

The most e;<traordinar_v quality of the Ayala family was a stubborn streak to uphold what they believe in. They held their ground at the peril of their names, their fortunes, even their lives. For those who believe that wealth brings with it a certain degree of protection, the vicissitudes of the first Ro;<ases, Ayalas and Zobels seem unnecessary.

Over the recent century and a half, the family - as did the nation went through one revolution, a transfer of sovereignty from one world power to another, and two world wars. Anyone of these events could have caused the family to shatter or to pull out its Philippine roots to return to the land of its ancestors. But history has shown that the love for freedom is itself defiant. The members of the Ayala family were held by h('rri (If 'n"~J!t\' to (amilv ann tn mun'rv. This sense of mission neve , I' , ugh cht gt'Tlf'ratlO/ls.

In eve sens , i:/ I -te Ii d IlJ Ilu 'itor' of Ih l' Ayala /:/I/dly is a retelling of the hlr~tur of the Philippines these last 15() y(;,1/ s. 'l

240 Pages. 9" x 12" 21::1 IIIU~lI dliUllb \10J rIlUIl',..,' "I ,., 33 Drawings/Sk ptches. 1 Map. 1 Diagram). Appc'lldix.

FILIPINAS FOUNDATION, INC.

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IN

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TAGE A R Y

MUSEUM LIBRARY

AYALA

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AYALA -

THE PHILIPPINES' OLDEST BUSINESS HOUSE

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~YALA

THE PHILIPPINES' OLDEST BUSINESS HOUSE BY

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EDUARDO LACHICA ~

AYALA

MUSEUM LIBRP,R V

FILIPINAS FOUNDATION INC. MAKA TI, PHILIPPINES 1984

End Paper:

[Front] Detail of the Ayala family crest two wolves originally drawn in pen and ink

by Fernando Zobel.

[Back] The family lineage from 1475 to 1984.

Prepared by Dr. Luciano P.R. Santiago, 1984.

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4 ~\ ( A~

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AYALA Published by Filipinas Foundation, Inc., Makati Stock Exchange Building, Ayala Avenue , Makati.

Metro Manila. Copyright .g, 1984 by Filipinas Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording , taping or information and retrieval systems - without written permission of the publisher.

ISBN 971-1047-00-4 PBK

Filmset and form assembly by Kyodo Printing Co. (Manila), Inc. Color separation and printing by Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (Hong Kong)

THIS BOOK COMMEMORATES THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AYALA CORPORATION WH1CH WAS FOUNDED IN MANILA IN 1834 AS A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN DOMINGO ROXAS AND ANTONIO DE AYALA

AYALA

MllSE'JM LIBRARY

7('..3 9

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Publisher Project director Editor Associat e editor

FILIPINAS FOUNDATION, INC. ROGELIO S. PANTALEON MON INA ALLA REY

MERC,~DO

EMILI E MAE F. QUIM PO

Des ign

FR EY G. CA BADING

M ain l es t

EDUA RDO LACHI CA

Contributors

Origin al r esea r ch

LEON IDAS V. BENESA VIR GIN I A B. LlCUANAN BE RNA RDO M . VILLEGAS ALFONSO .I. AGUIRRE T H E A I' ALA MUSEUM OF PHILIPPINE HISTO RI' AND I CONOGRA PHI C ARCHI VES T H E A RCHIVES, AYA LA IN FOH fvl ATION SE RVICES DEPA RTMENT

Visuals resea r ch Color photography Ph oto reproduct io ns

A rt productio n

GLOR IA T. LEONA RDO EMIL DAVOCOL FRANK ALVIZ EFREN SOCORR O (;R AVIKA MANILA

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DEDICATION

My

connection I,'>'ith Ayala is by marriage. My lI'(fe Mercedes, whom J married in 1931. brought me into Ihe mallagement (~r 1\.I'ala -" Compania and unlill retired in 1968. I was intimately inm!l-ed ill the .vears (~rpre-I"ar and the turbulent post-lIar period, ~f there \\'as a "hero" during my 37 years with lyala. I would say without any douht that il was .J,(f'onso Zo/)('I. Quiet and unprelelltiol1s, Ilf' was sought c~fter by all. /Joth in and out of Ihe int imaey (~r the family 10 heneJi'tJ rom 11Is adl'ire and I'iell'poinl.

This book should proper!.' b declicaled [0 him.

When asked hI' .Jaime Zohel tn IITile the prnlo,f',ue of this book. I suggBt'ted thaI 'F ernando Zobel should do it .

Fernando had a fa i/~ pen and \'a. the oldest male des cendant in Ihe A,l'ala Family.

Une,'<pectedly Fern ndo died in Rome on .Jun e 2. 1984.

He had been a managir)p, PlJrlller of i yala \' COl71panin ill the early 60s, Fernando H as much /cJl'ed. (t/! (~r liS II'ho had come in conlact Ivith him \1'i11 miss him I 'e/~\' much.

This book is also dedicated to his memory.

- Joseph R. McMicking San Francisco. Califol'l1ia 5 June 1984

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CONTENTS

11

Philippine Economic Development:

THE TALLY OF 150 YEARS

by Bernardo M. Villegas 33

The First 50 Years, 1834-1884:

THE PATRIARCHS AS PIONEERS

by Eduardo Lachica 49

Memoirs:

EXPLORING THE WORLD OF DONA MARGARITA

by Virginia B. Licuanan 61

The Second 50 Years, 1884-1934:

THE PROPRIETORS AS INNOVATORS

by Eduardo Lachica 85

Memoirs:

CALATAGAN-VISITS TO AN ENCHANTED COUNTRY

by Alfonso Zobel de Ayala 91 139

Folio J: Family pictures The Third 50 Years, 1934-1984:

THE HEIRS AS WORKING PROFESSIONALS

by Eduardo Lachica 163

Memoirs:

THE MAKA TI ADVENTURE

by Joseph R. McMicking 165

Folio 11 : The land and the people-Makati.

New Alabang and Calatagan 203

Retrospective:

AYALA IN ART

by Leonidas V. Benesa 214

Folio Ill : Paintings from the Ayala Collection

225

Memoirs:

FERNANDO ZOBEL: AN ARTIST AS A PAINTER, AS A MAN

by Monina Allarey Mercado 229

Appendix Important dates and events

233

Bibliography

235

Acknowledgments

PHILIPPINE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: THE TALLY OF 150 YEARS

I

F WE WAN[ to thoroughly examine

the strengths and weaknesses of the Filipino entrepreneur, we have to go back at least 150 years, and thus dissect the roots, so to speak.

Coincidentally, the year 1984 marks the 150th anIllversary of a group of companies - the Ayala group. This large Philippine conglomerate typifies the independent, apolitical business establishment that adapts creatively and proactively to a changing socioeconomic environment.

Through the worst period of the ongoing world and domestic recession, the Ayala group has shown no sign of discouragement. It has maintained its foresight to cast its lot only with the sunrise industries, which include at present agribusiness, non路 traditional export products, residential town homes and overseas real estate development.

Its leaders have taken the initiative of bolstering the sagging business confidence by expanding capital investments in critical and entirely new ventures (e.g. food processing, new corn seed varieties, and universal banking).

The Ayala story, in fact, has been partly responsible for inspiring this broad and sweeping glance at the last 150 years of Philippine economic development. Through this influence, we gained a vantage point - very much like that of the individual entrepreneur who takes advantage of

opportunities in evolving markets, both domestic and international - in our factual account of the political and social events that shaped our history.

This impressionistic survey, although devoid of the usual statistical data in scholarly works of economic history, is intended to deliver a most timely message: That economic progress is fueled mainly by individuals in the private sector who react positively to incentives of a market that is allowed to function as freely as possible from artificial controls and barriers.

Incentives created by deliberate government policy could also perk up economic activity. Unless such incentives are periodically reexamined and modified, however, these would only shield the inefficiencies and weaknesses of specific economic sectors that have been staying out too long from the healthy forces of market competition.

F WE LOOK as far back as 1833, the Philippine economy has gone a long way indeed. Although national income accounts do not go that far back, one could surmise that the basically agricultural economy of the early 19008 - when more than 80 per cent of the labor force was involved in agriculture - had a per capita income in today's prices of the equivalent of $100 U.S. (This is the present average income of very poor countries, e.g.

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11

AYALA

Bangladesh. Afghanistan. Nepal. and Zaire J. One should be quick to point out though that poverty today is far more demeaning. because there is that stark contrast between the impoverished countries and the highly industrialized societies whose per capita income is 120 times more.

Today. with a population of about 20 times that of 1833. the Philippines has a per capita income of approximately $800 U.S. This is an incontrovertible proof that through the past 15 decades or seven generations. the national income has grown faster than population, despite the hysterical cries of the neo-Malthusians. The Philippines is even classified now as a transitional middle-income economy, together with such Asia-Pacific countries as Thailand. South Korea. and Taiwan.

Yet. the Philippines today is the slowest-growing country in East Asia.

While g owth rates hardly exceeded 4 per cent in recent years. neighboring countries have grown at 6 per cent to 8 per cent per annum. In the immediate sphere of Asia-Pacific. the Philippines sticks out like a sore thumb. This poor performance can be significantly traced to the molding of Philippine entrepreneurship. who introduce innovations and take risksthrive best in an unrestrained market.

After all. risking bloodmoney on an innovative product, technology or mode of business organization makes sense only if there are sound market opportunities. not only perceivable but also quantifiable.

For this reason. one can hardly speak of a Filipino entrepreneurship before the start of the 19th century.

From the pre-Spanish times to the Spanish colonial era and up to the early 1900s. the archipelago was just an entrepot to the ubiquitous Chinese.

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NTREPRENEURS -

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Indian and Arabian merchants. Even the famous Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade had very little impact on the domestic economic development as a whole.

Only the Spanish and Chinese mercantile families actively partook in this rich trade between the Philippines and Mexico. which lasted for over two centuries. Chinese silk - in every stage of manufacture and of every variety of weave and pattern - in fact constituted the bulk of the galleon cargo.

There were other items. albeit just transhipments through Manila from the neighboring countries with more advanced manufacturing activities.

They included: brocades. musk. civet. earrings. bracelets. pendants and other luxury items. Further assortments in the galleon load were fine cotton, persian rugs and carpet from India and Persia; ivory from Cambodia; pepper from Sumatra and Java; sapphires. rubies and cinnamon from Ceylon. The Philippines supplied an insignificant fraction of the trade. and the items could hardly be called manufactured products - gold. pearls. wax. Ilocos cotton and cordage.

It is quite clear then that the natives of the Philippine Archipelago had practically no manufacturing tradition. as contrasted with the Arabian.

Indian or Chinese neighbors who had already progressed beyond primitive agriculture. Of the close to two and a half million inhabitants in the early 19th century, the great majority were engaged in subsistence agriculture.

Whatever surplus they produced went to support the high living of the handful of Spaniards who came to settle in Manila as hidalgos. real or selfproclaimed.

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HE FIRST ENTREPRENEURS in the archipelago were the Chinese

traders. Although not all of the Chinese who settled in the Porions (commercial centers) were traders, the majority performed the role of middlemen. Others were noodlemakers, winemakers, weavers, shoemakers, silversmiths, tailors, carpenters, locksmiths, barbers, cooks, hat and sword makers, ironsmiths, and foundry men. Still, these Chinese settlers brought with them the manufacturing traditions they inherited in their ancestral lands, thus introducing the first glimmer of an industrial culture.

Production of surplus for exchange is strictly speaking not synonymous with entrepreneurship. Artisans and farmers are not necessarily entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship requires both innovation and risk taking.

The Chinese traders assumed the first real risks when, as a historian wrote, they "possessed the necessary patience to enable them to go one by one to the houses of the Indians in the field, buying a chicken in one house, a fryer in another and a pound of cocoa in a third, for there are no wholesale buyers for these products." The Chinese acted as the bridge from the barter economy of the rural areas to the monetized commercial centers like Manila.

As middlemen, the Chinese performed an indispensable role because of their rapport with the natives and their patience in cultivating longlasting economic relationships with the rural communities. Very much like modern-day reformers who want to "eliminate the greedy middlemen," the Spaniards soon realized that the Chinese traders were not exactly economic parasites. Although there were evidently some abuses perpetrated by some Chinese traders, most of them worked long hours, went through great discomfort, risked both life and limb in acting as middlemen.

Whenever the Spaniards expelled the Chinese from the colonial capital, a void quickly appeared in the market.

In many societies, the persecuted minority turn out to be more aggressive and enterprising than the complacent majority. This general rule fits the Philippines to a T. During the Spanish colonial era, the Chinese were harassed to no end. They were subjected to taxes, extortion and forced labor. In the 17th and 18th centuries, they were prohibited from going to the provinces and from integrating with the native population.

What the overseas Chinese went through in neighboring countries like Indonesia and Malaysia in the 1960s, the Chinese in the Philippines faced at least two centuries earlier. The Chinese were formally expelled from the Philippine Archipelago by royal decrees in 1686, 1744, 1747 and 1755.

They we e massacred in 1603, 1639, 1662, 1686, 1762, and 1819. All these moves to persecute them drove them to the hinterlands and forced them to integrate with the natives. Thus started the new generation of Chinese mestizos. This assimilation process largely explains the absence of violent tensions between the Chinese and non-Chinese populations in the Philippines, in stark contrast with situations in Indonesia and Malaysia.

The mestizos acquired the entrepreneurial talents of their Chinese parents. In Pampanga, Bataan , Bulacan, Batangas, Cebu, Laguna and later on in iloilo and Negros , they were engaged in the marketing of sugar. Some of them actually refined sugar for export and domestic use.

In the tobacco regions of Nueva Ecija and Cagayan, they were responsible for transporting the commodity to Manila. Others became lessees of palay farms in Central Luzon and actively promoted the rice trade. It was through their control of the rice

13

,' YALA

market that they eventually emerged as the financiers of the natives.

From the mid-18th to the mid-19th century, the Chinese mestizo population expanded significantly in size and in economic influence. They predominated in such trading centers as Malabon, Pasig, Bman, Sta. Cruz, Pangasinan, Molo and Taro, lloilo. In 1810, there were around 120,000 Chinese mestizos, residing mostly in the developed towns, with over 60 per cent in the Central Luzon provinces of Tondo, Bulacan and Parnpanga. There was also a significant Chinese mestizo population in Cebu, lloilo, Samar and Capiz.

HE ENfREPRENEURlAL SKILL of the Chinese stood out prominently during the more than two centuries of the galleon trade (1565-1800's). The Manila Spaniards acted as middlemen for Chinese and other Asian merchandise exported to Mexico. But they were far from entrepreneurial in their behavior. They were precursors of the present-day businessmen with a windfall-profit mentality.

In contrast with their Chinese partners who worked long hours and lived frugally , the Spaniards who profited from the galleon trade squandered away their fortunes in sumptuous banquets. extravagant balls, lots of wine, food and dancing. They literally hibernated for nine to 10 months in leisure and extravagance. Without necessarily being prototypes of the population of the mother country (since many of them were extreme adventurers or social outcasts), they were hardly models of enterprising and hardworking businessmen. They epitomized the "profligate rich": working from 10 o'clock in the morning, lunching at 1 p.m. and then retiring to siesta the rest of the afternoon until 5:00 p.m. They (like the dotus in Muslim societies) initiated the ex-

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TH E T A LLY OF 15 0 YEARS

14

t~avagant life style that is now the bane of our executive suites. With the profits of the galleon trade, they could "dress in fine garments, have their wives carried in chairs, attended by pages, and indulge in many other unwarranted luxuries."

With such riotous living, the Spanish trader - unlike the Chinese merchant - had no interest in other economic activities. In fact, except for sporadic efforts of the missionaries to introduce new agricultural crops and new methods of cultivation to their parishioners, the Spaniards failed to exploit the natural resources of the country. It is then no surprise that at the beginning of the 19th century, the archipelago was still predominantly populated by natives who were living a hand-to-mouth existence.

Inadvertently, though, the otherwise uneventful galleon trade indirectly brought the more enterprising Chinese merchants, many of whom decided to settle in the Philippines.

The Chinese were mainly attracted by the silver peso coming from Mexico.

By selling their silk and other luxury items, the Chinese benefited from the galleon trade. As they started to settle in the Porian within the environs of Manila, the Chinese started to exploit the opportunities offered by the purchasing power of the high-living Spaniards.

They supplied the colony with sugar, wheat, barley, flour, nuts, raisins, pears and oranges imported from the mainland. They started to operate restaurants and retail stores.

Some of them started to fish in Manila Bay and added sea food items to their wares. They brought the produce of 1:4e natives (rice, chicken, eggs and fish) to the cities and sold them at lucrative prices to the Spaniards.

The Chinese were instrumental in transforming the face of Manila. They had the skills necessary to make lime

from small stones or white coral. They brought in the sand, brick, lime, tiles, quarried stones and other construction materials. They built solid and inexpensive houses of brick and mortar, the intromuros (walls of Manila), the churches and convents and the "villas" or mansions of the Spaniards.

The Chinese with their trading activity established a money economy with Manila as a base. With the Spaniards, silver was used simply as an exchange item. It was used to procure food provisions, cinnamon, wax and gold from the natives who in turn did not use the silver for exchange.

As the Chinese expanded their trading activities, silver became a real medium of exchange. It also rapidly became a store of value for all the trade items purchased by the Chinese, for their services and the products of their manufacturing or construction skills.

A

s

ENGLAND pioneered in its

take-off to industrialization (1790-1830), the Philippines experienced its first attempt at economic development. Coincidentally, it was the humiliating capture of Manila by the British in 1762-64 that prompted the Spaniards to transform the country into more than just a transhipment point for Chinese and Indian goods. As they proceeded to rehabilitate the badly ravaged economy, the Spanish colonizers woke up to the need to develop the resources of the archipelago and to make its economy more independent of the vagaries of the galleon trade.

The Royal Philippine Company was establislied in 1785 with the view of expanding Philippine trade and developing her natural resources.

This trading company was given the exclusive privilege of purchasing in Manila products coming from the Philippines, China and India and ship-

ping them directly to Spain through the shorter trade route passing via the Cape of Good Hope. This new trade relationships reduced the importance of the galleon trade and posed competition to other foreigners who used Manila as an entrepot.

Since. most of the products that could be exported to Spain were agricultural (indigo, pepper, cotton, sugar and tobacco), the Royal Philippine Company launched the first concerted effort to develop Philippine agriculture. This first approach to "planning from above" had both positive and negative results.

There were obvious benefits to the native farmers. With the opening of markets abroad for Philippine products, there was increased incentive to produce a surplus of each of the exportable commodities. This natural incenfve was reinforced by two policies of the Royal Philippine Company: the exemption of Philippine products from export duties at Manila and import duties at Cadiz (the harbinger of a free trade policy); and the investment of four per cent of profits in the development of Philippine agriculture.

In implementing the program to develop Philippine agriculture, the trading company employed agents to encourage the native farmer to produce pepper, indigo, sugar and cotton.

During the 50 years of its existence, the Royal Philippine Company contributed to an expansion of the production of these select agricultural products. More of the native farmers were able to enhance their incomes - albeit only sporadically - through these cash crops. They were initiated into more efficient means of agriculture.

The Royal Philippine Company also succeeded in removing the fixation of the Spaniards on the galleon trade.

For the first time, the Philippines engaged in international trade on the

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basis of products which were grown domestically rather than just transhipped through Manila. By opening the port of Manila, the Company paved the formal entry of foreign traders and broadened the country's trading connections and export volume.

However, these modest accomplishments were marred by gross mismanagement practices of the officials of this public agency (an early warning to those who advocate government takeover of trading activities that are better left to the private sector). Its first capital mistake was to diversify into so many unrelated activities.

In the Philippines, the Company was known as an agriculturist, manufacturer, merchant. Outside the archipelago, it was known as a hat and arms manufacturer. Having spread itself too thinly, the Company was unable to cope with the difficulties and obs cles posed by a hostile international environment: the trade route was infested by South American corsairs Spain was embroiled in wars and civil dissension that made its economy very unstable; and Spain was a poor country whose masses had low purchasing power and therefore the market for Philippine products was not lucrative enough.

Before the 18th century was over, the Company was encountering serious difficulties. By 1819, it had negative net worth of some 27 million reales. Of its total assets, 60 per cent represented uncollectible accounts receivable. Finally, in 1834 the Company was liquidated. Thus ended tragically the first government trading agency in Philippine economic history.

HE NINETEENTH CENTURY may be considered as the start of the agricultural expansion (not revolution) of the Philippines. Because of the ef-

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T H E T A LL Y OF 15 0 YEA Il S

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forts of the Royal Philippine Company, some Spanish governor generals, the Chinese, English, American and French traders, more hectarage was planted to such farm products as sugar, coffee, cotton, rice, indigo, pepper, tobacco and abaca.

Such a move did not necessarily improve agricultural productivity, since increased production was still possible by simply putting more land under cultivation. Thus, one can hardly say that the agricultural productivity drive - the precondition for economic development - started in the 19th century. This real agricultural revolution started only in the 1960s when the problem of declining agricultural productivity was finally squarely faced.

With a wider extent of the market for Philippine farm products, it was natural that the majority of the private entrepreneurs in the 19th century engaged in the production and trading of such crops as sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco, and abaca. These were shifts away from the "traditional" exports such as indigo and pepper (the goods preferred by the otherwise unlucrative Spanish market) towards the "nontraditional" exports, abaca and coconut (demanded by the increasingly profitable American markets).

HE EFFICIENCY of the foreign merchant houses, established in Manila in the 1820s, contrasted with the ineffectiveness of the Royal Philippine Company. When the Philippines was formally opened to world trade in 1834 - the same year the Royal Philippine Company collapsed, there were already about eight English merchant houses and three American houses in Manila. By 1850, there were even more of these "transnational corporations" in Manila: nine English, three American, three Swiss and

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German and three French houses.

Philippine international trade expanded further when the Spanish authorities acceded to the demands of the foreign merchant houses for less trade restrictions. These demands included: the opening of new ports, besides Manila, to foreign ships; the abolition of the monopoly on tobacco and on the manufacture of spirits, and the encouragement of the immigration of Chinese, who through their greater industry, enterprise and skills contributed in no small amount to expanded production of exportable items.

Here is a clear example of the benefits of allowing free market forces to operate, with a minimum of government intervention. In fact, the merchant houses that neither operated commercial monopolies nor maintained military establishments to protect their trading activities (e.g. the Americans) were considerably more efficient than the strongly entrenched British East India Company, which often utilized might to pursue commercial ends.

The foreign merchant houses served a very important role in expanding further the market for Philippine products. Clearly, the only way the native population of the Philippines could improve their incomes was to sell their surplus products (which were predominantly agricultural) to more lucrative markets. The access to these markets was facilitated by the merchant houses who, as agents of foreign trading companies, insurance firms or shipping lines, were able to maintain continuing contact with the centers of economic progress in Western Europe and the United States.

The merchant houses also provided working capital, an indispensable ingredient in international trade.

Through their contact with London,

the banker of the world at that time, the merchant houses (especially the British) introduced the bills of exchange as a medium for payment. The bills of exchange greatly facilitated the expansion of trade. But even in the absence of bills of exchange, the merchant houses obtained working capital from their parent company abroad. They used this working capital to buy export crops, from which purchases they earned a commission.

The profits generated in these trading operations as well as local funds deposited by religious congregations and the rich residents of Manila were later reinvested to further expand their trading operations and to diversify into related economic activities, i.e., shipping, plantations, refineries, a cordage factory and the first 'Commercial bank, Banco EspanolFilipino de Isabel II (now Bank of the Philippine Islands).

Among the organizers of the BancoEspanol Filipino were Juan Manuel de la Matta, an army general and treasurer, who was royal commissioner; Antonio de Ayala, a Spaniard, who together with his father-in-law Domingo Roxas, laid the foundations for the vast Ayala business holdings today; and Jose Maria Tuason, a Chinese mestizo. These personalities typified the entrepreneurs who were emerging in the 19th century from the inhabitants of the archipelago.

UAN MANUEL DE LA MATT A sym-

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bolically stood for the inevitable government direct or indirect presence in any significant entrepreneurial venture of that time.

Given a repressive colonial administration that was increasingly unsure of its hold on a restless population, those who invested in economic activities during the remaining years of the Spanish colonial era had to con-

17

A YA LA

tinuously contend with government intervention and harassment. It is no wonder that the entrepreneurs from the non-Chinese residents of the archipelago were few and far.between.

The Chinese entrepreneurs, in contrast, thrived in a hostile environment.

Antonio de Ayala typified the enlightened Spanish aristocrat who was among the first examples of the "working rich," a phrase coined by his descendant Enrique Zobel de Ayala. Clearly an exception to the usual high-living and profligate hidalgos, Ayala teamed up with his energetic wife, Margarita, to build up a business empire which included sugar plantations, a distillery, coal mines in Camarines and Cebu, a commercial bank and an insurance company.

The active participation of Dona Margqrita in the running and expansion of the businesses started by both her father and her husband is not unusual in the annals of Philippine entrepreneurship. Women have systematically proved their mettle in innovation and risk taking in business enterprise. This phenomenon may be primarily due to the matriarchal nature of Philippine society.

The distinct cultural trait which invests on the wife almost absolute discretion and judgment on how to administer family finances may have come from our Malay heritage. There are matriarchal communities in Indonesia, where the women are also more entrepreneurial than the men.

Clearly, the pronounced entrepreneurial ability of Filipinas did not come from the Spaniards (Spanish women are not generally known for their business or financial acumen).

Neither did we inherit this trait from the Americans. (American women have just been recently "liberated" in the form of the grotesque "I can do anything you can do" attitude of the

Ti l E T /IU. Y OJ-' 1.511 l' Ef IHS

18

women's libbers.) In the field of family finance, what is needed in the Philippines is a men's liberation movement.

Finally, the presence of a Tuason (a Romanized rendition of a Chinese name) as the manager of the BancoEspanol Filipino is a sign of the pervasive influence of the Chinese or the Chinese mestizo in any significant business undertaking during that period.

In fact, with the opening of the Philippines to foreign trade, the Chinese assumed a more influential role. While the foreign merchant houses connected the national economy to foreign markets and provided working capital for agricultural production, the Chinese became the ubiquitous link between the foreigners and the native producers.

After the relaxation of restrictive immigration policies in the 1930s, the Chinese population in the country swelled by leaps and bounds. There were 6,000 Chinese in Manila in 1847.

This figure reached about 120,000 by the 1880s.

Although the majority of them concentrated on trading activities, the Chinese also started to diversify into manufacturing and services. They were engaged in distilling rum from palm and wine, timber marketing, contracting (running cockpits, slaughterhouses, public markets), shoemaking, tailoring, smelting, and so forth.

They became so dominant that they started to ease out the mestizos and the natives from their traditional occupations.

Having been displaced in domestic trade by the Chinese immigrants, the Chinese mestizos diverted their attention to the cloth weaving industry or to agricultural production. Many of them became active in the production of sugar, which was then becoming a major export commodity.

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HE FOREIGN MERCHANf HOUSES

gave a big boost to the extensive cultivation and exportation of sugar, which up to the present, has played a dominant role in Philippine agriculture and industry (sugar milling and refining being categorized under manufacturing).

Although sugar was already an export item in the 18th century, it was only in the 1850s when the commodity became a leading foreign exchange earner. Two events accounted for this first sugar export "boom": the British decided in the early 1840s to ban the import of sugar from countries which used slave labor, e.g. the West Indies; the Crimean War of 1855 ravaged the beet fields of the Crimean peninsula. It was sugar from Pampanga, Batangas, Cavite, Cebu, iloilo and Negros that filled the void.

In the first phase of the expansion of sugar production, there were significant increases in productivity or yield per hectare. Fertile soil and more advanced methods of processing were major factors for improved productivity. Unfortunately, these trends could not continue indefinitely into the 20th century. Especially after the Second World War, there was a systematic decline in farm productivity as a result of stagnant technology and the extensive cultivation of marginal lands unsuitable to sugar production. It was only in the 1970s when - because of the precipitous decline of sugar prices - there began concerted efforts to arrest the productivity decline.

The production of sugar provided some of the first opportunities fo J' large-scale agribusiness management.

These large agricultural estat.'ds first appeared in central and :3outhern Luzon. Whereas central ~uzon used to be the source of ric.'d exports in the 18th century, Sug'.lr rapidly displaced palay in ttv:. regions surrounding Manila r'y the 1820s.

Towards the 1850s. however.

Negros started to compete with Luzon for supremacy in sugar production.

The shift to western Visayas started when the iloilo port was opened in 1855, followed by the coming of the British Vice-Consul Nicholas Loney in 1860 and the establishment of sugar mills employing iron machinery in the 1860s. Sugar could now be exported directly from the Iloilo port to overseas markets like Australia. By the 1890s. iloilo had taken over the primacy in sugar export away from Manila. This situation has persisted up to today when Western Visayas accounts for more than 60 per cent of sugar production in the country.

The introduction of iron mills into sugar processing in the 1860s marked the initial industrialization of the country. Before this technological innovation, the processing of sugar was done by wooden mills in a very inefficient an wasteful ma~er. One of the first evidences of the power of the "industrial revolution" was the quantum leap in sugar volume occasioned by the shift from wooden to stearnpowered iron mills: in 1850. Negros produced only a total of 3,000 piculs of sugar; in 1893. the production level jumped to 1.8 million piculs.

Because of this early start in sugar manufacturing. sugSr technology is one of the fields in which Filipinos are known to be pacesetters in Asian industry. It. is in the Philippine sugar industr'i where technologists and aW_'onornists are so advanced that 路.hey are now in great demand in Asian (Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma.

Papua New Guinea) and African (Kenya. Nigeria) countries. In fact. the leading and largest sugar mill in Asia - the Victorias Milling Company - is now busy transferring sugar technology (in both agriculture and manufacturing) to Asian and African countries.

19

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It is also the sugar

indu~try

that provided the country with the financing and the manpower to diversify into other industries. The common ancestors of the Ayala, Soriano and Roxas families started with sugar plantations. The Lopez family diversified from sugar into public utilities and publishing. The Cojuangcos started with sugar and are now in wideranging investments: banking, public utilities , coconut and other agribusiness ventures. The Elizaldes, Aranetas, Montelibanos, Ledesmas and many other entrepreneurs who are now in industry and services were all schooled (in more ways than one) in the sugar industry.

It was not always smooth sailing for the sugar industry. Far from being a bed of roses, it has been a hotbed of social strife because of the stark contrast between the extremely rich hacenderos in some districts like Negros Occidental and the miserably poor migrant workers (sacadas) who have not enjoyed the fruits of progress in the industry. Fortunately, in recent years, social legislation has tended to uplift the welfare of sugar workers.

But more important, through enlightened private sector participation, income Sl"1d employment-generating projects have been undertaken in sugar districts to improve the living conditions of the suga r workers who are now increasingly beLng displaced by mechanization.

As a source of production-{)r,:-nted entrepreneurs (as contrasted wi~h mere traders), the sugar industry is' unequaled. It is in the growing of sugar that Filipino businessmen and landowners have learned most and fastest about modern methods of agriculture: irrigation, fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides. Thus, these same sugar planters should be able to shift to the growing of other more marketable crops in the future (say cacao,

T HE TA LL Y OF '1 5 0 YEA RS

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coffee, or peanuts). There is no question that in the last years of the 20th century, the Philippines can at last finish the uncompleted agricultural revolution that is a prerequisite to long-lasting economic progress.

Also, through more than one hundred years of experience in the sugar milling and sugar refining processes, there has come to be an enviable crop of production-{)riented managers and skilled workers who are familiar with the so-called engineering industries (foundry, metals fabrication, civil engineering) that constitute the first step towards solid industrialization. It is no wonder that during the 1970s and the early 1980s - when sugar prices reached rock bottom - the leading sugar firm - Victorias Milling Company - was able to diversify into the engineering industries, thus cushioning the adverse impact of drastically falling sugar prices on its profitability. However, this admirable trait of the sugar industry is the exception to the rule. A major obstacle to real industrialization in the next twenty years is a shortage of production-oriented Filipino managers.

Because of the peculiar circumstances of a colonial past, an industrial or manufacturing culture, so necessary for industrialization, hardly evolved. There is a surplus of financial wizards and marketing "hotshots," as well as topnotch professional and academic personnel. But manufacturing managers and entrepreneurs belong to a rare breed, at least for the moment.

PAIN'S ceding of the Philippines to the United States in 1898 marked both a corttinuity and discontinuity in the sOciO-eCODomic history of the Philippines.

First, the disconti...ryuity. Compared to the former colonial' ;:nasters, the Americans were significantly more in-

S

terested in public education. The American Commission government, in fact, assigned it as the top priority.

Thus, the new masters laid the foundation for the relatively high literacy rate the Philippines now enjoys (about 88 per cent of the adult population).

TIlls democratic approach to education - as contrasted with the European elitist tradition - has considerably benefited the Filipinos by introducing greater social mobility.

Moreover, this is the same educational system that gave the necessary skills to hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who found brighter employment prospects abroad, which gave a safety valve to the explosive situation of millions of underemployed workers in the Philippines today (estimated to be at least 25 per cent of the labor force) . . The Americans likewise put to work a massive infrastructure development program, another pre-condition to self-sustaining economic growth. They built roads, bridges, hospitals, and schoolhouses. They developed public services in health and sanitation.

Determined to transplant democratic institutions to Philippine soil, they attempted to establish a civil service based on merit and judicial process. In the process of "democratizing" the Philippines, meanwhile, they shared the responsibility of government with the Filipinos. specifically the so-called ilustrados and the local principalia class.

However, they had only partial success in this attempt at democratization. A prevalent cultural disregard for the corrunon or public good constantly militated against an efficient civil service based on merit. The very unequal distribution of income and wealth was an inhospitable climate to political democracy. More often than not, the highly educated, the landed

gentry, the ilustrados worked for their narrow vested interests. The social responsibility of those who attained political power was at best dormant, at worst non-existent.

The problem of nurturing the Philippines to political maturity was too absorbing for the Americans to have given much thought (even if they wanted to) to long-term economic development. It must also be remembered that laissez faire economics and free trade policies were the deeply ingrained conventional wisdom of the period when the Americans started to colonize the Philippines.

Thus, without any "malicious imperialist design to keep the Philippines under economic bondage forever " (the favorite empty slogan of the leftists), the Americans merely accepted the eCOFlOmic structure as they inherited it from the Spaniards and went about expanding international trade further and iml?roving the efficiency of production.

In their own home economy, the Americans believed in and practised free enterprise. They saw the outstanding progress such a system brought about and were still generally insensitive to the excesses of unbridled capitalistic activities. They applied the same socio-economic philosophy to the Philippines and were confident that free trade was going to promote the long-term economic good of the country.

Such a policy kept the same structure of export crops as in 19th century Philippines. From 1899-1937, 76 per cent to 93 per cent of total export earnings was accounted for by sugar, abaca, tobacco and coconut products alone. The fortunes of the national economy rose and fell with these traditional exportR. Land planted to sugar continued to expand. This commodity loomed

21

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largest in the export scene, accounting for as much as 65 per cent of total export value in 1934. As already mentioned above, it gave the strongest impetus to an industrialization of sorts since sugar processing accounted for a substantial portion of the food manufacturing sector, which in turn comprised 52 per cent of value added in manufacturing by 1938. It was, in fact, during the American period that giant sugar mills such as Victorias Milling Company and La Carlota were established.

Considering the very uneven distribution of income and the control of political power by the ilustrados, an industry as strategic as sugar came to be a focal point for political power play. In fact, the so-called sugar barons did exercise great political clout in the Philippine Commission, in the Philippine legislature, in the U.S. Congress and in post-Independence politics all the way through the early seventies.

HERE ARE two phrases often used by economists: agricultural revolution and agricultural transformation . In its broadest sense , agricultural revolution refers to the more systematic cultivation of land that leads to the production of a food surplus in the farm sector that has heretofore lived on a hand-to-mouth existence. It is said that this agricultural revolution started in the fertile crescent of the Middle East some ten thousand years ago and took about eight thousand years to spread around the world. There are still some regions in Africa and Asia that have not been touched by this revolution.

In this broadest sense, the Americans continued the agricultural revolution that was initiated (albeit willy-nilly) by the Spanish colonizers.

In addition to expanding sugar hectarage, the Americans gave a major

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22

boost to abaca and coconut production for export. Even if very little was done to improve farm yields, there were important technological innovations in the distribution and processing of these commodities.

However, this approach to agricultural development fitted very much into the world experience. It created a relatively high standard of living for elites and made possible the survival of many more people. But it did not greatly change the standard of living of the masses.

As reported by futurologist Herman Kahn in his World Economic Development, no agriculturally-based society ever dropped much below the equivalent of $100 GNP per capita or exceeded the equivalent of $500 per capita (in 1978 prices) for any lengthy period. This is still the condition of hundred of millions of the world's poor (e.g. in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Nigeria).

It was not until the Industrial Revolution began in Holland and England about two hundred years ago that a self-sustaining growth occurred in per capita income levels. There is another name for this process: agricultural transformation. This means that as productivity in the farm sector (especially in yield per unit of land) is progressively attained, there is an accelerating transfer of the labor force (previously predominantly agricultural) to the nonfarm sector to produce the manufactured goods and related services associated with rising per capita income.

This transfer will be made possible only if there is a steady and sustained increase in productivity in the agricultural sector. The most dramatic case is that of the United States in which less than five per cent of the labor force feeds 220 million Americans and hundreds of millions of other peoples in various continents.

But this agricultural transformation could hardly take place in the colonial enclave that resulted from the free trade policy of the u.s. This policy, while encouraging the production of commercial crops in the Philippines and their exportation in raw form, provided little incentives for investment in Philippine manufacturing.

Agricultural exports from the Philippines entered the U.S. market without any tariff duty. Simultaneously, American manufactures were imported into the Philippines also dutyfree.

It was unlikely for entrepreneurs in the Philippines to get into the manufacturing of cotton, iron and steel. dairy, flour and leather products when these could be obtained from the United States at prices that were lower than what would have been the costs of domestic manufacturing activities.

This bias against domestic manufacturing was reinforced by the American prohibition of export to the U.S. of manufactures containing over 20 per cent of non-Philippine materials. This closed the doors to an export-oriented manufacturing strategy that catapulated Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Republic of Korea to the level of newly industrialized countries (NICs) in the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, the Japanese entrepreneurs residing in the Philippines during the American colonial period would have ventured into this re-export strategy, were it not for this prohibition. Instead, they concentrated on producing cheap imitations of U.S. goods, such as canned fish, leather products. candies. bicycles. beverages. rubber shoes and cotton products. for the small and slowly growing domestic market.

M

INING - still a primary export industry - grew rapidly as a

result of the gold boom in the late 1920s. Although the Spaniards had a great interest in Philippine gold, which led them to wage ferrocious battles against the Igorots, they did very little to develop the country's mineral wealth. They were neither technologically prepared to exploit the mines efficiently nor did they have the legal infrastructure to encourage active participation from private entrepreneurs in the mining industry.

When the Americans came to the Philippines. they brought with them superior mining technology. But over and above this, they introduced to the Philippines the market-oriented, freehold system that a free-enterprise society fostered. Simplified procedures for staking and keeping a claim and the guarantee of property rights over the mine and its output created an investment climate that benefited private entrepreneurship.

Among these first entrepreneurs in mining were the prototypes of the rugged individualists who were motivated by both adventure and material gain in braving the dangers and risks of the hard life of miners.

One of the leading mines today, Benguet Corporation, was founded early during the American colonial period - on August 12, 1903. It resulted from a partnership among two American war veterans and the first American to set up a business in the Philippines after the defeat of the Spaniards. He was Metcalfe Clark, who put up a confectionary business and a soda fountain to cater to American tastes (which have since that time completely shaped consumer markets in this country). Clark provided the venture capital to start mining operations in Baguio. This partnership typified many entrepreneurial ventures that would characterize the American colonial period: a city-based financier teaming 23

, 11' ALA

up with rugged individuals who were willing to rough it out in the boondocks - either in mining or in forestry.

It was the output of the mining and forestry sector that grew most rapidly during the American regime, posting an impressive 23.7 per cent annual growth during the 1902-18 period and 15.8 per cent during 1918-38, as contrasted with 4.1 per cent and 4.7 per cent , respectively for manufacturing.

Unfortunately, however, the production-orientation of the engineers and managers who ran firms in these sectors had verv little influence on the general trends of management, especially after the Second World War. The tribe of the rugged and tough managers who braved typhoons and other natural disasters (which almost terminated the corporate life of the origwal Benguet Consolidated in 1911 , were it not for the subsequent efforts of the Bank of the PhiliI;>pine Islands to rehabilitate the company) and applied science and technology to their productive endeavors increased at snail pace before and after the Second World War . In contrast, the financial wizards and armchair investors sta rted to predominate in the mining and other production-oriented industries. The result was far from felicitous: in the 1970s and 1980s there were too many fast-buck artists who drugged the mining industry with their windfall-profit mentality.

HILIPPINE economic development under the Americans was characterized by a concentration of investments in export-oriented products from the primary sector of agriculture and mining; the rapid growth of sugar production and primary processing; and a limited market for manufactured products most of which were imported from the United States.

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24

Such a lopsided growth of the economy led to the economic dualism that has been the lot of many agrarian economies of the Third World in the last 100 years. Side by side with a technologically efficient plantation economy, there usually exists a primitive peasant agricultural sector which has largely been untouched by the scientific progress of the 20th century.

In the Philippines this dualism took peculiar forms. The two agricultural crops that accounted for the bulk of cultivable land - palay and coconut - were especially susceptible to an extreme form of dualism. Throughout the 40 years of American administration, farm technology in palay stagnated. In fact, while the Philippines was able to export rice during certain periods of the Spanish colonial era, there was need to import some 11 thousand to 193 thousand metric tons annually from 1900-1941. Productivity at the farm level posted no significant increase. This situation would remain unchanged all the way through postindependent years until the Green Revolution of the 60's and 70's.

On the other hand, there were significant improvements in the technology of palay processing, which accounted and still accounts for an important share of the food manufacturing sector. ruce mills powered by water or by steam started to gradually replace the primitive method of pounding palay on a mortar. This technological innovation in palay processing ushered in a new breed of traders, especially among the Chinese. By the 1920s, about 20 per cent of total rice output went through the commercial trade.

As more rice mills were put up, commercial trading in rice expanded.

Rice millers and wholesalers started to pIa y a significant role as middlemen. In many instance~, these mid-

dlemen used their oligopolistic power to hoard rice and to manipulate prices. Because of their weak economic positions, the farmers were often victimized, getting a meager share of the income from palay. Thus began the many decades when farmers were "squeezed between the grindstone of low productivity and the millstone of high cost of credit. mostly from middlemen and loan sharks."

The initial efforts of the Commonwealth Government in 1935 to minimize the excesses of the middlemen failed because the government agency that was put up for the purpose (National Rice Corporation) hardly attained a 5 per cent share of the total palay market. This experience contrasts with the more successful intervention of the National Grains Authority (NGA) during the 1970s.

Through a skillful strategy of warehousing and financing , the NGA attained more than 10 per cent share of the market and exerted enough influence on private traders to minimize price manipulations. the economic structure spawned by American free trade policy laid the foundation for the intractable problem of rural poverty that the Philippines now faces during the last decades of this century. The economic and technological dualism that evolved out of an emphasis on the export of raw materials increasingly aggravated the social problem of rural poverty.

The economic system did not exert 路pressure on the agricultural sector to improve its productivity. Since improved productivity is the only enduring way to increase the income of the rural poor, the subsistence farmers increasingly joined the ranks of the poorest among the poor.

U

NWITTINGLY,

The potentially explosive social condition was aggravated by a feudal agrarian structure. Although the Americans made some attempts to reform the structure of agricultural land ownership (e.g. through the distribution of the socalled "friar lands" in Southern Tagalog), tenancy continued to be the predominant practice in rice and corn farming. ThiR agrarian structure, which was inherited from the encomienda or latifundia system of the Spanish colonial era , dampened to a great extent any move to improve agricult'-1ral productivity.

The Americans had no long-term vision of the future economic development of the Philippines (neither did they have it about their own economy, as can be deduced from the traumas they experienced with the Great Depression of the 1930s). On the other hand , the Filipino ilustrados and legislators were too absorbed with pursuing political independence and protecting their primarily agrarian interests to foresee the dire long-term consequences of the neglect of agricultural productivity.

There is a strong case for effective government action in removing the sturobling blocks posed by a feudal structure to agricultural productivity in the Philippines. Neither the American administration nor the post-independence government officials succeeded in arresting the decline in agricultural productivity, until the rice success story of the 1970s. For almost three quarters of a century, peasant agriculture (predominantly in rice, corn and coconut) deteriorated in productivity, driving more and more millions of farmers to grueling poverty.

The saving grace of the Filipino farmer was his obsession for education, inculcated by the Americans 25

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who laid the foundation for a relatively effective public educational system. The only real investment many poor farmers were able to make was in the education of at least some of their children.

Thanks to this penchant for education, the Philippines now has an above-average literacy rate among developing countries and is a rich source of manpower of la bor- or skills-short economies in the Middle East , Asia-Pacific , Africa and even industrialized countries. It is not surprising that a leading futurologist and scenario builder, Pierre Wack. who visited the Philippines in September 1982, remarked that there are only four countries in the Third World that have the " intellectual infrastructure" to survive the crisis of the eighties: India , Brazil, Tunisia and the Philippines.

T

HE AMERICANS, as lready men-

tioned made serious attempts to restructure land ownership.

When they realized that the Spanish land laws were deficient and antiquated , they promulgated the Philippine Bill of 1900 which became the basic instrument of all subsequent statut es governing public lands , mineral resources, forests and friar lands in the country. It was the intention of the Americans to implement what was successful in their own country - the homesteading law which provided guidelines for the disposal of the public domain. It was this law which developed a broad base of land ownership in the United States.

Thus, the Public Land Act (Act No. 926) was enacted by the Philippine Commission on October 7, 1903.

Under this Act, citizens of both the Philippines and the United States were allowed to acquire homestead not exceeding 16 hectares in area, to

'('!-I E ,(,, \U . Y OF I SO \' E/\RS

26

purchase tracts of land not more than 16 hectares, and to lease public lands not more than 1,024 hectares. Corporations or similar organizations duly organized under the laws were allowed to purchase at least not more than 1,024 hectares of public land subject to limitations provided in the law.

Act No. 926 was repealed by Act No. 2874 which increased the areas that may be acquired through homestead to 24 hectares, and through sales, to 100 hectares. Later, the limit was increased to 144 hectares under the new Act No. 3219.

Under the Commonwealth Government, installed in 1935, there were more attempts to disperse ownership through expropriation of landed estates for resale. There were also provisions for the limitation in size of agricultural lands for private ownership. All these efforts were directed towards discouraging tenancy relationships.

Unfortunately, these attempts at land redistribution hardly made a dent on the deeply entrenched feudalistic agrarian structure.

Political power was still mostly concentrated in the hands of the landed interests who effectively blocked any massive land redistribution. But the most serious obstacle to land reform during both the Commonwealth and post-Independence eras was the failure of the government to provide the small farmer-turned-owner with the necessary physical and financial infrastructure support (e.g. irrigation, credit, agricultural extension service, marketing, etc.).

More often than not, the recipients of land titles among the rural farmers eventually. got buried deep in debt so that they were forced to resell their land to the loan sharks. It was only the thorough-going land reform programs of the seventies that tackled frontally

the problem of raising the productivity of the small farmer-turned-{)wner by giving him total infrastructure support.

American attempts to restructure land ownership had no significant impact on agricultural and rural development. However, the real estate practices learned from the U.S. by land developers, especially in the Manila area, have catapulted some Philippine firms to pace-setters in land development in other parts of the world.

Especially worth noting is the Makati story, one of the most successful land development ventures of a private firm in Southeast Asia. The expertise accumulated by the Ayala group in developing residential subdivisions and commercial complexes is at present being exported to other countries in Southeast Asia, not to mention Spain.

T

HE BRIEF occupation by the

Japanese of the Philippines (1942-1945) not only wreaked havoc on the Philippine economy but also left some nagging questions that are now being revived, as the whole of Southeast Asia (and the entire world for that matter) looks at Japan as a model for economic sta bility and growth.

Although their behavior generally disproved their pious statements, the Japanese claimed they wanted to set up "the Philippines for the Filipinos as a member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere in the Greater East Asia." Their avowed objective was to cleanse Filipinos of the ~fluences of "AngloAmerican materialism, hedonism, epicurianism, individualism, liberalism and democracy." They wanted to tutor us in their "Oriental values of self-reliance, patriotism, discipline. self-sacrifice and hard work. "

In translating these motherhood statements into concrete programs of action, the Japanese tried to organize the economies of the Southeast Asian region in such a way as to discourage overproduction and wastage of resources and to attain selfsufficiency. But their imperialistic designs were soon unmasked: they wanted the resources of the Philippines to carryon the war against the U.S. They stopped Philippine trade with the U.S., seriously disrupting the production of sugar, abaca, copra and coconut oil. Because they only wanted to redirect Philippine production of raw materials towards meeting the needs of their military-industrial complex, their policies did little to restructure the Philippine economy.

T

HE SHORT-LIVED imperialistic

expedition of the Japanese in East Asia ended tragically - for them and for the devastated economies they left behind. Very few would question the blessings brought about by the American liberation of the Philippines in 1944. Whatever actual or potential benefits Japanese imperialism could have conferred on the country were totally eclipsed by the wanton disregard of human rights by the occupying Japanese soldiers.

As the Philippines emerged as a young republic in 1946, the national economy was in a critical shape. It was threatened by inflation and, towards the end of the forties, a chronic balance of payments deficit.

Such problems would have galvanized the national leaders to apply the drastic measures necessary to cure the ills. But the roots of their political past and cultural heritage were too strong an obstacle to any effort at restructuring economy.

The political leaders - still unable to transcend narrow vested interest - could not tackle the most im-

27

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portant economic task which was that of improving agricultural productivity and significantly increasing the supply of wage goods, particularly food. The economy continued to depend on primary exports to earn the foreign exchange needed to feed the insatiable demand for imported goods, particularly from the u.s.

As international reserves dwindled to dangerously low levels, import and exchange controls were imposed during the decade of the fifties. It was during this decade that the government policies started to encourage both local and foreign entrepreneurs to invest in import-substituting industries, such as food manufacturing, textile products, beverages, paper and rubber products, chemical and chemical products.

Through an overvalued peso, tax exemptions, tariff protection and subsidized credit, the government gave a major boost to an industrialization process that ooncentrated on importsubstitution (as contrasted with export-oriented industrialization which characterized the so-called "tiger economies" of Northeast Asia).

There was nothing wrong with import-substitution per se. A basically agrarian economy needs an initial phase of import-substitution as its "school of hard knocks" in learning how to industrialize. Even the "tiger economies" went through their stages of import-substitution. But after a decade or so, they were quick to graduate to an export-oriented industrial strategy.

o BE SURE, there were distinct benefits conferred by the importsubstituting industries to the Philippine economy. They provided the initiation to an industrial culture for a population that was made up mostly of farmers and traders. The Philippine population did not have the benefit of

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28

going through centuries of craft guilds and small manufacturing activities, in contrast with the European countries before the so-called industrial revolution and with our neighboring Asian countries who were able to export manufactured articles even during pre-Spanish times. Most of the products sent to Mexico in the galleon trade were manufactured in India, China or Arabia.

When independence was gained in 1946, very few Filipinos were exposed to manufacturing activities other than the processing of sugar and palay.

With the introduction of importsubstituting industries, a predominantly agrarian economy had its first real glimpse of an industrial culture. Especially through American multinational corporations, more educated Filipinos joined business organizations rather than aspire exclusively for success in the medical, legal and other professions. Slowly there was an increase in the number of young people pursuing the various fields of engineering and technology.

True, most of the industries established after the Second World War were primarily engaged in the packaging or assembly of imported materials manufactured abroad. But these firms became the vehicles of transferring modern business organization strategies, systems and structures to the Philippines. Thanks to them, we have the largest pool of experienced accountants, marketing executives and finance managers in the whole of Southeast Asia. It is no accident that the largest accounting firm in the Far East - SGV - is a Philippine-based multinational corporation. Marketing executives from the Philippines have been exported to developing countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

The import-substituting industries also increased the ranks of blue-collar

workers skilled in manufacturing operations. There were significant increases in the share to total manufacturing value added of such new industries as basic metal and metallic products, machinery, transportation equipment, textile products and beverage. In contrast, the food manufacturing sector suffered a decline in its share to total manufacturing from over 50 per cent before the War to 27 per cent during the early sixties. This meant that sugar and palay processing ceased to be the predominant "industrial activity."

Finally, the emergence of industries selling baSically to the domestic market triggered off the development of a relatively sophisticated service sector that catered to the financing, insurance, distribution and other needs of the manufacturing sector.

Among developing countries, our tertiary sector is considered to be relatively advanced. What stunted the growth of such services as transportation and communication was the inability of the public sector to provide the infrastructure facilities on which only the government can afford to invest.

D

ESPITE the limitations of the in-

dustrial strategy of the first 30 years of the Philippine republic , a number of manufacturing entrepreneurs started to emerge from the urban population, mostly from the educated ranks. The investment climate resulting from deliberate government policies to encourage import substitution elicited the appropriate response: there was a significant rise of entrepreneurial activities in textile, cement, car assembly, paper and paper products, manufacturing, beverage, food processing, soaps and detergents, and so on. In fact, towards the middle of the sixties the problem of many of these

industries was over-capacity. That is why, the Board of Investments had to come out with the concept of measured capacity with the end in view of discouraging "overcrowding" in specific industries.

Most of the manufacturing entrepreneurs came from the Metropolitan Manila area and the surrounding provinces of Rizal, Bulacan, Pampanga, Batangas and Laguna. There were also some important investors from the Western Visayas region (Negros Oriental and Panay). Filipino-Chinese entrepreneurs from Cebu (which is the most Chinese-influenced city of the country) loomed large in inter-island shipping, commodities trading and food processing.

Some exceptional Filipino entrepreneurs who went into importsubstitution attained relatively high levels of efficiency and productivity.

Notable among them are ~uch Philippine industrial conglomerates as the San Miguel Corporation (producing food , beverages, packaging materials) and United .Laboratories (the largest pharmaceutical firm in the country).

Both these corporate groups are already multinational in their operations, evidence of their having attained industrial leadership in the region.

However, most other manufacturing concerns became so dependent on protective barriers and fiscal and credit iricentives that they were unable to outgrow their stage of "infancy." Philippine industrial concerns have become notorious as some of the most inefficient in the East Asian region. Even the well-intentioned program to encourage the progressive manufacturing of cars in the country failed because the government did not have the political will to limit the program to only one firm, which was the number warranted by the extremely 29

1\ 1/..1

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limited domestic market for automotive vehicles. This dismal experience contrasts with the relatively' successful progressive car manufacturing program in the Republic of Korea whose government had the sense and the will to start with only one firm. The same could be said about another success story in car manufacturing in the last 25 years: the Spanish automotive industry that has long surpassed the annual volume of one million units. When the Spaniards started their car manufacturing program they had only one firm. Only when the domestic market had significantly expanded did the Spanish government allow the entry of other car manufacturing firms.

V

ERY FEW will deny that the

Philippine industrial sector that evolved during the last 36 years since indepen,dence is generally inefficient and unc mpetitive with those of the so-called newly industrialized countries (NIC's) such as Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It is not surprising that the oil shocks of the seventies and the financial crises of the eighties have driven many Philippine manufacturing firms to the brink of bankruptcy.

But the verdict of economic history should not be too harsh on Filipino entrepreneurs. Their present predicament can be greatly attributed to the investment climate spawned by some unenlightened government policies in the sixties and even in the seventies. It was the government that continued to encourage entrepreneurs to linger too long on import-substitution by not really lowering the effective rates of protection on local industries, even after the decontrol of 19.6 2. This proves once again that entrepreneurs only exploit the market opportunities found in the environment.

The phenomenal growth of the so-

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I !i O I 'KIIIS

30

called nontraditional exports (e.g. electronic components, garments, frozen and fresh food exports, finished wood products, footwear and leatherware) during the second half of the seventies attests to the presence of entrepreneurs who can shift to export-{)riented industries and who can be reasonably competitive in the world market. Even if the Philippine government has not been able to provide a totally encouraging environment for manufactured exports (because of bureaucratic red tape and inefficient telecommunications), the meager incentives given to exports (subsidized credit and tax exemptions) have boosted the performance of the nontraditional exports to close t9 a 40 per cent annual growth rate in the late seventies (as contrasted with a total export growth of only 15 per cent to 18 per cent annually in the previous two decade.s).

T

HE REMAINING years of this cen-

tury will be economically critical for the Philippines. Still to be won is the battle against mass poverty. Income is still too unevenly distributed.

The gains of economic growth are not yet trickling down to the poorest among the poor. At least 25 per cent of the labor force - particularly in the rural areas - can be counted among the underemployed. Industrial activity and economic opportunities in general are still concentrated in Metro Manila and a few urban centers.

There is still too much dependence on a few traditional export products for generating mass purchasing power. The recent catastrophic decline of coconut prices showed the vulnerability of the entire economy to the uncertainties of international commodities markets. The demand for imports - though decelerating in recent years - still exerts an undue strain on the ability to earn foreign ex-

change. Prudent borrowing limits have been reached.

What can be learned from the past so that we are not doomed to repeat its mistakes, to paraphrase George Santayana? Actually, we have already started learning from the past. There is I)OW giving higher priority to improving agricultural productivity. The battle of self-sufficiency in our staple food, rice, is won. On stream is a corn productivity program that can lead to self-sufficiency in .the mid-eighties. The ongoing coconut replanting program can triple or quadruple the yields of coconut farms by the early 1990s. There are also some new agricultural crops that are being introduced with technology borrowed from other countries: coffee, cacao, rubber, African palm oil and tapioca.

Aquaculture also faces bright prospects in the corning years. Yields in bangus, tilapia, prawn and shrimp culture are gradually increasing, thanks to technology transfer from Taiwan, Israel, Hawaii and Ecuador.

These developments in marine resources augur very well for self-sufficiency in sea food which is a major source of protein for the Filipino masses. The species especially worth watching is tilapia nilotica or white tilapia (native name is plapla) that can be produced at yields exceeding 10 tons per hectare (as compared to the present average of below one ton per hectare in bangus culture).

sent replete with excess capacity in these basic industries. Without dropping all the major industrial projects, greater emphasis is given to exportoriented, labor-intensive industries such as those manufacturing electronic components, garments, furniture and fixtures, giftware and houseware, leather and shoe products, frozen and fresh food items.

These light industries have become especially attractive in view of the decision of the Newly Industrialized Countries to phase them out because of labor scarcity and high wages.

Significantly diminished is the dependence of the economy on imported oil. Even the most conservative estimate will grant that before the decade is over we shall be importing less than 50 per cent of our energy requirements. The most significant increases in non-conventional energy have been posted in the geo-thermal, coal and hydro-electric sectors. There is no question that the government has performed extraordinarily well in carrying out an energy program that was started even before the oil shock of the early seventies.

But there are nagging questions that only time can answer.

No econometric fore c ast , no futurologist 's scenario can claim to settle everything. Here we face the inscrutable element of the human will that retains its freedom to repeat the mistakes of the past or to learn from them. ~

AST MIST AKES in industrial strategy have led to the removal of the protective wall that has pampered local industries for more than two decades, a period too long for infant industry protection.

Enthusiasm for large-scale industrial projects has been moderated, after assessing realistically the world economic envirorunent that is at pre-

- Bernardo M. Villegas

P

31

, 1\'. 1/ .. 1

J

PART

1

The First Fifty Years 1834-1884

I

)

THE PATRIARCHS AS PIONEERS

T

HE OLDEST commercial house of Spanish origin in the Philip-

pines came into being when Domingo Roxas, a farsighted Spanish land-owner and entrepreneur, and his trusted employee, Antonio de Ayala, signed the articles of partnership of Cas a Roxas in 1834.

An adventurous Basque who was only 29 years old at the beginning of the partnership, Ayala was the industrial partner - in the legal sense, one who contributes his services instead of capital. As fortune would have it, it is by his name that the company is known today.

The company has the distinction of having started the oldest industry in the Philippines. At a time when all tbe other commerj.. cial houses were engaged in the lucrative foreign commission business, Casa Roxas invested the bulk of its assets in a crude but efficient distillery.

Early prints show an impressive spread of chimneyed buildings in the Quiapo district of Manila on both sides of Echague street from the bank of the Pasig River. This was the Destileria y Licoreria de Ayala y Compania at the height of its fame. But when it began its business, it depended wholly on a primitive still manufactured from a hollow log with bamboo tubing and operated by fire.

~

On this distillery by the Pasig River, Casa Roxas invested the bulk of its assets.

When it began, the distillery depended wholly on a primitive still made of a hollow log with bamboo tubing and opera ted by fire. The finished product was poured into jugs that were transported to the market all pat cargo boats. In time, the distillery acquired updated equipment imported from France and to its top money-maker, which was gin, added other products such as rum, whiskey and cognac.

35

AYA LA; THE FIRST SO \' EA HS

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, \ small adl'ertisemellt lists dowll the prodllcts c!f the distillery, origillally C!f Casa RO,\ a but later kllowll as Destileria y Licoreria de Ayala .I' Compallia whell , \n/(}nio de I \.I'ala and his wife Margarita became the 01\ Ilers. The alllllJllIlCement claims r1\(Jrable reSitits [rol1l tes ts l1Iade ill /ICIng r,Clng ;lI lcl. as 11·(·/1. I'a,.,.;"s t/)e nell address or the distillery which, by the tllrll of the cell tury. had c()me to (lC' CUP.I' both side (!f" Echague street ill Quiapo and had offices ill llearb.l! Sail Miguel district.

In Paqull. near Pagsanjan. an enterprising Spanish mestizo. Sr. Roxas. has set up two establishments of importance to the colony. Manila used to import its gunpowder from Spain. Senor Roxas conceived the idea of building a facto r y to produce it and today he is able to supply the entire local demand. The success of this venture led him to attempt another, that of a spinning mill on the French model. He entrus ted th e management of the enterprise to a young compatriot of ours familiar wi th the process. The young man brought with him the necessary machinery a nd spindles. The facto ry. first set up in Manila, has recently been tra ns ferred to Paquil where it continues to prosper .

-

From Capt. Gabriel Lafond de Lurey, 1636

It was not until 1876 that a French steam-operated Savalle machine was put into operation. Another mechanical triumph followed with the installation of a Savalle rectifier and an Egrot type of distiller which made it possible for the distillery to produce a fairly good quality of rum, whiskey, cognac, chartreuse, anis and anisette, not to mention its top money-maker, the gin trademarked Ginebra San Miguel.

The commercial distillation of spirits entailed a large, practically nationwide operation. When it was her turn to run the distillery, Margarita Roxas de Ayala - Don Domingo's daughter - bought 4,000 hectares of nipa palm swamps in Hacienda San Esteban, Pampanga, to provide a source of raw material from the sap for alcohol distillation. She also established nipa palm colonies in Cauayan and Capiiiajan, Capiz with refining stations in these places.

The distillery nurtured the first seeds of the country's chemical industry. In 1878, its technical director, Anacleto del Rosario, discovered a way of neutralizing acidity and the light color of alcohol obtained from tuba. He is remembered today as one of the great Filipino pioneers in the field of chemistry.

The Quiapo distillery plant continued to be one of the mainstays of Ayala business until it was sold to the elder Carlos Palanca on June 21, 1924.

While the development of the country's natural resources was only a subject for tiresome speeches at the meetings of the Economic Society of Friends, Ayala y Compania with little fanfare placed its venture capital in several extractive industries. The company started the first coal-mining operation in Pan dan creek in Camarines and Cebu and shortly afterwards opened a plant to obtain commercial dyes from indigo.

In some of these ventures, which were naturally riskier than the usual run of export-and-import business because of the large investments involved and the exploratory nature of the operation, profits did not materialize to any large extent. But in an almost quixotic 'desire to see the country derive wealth from its own resources, Ayala y Compania continued to plow funds into its nipa swamps and its mines against the most difficult odds.

The Ayala story goes many centuries back, long before Antonio de Ayala signed up with Domingo Roxas to form Casa Roxas.

The original Ayala family sprang out of the mountainous soil of Alava, Spain, where Antonio de Ayala was born in Hueto Abajo in 1805. The Ayala lineage can be traced back to Juan Larrazabal Ayala (c. 1475), a land-owner in the Basque province.

Alava is a beautiful hilly region transversed by the Pyrennees in northern Spain. On its mountainsides grow great stands of oak and chestnut trees; its valleys are lush with grain, vegetables, fruit trees and vineyards.

Alava had three political divisions: La Rioja, Los Valles and

T H E PATRIA RCHS AS PIONEEHS

36

DOMINGO ROXAS (1782 - 1843)

37

A \', 1/,/ \ : '/'H E V//IS.,. 50 \''', I/IS

The coat of arms of the Ayala fa mily with the date 1613 referring to the birth of the first Antonio de Ayala who lived in Alava, northern Spain. He was an ancestor of Antonio de Ayala who cam e to Manila in 1827.

This manuscript contains the lineage of Juan de Ayala, who was originally fro m Spain but who chose to settle down in Mel'ico.

Antiplanicia. Los Valles was chiefly made up of the feudal estates of three families: Velasco, Marquez and Ayala.

There is an apochryphal anecdote concerning the origin of the Ayala name. It tells of Don Vela (the Vigilant), who was the infante of Aragon in the 11th century. Don Vela was placed under the patronage of King Alfonso who declared him as one of his heirs.

King Alfonso once pointed out to the young man the mountains and valleys that would be his patrimony. It was all but deserted. The King explained that there were no men to till and defend the territory, but that when time came, Don Vela could do as he pleased with it.

From then on, at every opportunity, Don Vela reminded the King of his promise and prodded him for permission to go and work in his patrimony.

It took sometime before the King thought that the infante was ready and when that time came, he said the eagerly awaited words: "Senor, haya 10. " Go forth, have it your way. When Don Vela's fellow courtiers heard him thus addressed, they thought the King had given him a new name. Thus the King's words of consent became a family name that was reshaped into Ayala.

Whatever the merits of this story, the Ayalas were content with a life of rustic gentility. Like many of their fellow Basques, they were independent minded , talented and adventurous. Juan de Ayala , who migrated to Toledo, was the official printer of Philip II. Fernando Ayala was an officer envoy to Japan and gar--..., rison commander of Fort Santiago.

One of the most daring members of the family was Don Juan Manuel de Ayala, a lieutenant of the Spanish royal navy whom history credits for being the first ship captain to explore the fabulous San Francisco Bay on the California coast. On July 27, 1775 he sailed from Monterey on the packet San Carlos. His mission was to find a navigable channel to this potential harbor which Gaspar de Portola had first reached by land six years before.

-- Attempting an entry into the bay, Ayala was swept back by the strong ebb tide. Finally, in the evening of August 5, he was able to breast in, feeling his way in the darkness and taking soundings almost by the minute to avoid the treacherous shoals.

Before this event, he wrote, "Nothing but the tule rafts of the Indians had graced the waters of San Francisco Bay." It was common for Spanish men to seek their fortune abroad in commerce or in war. Antonio de Ayala was one of those-who left their homeland with apparently nothing but the shirts on their backs and their native wit to bank on. He sailed for Manila when his uncle - Monsignor Jose Segui - was the archbishop.

By one of those twists of fortune that alter the entire course of a man's life, Ayala got a job with the business house of Domingo Roxas. And here was where the Ayala family joined forces with

T H E PATRIA RCHS AS PIONEE RS

38

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ESCALA GRAFICA

Map of Alava, northern Spain

Houses and landscape in Ala va, Spain, the hometown of Antonio de Ayala

39

AYALA

T H E FIRST 50 YEAH.'>

Dressed in lInacclis/()med .Ii路nery, this farm family is typical of th e workers in the ear~v haciendas, sllch as those olVned by the Ro,\ ases in Lagllna and Batangas.

Men and women, .vollng and old, lVorked in the pelds and elentllally became col/nted as a large family comm unity - a lifest.lr/e that is at the backbone (!r the Philippine rural society lI ntil today.

4 '

.~ Receipt dated October 31, 1842 records a purchase (!r boilers l11ade by Don Domingo R(};o.:as from the Ker McMickillg COl11pany IVhich was all importer (!r in路 dustrial equipment from England and France.

another family which traces its ancestry to the early days of the Spanish colonial government.

The early history of the Roxas family is rather sketchy but old documents identify the first Roxases as having come from Acapulco. The earliest Roxas on record is Juan Pablo de Roxas who settled in the Philippines with a considerable estate. He had two sons, Raimundo and Mariano Romero.

Mariano Roxas was born in 1758 in one of his father's farms in Laguna. He enrolled as a student at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran on September 30, 1769. He graduated with a bachelor of philosophy degree in 1777.

Despite the possibility of a profitable career built around the family wealth, Mariano Roxas chose the academic life instead. He became a member of the faculty of the University of Santo Tomas.

In fact, the records show that he was one of the original signers of the statutes of the university which date back to 1785.

Domingo Roxas was one of the three sons of Mariano Roxas and Ana Maria de Ureta. Records seem to indicate that Domingo Roxas was the country's earliest industrialist in spirit if not in actual achievement, for he was far ahead of his time.

At a time when farming was considered too demeaning an occupation for the Spanish upper class, he was elbow deep in the cultivation of sugar and cotton in his Batangas and Laguna properties. He introduced the use of machinery for the processing of sugar, cotton and lumber. He started what seemed to his friends to be a bizarre scheme involving the smelting and refining of iron ore. This venture had to be abandoned due to lack of capital but anyone can see what this might have meant to the country's mining industry had it been successful. At another time, Roxas showed interest in the potentialities of the gold mines in Paracale; they turned out to be one of the richest in the history of Philippine gold mining.

He did not remain complacent when his interests were threatened. In 1830 he wrote a firm letter of protest against a royal order limiting the sale of rum in certain government monopoly stores. As a sugar planter, he knew that this measure would have adverse effects on the budding sugar industry.

Early in his career he made what may be regarded as the key move in the chain of events that led to the accumulation of the Roxas fortune. He acquired a narrow strip of land jutting out into Batangas Bay and named the property Hacienda Calatagan after the nearby township. The sugar press (trapiches) that he built on that property led to the idea of a distillery to manufacture spirits on a commercial basis.

A descendant of Don Domingo, Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, was to write with much fondness of summers spent in the family's country estate in Calatagan over a century after its acquisition.

"Calatagan is the peninsula located in the municipality bearing the same name in Batangas province in Luzon," he wrote in his

THE PATRIA RCHS liS PIONEE RS

40

memoirs. "It is bounded on the north by Lian Hacienda, on the west by the municipality of Balayan and its bay, on the south by the China Sea and Pagaspas Bay and on the east by the China Sea .... When it was acquired by my great-great-grandfather, Don Domingo Roxas, the Hacienda had some 7,500 hectares which were later extended to 10,000 hectares. " Further in the memoirs, he also wrote: "I certainly do not know for what reasons Don Domingo Roxas purchased the hacienda. An extant document in Ayala y Compania, however, records the fact that he bought carabaos or work animals for Calatagan in 1838. In the light of this document, it is safe to surmise that he bought Calatagan for agricultural reasons, since the

Receipt for 59 carabaos purchased by Domingo Ro;<.as in November 1838 for his hacienda in Calatagan, Balangas. The receipt is preserved in the Ayala Archives.

area included large and small forests where deer and wild boar abounded. " Like many a later Roxas or Ayala, Don Domingo came upon much suffering and tragedy in his life. To begin with, his wife died when their children were still quite young. Then, for various political reasons, he was three times arrested and jailed.

His first recorded brush with the colonial government occurred on December 28, 1822. A royal order called for his deportation to Spain for political reasons. Mexico had just won its independence from Spain and several of the Creoles in the Philippines were suspected of harboring similar separatist sentiments, particularly those who were distinguished for their "culture, intelligence and liberal ideas". Roxas fitted ea~ily into that category, so on February 18, 1823, off to Spain he went along with a few other luckless native Spaniards. The Council of the Indies acquitted him in 1825 and he chose to return to Manila two years later.

In 1841, he was again in trouble, again an unfortunate victim of circumstances. The immediate cause of the furor was the upris-

41

AYALA

,\\,,\/ .. \ :

or

This arrest has overwhelmed all Manila with surprise. It is not possible to believe that a man like Monsie ur Roxas. having a wide experience of the men in this country would ... commit the mistake of mixing in the projects of men such as Apolinario de la Cruz. He is accused of having supplied gunpowder and arms to the rebels. Monsieur Roxas has a powder factory in the province of Laguna. near Tayabas. and his Indio employees might have a bused his name. I do not think that Monsieur Roxas is guilt y. a lthough for the past three days he has been kept in strict seclusion with the double guard and armed boats in front of the windows of his prison faCing the Pasig River.

- From Consut Adolphe Barrol ' report to the Minis t rv of Foreign Affairs. Paris. t 841

'1'// ÂŁ VII!ST50 \'IO, \ /IS

MUSEUM LIBRARV

7t,-39

quick learners, Filipino 11 orkers pick Uli the sugarmaking techniques introduced .from Me,\ico H hich depended on tl1l" trapiclw, a slOne or 1100d press. ÂŁ,\. t racted juice Has hoi/ed in !S,'eilt C!llI/drons; hili el'en .farsighted producers lik e Don Oomingo R0,\ i/S, who was eager t() introduce ill'ai/able techn%KI', C()u/d I/ot lessen the amount manual Ilork 'hat had /() he done.

ing in Tayabas province of the Cofradia de San Jose, a supposedly religious organization but actually a seditious movement.

Roxas was implicated on two counts: his supposed friendship with one of the ringleaders, Apolinario de la Cruz, and the fact that one of the clerics connected with the movement, Fr. Ciriaco de los Santos, was his friend and personal chaplain. Apolinario de la Cruz was executed for treason. Roxas was thrown into jail for six months until it was made clear that he had nothing to do with the cofrodio, Hardly had Don Domingo been out of prison then he was arrested again. In January 1843, soldiers of the Tayabas regiment turned their guns on their officers and took over Fort Santiago, the main bastion of Manila. The brief uprising was swiftly quelled, but the civil government in Manila was gripped with a rebellion scare.

Beneath this seemingly serene look 路out in Fort Santiago are dungeons fo r prisoners. In these dungeons, Don Domingo Ro,xas served time twice for suspicions of rebellion, never proven, that were held against him by the colonial authorities. In fact, it was in these dungeons where Don Domingo diedi his ill health cou ld not wit hstand the rigors.

.Iua"a Lim Caslro c/e Ro,xas IVhom .lose 8olli(ario /io.\as lIlarriec/ Ii/If' ill /if f> W!lS Ill(' fIlllIIWI" or Pec/ro PalJlo /ioS!ls. She W!lS IJarl C:hinesf' ;lIlcl ll!lrl Fi/ipill!l . 1111' atweslor I\'ho gill'e /() su/JSl'qUf'1l1 fl o,\ !lS genl'I"!llions Ill(' ('.\0 1iC' fC;lllIres ( ~r olil'l' skin ami sl;lllling (路.I'f'S .

Because he was a suspect in the seditious movement in Tayabas, from where the rebellious soldiers came, Don Domingo Roxas was again arrested, this time together with his business partner, Antonio de Ayala . With several other Spaniards, they were thrown into prison.

Fearful for Don Domingo 's health, for he was then already weak and frail , his daughter Margarita went to Spain to plead his case before Queen Isabel II. She finally obtained orders for his release. Before she could put them into effect, Don Domingo died in prison. Much later, a subsequent royal order completely cleared his good name.

Upon the death of Domingo Roxas, Casa Roxas was dissolved and a new partnership was organized under the name of Roxas Hijos. Mariano Roxas , Jose Bonifacio Roxas and their sister Margarita served as capitalist partners while Antonio de Ayala continued as industrial partner.

Jose Bonifacio managed Hacienda Calatagan and other interests in Batangas. Mariano managed the properties in Laguna .

Margarita took care of the distillery.

In this new family union, the firmest hand proved to be that of the woman partner. Further, she made a move that fully consolidated the partnership: she married Antonio de Ayala in January 1844.

THE PA T RI A RCHS AS PI ONEE RS

42

MA RGA RITA ROXAS DE AYALA (1815 - 1869)

43

AVilLA,' T H EFIHSTSIJVEAHS

By most standards, Margarita Roxas de Ayala was an exceptional woman. Most wellborn ladies of her time were innocent of the hard realities of life. Not so the only daughter of Domingo Roxas.

I:lrf.v anri a gPnI/pman nf 1.9lh r.fm lll ry

Manila: In their world lived and worked Margarita Ro;xas de A.I'ala but she chose lor herself a sober, bus.v l((e in business.

Tral 'p/ing hy hnal ri(}wn Ihp Pasig riVl~ r:

To get aroulld th e Philippines in the 19th century was a rigorous effort, using boats, ships and horsedrall'n carts. r\largarita Ro.\as de A.vala bral'ed them all to acquire, inspect and supen'ise her product i I'e lands.

The first San Pedro Makati, located in the boundaries of the old province of Tondo but situa ted in the municipality of Makati, consisted of farm land and pasturage for cat tle and horses . There was a central residence. ovens for baking lime. roof-tiles. and brick. and a tropiche fo r milling suga r-cane. After the Jesuits were expelled. Don Pedro de Gala rraga. Marquis of Villamediana. acquired it at a public auction. He tried to imp rove it at great expense to himself. renovating . maintainin g or improving not only the house, but also the irrigation dyke. the pottery shop. as well as, by an act of generosity. the parochial church .

- From "Diccionorio geogrofico-es tadis ticohistorico de las Islas Filipinos ". 1851

Her father was an astute businessman with liberal politics and leanings and his sala often rang loud with lively discussions.

In this household, Margarita quickly learned what was going on outside the walls of the Roxas manor. She grew up to be every bit as re ourceful and perspicacious as her father.

Margarita and Antonio de Ayala had three daughters: Camila, Carmen and Trinidad. The carefree life of a rich matron was not Margarita 's choice. She poured herself into the family business with a vitality surprising for a woman of her time. Many of the company's crucial decisions - the purchase of 4,000 hectares of nipa palm lands in Luzon and another 400 hectares in Panay, the opening of coal mine ventures in Camarines and in Cebu - were hers. By carriage and by boat, she travelled to directly supervise the company's work.

On April 7, 1851, for '52 ,000, the company of Roxas Hijos bought a vast tract of land in San Pedro de Makati which had a northside boundary along the banks of the Pasig River. It was considered marginally productive land, too far from Intramuros which was the center of Manila then and from San Miguel where the Roxases and the Ayalas lived. It was simply potential farmland for which, in those days, people who knew of the purchase felt that the Roxas Hijos paid too much.

San Pedro de Makati was initially the property of the conquistador, Pedro de Brito. He bequeathed the estate to the Jesuits who reverted it to the state in 1768. Briefly, it became the property of the Marquez of Villamediana who placed it in the open market. Roxas Hijos bought Makati from the heirs of Simon Bernardino Velez.

T H E PATIH A RCHS AS PIONEE HS

44

ANTONIO DE AYALA (1805 - 1876)

45

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In the meantime, the family company continued to undergo

several changes. Wanting to go into business for himself, Jose Bonifacio Roxas pulled out of the partnership in 1864. The remaining partners - Mariano Roxas, Margarita Roxas de Ayala and Antonio de Ayala - organized themselves into Roxas Hermanos.

Four years later, Mariano Roxas died, leaving only Margarita and her husband. The company now changed its name to Casa Ayala.

In the family business, Antonio de Ayala worked alongside Margarita much as he had worked alongside her father, Don Domingo. However, he branched out into other interests and concerns, among which were banking and insurance. These two concerns were to become the foundations of the Ayala Corporation a

La Concordia: the vacation house of Margarita and Antonio de Ayala in Sa nta Ana on the southwest edge of Hacienda de Maka ti. Dona Margarita dona ted th e house and its e)(tensive grounds to the Sisters of Charity whom she asked to come from Spain to establish a school for girls.

Cover (!f Ih e book or remrds k epi b.11 AII/(Jllio de Ayala as co/leclllr .IiJl' I he cily (!( Malli/a

century after he ventured into them, but at that time he was led by his strong innovative sense of business alone.

In 1851 , Antonio de Ayala became a director of Banco Espafiol-Filipino de Isabel II. He also served as one of its two auditors. This bank issued the first Philippine paper money which were in use up to 1898, the end of the Spanish colonial regime.

Banco Espafiol-Filipino de Isabel II was the precursor of the presentday Bank of the Philippine Islands, which is the Ayala Corporation's major presence in banking.

Antonio de Ayala got into the insurance business as a director of La Esperanza, a marine insurance company, and as a consultant with La Campanera, which was also in marine insurance.

He served as a director of a bonding company, Sociedad Filipina de Fianzas. Largely because of his involvement in the insurance business, Antonio de Ayala became active in an association that was created to supervise the activities of insurance companies.

From business activities, he took the next expected step - which was involvement in city affairs. He served as treasurer or collector for the city of Manila with the title of sindico procurador. With his brother-in-law, Jose Bonifacio, he served as

T I1E PA T/H A Re NS AS PI()NEE IlS

46

The Ayala y Cia. distillery: This is an enlarged detail from an advertisement which appeared in 1924, shortly before the family decided to sell the distillery which they had operated since 1834.

47

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a member of the Junta de Comercio, a quasi-judicial body that governed insular trade and navigation.

From the vantage point of the Junta de Comercio, Antonio de Ayala saw the need for good docks and quays. He suggested the repair of existing docks and the building of other quays along Manila's river avenue, the Pasig. He was concerned about the number and the condition of lighthouses that guided trading vessels into Philippine harbors. For his avid interest in maritime activities, he was given the title of alferez - naval lieutenant of the office of the mayor of Manila.

Moving in the business circles of Manila - which then had a number of British houses operating alongside a few French and American businesses - Antonio de Ayala saw the need for a language school. He prodded the Junta de Comercio to fund classes in English and in French for the businessmen and merchants of Manila. He got his way, if not fully, and three teachers were assigned to tutor interested businessmen in English and French.

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Sports also was a bond with the local community. the Manila Jockey Club being a meeting ground for Manila's already cosmopolitan society. Among the founder members in 1867. a long with British. American and German merchants. were An tonio Ayala.

Vicente Cembrano. J. M. Eliza lde.

Manuel Genato. Baltazar Gi raudie r .

Juan Gonzalez. J. J. Inchausti. Antonio Marcaida. Jose Munoz. Maximo A. Paterno. Francisco Reyes. Ig nacio Rocha. Manuel Uceda. five Nietos. three Tuasons. and two Zobels.

- From [for B. Powell's "The British in the Philippines In the American Era, 1898-1946"

Apparently a vibrant person with farflung, lively interests, Antonio de Ayala was among the founding members of the Manila Jockey Club. It had an international roster of first members - the British merchants making a majority - and among the expatriates who signed up were two members of the Zobel family.

Margarita Roxas de Ayala passed away in 1869.

Singlehandedly, for seven years, Antonio de Ayala ran the family business. In 1876, he too passed away. Casa Ayala became the property of their daughters who chose to let their husbands manage their inheritance.

In 1870, Carmen Roxas de Ayala obtained a special dispensation from the Church to marry her first cousin, Pedro Pablo Roxas, the son of Jose Bonifacio Roxas. The marriage had the effect of bringing back the interest broken up by the withdrawal of Jose Bonifacio Roxas from the partnership.

Trinidad Roxas de Ayala took for her husband the brilliant German-Spanish scientist named Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz. The company was reformed in 1876 as Ayala y Compania; Roxas and Zobel were named capitalist partners in behalf of their wives.

Two more able managers could not be found, as we shall soon see.

T il E P. I T HI.IH CI1S , IS PIO EEHS

48

EXPLORING THE WORLD OF DONA MARGARITA DO~A

MARGARITA Roxas de Ayala, founding matriarch of the Roxas-AyalaZobel-Soriano clan, left hardly any written personal records. None of her personal letters or diaries, if any, have been preserved.

There is no loving note that might have been attached to a gift from her young mother who died in childbirth when Margarita was only five years ()ld leaving her, a YOllllger brother and the newborn infant orphaned.

There are no letters of counselor consolation from her father when he was exiled to Spain with 17 other Philippineborn Spaniards suspected by the Spanish authorities of a desire to form a government independent of Madrid.

There are not even any of the usual loveletters tied with a ribbon and stored in some old chest in the family attic. Nor are there any secret diaries to record her feelings when she set out on the long and hazardous voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to Madrid in her own good hope of trying to win freedom for her imprisoned f~ther, ill and languishing in a cell in Fort Santiago in 1843. And there are no letters to or from husband, son, daughter or even grandchild to convey the tender human feelings that surely must have warmed the heart of Dona Margarita in the course of her rich and eventful lifetime.

Original documents and official records containing data about her are scarce and incomplete. To begin from the beginning, her birth and baptism certificates have turned into dust in the archives of the San Miguel Cathedral in the then exclusive

Spanish residential Manila district of her birth.

The absence of these certificates has led to great confusion among later day historians, some recording her birth as 1815 and some recording it 11 years later or in 1826. But perhaps this confusion is traceable not so much to the lack of an official birth certificate or of a baptism certificate. Much of the confusion is traceable to a later day biographical writer, Father Jose Ma. Clotet who was described subsequently by other historians as a "contemporary o( Dona Margarita".

Whether he was a contemporary or a mere admiring biographer, the fact that he set Dona Margarita's birth in 1826 led many later writers with more imagination than accuracy to wax lyrical about a frightened but resolute 17-year-{)ld, seeking audience with the Queen of Spain in 1843, and to romanticize about a dewy-eyed 18-year-{)ld marrying in 1844 a man who was, as offiCially recorded, born in 1805, and was therefore old enough to be her father.

It is of official record that her father, Domingo Roxas, was born in 1782. If his eldest daughter was born in 1826, he would have been 44 which is possible, but not likely. Don Domingo married a Philippine-born Spanish lady named Maria Saturnina Ubaldo in 1813. Therefore if Dona Margarita was born in 1826, she would have been born 13 years after her parents' marriage.

Again possible, but not at all likely.

Finally, Margarita's brother Jose Bonifacio was born in 1818, so that it is not

49

AYALA

likely that Margarita, the eldest Roxas child, could have been born eight years later and certainly it would have been quite impossible for her to have been born six years after her youngest brother Mariano who was born in 1820, because their mother died in childbirth precisely when Mariano was born.

Thus regretfully discarding the more romantic images evoked by the birth date fixed by Father Clotet, in the interests of accuracy, 1815 has to be set as the date when Margarita Roxas was born.

She was the eldest child and only daughter of a man who was heir to considerable family property and who even then was already considered a business leader and one of the wealthiest men in old Manila, where it was said the number of people whose assets were above a hundred thousand pesos could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Dona Margarita's marriage to Antonio Ayala is fortunately recorded by an existing official marriage certificate in which Fr. Andres Alonso states categorically that: "En diez y ocho de Enero de mil ochocientos cuarenta y cuatro aiios. Yo Fr. Andres Alonso Predr. Misio. Concluidas las tres amonestaciones q. dispone el Santo Concilio de Trento y no haviendo resultado impedirnento a.lguno, asistio personalm.te y autoriw el matrimonio que in facie Ecclesiae (con mi licencia) El P. Don Juan Peopar, Canonigo de esta Sta. Yglesia Catedral; contrajo D. Antonio V. Ayala. natural Hueto de abajo. prov.a de Alava. solto hijo de Dn. Rem. de Ayala. y de

Da. Maria Margarita Roxas, solt. a Espaiiola natural del pue.o de Sta. Cruz, extramurus de esta Ciudad de Manila. hija legitiroa de Dn. Domingo Roxas. y de Da. Maria Saturnina Ubaldo, a vecinos y residentes de este pue.o Los cuales contrayentes expresaron sus mismos consentimientos p.r. palabras de presente en mi presencia. y en la de los testigos que fueron Dn. Jose de Azcarraga y Da. Barba ra Roxas y recibieron las bendiciones nupciales. Y para que conste 10 firme fha. ut supra" (Abbreviations according to the original).

Margarita Roxas was actually a mature woman of 29 when she married Antonio Ayala, the 39-year~ld business partner of her father. The marriage which took place not long after Don Domingo's death was llildoubtedly entered into by both parties in sober consideration of all circumstances. It turned out to be a stable relationship marked by harmony and mutual llilderstanding which lasted 25 years lliltil Dona Margarita's death in 1869.

Dona Margarita was 54 years old at her death and those 54 years covered not only the personal events of a very significant life, but a fascinating period in the cOlliltry's history.

The period of Dona Margarita's lifetime - from 1815 to 1869 - is described in writing by actual on-the-spot observers most of whom were visiting foreigners who stayed in the Philippines for periods ranging from two months to two years. They therefore gained in objectivity and interest in minute everyday details what might have been lost from lack of long familiarity with the cOlliltry and its people.

Official reco rds show that Dona Margarita's father, Don Domingo, was the

son of Mariano Roxas, who was of Spanish parentage, born in Taguig, Rizal on one of the plantations owned by his father Juan Pedro de Roxas, a wealthy landowner.

Before Juan Pablo de Roxas who lived in the early 18th century, the rest of the Roxas family tree is, as Don Salvador Araneta, himself a Roxas descendant, once put it, "shrouded with the mist of time".

This makes the choice of the original Philippine Roxas quite a game for historical writers. Most of them choose as the original Philippine Roxas Antonio Fernandez de Rojas, who came to Manila in 1695 as third pilot of the galleon San Jose.

Antonio de Rojas was born in the Canary Islands and was 24 years old when he arrived in Manila to stay for the rest of his life. Seasoned pilots were very important to the galleon trade. Their monthly salary of seven hllildred pesos was considered top pay and a piloto mayor or chief navigating officer enjoyed great prestige and was highly respected in Manila. Therefore, it can be concluded that even at 24, Antonio Fernandez de Rojas could have been considered a very eligible young man.

He rose to become admiral or General del Mar, its equivalent rank, and sailed the galleon Nuestro Senora del Rosario. Later he was given an encomienda in Palawan and in 1715 served as Governor of the island. He married twice, both times to Philippine-born Spanish ladies. His second wife was Teresa Gutierez y Escano of a prominent Manila Spanish family and thus, according to a contemporary document, he "became related with the best families herein" .

By 1815 when Dona Margarita was

EX PLORIN G THE WOHLD OF DONA MAHGAH/TA

50

born, Manila had progressed very much from the fortified walled city that Miguel Lopez de Legazpi had fOllilded 244 years before in 1571. After over 51 years, it had recovered from the British invasion in 1762 when British invaders not only bombarded its walls, but looted, ransacked, burned and pillaged churches, convents, schools, public buildings and private residences in a manner so barbaric that if it were not for the fact that it is of historical record, it would be unbelievably out of keeping with the accepted image of British behaviour.

When the British withdrew in 1764 and the Spanish once more took possession of their "Noble and Ever Loyal City", they not only restored it to its old state, but made many improvements specially in the architecture of public buildings.

However, in 1815, the streets of Intramuros were still narrow and paved with cobblestone and the sidewalks were of Chinese granite that were used as ballast by the galleons when they returned almost empty to Manila from Acapulco with a lighter, but more valued load of silver Mexican pesos. At night the streets of Intramuros were still illumined with flickering oil lamps that shed light and shadow on two-story houses of varying sizes, but of a uniformity of style.

The architectural style of the old Spanish houses in the Philippines is now known technically as "Antillan". In the early 17th and 18th centuries, a house was a house and of such a sameness that its construction was usually entrusted to a native maestro de obras who was guided only by his own building talents and instructions by the owner as to size of rooms,

the location of which was amazingly predictable.

In old Intramuros, one would enter a house through a massive wooden door studded with bronze nails and wrought iron hinges and equipped with a knocker usually in the form of an iron hand holding a ball.

The entrance was wide enough to admit a carriage, without which any respectable Spanish family would not be caught in the Calzada as the Luneta was then known, which only the Indios seemed able to negotiate on their own two feet.

Once inside the zaguan, the visitor who has no business peering into the stable, the bodegas or the servants' quarters located on that first floor, could walk out into the patio, that open courtyard entirely surrounded by buildings which had been a feature of all Spanish houses since the time of the Moors.

Chances are the visitor would be escorted up a wide staircase of shining stairs made of polished norra and flanked by carved balustrades. If he is short of breath, he could rest a while on a landing which would be decorated with plant stands and large pots of Chinese ceramic.

Once up the stairs, he finds himself on an upper floor landing leading to the caida, a hall where he may be asked to wait, seated on a long wooden bench or a light sofa of cane and bejuco.

If his social rank so demands, he is led immediately into the sala. The sala, always the largest room in the house, could be of modest or impressive proportions depending on the owner's means. Likewise, the furnishings could be sparse - wooden chairs lined along the wall and a round

marble topped table - or as elaborate as the furniture of a French chateau with chairs carved or with bone inlay or made of Chinese teakwood, crystal chandeliers suspended from a ceiling painted with flowers or cherubs, gilt framed mirrors, and oil paintings hanging on the walls.

After Manila was opened to foreign trade in 1834, the furnishings of the houses of the Spanish upper class in Manila reflected the best available in Europe, including crystal from France, porcelain from England and glassware from Spain. The most important piece of furniture in the sala was the piano, imported from Germany to display the talents of the daughters of the house, both for music and for making the crocheted lace covers that would be inevitably draped ovel' the prized instr ument when not in use.

The bedrooms located off the sala were surrounded by a galeria enclosed by sliding windows with capiz shell panes built overhanging the street. The galeria served as closet, dressing room, and sometimes, as impromptu bathroom from which water would leak through the floor to the consternation of the heedless passerby down below.

The real bathroom, however, was located off the tile floored azotea along with the kitchen. Its location did not cause undue inconvenience because it was not overly used, since baths taken more than once a week were considered by the Europeans a sinful indulgence, or the questionable influence of the water-loving native population who were not called taga-ilog or river people for nothing.

The separate dining room, equipped with a round or oval shaped table large enough

51

A YA LA

to seat 20 or more, was very much' used.

There the family would gather for the heavy meals that would come way past noon and at past ten in the evening. The meals would consist of two or three dishes of beef and chicken and vegetable, boiled or cooked into any number of jritadas, cocidos, menudos or sorciados.

Saute-ing in tomatoes, olive oil and plenty of garlic was a method of cooki.ng that came to Manila from Mexico.

Inevitably, although many Peninsulores still preferred bread, most Philippine-born Spaniards ate rice with gusto which belied the legend that the term morresqueta came from " Arroz quita!" said disdainfully by newly arrived Spaniards when offered rice by the Indios whose daily bread it was.

At the time of Dona Margarita's birth, there were about 4,000 Spaniards in the Philippines, whether Peninsulares or Filipinos. It is another source of confusion for histori cal researchers that the Spaniards born in Spain were called Peninsulores, and were differentiated from the pure-blooded Spaniards who were born in the Philippines, called Filipinos. Before 1898, the only Filipinos were PhilippineSpaniards born limpio de sangre of Spanish parents. The natives were always Indios. not Filipinos.

In the first two centuries of the Spanish regime, most of the Spaniards lived within the walls of the city, Intramuros, where the important public offices, churches, convents, hospitals, schools and residences of important people were located. The few Spania rds who ventured into the provinces were compelled by official or religious mission.

By the 19th century, however, many of the Philippine-born Spaniards, most of whom were private citizens, were living extrarnuros. The wealthiest and more prominent of these lived in large houses located on the banks of the Pasig River. These houses were much bigger, with more architectural pretentions than the houses of Intramuros, and were set in large gardens planted with a profusion of old-fashioned flowers - rosal, cornia, cadena de arnor, darna de noche. and bandera espanola that are hardly seen today.

To get a vivid picture of how stately some of these houses were, one has only to remember that Malacaiian Palace (the official residence of the President of the Philippines) was once a private residence of a rich Spanish gentleman by the name of Don Luis Rocha. It was later sold to the government to become officially the Governor General's summer residence in 1B47.

According to Robert McMicking who visited Manila in 1B4B, "the newest and most elegant houses are built upon the banks of the Pasig. Simple in exterior, they contain the most costly inventions of English and Indian luxury. Precious vases from China, Japan ware, gold, silver and rich silks, dazzle the eyes on entering these unpretending habitations. Each house has a landing place from the river, and little bamboo places, servillg as bathing houses, to which residents resort several times daily, to relieve the fatigue caused by intense heat of the climate." ' It is more thin likely that Dona Margarita, as the daughter of a wealthy businessman, was born and reared in such a mansion.

There is no existing written description of the original Roxas mansion on Calle Solano in San Miguel. One contemporary described another house built on the same site for Dona Margarita's daughter, Carmen, who married her cousin, Pedro Roxas, as an elegant, almost palatial house with a sweeping double entrance of twin carved stair cases, magnificent salas and beautifully furnished rooms. The summer house in Santa Ana which Dona Margarita later donated for the use of La Concordia College was equally palatial.

The original Roxas mansion in which Dona Margarita lived as a girl and from where in later years as a matriarch she reigned as Father Clotet put it, "a queen without a crown" could only be less opulent in a small degree. In such a setting it is easy to imagine the life of a young girl born to ealth and social position to be one of ease and luxury, untouched by the problems that beset the less privileged.

Tragedy came early into the life of young Margarita. She was only five when her mother died in childbirth. Birthing was a perilous although natural process in those days. Women gave birth in their homes with only a midwife in attendance and any complications often led to the death of infant or mother.

Three years later when Margarita was eight, her father was exiled to Spain, leaving her for four years in the care of , relatives and trusted servants.

In those years she received the only formal education she ever had from tutors who would come daily at a fixed hour to give lessons to her and her young cousins (children of Domingo's brother, Antonio,

EXPLORING THE WORLD OF DONA MARGAR I TA

52

who had 13 children from some of whom descended the "Filipino branch" of the Roxases which include President Manuel Roxas.) At that time there already were some schools for girls in Manila run by various religious orders, but although they were open to all Spanish girls, they were generally meant for the care and upbringing of the underprivileged.

Young ladies of quality, like Margarita Roxas, were tutored in their homes and given lessons in reading, writing and "occasionally arithmetic." The tutors were usually old impoverished Spanish gentlemen who were as impecunious as they were scholarly, but generally wellrespected.

Rather than erudition, what was known as "accomplisrunents" was stressed and that meant learning to play the piano or the harp or both, and mastering all kinds of embroidery stitches. In the light of the vigorous efforts she put years later into founding a college for girls, La Concordia, it is very likely that even then Margarita's lively mind was dissatisfied with the amount of formal education that was considered sufficient for women.

Observers of life among the Spanish up'per classes in 1Bth and 19th century Manila have left very vivid and not altogether approvillg d~scriptions of their life style. But most rewarding for one who has set out to study the life of Dona Margarita and the rest of the Roxas-Ayala family is to discover not so much the manner in which they were representative of their times, but the ways in which they were different.

While in some ways typical of the times,

the upbringing of Margarita Roxas was different in many important aspects. From the very beginning, she was given much serious responsibility.

As the oldest child and only daughter in a motherless family, she very early had to assume the role of Lady of the House, although this did not entail much physical labor because there were always many servants.

The normal ratio at that time in the households of wealthy Manila Spaniards were two or three servants for every member of the family. Because the Roxases had had vast provincial family estates since the days of Juan Pedro Roxas, it is safe to assume that the huge Roxas domestic establishment in Manila had a large retinue of native servants, sons and daughters of the peasants who lived on the Roxas haciendas but who eagerly gave their children to the services of the Roxases to afford them a chance to live in the Big City. The management of this large household was very early the responsibility of the young Margarita and this training later was valuable when her responsibilities were expanded to the management of the family businesses.

The narrow frivolous existence of the typical upper class Spanish girl. who spent her days in luxurious near-ignorance, was not that of Margarita Roxas. Because of her father's active participation not only in the business affairs of the country, but also in its political ferment, she was exposed to a stimulating intellectual atmosphere. The knowledge she gained over the dinner table, where the political and economic issues of the day were analyzed and

discussed by the city's leading liberals and intellectuals, was tantamount to a college education.

The Roxases and later the Ayalas, being prominent members of the community, were socially active and undoubtedly shared in the city's social life. But one has only to go through the list of their numerous business activities, their civic and cultural projects, and their charity work which was more along the modern concept than mere doling out alms to the poor, and their obvious interest in political developments in the Philippines and in Spain, to be convinced that this family was different, and in that difference may be the explanation for the continuity of their fortunes.

The profligate ways of the typical Spaniard in the Philippines was a subject of much commentary and censure since the beginning of the Spanish regime. When the Acapulco galleon trade which lasted until 1815 (incidentally the year Dona Margarita was born) was flourishing, the main commercial activity centered around it. For this reason .. all Spaniards in Manila were gentlemen" who were either government officials or speculators in the galleon trade.

All the other business activities were left to the QUnese and the small retail trade to the natives "mostly in fish and betel nut".

Certainly, very few Spaniards were involved in agriculture aside from the encomenderos who actually were, in present day parlance, "absentee landlords".

In an indignant diatribe directed to the citizens of Manila, Archbishop Martinez de Arizala declared, "The luxurious vanity of your balls and banquets, your concerts and

53

AYM.A

carriages, your tireless scheming to corner the market in some commodity whenever possible, even to the detriment of other merchants or the public; the exorbitant and downright usurious rates of interest which you exact through your Chinese agents in the Parian, do not all these reveal the deplorable, the infamous uses to which you put your money?"

Because the galleon trade required only minimum attention which lasted only about two months in every year, the whole atmosphere of 18th century Philippines was one of luxurious indolence. In the 19th century, the habits had been ingrained and most observers remarked on it.

From all existing accounts, the highlight of the Manila-born Spanish lady's day was the afternoon ride in the Prado or Calzada, as the Luneta was called. Riding in a carriage as elaborate as the income of her father or husband could afford, behind two horses (only the Governor General and the Archbishop were allowed six horses, the top official of the Audiencia were allowed four horses and private citizens were limited to two) with a native postilion perched high on his front seat, she would be dressed in as close an approximation of the latest European style as her resources would permit. Only, as French and British observers invariably pointed out, she did not wear stockings and except for an occasional flower or comb, her head was bare, the better to show off her dark tresses.

Angelus would find the prominents of Manila still in the Luneta but as the church bells started to toll, all activity would cease. The gentlemen would remove their hats and bow their heads in prayer and the

ladies would do likewise. The Indios on foot would kneel on the ground and mumble the prayers.

After this moment of prayerful silence, the activity would resume, the carriages with their fashionable burdens all turning home or to the homes of friends for a tertulia.

The tertulia was a gathering of convivial people which could number anywhere from six to 60. There would be singing to the accompaniment of the ubiquitous piano and the gentlemen would play cards and smoke big black cigars. A few of the ladies also smoked.

Sometimes there was dancing - minuets, polkas and Spanish fandangos - to the music of a band. Refreshments were light sweets, eau de sucre (water sweetened with sugar), and copitas de vino - because a heavy supper was anticipated at around ten or eleven. By that hour, all who were not asked to join the family for supper, would start saying their goodbyes. Those who lived outside Intramuros said their goodbyes hurriedly because the gates of the Walled City were closed at eleven.

Supper was as heavy as lunch - soup, two or three dishes of meat or fowl, and two or three desserts. After such a meal, sleep would be indicated and the family would repair to their rooms and were soon in bed.

Bed was usually a four-poster with a canopy from which hung a cotton mosquito net. Instead of a mattress there was a light straw mat. Blankets were never used and sheets seldom. And so until the next morning when sleep would be broken by the soft

footsteps of the Indio servant or maid bringing in the cup of thick chocolate - "so thick a spoon can stand in it" - without which a day in old Manila could hardly get started. In fact, chocolate was talcen several times a day - early in the morning before breakfast which would be around eight or nine and in the afternoon after the long two hour siesta. At this time it was accompanied by broas which a visiting observer once aptly described as "some kind of edible spoon."

Placed against this backdrop of luxurious idleness and aimless se1拢indulgence, the accomplishments of the Roxas family and their spirit of intense in'volvement in the affairs of the country become even more remarkable.

Ih 1740 Father Pedro Murillo Velarde, the Spanish historian wrote: "Those who migrate to these islands are, as it were, in an inn; they do not look upon it as a home where they intend to settle permanently.

They come as transients, they marry by accident, and they die in expectation of leaving.

Where is the family here that has survived several generations? Of the first settlers, hardly anything remains but a dim and distant memory. The father amasses a fortune, the son squanders it, the grandson goes begging and there is an end to the entailed estate, the plantation, the family, the noble line, the reputation and the name. Even he who 'today is rich and powerful may tomorrow, by two somersaults of fortune, be thrown peruilless out on the street." Murillo concludes: "Wealth has no roots in this country".

But the Roxases were exception to the rule. Even at the time that Father Murillo made that indictment of the Spaniards in the Philippines who came not to settie, 路but

EXPLORING THE WO RLD OF DONA MARGARITA

54

to make money as fast as possible, Margarita Roxas' great grandfather, Juan Pablo de Roxas, was already a wealthy landowner whose forebears had been in the country for several generations.

Even more remarkable, at a time when most Spaniards stayed within the confines of Intramuros and "never touched the soil", the older Roxases ventured forth into the provinces and worked their haciendas, if not with their close personal direction.

At a time when most Spaniards in Manila were engrossed in amassing quick fortunes in the galleon trade, Mariano Roxas was a serious academician in the University of Santo Tomas, devoting himself to scholarly pursuits. At a time when most rich Spaniards preferred to increase their wealth in safe sure ways, investing in jewelry and lands and lending money at usurious rates, Domingo Roxas was venturing into new industries and utilizing the latest in machinery to increase production. And at a time when it was not prudent to criticize government policies or to express liberal ideas, Domingo Roxas risked his established wealth and position by speaking out his mind and making public his sympathies.

Margarita Roxas, too, was not typical of her times. At a time when most Spanish girls of her social position were spending their days in idleness and their nights in frivolity, Margarita Roxas was dedicating herself to the management of her father's household.

From the time her father came back from his exile in Spain to re-establish his business, Margarita was her father's helper and confidant. As such, she coul~

not but be aware of the underlying restlessness, not only among the Philippineborn Spaniards, but among the mestiws and educated Filipinos with whom the Roxases kept regular contact.

The arrest of Domingo Roxas and 17 other Creoles (the term used for Spaniards born in the colonies) and their subsequent exile to Spain in February 1823, shocked Manilans because they were among the most prominent private citizens in the country and of a social class generally regarded as "untouchable" in the exact opposite sense of the "untouchable" of India.

By the time Domingo Roxas was arrested and imprisoned for the second time in November 1841, he was even more prominent because in the intervening 14 years upon his return from exile in Spain in 1827, he had built up a business empire that included vast plantations of sugar and coffee, a textile mill, a gunpowder factory and the original San Miguel Distillery almost at the foot of the Ayala Bridge.

To understand how the government authorities would have the lack of political sagacity to arrest such a prominent citizen, one has to immerse oneself in the atmosphere of those tumultuous times.

The first 50 years of the 19th century were among the most chaotic in Spanish history. That period saw Napoleon's rise, his attempts to control the Spanish throne, and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars and his fall (the defeat at Waterloo took place in 1815, the year Dona Margarita was born), the Spanish war for independence, the rise and fall of Ferdinand VIll, the Carlist wars and the troubled reign of

Queen Isabella II. During the first half of the 19th century.

Spain went through an almost continuous state of civil war with the country torn by strife between opposing factors - between Liberals and Moderates, between Royalists and Republicans, between "Carlistas" (those who supported Prince Carlos) and "Cristinas" (those who supported the regency of Queen Cristina, capricious mother of Isabella who, as some historian put it, was catapulted "from the nursery to the throne").

The period of the changing regencies before Queen Isabella was declared "of age" at thirteen, was a period of pronunciamentos and golpes de estado when one after another, military leaders seized the reins of power behind the throne. For instance, in the first years from 1832 to 1837, Spain had thr e constitutions. six changes of prime ministers and two revolutions.

The Spaniards in Manila were wont to say with typical Spanish wit. that the big disadvantage of the Philippines was that it was "too close to Madrid". And indeed, removed as it was from the "Mother Country" by thousands of miles of land and sea, which took all of three months to travel by the old route around the Cape of Good Hope (the Suez Canal was not opened until 1870 to shorten traveling time to about 40 days), it seemed that every event that disturbed Madrid. like a distant earthquake. had a corresponding tremor that shook Manila.

The successful Mexican war for independence made Madrid nervous about a corresponding separatist movement in Manila. The continuous struggle for power

55

AYA L. A

between adherents of Queen Cristina and those of Prince Carlos not only divided Spain, but also separated the Spaniards of Manila. Generally, the officialdom was. at least outwardly. loyal to the throne, and the Creoles were sympathetic to the aspirations of Prince Carlos. who his followers felt was cheated by the "Pragmatic Sanction" which put aside the ruling against females ascending to the throne.

In Manila many prominent Spaniards were openly "Carlista". The GovernorGeneral. in a report to Madrid. mentions that Carlists who were exiled from Spain were received with open arms in Manila. where they were wined and dined and treated like visiting celebrities. the most prominent of them even livipg as guests in the Archbishop's Palace. The fact that the Archbishop in question was Fray Jose Segui. who was an uncle of Antonio Ayala, the business partner of Don Domingo Roxas, could have some significance. Also of some significance could be the fact that Jose Azcarraga. a prominent peninsular was so close a friend of the Roxas family that he acted as. sponsor at Dona Margarita's wedding. Jose Azcarraga 's son. General Marcelo Azcarraga. was thought to be a Carlist supporter.

The Carlist sentiment was so general among the Spanish private citizens in Manila that a Britisher from Hong Kong visiting Manila at the time of the royal controversy. reports that he was entertained

by Spanish friends in the Casino Espano!. the social club to which most prominent Manila Spaniards belonged. and upon entering one of the rooms, "was stared out of countenance by the representation of a

virago with the most bloated, scarlet and purple faced, fiery-eyed and altogether distortion of fancy ever imagined. The more you look at it, the worse the countenance appeared. This, I was informed, (of course it must have been an extravaganza), was a flattered likeness of La Reina de Espafla Isabella Segunda, her present Majesty of Castille and Aragon."

Actually. Queen Isabella was essentially a simple person. plain and plump.

Observers, remarking on the Spanish women of the time. were wont to say that they were beautiful when young, but after a certain age. they tended either to bone or beef. Queen Isabella was of the latter sort.

The young Queen was generous to a fault. It was recounted that on one occasion when she was going about distributing alms to a crowd of Madrid's poor, one of her fabulous diamond earrings fell to the floor. When one of the crowd stooped to pick it up and handed it to her, she turned with a smile saying. "It fell to you and so it is your lot - keep it." For such open handed, impulsive gestures, Isabella of Spain was well-known. It is perhaps this trait of the young Queen that made Margarita Roxas decide to take that trip to Spain in 1842.

Divided as they were into "Carlistas" and "Cristinas". the Spaniards in Manila had an even more basic difference which added to the atmosphere of jealousy and intrigue. The gap between the Peninsulares and the Creoles was an ever widening one.

The government policy of favoring the Peninsulares in the choice of appointees to official positions created bitterness among the Creoles. In turn, their obvious

dissatisfaction with government policies made all the Creoles the target of official suspicion. The fact that many of their forebears had come to the Philippines through Acapulco made it seem logical to the Madrid authorities that after Mexico won its independence, a similar move would start in Manila.

With that situation, the arrest of Don Domingo Roxas seemed almost inevitable.

The attempt to link him to a rebellion of a military regiment from Tayabas was only the immediate excuse. It was very likely that the government intended his arrest as an example to keep the other "Filipinos" of similar liberal thinking in line.

Towards the end of 1842, Don Domingo Roxas had been in Fort Santiago almost a year. He was then past 60 and his very poor health worried his sons and daughter.

Repeated representations made to the Governor-General had been ignored and various written petitions to the Royal Court in Madrid remained unanswered.

Dona Margarita Roxas was 27 at the time of her father 's arrest, a quiet. competent woman who had remained to do her filial duty in her father's house much longer than was usual at a time when women usually married in their early teens. Although her two younger brothers were already of age, her dominant role in the family was obvious from the very beginning. The decision to take the long difficult voyage to Spain must have been hers.

It cannot be determined whether it was Isabella's well-known generous nature that convinced Margarita that a royal audience was the solution to their grievous problem or the changing political situation in S~ain.

EXPLORING THE WORLD OF DONA M A RGARITA

56

In 1843 General Joaquin Baldomero Espartero, the strong man who had held the regency for several years had been driven from office. Taking his place was a new, more liberal prime minister. It is conceiva ble that this change had made it more propitious for Dona Margarita to utilize all the family connections in highly placed circles to make her confident of gaining access to the powers-that-be in the Spanish capital.

Armed with this assurance and, as some historical writers conclude, "a well-filled purse", Margarita Roxas set sail for Spain.

In this case, the expression "sailing" could be taken literally because in 1842 steamships had not yet come to the Philippines.

Chances are, the ship Margarita boarded was an old galleon type vessel or at best a packetship. Accommodations on this type of ship could not have made the threemonth journey easy.

The route around the Cape of Good Hope was always beset by heavy storms and rough seas. Absence of refrigeration made food provisions very limited. It was the practice then to bring live pigs and chickens on board to be slaughtered one by one as the need for fresh meat arose.

Many accounts written by passengers who sailed the Manila-Madrid route in the 19th century mention the frightening typhoons when their ship would heave up and down on the crest of giant waves, and move side to side causing all the furniture in the cabin to shuttle back and forth.

Sleep was almost impossible because of the continuous creaking of the ship's timbers and the shrill squealing of the pigs and the screeching of the chickens and

ducks that were kept on the open deck.

One passenger wrote, "All day we could not get over the singular sensation produced by being obliged in the cabin to lean forward when walking one way and backward when walking the other. At mealtime, the table was so much canted on one side that a rack was necessary to keep the dishes from sliding off - there is great difficulty in washing - and we feel a disagreeable nausea all day. Our ship would rise with the waves about 20 feet, then plough through the sea like a livillg thing, so low one could touch the water - we are all weak, sore, and tired from the movement of the ship."

With her worried thoughts going back to her imprisoned father, old, sick and discouraged, and herself sick from the hard journey and the continuous emotional strain, the voyage was a tortured one for Dona Margarita. It was a blessed relief when after almost three months the ship came within sight of the rugged coastline of Barcelona, the port city.

Seeking an audience with persons placed in exalted positions of power is a trying experience in any age and in any country. In 1843 for some one coming from the colonies, gaining an audience with the Queen was difficult and it is easy to imagine the amount of wire pulling, waiting, petitioning and pleading it took before Doiia Margarita was ushered into the Royal Presence.

What powers of persuasion did Dona Margarita use to get the royal pardon for her father'? But whether it was because of genuine compassion or of more pragmatic considerations, it is of official record that

Margarita Roxas left the Spanish capital bearing with her the documents necessary for her father's release.

The voyage back home was easier for Dona Margarita, not that the discomforts were less. The mental anguish had been lifted and her spirits were light. As her ship sailed into Manila Bay, she could hardly contain her impatience to see her father and her eagerness to bring him the joyful news of his pardon. One can picture her shocked disbelief when relatives in mourning met her with the tragic news. Her father had died a few months before and was buried even when she was happily preparing to sail for home. The difficulty of communication at that time had kept her in complete ignorance of the fact.

The next months were trying for Dona Margarita. er grief was deep because she had been unusually close to her father, working with him and identifying herself with all his causes. In addition to the sorrow, there was the additional burden of business responsibilities.

In those difficult days, it seemed natural to turn for consolation and support to a man whose quiet steadiness had been so valuable to her father. On January 18, 1844, Margarita Roxas married Antonio Ayala. Because the family was still in deep mourning, the wedding ceremony was simple.

In the customary Spanish way, their respective assets at the time of the marriage were listed. Antonio Ayala had assets amounting to P36,819 which was a considerable amount in 1844, but it was much less than the assets which his 29-yearo()ld bride brought into the conjugal part-

57

AYA LA

nership.

At the time of her marriage, Margarita's personal worth amounted to P139,296 in real estate and other assets which today would have an equivalent of millions.

Upon her marriage to Antonio Ayala.

Dona Margarita really came into her own.

Emerging from the shadow of her strong and dynamic father, from the supporting role of dutiful daughter, she assumed the stellar role in her own right not only financially as the major partner in Roxas Hijos, but as a prominent member of the community, as an active civic and social leader.

As a social leader, Dona Margarita kept a grand house and entertained in a lavish manner with balls and tertulias, invitations to which were coveted symbols of social acceptance in the exclusive circles of old Manila society. One is tempted to identify her with "Doiia M", a well-born Manila matriarch, referred to at great length by B.M. Ball, a visiting American doctor, in a book entitled Rambles in Eastern Asia.

For the feast of the District of Manila in which she resided, Ball's Dona M and her daughters set a table "loaded with luxuries of meat, wines, cakes, fruits, nuts and chocolate" and a rare item, butter, which Ball mentions "not having seen before at any other house" in Manila.

Ball was also a guest in Dona M's country house describing it thus: "We called at Dona M's and we accompanied the family out to their country seat a few miles distant. She and her daughter and two other young ladies went in their carriage with postilions and footmen and so on and we in ours. The place was very pretty - a large house with fine verandas, commanding an

extensive and interesting view and surrounded by a garden full of plants. flowers. orange and lemon trees. guavas. cocoa nut and betel nut. A delightful fragrance filled the air. The house stands in the centre of the grounds and is unoccupied except when Dona M visits it. Convenient bathing rooms are attached to one side and the whole is enclosed by a high plastered wall of stone".

On another occasion. Dr. Ball recounts.

"In my visit to the Dona this forenoon. I found only herself. the family having gone to Mass at the church. When they returned. each one entering the room advanced and took her hand kissing the back of it.

In about half an hour they went out again. each performing the same ceremony, before leaving. I presumed it to be a form of salutation of affection and respect from the younger members of the family towards the eldest or head of the family" .

Repeatedly. Dr. Ball talks of visits at Dona M's: "At Dona M's this eve, I met several senoritas and enjoyed a musical treat accompanying with my flute to some pieces on the harp and piano." ... "Dinner at Dona M's at 4 p.m. (!). we dined sumptuously. I was surprised at the variety of meats. pastry, wines, preserves. fruits. etc.

Only to taste of each. such was their multiplicity, would have made a sufficient repast. In the evening, we had music from the harp, with an occasional note from the flute and singing".

If it were not for the fact that Doctor Ball visited Manila in 1848 and the Dona M who most impressed him was apparently an older matron and mother of grown-up daughters, one would want to say that his

description of her life style in Manila and at her country seat were accurate descriptions of the life Dona Margarita Roxas de Ayala led as a wealthy grand dame. Only, Dona Margarita was not just a wealthy grand dame. she was this and so much more.

Dona Margarita was born and raised in a city lighted by candles and oil lamps. whose people traveled, when not on foot. by horseback and carriage. For most of her life, she spent money in silver coins which, for large purchases. had to be carted in wheelbarrows by servants. because paper money came to the Philippines only 17 years before her death.

The only potable water in the city was drawn from artesian wells because the Carriedo waterworks were not inaugurated until the year after her death.

For m ch of her life, s1j1e lived in a country which was always. literally. one day behind the rest of the world. because the early explorers did not reckon with the in路 ternational date line. The year she was married, she and her husband of only over a month had no New Year's Eve to celebrate. December 31, 1844 disappeared on the Philippine calendar. Governor Cla veria, with the assistance of Archbishop Jose Segui, her uncle-in-law, decreed that it would be officially recorded as Wednesday, January 1, 1845. And so, consequently, no births, deaths or marriages were registered in the Philippines on December 31. 1844.

For the first 34 years of her life, Dona Margarita moved among a native populace, the majority of whom had no surnames. Until 1849 when Governor General Claveria

EXPLORING THE WORLD OF DONA MARGARITA

58

compelled them to pick out surnames from an alphabetical listing of Spanish names, the only Filipinos with surnames were those with genuine Spanish ancestry and Christianized Chinese who took the surnames of their padrinos.

And yet. living in this medieval atmosphere, Margarita Roxas de Ayala, was a modern woman in the best sense of the word. She was self-possessed and confident in her important role not only in her home, but in the business community. She was progressive and enterprising and pioneered in many bold commercial ventures.

Working with her husband. she obviously moved independently, made most of the decisions and travelled by carriage and boat all over the country to check on her wide-spread enterprises. Her businesses were not the usual kind engaged in by women. She ran a distillery; established a coal mine in Naga. Cebu and Tayabas; set up nipa plantations in Capiz (where she hired as overseer her cousin. who married a native Filipina and became the grandfather of President Manuel Roxas) and pioneered in the manufacture of dyes.

Dona Margarita had what was very rare in the nineteenth century Philippines in which she lived - she had a very sensitive social conscience. Accepting the privileges of great wealth she also accepted its responsibilities - conserving it as a legacy from her forebears but using it in a way that contributed as well to the wealth of the country in which she was born. Like modern philanthropists. too, she took it upon herself as a very personal mission to share her fortune in constructive ways

\

with hundreds of the country's poor. In her later years she devoted as much of her time to her philanthropic projects as to her various business enterprises and gave them as much attention and enthusiasm.

In the last decade of her life, Dona Margarita directed her amazing energy and organizational ability towards civic and charity projects. In her civic work, as in her business, she was innovative and far sighted, preferring basic solutions rather than temporary remedies.

Around 1855 she conceived a plan for a college for women and pursued the plan until it materialized in La Concordia. With her characteristic competence, she attended to all the practical details, from getting the approval and support of the government in Madrid, to the transporting of the Sisters of Cllarity who were to run the school, to providing the school building. In a day when there was no such thing as income tax deductions, she donated her entire country estate in Sta. Ana for this purpose.

In 1861, she was unanimously chosen President of the newly organized Conferencias de San Vicente de Paul. an association dedicated to help the poor and the sick. As President. she visited the slum areas of the city, going into the hovels of the very poor and seeing to their most urgent needs. But in her charity work, she was no Lady Boun-:.. tiful confining her efforts to the distribution of alms and other temporary paliatives.

Rather, her approach was always practical and her projects were meant to be permanent.

The earthquake that destroyed Manila in 1863 built up her lasting reputation for

compassion combined with competence.

The earthquake took place on June 3, 1863. Jagor. a visiting German historian described it in tliis manner: .. At 31 minutes past 7 in the evening after a day of tremendous heat. while all Manila was busy in its preparation for the festival of Corpus Christi. the ground suddenly rocked to and fro with great violence. The firmest buildings reeled visibly. walls crumbled and beams snapped in two. The dreadful shock lasted half a minute. but this was enough to change the whole town into a mass of ruins and to bury alive hundreds of inhabitants".

A report to the Governor General states that the cathedral. the government house. the barracks. and all the public buildings of Manila were entirely destroyed. and all the houses in the city damaged in varying degrees.

The catastrophe galvanized Dona Margarita into action and she immediately drafted the prominent citizens of Manila and organized what today would be called a benefit drive. A charity bazaar and a gran rifa raised thousands for the earthquake victims. which was a lucky thing because relief funds raised in Madrid never reached the Philippines although. as a historian put it, "it was never safe to comment on the end of Spanish rule".

Even in her lifetime. Dona Margarita earned recognition for her charity work.

She received a decoration from the Royal Spanish government who conferred on her the Banda de Maria Luisa con titulo de Dama de Honor de su Majestad y e1 tratamento de Exce1encia. It probably was true that such was the general respect accorded her that she was almost "the un-

59

AYALA

crowned queen" of Manila.

Almost to the end of her days which came on November 1, 1869. so varied and so Significant were the achievements of this remarkable lady. that the historical writer has to exercise special effort not to eulogize. One can only study the world of Dona Margarita and wish that more women who live in this modern world were like her. a most unusual person who would have been outstanding even if she had lived in the p r esent time. but whose achievements were all the more extraordinary set against the backdrop of the world she lived in. IlI!l

- - Virginia Benitez Ucuanan

PART

2

The Second Fifty Years 1884-1934

THE PROPRIETORS AS INNOVATORS

JACOBO ZOBEL ZANGRONIZ was one of the most exciting per-

sonalities who lived in the Philippines in the latter half of the 19th century. He was many things at once - businessman, numismatist, archaeologist, writer, administrator and a genuine friend to lesser endowed Filipinos in that troubled period.

He was the first of the Zobel line to be born in Manila. His parents were Jacobo Zobel Hinsch (who arrived in Manila from Hamburg in 1827) and Ana Maria Zangroniz, whose father was a justice in the Royal Audiencia of Manila and who came from an old family in Navarra.

He had two sisters. One of them, Carmen, became the wife of Karl Jonathan Karuth, whose watercolor drawings of Manila 's people, street scenes and buildings are vivid mementoes of the times.

When young Jacobo was only six years old in 1848, his mother passed away. Whether this sad event had anything to do with the decision, Jacobo and his sisters were taken by their father to Hamburg where they were settled with tutors and eventually in schools.

Jacobo's father, who is known to his descendants as Zobel Hinsch in order to distinguish him from his son who is known as Zobel Zangroniz, was born in Hamburg where he wanted his children to grow up and study. He had a lifelong interest in science, which he imbibed from his father, Juan Andres Zobel, who was of Danish descent. As soon as his children were settled in Hamburg, Zobel Hinsch returned to Manila where, by royal decree granted in 1849, he became a Spanish citizen.

Meanwhile, the young Jacobo flourished in his studies in Hamburg, first with Dr. Brandeman, a private tutor, and then in a public school. He did very well in Latin and Greek, an intimation of the excellent linguist he was to become in later life. Eventually he read and spoke 11 languages, including Russian and Japanese.

63

AYALA: T HE SECOND SO l' EA HS

711e San Mateo river: lip a valley and bet ween precipices, roads had to be c lII through vines tha t blocked th e way for hunters, like Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz and his frie nds.

When Jacobo was 16 years old, his father travelled to Hamburg to take him and his sisters to schools that he had chosen in Madrid. Their early education had been completed in his native Germany; the elder Zobel now wanted his children to become familiar with their Spanish heritage on their mother's side.

As his father wished, Jacobo enrolled for a licentiate in pharmacy and the natural sciences at the Central University. However, his bent was toward ancient history and his real interest was numismatics, the study of coins and medals.

While studying in Madrid, Jacobo came under the influence of Dr. Emile Huebner. He was a German archaeologist who was organizing the government museum in Madrid. The boy's interest was aroused by the professor's work on rare ancient coins. This started him off on an exacting lifetime study of numismatics. In subsequent years, at every opportunity he "could find, Jacobo poked around old Carthaginian and Roman ruins.

Eventually Jacobo wrote a work of several volumes about early Spanish coins. Titled Estudio Historico de 1a Moneda Antigua Espanola desde su Origen hasta e1 Imperio Romano, (A historical study of ancient Spanish coins from their origin until the Roman empire), it represented the work of 20 years and was printed in Madrid when Jacobo was already a businessman living and working in Manila.

Although he wrote several treatises on archaeology and other related subjects, his reputation as a scientist rests on this work on Iberian coins. Written in scholarly style, it is still regarded as one of the basic works of European archaeology.

As a student, he began his friendship through letters with Hans Christian Andersen, whose literary biography he wrote and one of whose stories he translated into Spanish. Delighted with the works, Andersen encouraged Jacobo to go into literature. But Jacobo's father asked him to return to Manila to help with the family business since he was already 23 years old.

With his books and art treasures, with his knowledge of the world of arts and letters, Zobel Zangroniz' home became a center of culture in Manila. He encouraged many young people of talent.

A gifted violinist was among his proteges, for whom he used to obtain music scores from E:urope. He encouraged the foundation of the Casino Espanol as a center of culture.

The countryside of Manila held a fascination for him and he went on expeditions similar to the archaeological treks he used to make in the Iberian peninsula, except that in these excursions, he and his friends went as much for bird and wild game shooting as for the scenery which fascinated him endlessly because it was so unlike that of Germany or Spain.

In a letter to a friend in Europe, written in February 1865 - within the year that he returned from Spain - Zobel Zangroniz described an excursion that he made with some friends to the San Mateo river.

T HE PR O PRt ETOR S AS tNN O VATORS

64

JACOBO ZOBEL ZANGRONIZ (1842 - 1896)

65

AYALA: THE SECOND 50 YEARS

ESTUDIO HlSTORICO

MONEDAANTIG~ A ESPANOLA p. IACOBO

7-0BSL 0& 7-ANC.6"1Z.

MADRI D : UIl40.0.u-'OTJI ..... L ~ . tf _ .L4l.r

... . .

1878.

~ -~ \~'" .

The title page and a set of drawings from the numismatics book written by Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz: boyhood excursions among Carthaginian and Roman ruins evolved into the scholarly interest of a lifetime. He was fascinated with literary endeavors and m aintained a long friendship through letters with the writer Hans Christian Andersen.

"One night toward the beginning of this month," he wrote, "some Germans, Englishmen and myself made an excursion to the town of Balate in the valley near the San Mateo River to the northeast of Manila.

After a small accident which almost caused the loss of the carriage in which I was riding with an Englishman, we rested at midnight in San Mateo and ate our supper in the same shed where we fed our horses. The dogs were barking and all the villagers came out of their houses to look at us in surprise ... On the morning of the following day, we continued our journey. The carriages were left in town and we hiked, accompanied by 23 carriers for our guns, ammunitions, hammocks and provisions. We went up a valley that is so narrow and between precipices, crossing the river many times. Other villagers went ahead of us, cutting a road with their bolos through the vines that blocked the way ... Often we were obliged to wade into the river. More than once, the carriers had to carry us, too , in their arms. "

Many of the Ayala family members - then and later - had a pet educational project at one time or another. Domingo Roxas, for instance, was once enthused about the idea of a nautical school for Filipino mariners. His son, Mariano Roxas, wanted a museum for the arts in Manila. Zobel Zangroniz' dream was a school of arts and trades. He worked very hard to realize it, but on the very day that the school opened, the Spanish authorities closed it.

Eager to work and to put in many concepts that he valued, he accepted membership in various juntas along such lines as sanitation, agriculture, industry and commerce. Of course he was fr ustrated when he discovered that these juntas, as their name implied, were merely advisory, with only the right to propose and recommend. "They can do nothing toward realizing their ideas," he wrote in 1865. "In the case of opposition on the part of the government, they have no authority to protest and in this way check the execution of unfavorable measures." Indeed, he was soon to cry out, "The whole country has no representation in government. " Zobel Zangroniz was half Spanish and had studied in Spain, but the work style of Spaniards frustrated him, too. He wrote: "The Spaniard who performs a certain task generally has many pretensions and, when one among many, does not get encouragement but becomes to his neighbors almost an object of ridicule. It happens usually that out of 30 Spaniards, only three will work as they should." He was then describing how it was to work in the advisory boards that he had joined in Manila.

Nevertheless, he went into government work. He became a city councilor at 27. When he was barely 30, he assumed the position of regidor of Manila. He had a motive: "I accepted my position in the Manila municipal government only upon the condition that the government should help me in my struggle against the improper use of certain funds."

His term was brief. Nevertheless, he made some significant changes and reforms. He had already helped secure the application in the Philippines of the Spanish education law of -1863, a product of the liberal movement that was sweeping Spain. He en-

T HE PR O PRIETO RS A S INNO VATORS

66

couraged the translation into the Tagalog dialect of several instructional pamphlets on agriculture and household industries. He opened a public library for the city and it was, as it turned out, the first public library in the country. He planted flame trees along many major avenues and down the waterfront and they lent dazz-路 ling beauty to the streets of the city for many decades. Historian Austin Craig summed up Zobel Zangroniz' administration by calling him "the most notable mayor of Spanish times".

That did not mean he was liked by all and especially by the colonial authorities among whom were persons of influence who never quite trusted him. Zobel Zangroniz made no secret of his liberal sympathies. He wrote articles in Manila publications, E1 Porvenir Filipino and Diorio de Manila. In Madrid, he contributed to E1 Eco Filipino, in which sentiments regarding the Spanish administration in the Philippines were expressed with forceful candor. Through letters, he kept in touch with friends in Europe.

He wrote them about the political situation in the Philippines and asked them to send him periodicals to read.

As a leading civic figure, Zobel Zangroniz agitated for Philippine representation in the Spanish Cortes, for limitations to the absolute power of the Governor General, and for the reorganization of the civil and religious administrations.

His stand on these issues made him highly suspect during the 1872 rebellion which flared up in Cavite. However, the authorities did not have a scrap of evidence although vicious rumors were hurled against him. His loyalty to Spain was questioned, because of his German origin and because he displayed a picture of Bismarck in his office. His importation of rifles from Europe was bruited about, although he never made a secret of the fact that he had ordered and received shotguns which he used in game hunting, for he was a crack shot and enjoyed the challenge of tracking down wild carabaos. He was said to have 400 armed Indios under his command; again he never made a secret of the fact that he dealt with many Indios in his business.

However, an incident occurred which placed Zo bel Zangroniz in very grave danger. Many Filipino and foreign liberals found in Masonry an outlet for their radical views. Zobel Zangroniz was one of the first Manilans to join the Masonic lodges. As an aftermath of the Cavite revolt, Governor Jose Malcampo, a Mason himself, ordered the dissolution of the lodges to get rid of Filipinos suspected of seditious leanings. He caused the integration of all Masonic elements into one lodge, the Gran Oriente de Espana, which he believed to be loyal to his regime.

Under these forced measures, the lodges were in a state of seething rebellion. Moscoso, chief of police of Manila, found some incriminating papers purportedly belonging to Zobel Zangroniz.

He passed them on to General Blanco Valderrama, Malcampo's second in command, who was in fact another Masonic sympathizer. As both were friends of Zobel Zangroniz, they kept the 67

A Manila street blazes with fire trees which were first introduced into the Philippines by Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz.

AYA LA : T HE SECO N D 50 YEA RS

The first page of a biography of Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz written in German by his good friend Emilio Hubner, and edited in Berlin in April 1897 by Julius Rodenberg. Among other information contained in the book is the fact that before his death in 1896, Zobel Zangroniz returned to the fold of the Roman Catholic Church.

matter to themselves. But Malcampo soon learned about this and in the ensuing shake-up, Valderrama was sent back to Spain in disgrace and Moscoso and Zobel were both arrested.

"Zobel was a victim of a reactionary trap," wrote historian Teodoro M. Kalaw. His political record was not one to recommend him to the administration. The customs police had seized Masonic works of Cassard addressed to him and in the estimate of the authorities these were nothing but coded messages sent by "a German agent in Hong Kong." In their eyes, Zobel was nothing less than a German spy.

Zobel Zangroniz spent six months in jail, staving off the threat of execution from day to day. Actually, the question of Zobel's innocence was not involved. Though a Spaniard, Zobel could also claim being a German through the dual-nationality law.

His trial lengthened and was subsequently dropped over the question of jurisdiction. He was finally exonerated completely by the Spanish government.

Zobel Zangroniz' overactive life was chiefly responsible for his marrying at the rather late age of 34. As soon as he was out of jail, he married Trinidad de Ayala. They went on a honeymoon trip around the world.

While visiting the 1876 World's Fair in Philadelphia, he took a fancy to a new gadget on display. The attendants called it a "typewriting machine. " He bought the Remington typewriter and wrote a friend in Hamburg about it. When the friend expressed his desire to see the remarkable invention, Zobel had another model sent to Hamburg. He is thus credited with having introduced the typewriter to Germany.

After their travels, Jacobo and Trinidad settled in Spain.

They lived there happily until he suffered a great disappointment over the failure of his neighbors to cooperate in a new irrigation project. He studied land transportation in Europe and returned with exciting plans to establish a tramcar service in Manila.

The first tramcar service is an interesting phase of city history which has been all but forgotten. On April 22, 1887, Leon Monssour petitioned the government for permission to operate a street-car service. The following year, on March 21, a royal order granted the concession to Luciano M. Bremen y Cabello. This right was afterwards transferred to the Compafiia de los Tranvias de Filipinas, a public utility organized by Zangroniz and Adolfo Bayo.

Zangroniz was already a fulltime partner of Ayala (in behalf of his wife Trinidad) but he had some energy left over to undertake this absorbing project.

Manila's earliest streetcars were modest-sized carriages of steel and wood, each drawn by a single pony. A maximum of 12 passengers could be carried on each car, and they had to evenly distribute at both ends to prevent the car from toppling over. Eight centavos fare was charged for first-class seats and four centavos for second-class seats.

T H E PR OPRIETORS AS INNOVATOIlS

68

T RIN IDAD AYALA DE ZOBEL (1856 - 1918)

69

AYALA: T HE SECOND 50 YEA RS

The first public transportation system within Manila in the 19th century was the tramway which Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz owned and managed. There were five city routes that crisscrossed the Pasi,g river.

Facing Page: Adjusted to Manila's two seasons, there were two kinds of tramcars in the Zobel depot. In the summertime, the open tramcar was used, lo wer photograph. It needed only canvas shades to keep out the suni more often than not, they were tucked in to allow the breeze into the tramcar. In the rainy season, the closed tramcar was used, upper photograph.

On November 21, 1889, the Civil Government issued regulations concerning the proper conduct of both streetcar operators and passengers. A person who placed stones and other obstacles on the streetcar rails was subject to a fine of from one to five pesos. A tramcar operator could not interrupt his authorized schedule unless stopped by .. an act of God or a public procession." The ordinance enjoined all conductors to display due gallantry by helping down all "women, infants and old people."

The tramway system had five city routes, all centering on Plaza San Gabriel, the hub of the city's business and financial district. The Intramuros line, like the other southbound lines, crossed the Puente de Espana, Manila's busiest bridge, where Calle Nueva is now. Entering the walled city through the gate of.

Isabella 11, it passed Muralla, Beaterio and Hospital streets up to the Plaza de la Maestranza. It continued through Palacio, Victoria, Solana and San Francisco streets and left Intramuros through the Parian gate back towards the bridge.

The second line went south to Malate. Turning left after the bridge, it passed the Fortin cigarette factory, the street behind the Teatro, and successively on Arroceros street the tobacco factory, the slaughter house and the military hospital. Then it turned right again to Concepcion and proceeded towards Manila Bay close to the old south moat. Turning south again, it crossed Bagumbayan field and went down the old Ermita street ending in the Malate church plaza.

The third line went eastward to Malacanang, the residence of the Governor General, passing General Echague, General Crespo, Calle Real de San Miguel and General Solano streets. The Sampaloc line had Echague, San Roque, Crespo, San Sebastian and Real de Sampaloc streets along its route. The Binondo line, the only one going north, went up Rosario street, passed the Plaza de Binondo and the Binondo bridge, and wound its way through San Fernando, Madrid, Lavezares, Sto. Cristo, Paseo de Azcarraga, and Bilbao streets before reaching its terminal at the church plaza in Tondo.

This tramcar service was Manila's major means of transportation until 1903 when the company was absorbed by the American-owned Manila Electric Railway and Light Company.

The Spanish company had to weather one or two minor crises along the way. Early in 1890 the chief of the guardia civil lodged a strong protest with the office of the Governor General regarding the use of whistles to give warning of the approach of the streetcars. Apparently, this form of signals was often confused with the whistles of the police, itself, with the usual imaginable results.

An exchange of correspondence ensued between the Governor General and Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz, stuffily punctillious on the former's part and patiently accommodating on the latter's part. His Excellency wanted small trumpets substituted for the whistles. After giving the new horns imported from Europe a

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AYALA

THE SECOND 50 YEARS

Horse-drawn vehicles crossing the Puente de Espana: Close to the turn of the century, considerable traffic was evident as business grew aroulld Intramuros and the dis tricts of Billondo and Santa Cruz across the Pasig river.

The Ayala bridge: Named after the Ayala distillery which was on the south bank, this bridge was built out of imported structural steel, the same steel produced by the Elffel Compa ny which built the tower ill Paris. Jacobo Zobel Za ngrolliz was the Elffel agent in Manila for many years. As such, he also imported the first bicycles to Manila.

working trial, Don Jacobo objected to the innovation on the ground that the trumpets could not be heard above the usual bedlam of Manila traffic. This went on for four months.

That was just one of Don Jacobo's problems with the tramway system. There were the horses, too. How would they be fed and with what? The veterinarians advised a diet of grass., corn, peanuts and palay, but the horses still did not have enough stamina and the mortality was high.

At one time, it was a retired Spanish cavalry captain who was taking care of the horses. He was very old and nearly blind.

He could not distinguish, moreover, which horses were too weak or tired to be used nor could he remember which had died.

His registry of horses was in shambles: horses purchased when the enterprise started were listed as still serviceable, horses which had recently been acquired were entered as no longer serviceable.

One day Don Jacobo called all the directors of the enterprise to an extraordinary meeting with veterinarians and other horse experts. The agenda: an inventory and exact identification once and for all of the 72 horses that were then in the tramway stables.

They decided that on a set day after the tram services ended at 10 p.m., all the horses would be identified and classified for serviceability. Stable personnel were reinforced for the job. Armed with bright lanterns, the inspectors began to work with the ancient cavalry captain taking notes alongside.

It seemed however that they had not seen it necessary to inform the stable boy in charge of feeding the horses that there should be a change of schedule about the midnight meal. Promptly on the hour then, he rang the bell which all the horses knew to be the announcement of their feeding.

Eager to be fed , the horses reared and kicked at the inspectors, knocked over their lanterns and badly injured the old cavalry captain, who had to be retired then and there.

Informed the next day of the fiasco, Don Jacobo was too disappointed to say anything. He turned around and went home.

Apart from running the tramway, Don Jacobo maintained the Ayala presence in banking when in 1890, he was elected a director of Banco Espafiol-Filipino.

As the sole agent of the Eiffel Company, the same company which built the Eiffel Tower in Paris, he also sold steel construction components as well as the first bicycles ever to be used in Manila. He was involved in the construction of the first structural steel bridge across the Pasig which is known today as the Ayala Bridge.

The records are unclear on this point, but is likely that the Ayala bridge took its name from the Ayala distillery at its northern approach. A nominal toll was charged for vehicles and pedestrians crossing the bridge. When the cost of the bridge was fully amortized, it was donated to the city of Manila.

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Despite what he had gone through in his early years, Don Jacobo managed to preserve an amiable disposition. He was wellliked by his employees - from the doorman to his top managers.

One of his employees, a nephew of Dona Trinidad, was to recall later that Don Jacobo was very exact in matters of language. This employee was Felix Roxas and as secretary of the tramway company, he knew that Don Jacobo tried to be very precise in his language and set this standard of exactitude for those who worked with him on records and documents. He was "a perfect polyglot", according to Roxas and, in ordinary conversation, spoke Spanish, German, French or English - languages in which he also preferred to read.

According to another employee - Ramon Fernandez - in his later years, Don Jacobo was not too fond of socializing; Dona Trinidad had to drag him to the few fiestas that he attended. By choice, he had only a few friends. He spent his evenings quietly with his family and with his books.

In the 1890s, the Zobel Zangronizes lived on General Solano street across the Pasig River from the distillery. His daily regimen was simple and fixed, according to Ramon Fernandez, a tramway employee. He left home after 9 a.m. to go to the central office of the tramway at the Rotonda de Sampaloc. The management of the enterprise was never simple; it seems that adequately trained personnel was often lacking - after all, it was the first tramway service in Manila.

The central office at the Rotonda de Sampaloc included a stable for 60 horses, a veterinary clinic and a repair shop.

Don Jacobo's morning was full just looking into these and other departments.

He went home for lunch and a siesta. By mid-afternoon, he was at work again. He visited the different terminals and the Malate station where there was another, if smaller, stable.

His work in the tramway brought him in contact with the working people, the Tagalog as he called them. On the one hand, he admired them, especially those who knew how to read and write. He admired them, too, for being quiet, simple and happy. On the other hand, he was also sorry for them, especially - and this is characteristic of Don Jacobo the scholar - since they had few books to read. "Every book written in any language they find , whatever it may be, they try to read", he wrote to one of his friends in Europe. "How much there is to be done for them. How should we raise the level of their culture?"

The German in him rued the work style of the Tagalog who tended to be nonchalant and inclined to the dolce far niente. He longed for quality education for these people, "not only by means of mechanical instruction" which was what he thought they were getting then, merely for literacy, but something broader and deeper that would be open to men and women. He greatly admired

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The central office of the tramcar system included this veterinary clinic. Fond of horses, Don Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz fo und himself looking at them with even keener interest since they drew his tram路 cars. He employed veterinarians, not just to look after injuries, but to devise good diets and el<ercise for the horses.

Venders and buyers in a markel: Looking a l the working people, 0011 Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz wished 10 raise their level oJ cull lire, a yearning Iypica l oJ his scholarly ben l.

AYA LA: TH E SECO N D SO YEA RS

Guardias cil'iles in Manila: As the rem/ution loomed, Don Ja cobo Zobel Zangroniz was asked to join the I'O/unteers ' batallions that would augment the defense duties of these military men Pleading ill-health, Don Jacobo declined and instead sent his son Fernando, then only 19, to join the cal'alr}.

Pedro PabLo Roxas: Out of his keen sense of what would work out, he p ut many new businesses toget her: an oil factory, a deep sea fishing company and that brewery which became the fa mous giant, San Miguel brewery.

the Tagalog women and wrote that they "are generally very clever and the soul of the home. " Towards the end of the century as Don Jacobo worked quietly in his tramway system, the times increasingly grew troubled.

There was talk and countertalk of revolution. Once again, he was constantly a suspect - the shadow of his past brush with the colonial authorities had come to haunt him although he had cut off his Masonic connection. It did not seem to matter that, like Rizal, he thought Filipinos had to be prepared first by education for sovereignty and nationhood.

Uneasy in spirit and weakened by failing health, he was not prepared for the invitation he received to join a volunteers' batallion that would guard and perform defense duties within his home district of San Miguel in those troubled times.

Seeking dispensation from what he considered would be "a great honor" for him as a Spaniard who loved his country, he said that he was burdened with "anemia and intestinal flu," which had so weakened him that he hardly ever left home and had indeed been advised to seek medical help in Europe.

In his letter to the volunteers ' committee, he reiterated his loyalty to the cause by saying that he had given permission to his son, Fernando Antonio , then only 19, to join the cavalry. Were it possible, Don Jacobo said, he too would be as proud to spill "my last drop of blood in defense of our beloved Spain for all that we owe her, whose unity we are obliged to defend. " III and distressed, Don Jacobo prepared for his trip to Europe to see doctors . He never made it. On October 6 , 1896, just one day before he was to take the ship, he died of a stroke. On his deathbed, he renounced Masonry and received the last Sacraments.

It was six weeks after the outbreak of the Philippine revolution. So troubled were the times that few government officials dared to march in Don Jacobo 's funeral. His close friend , Governor General Ramon Blanco, sent his aide-de-camp; the Archbishop was represented by his dean. However, the presiding justice of the Supreme Court and many of Don Jacobo's friends were present at the funeral Mass in San Miguel church and joined the procession to his grave.

Such was the character of the times that the death of Don Jacobo left Ayala y Compania without a senior partner at the helm. The other managing partner, Pedro P. Roxas, had left for Europe less than two months before; he too had wanted to be away during those turbulent times.

At the time of his departure for Europe in August 1896, Pedro P. Roxas had served Ayala y Compania for 15 years. He was the compleat businessman and allowed little else to cut into his time.

Aside from running Destileria Ayala, he managed his own company, Pedro R. Roxas y Compania.

His genius was for putting business concerns on their feet. He founded an oil factory and a deep sea fishing company many

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years before other businessmen even thought these ideas feasible.

He had a hand in the organization of the shipping line, Compania Maritima.

A year after the founding of San Miguel Brewery in 1890, the company was reformed as a partnership corporation. The original founder, Enrique M. Barretto, named Roxas as the manager. In July 1896, just a few weeks before he sailed for Europe, Roxas bought from Barretto shares worth '42 .000; the value of these shares is worth quite a lot more than that now, and the holdings of the heirs of Pedro P. Roxas in this giant corporation is estimated at several millions of pesos today.

During the revolution, the furies that seemed to have always pursued members of the Roxas-Ayala-Zobel family caught up with Pedro P. Roxas. He was among a number of rich and influential Spaniards who were suspected of lending moral and even material support to the separatist movement. Leaving behind his wife and four of their children, he left Manila a month after the revolution broke out and his departure was seen as a damning admission of his complicity.

The Sa n Miguel Brewery: alter several years as its manager, Pedro P. ROll-as bought shares in th e company These holdings, now worth millions, passed on to his presentdav heirs.

The Philippine revolution of 1896: The main Spanish military j7ank was in Cavite (this is the fort of DalahicanJ where the revolution was at its peak.

Suspected by the authorities of lending support to this movement, Pedro P. R nJ<'a .~ hart /0 1p.;:jvp Manila.

Actually, Roxas did not "escape." The intrigues of his political enemies had told on his health and he had been advised to go to Europe for an indefinite rest. His passport was duly signed

by Francisco de la Pena, auditor de guerra, and Governor General Ramon Blanco. He sailed on September 27, 1896, with his son Pedro, and his valet. Ciriaco. By an odd coincidence, he took the same ship, the Isla de Panay, which Jose Rizal took to Barcelona.

The same forces which were conspiring against Roxas were to bring the life of Rizal to an untimely end.

Even while on board ship, Roxas did not escape suffering and humiliation. He was the object of abuse and ridicule among some loyalist Spaniards who were also bound for Europe. Because of a nervous breakdown, he had to spend three months in Singapore before continuing on to the continent.

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AYA LA: T H E SECOND 50 YEA RS

A carriage awaits Don Pedro P. Ro;<.as in Iront of his o.r(ice. A pioneering entrepreneur, RO,xas \Vas into real estate and beer brewing as we/l as into deepsea .fishing, ice making and sugar plant ing.

Vevertheless, when th e Philippine revolution came, he left a/l these businesses to lil'e as an e,\ile 111 Paris.

After undergoing a rest cure in Switzerland, he went straight to Paris so that he would be nearer the Spanish frontier in case he was needed by the Spanish authorities. The summons was not long in coming. He was charged before the king for high treason. He was accused of being the secret leader of the Katipunan.

What had the effect of unwittingly aiding Roxas' cause was the very preposterousness of the charges brought against him. It was further claimed that he had planned to set himself up as "Emperor of Manila" with the title of Pedro I. Roxas' defense in the Spanish court was conducted by a brilliant and eloquent lawyer, one of his closest friends, Romero Robledo. This learned barrister appealed to the court's sense of justice in a three-hour speech and he ended by suggesting that the generals who had tried to besmirch Roxas' name "should be forced to wear their waist bands higher so that they may reach their necks. " Roxas was duly acquitted.

But the damage had already been done. His good name in Manila had been all but ruined by detractors. His manager and employees had been maligned and his best friends had deserted him. Properties worth close to half a million pesos had been confiscated and put under the administration of two citizens.

Although the titles to his properties were returned to him after his acquittal, he suffered terrible losses.

Perhaps due to the bitter experiences he had just gone through, Roxas lost all interest in returning to the Philippines. He lived well in Paris. He had a stable of eight horses and at one time won the Grand Concours, the Parisian version of the Derby.

He developed a fondness for the new fangled automobiles which were the rage among European sportsmen. In what was then a daring feat he made a circuit of the provincial roads of France in one of the early smoke-belching models. He had always been a great one for sports. Back in Calatagan, he had once bagged two deer with two shots - and on the fly at that.

Nevertheless, he was preparing to go back to the Philippines.

However, on February 14, 1912, while he was at the wheel of a brand-new Hotchkiss with his French driver Marcel beside him, without warning, he slumped on the steering wheel. It was a fatal heart attack.

His remains were brought back to Manila for burial. The city's great and near-great joined his funeral. Newspapers of the period observed that it was one of the grandest funerals in the city within memory. It was fitting, for Roxas was the last great tycoon of the 19th century and with him passed away a whole era.

Its dynamic managing partners both dead, the house of Ayala faced a difficult transition in the first decades of the 20th century. The Ayala-Zobels could have sold off their possessions or handed them 'over to surrogates and retired on comfortable rentier income. No disgrace would have attached to such a step, for the heirs of many a princely New York or Boston merchant had

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done the same when they found no one among themselves willing to run the family store.

The family, however, had women of fortitude and, when the need arose, they took active management of the business. Just as Dona Margarita took charge when her father died, her daughters - the widows of Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz and Pedro Roxas - picked up similar responsibilities that were thrust upon them.

Manila was still in the throes of insurrection and the uncertainties of a turnover in the colonial government when Trinidad Ayala de Zobel assumed guardianship of her husband's estate.

The times called for prudence, even retrenchment. The return to normalcy in the 1900s, when the Americans took over from the Spanish colonial government, removed some of the pressure, but running several active enterprises was more than what could be reasonably expected of a widow past her prime.

Carmen Ayala de Ro;cas: lean, ascetic and, like her mother, Dona Margarita de Ro;cas, gifted with a keen business sense.

She married her first cousin, Pedro Pablo Ro;cas, after obtaining the necessary Church dispensation in 1870.

Their marriage made her matriarch of the Ro;cas and Soriano clans, which came to be associated with Central Azucarera Don Pedro and San Miguel Corporation.

American officers wearing campaign hats of the Spanish-America n war style sit under deck awnings, watching comrades board their vessel for Pasig River fighting in 1899. There was a return to normalcy for the Philippine economy when the Americans took over from the Spanish colonial government in the 1900s.

It was at this time that Ayala y Compania started to evolve from a partnership to a holding company. Dona Trinidad divested herself of properties that she could no longer attend to ; those that she held on to were put in charge of other persons whom she trusted. She shifted from business concerns which directly required her time and presence. For instance, she decided to sell the tramcar lines to an American firm known as the Manila Electric Railway and Light Company. More or less at the same time, she disposed of her family's interest in pharmaceuticals.

She reinvested the proceeds in marketable securities. In five years, she was earning 85 per cent of her income from dividends

77

AYALA: THE SECOND 50 \' EA RS

Trinidad Zobel de Ayala: .rait~f(1i her husband's fJatrimo n v,

ste~I 'a rd

or

Enrique and Consuela Zobel: their m arriage was short lived, for she died young but not before they were blessed with two sons and a daughter.

as opposed to rentals which used to comprise the bulk of the partnership's revenues.

She either had an instinct for the right move or was well advised, for little in her earlier life with her brilliant husband prepared her for this task of generation-bridging. In keeping with family tradition, the Ayala women devoted themselves to their charities and their household and let the menfolk run the business.

Her portfolio reflected the growth trends of the early American period in Philippine business. She had shares in hotels; the end of the Spanish-American war brought more merchants and visitors to Manila. She was in trade-oriented sectors like mining, warehousing and insurance which boomed after World War I. She increased the family holdings in Bank of the Philippine Islands, later to become Ayala Corporation's major presence in Philippine financing. She also bought into Hong Kong-Shanghai Bank, the first to do business in the Philippines. Anticipating Ayala's future diversification overseas two generations after her, she put some of her money into Hong Kong real estate.

Her sister Carmen did not get actively involved in business either until her husband, Pedro Roxas, died in 1912, but she too proved a resolute caretaker. She had more property to worry about tlian Dona Trinidad.

In addition to her own inheritance, Dona Carmen had to manage the substantial assets that Don Pedro left her and her child en. Hence, upon his death, another partnership - Viuda y Herederos de Pedro P. Roxas - was established to look after the interests that Don Pedro had developed independently of his association with Ayala y Compania. These included one of the most productive sugar mills in Luzon, incorporated that same year as Central Azucarera de Calatagan. The Roxas fortune included shares in the fast growing brewery and ice plant by the Pasig River.

That Dona Carmen performed her stewardship well is shown by the success of her progeny. Her sons and their children continued an active Roxas involvement in the sugar industry into modern times. The marriage of her daughter, Margarita, to Eduardo Soriano produced the line that turned San Miguel Brewery into the giant enterprise that it is now.

One other eminent branch did spring equally from Dona Carmen's and Dona Trinidad's sides of the family. Enrique Zobel de Ayala, one of twins born to Jacobo Zobel and Dona Trinidad, obtained church permission to marry his first cousin, Consuelo, Dona Carmen's eldest daughter. They were the grandparents of today's most senior members of the Ayala Corporation management, Enrique Zobel and Jaime Zobel de Ayala.

In 1914 came the time for the family to legally apportion' its inheritance. Viuda y Herederos de Pedro P. Roxas, in which the Roxases, Ayalas and Zobels were represented, was dissolved and

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a new group, Viuda e Hijos de Pedro P. Roxas, was formed to incorporate most of Don Pedro's sugar properties. This portion of the estate was assigned to Dona Carmen's eldest son, Antonio Roxas. The Sorianos were awarded the bulk of Don Pedro's shares in San Miguel Brewery. The ~oxases in turn gave up their interests in Ayala y Compania which was adjudicated solely to Dona Trinidad. The Hacienda San Pedro de Makati was given to Jacobo, Alfonso and Mercedes Zobel y Roxas, the children of Enrique ~bel and Consuelo Roxas y de Ayala.

This was another turning point in the family's history, for from then on its branches pursued separate entrepreneurial directions, although some of their interests continued to interlock through a sharing of directorships and counsel. The Sorianos and the Zobels eventually acquired distinct corporate identities and management styles. The Sorianos made their mark in the nationwide distribution of beer, beverages and other mass-consumption products; subsequently they pioneered in capital-intensive basic industries. They were thus for decades the more visible, publiclyengaged captains of industry. The Zobels, specializing in finance and real estate, dealt with smaller publics and thus were not in the mainstream of economic activism until well into the postwar years.

As assets were valued at that time, the 1914 division left Antonio Roxas and his heirs with the prize of the combined RoxasAyala fortune: the sugar-producing Nasugbu estate. Although the Philippines was beginning to modernize, it was still basically a plantation and mining economy earning most of its dollars from cash crops and gold. Sugar growers had a guaranteed, seasonafter-season market in the United States.

Dona Trinidad's share of the legacy was not insubstantial.

With Ayala y Compania went ownership of Destileria de Ayala and the nipa swamps in Pampanga and Capiz that provided the raw material for alcohol-making. The enterprise had a fleet of seagoing vessels to distribute its liquor products. Its 3,000 employees included French and Filipino scientists trained at France's Institute Pasteur. Its products won international prizes in Amsterdam (1883), Paris (1889) , Hanoi (1902), St. Louis (1904), and San Francisco (1905).

But as the Great War of Europe approached its end, Dona Trinidad had doubts about holding on to the distilling business.

Manuel L. Quezon, a close family friend, warned her that the application of the U.S. Prohibition Act could be extended to the Philippines. In 1924, six years after Dona Trinidad's death, the distillery was sold to the Filipino-Chinese businessman, Carlos Palanca, who renamed the concern La Tondena.

The indifferent health of Dona Trinidad's surviving sons probably influenced the decision to sell the distillery. The eldest, Fernando, was made an industrial partner of Ayala y Compania in i910 but the effort took such a toll on him that he retired to Spain 79

T l1 e ({(ice of tl1e Hacienda San Pedro de Ma kati: In 1914, tl1e l1eirs of En rique Zobel de Ayala receil'ed as tl1eir inl1eritance a vast and rolling tract of pasture and rice lands soutl1 or tl1e Pasig river. Tl1e l1ectarages were known as San Pedro de Makati - a(ter tl1e little town on its nortl1 edge. Many parts (~r tl1e l1acienda were considered too poor and fa llow tl1at tl1ey could not el'en be planted witl1 rice.

In tl1e 1920s, /lyala .1 Compania ohtained mucl1 ~r its re l'enue From rentals and sale (~r rea l estate. Tl1is is tl1e real estate ~f.rice 11'l1iel1 \Vas located in qlliapo, along tl1e same street as tl1e distillel~I' wl1icl1 Ivas tl1e heginning (d' tl1e Iamily h usiness.

A YA LA: T H E SECON D 50 I' E/IRS

Margarita Zobel's marriage to Antonio Melian kept alive the family tradition of recruiting capable sons-in-law to take part in the business. It was Don Antonio Melian who took the Zobels into the insurance field where they have remained until the present.

La Concordia College: A burning ideal of

Margarita Ro;<as de Ayala for the education of poor girls, the school was founded in 1868. Dona Margarita petitioned for the Sisters who would run th e school, paid for their fare from Spain, and gave them her vacation house within a vast estate for the site of the school. In exactly the same site, the school now thrives and grants college degrees, with working scholarships for girls who cannot otherwise afford tuition.

after 15 years. That left Enrique as the only Zobel male of his generation actively in the partnership. Gaunt and wiry, he had the strength of character to hold the firm together through the Depression years.

Some of the retired partners remember Enrique as one of the two "strong men" of Ayala's prewar period - the other being his son Alfonso. Among other things, he was a relentless experimenter. When he still had the distillery, he tried mixing alcohol with gasoline to produce a substitute automotive fuel that he called "Alcoyala." He was at least 50 years ahead of his time.

Alcohol-based motor fuels did not become economically viable until the oil shocks of the 1970s inflated crude prices by nearly ten times in as many years.

Don Enrique also launched the country's first ceramics venture, La Porcelanica.1t later had to be closed because of excessive production costs.

He is best remembered in cultural circles for his establishment of the Premio Zobel, a prize given to Filipinos who excelled in Spanish writing. He wanted to preserve that language as part of the Philippine heritage and campaigned against a bill that would have required the National Assembly to conduct its business only in English. The bill was defeated but Don Enrique was bucking an irreversible tide. After the next war, the rich Spanish of Manuel Quezon and Claro M. Recto was no longer heard in Congress. The -l ast of the Spanish dailies folded in the 1960s.

Ayala continued to absorb fresh talent as other members of the ~amily joined it. Margarita, Enrique's sister, observed the Ayala tradition of the women staying. in the background while their husbands were alive. However, her husband, Antonio Melian, joined the partnership. His entry kept alive a family tradition of recruiting capable sons-in-law when it was short of male descendants to run the business. The record shows that the partnership was enriched manyfold by talented and hardworking additions to the family.

Don Antonio Melian, the Count of Perecamps, was born in the Canary Islands and lived for several years in Peru where he ran his own insurance and trading ventures. He came to Manila for a visit, liked it, and stayed.

In 1929, Enrique's three grown-up children came aboard as partners, contributing their ownership of Hacienda San Pedro de Makati to the firm 's assets.

The Makati Hacienda was then still an undisturbed tract of cogon grass, prone to flooding from the Pasig River, but it was the development of this property a generation later that established Ayala as the standard-setter in Philippine real estate.

Of these three scions, only one - Alfonso - remained in senior management. His only brother, Jacobo, preferred being in the military to being in business. Their sister, Mercedes, married Joseph R. McMicking in 1931, and he turned out to be another of

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those brilliant sons-in-law who helped make Ayala Corporation what it is today.

The year 1934 was the first centenary of the business that was founded in the Spanish times, that had seen the Philippine revolution and the change from Spanish to American colonial administration, and that then was going through the optimistic years of the Philippine commonwealth.

The centenary was a time for celebration. The newspapers carried the profiles of the men who were running Ayala y Compania and described the extent of their business interests. It was also a time for hindsight, for looking back and weighing what had been done.

This family portrait shows the presence of management scions who ha ve contributed their leadership to Philippine corporate culture. Seated left to right are Carmen Pfitz de Zobel, Enrique Zobel de Ayala, Margarita Melian, Fermina Montojo de Zobel and Andres Soriano. Standing left to right are Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, Leopoldo Melian, Gloria Zobel de Ayala, Eduardo Melian, Mercedes Zobel McMicking, Sylvia Melian, Joseph R. McMicking, Mati/de Zobel de Ayala, Angela O/gado de Zobel, Eduardo ROi<as and Jacobo Zobel.

Well did the scions know that family fortunes have a way of waning with the passing of the years. If they are not broken up by probate courts, they are usually dissipated by heirs who have succeeded to all the possessions of their ancestors except their business acumen, their competitive spirit, their finely calculated boldness and .other personal traits that enabled their patriarchs to build their fortunes. But through the many years separating the original founders and the standard bearers in the subsequent generations of the Ayala fortune, there has been no evidence of weakening or diminution. It has been preserved and enhanced as though it were a legacy worthy of all the talents and toil of each generation that came to manage it.

The Roxas-Ayala-Zobel clan - for by the centenary, it was indeed the enterprise of three strong families that had come together - was primarily a clan of business pioneers. They walked where the timid and hidebound feared to tread. Yet they were not merely super-efficient tycoons indifferent to the finer aspects of life, like many of their contemporaries who chanced upon wealth such as theirs. In the manner identified with 81

Don Andres Soriano: He made San Miguel beer brewery the giant corporation that it is today. He was the grandson of Carmen Ayala de ROi<as and Pedro Pablo ROi<as, from whom he inherited substantial shares in the brewery

AYALA: T HE SECOND 50 YEARS

aristocrats, they patronized the arts and lent their support to civic activities: Mariano Roxas pushed for a school of arts and painting; Zobel Zangroniz supported artists, opened a library, made himself available for voluntary civic work; the Ayala matriarchs and daughters were active in charity work.

The most extraordinary quality of the Ayala family was a stubborn streak to uphold what they believed in. They stood their ground at the peril of their names, their fortunes and even their lives. Domingo Roxas went to jail three times for suspected complicity in various plots and uprisings. Zobel Zangroniz, for all the prestige he commanded, had to seek the aid of the German emperor to save himself from execution during the turbulent years before the Philippine revolution. A close relative, Felix Roxas, who was believed to have given aid and comfort to the revolutionists, was shot the day after Jose Rizal was executed in 1896. Pedro P. Roxas escaped a possible similar fate by departing for Europe, but so maliciously was his reputation attacked that he died before he could set foot on his country again.

The first Fernando Zobel was a fervent patriot with a deep sympathy for the Philippine movement for nationhood. He tried to persuade his brother Enrique, his other relatives and his friends who were then in Europe to return to the Philippines at the turn of the century to help General Aguinaldo fight the American occupatiQn forces. .

For those who believe that wealth brings with it a certain degree of protection, the vicissitudes of the first Roxases, Ayalas and Zobels seem unnecessary. But history has shown that the Spanish can be as defiant in their love of freedom as they can be remorselessly brutal in suppressing it. The members of the family were, so to speak, stamped on the other side of the coin.

Fernando Zobel y Ayala: his patriotic zeal in convincing relatives and frien ds to support Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo 's fight for independence paid off with the inauguration of the first Philippine Republic at Malolos, Bulacan in 1899.

T HE PRO PRI ETORS AS INNOVATO RS

82

...

After a week-end in Calatagan in 1942 w hen there was a parade, a ball and a d eer hunt to celebrate a holiday, . â&#x20AC;˘â&#x20AC;˘ Fernando Zobel did these series oJ sketches.

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F

ROM MY EARLY youth, visits to the Calatagan hacienda were always happy moments for my brother Jacobo and for me especially. As one would say, the visits to Calatagan were like visits to an enchanted country, where we not only ran about to our hearts' content and took dips in the sea at Balonbato, but went on wagon rides as well in the company of our cousin Antonio and our uncle Antonio R. Roxas, my mother's brother. Tio Antonio was then the social relations manager of the Casa Roxas, the owners of the hacienda. For us, everything then had a charm difficult to describe, and it did not take more than a second invitation for us to accept with joy any outing or excursion to that hacienda.

Calatagan hacienda is the peninsula located in the municipality bearing the same name, belonging to Batangas province in Luzon. It is bounded on the north by the Lian hacienda (formerly of the Compania de Jesus), on the west by the municipality of Balayan and its bay, on the south by the China Sea and Pagaspas Bay and on the east by the China Sea. Up to 1949, this hacienda had a land area of some 10,000 hectares covering the small towns or barrios of Calatagan, Lucsuhin, Balitoc, Bigaa , Talisay , Balibago, Real, Bucal, Baha and Talibayog.

When my great-great-grandfather Don Domingo Roxas acquired it (according to records in the Ayala y Compania files), the hacienda had some 7,500 hectares, which was later extended to 10,000 hectares in 1914 with the purchase of Baha and Talibayog from the Tolentino family of

Balayan during the time of my uncle Antonio R. Roxas.

I certainly do not know for what reasons Don Domingo Roxas purchased the hacienda, although an extant document in Ayala y Compania records the fact that he bought carabaos or work animals for Calatagan in 1838. In the light of this document, it is safe to surmise that be bought Calatagan for agricultural reasons since the a rea included some huge and small forests where deer and wild boar abounded.

Cala'tagan hacienda originally did not constitute a municipality in itself as it belonged to the municipality of Balayan. It was only on December 16, 1911 that through the efforts of Don Galiciano Apacible, Casa Roxas obtained the title of municipality for Calatagan. An Executive Order defined its territorial limits and declared its independence from Balayan and it was signed by the Governor General at that time, William Cameron Forbes, who was a close friend of my Tio Antonio.

The first chapel for the hacienda was constructed on June 27, 1848, upon the initiative of Dona Margarita Roxas de Ayala and with the permission of Mons. Jose Arangurea, then Archbishop of Manila.

This same chapel was improved and expanded through the years until it became the main village church.

Swimming parties on the beaches at Balonbato and Palo Bandera were always joyous occasions. They started with the oxdrawn cart ride along the town's principal and only street (now called Calle Ayala) to Balonbato. At the seashore, we got off,

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AYA LA

along with the guardians appointed by my grandmother. We plunged into a sandy a rea of the beach where the water was not too deep. Normally, a day before our arrival, my grandmother had ordered a sort of semi-circular bamboo palisade constructed in a shallow part of the beach, thus fencing off a relatively safe area for us, children. The palisade enabled us to play in the water without fear of sharks and with our feet touching ground, considering that the canal through which the sea entered Balonbato was quite deep.

After bathing in the sea. we changed into fresh clothes and climbed into bancas which ferried us 500 meters ahead to Palo Bandera, now owned by Manda Elizalde.

There we rested and ate lunch prepared by the servants in advance: roast suckling pig turned over a slow fire, crabs shrimps, dried fish and rice. An excursion of this sort lasted a whole day; upon our return to the manor house, we tumbled into bed without taking any supper as we were weighed down by an overpowering sleepiness. Those were wonderful days in which we had no worries, except to enjoy the diversions prepared for us by our parents and grandparents.

What we liked most were the hunting expeditions for deer and wild boar with our cousin Antonio and his father . The hunters, the foremen, the guides and the men from the kennels used to assemble in front of the manor house. At Tio Antonio's signal. the expedition went on its way. Hunting was a passion for my Tio Antonio. I think I inherited my love

for the sport from him. On specific occasions, when he was on vacation with his family at Calatagan, he used to invite us to join him.

At that hme, Baguio did not exist yet as a summer resort and the famil y used to spend the summer months at the haciendas of Nasugbu and Calatagan. At the latter, we used to get together with our maternal grandmother, Dona Carmen Ayala Vda . de Roxas, Tia Carmen Gargollo de Roxas, Tio Antonio and his four children, Antonio, Pepote, Ramona and Eduardo .

Only Jacobo and I used to go with Antonio on those expeditions, since the rest of the children were still quite young My fa ther Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala used to visit us, but he was not as crazy as my Tio Antonio over those hunting sprees. In the years following his death in Baguio in 1918. the hunters remembered how Tio Antonio used to hunt several successive days without respite, returning to the house only to sleep at night.

As I was saying, we used to go out hunting very early in the morning on hors eback - Tio Antonio , his son Antonio, Jacobo and I. The oldest in the group wa s Atong - Fortunato Hernandez who was Celso Hernandez's fa ther. Celso worked as a mechanic for many years for my parents and continued to live at Calatagan on a special life pension. Old Atong went on foot. There were two other old huntsmen who rode their fine Batangas horses - we called them

CALATAGAN -

"Mayor" Antonio Limoico from Calatagan and "Cabezan" Felix Barcelon from Nasugbu. This privilege of riding on horseback was granted them by the family as a reward for their loyalty during the Spanish-American war in 1898. Both were captured by the Americans and were forced to confess that Tio Pierre Roxas, my mother's brother, had helped the Filipino rebels in their cause against Spain by providing them with food from the hacienda. Both men refused to confirm such allegations and were therefore subjected to various tortures, among them the infamous water treatment and the burning of their shoulders with a hot iron.

Cabezan路Felix had a very colorful personality. Despite his advanced age and his white hair, he always rode on a small white horse and ostentatiously sported a scarf on his head.

At our destination, the guides helped us to dismount; small boys that we were, we had to be tied to our horses with cords for extra security. We walked for a good while in the forest (these forests were comparable with those in Spain in terms of scent and underbrush), and the hunters cleared the way with their axes and bolos.

For my Tio Antonio, the principal guides fashioned some sort of mule seat made of saplings where he was settled comfortably in anticipation of the quarry.

Behind Tio Antonio, a place was prepared for the three of us - Antonio, Jacobo and myself. It was a higher van-

VISI TS TO AN ENCHANTED COUNTRY

86

tage point for us - with the consequence that we started to shout whenever we caught sight of the quarry. Our uncle would then "punish" us by declaring that we were not to be invited again; but, as he often promptly forgot about these threats, we never ran short of invitations.

I still remember vividly what happened when we saw our first quarry. Indeed the impressions of that first hunting experience are firmly engraved in my mind.

Before the stag emerged from the thicket, two of the guides warned our uncle with a slight tap on his arm, prompting him to raise the shotgun at shoulder level. At that moment we, the children, automatically cupped our hands over our ears, anticipating the blast from the shotgun. At first, we behaved satisfactorily by not creating any noise when the first stag fell. But as the whole operation had appeared so simple the first time, we were emboldened the second time when the next prey appeared. We created a commotion shouting" Nondiyon na, nondiyon na", so much so that the deer disappeared as Swiftly as it had emerged from the underbrush. You can well understand how we were scolded that time; anyway we were later pardoned for our raucous behavior.

After the hunt, we usually rested in the forest under the shade of the enormous trees, while servants from the hacienda prepared lunch on a makeshift table and benches cut from tree trunks. The food was brought by cart pulled by cows and carabaos from the hacienda. As soon as

lunch was over. we tumbled onto a mattress of leaves for a short siesta. But with all the excitement of the day's happenings. we boys could not sleep.

An hour later. the tarnbuli or hunting horn called us to resume the march.

The afternoon expedition closely resembled that of the morning except for a change of locale. At the end of the day. again the tarnbuli signalled the close of the hunting activities. Everyone gathered to discuss the day's events. exchanging observations as to how the quarry was sighted. how it was tracked down and felled. or why it managed to escape.

The return of the hunting party always caused a stir in the hacienda. Everyone came out to meet the hunters and admire their catch. Everyone also expected to receive a gift of some deer or boar meat with which to make tapa, cured meat.

Whatever was caught was usually hanged between two trees and if it constituted a remarkable catch. pictures were taken.

Trips from Manila to Calatagan were made via Nasugbu; Tagaytay then was still non-existent. We reached Nasugbu by first passing through Calamba. Taal. Lipa.

Aligtactac. 路Calaca. Lemery. Balayan and Tuy. An alternative was the train route to Batangas and Tuy. In Nasugbu (an hacienda also owned by the Roxas family). we took the MIS Tito or the launch Marnen from Wawa beach to Balonbato. a threehour trip. The MIS Tito was named after Cousin Antonio Roxas Gargollo whose childhood nickname was Antonio or Tito.

On the other hand. the launch was named

Marnen in honor of our grandmother.

Carmen. There was also a motor-launch Don Antonio together with the MIS Tito; this vessel helped transport what was produced in the sugar centrals of Carmen in Calatagan and Don Pedro in Nasugbu. Both vessels also served as our transportation between Manila and Balonbato. a trip of almost eleven hours by way of Corregidor.

Till 1926. we never took the land route by car for even if there was a dirt road. no princip~ high~ay existed. I recall that only one such trip was made by automobile to Calatagan by Antonio who had recently graduated from Notre Dame University in the States. He visited the ,acienda in the company of Jose Zabarte. business manager of the Casa Roxas and son of Don Pedro Zabarte. a Spaniard from Victoria.

Jose Zabarte came to Manila with our great-grandfather. Don Antonio de Ayala. the husband of Dona Margarita Roxas.

For several years at the time. we went hunting in almost every part of the hacienda. I recall that the forests in which we hunted as boys were later converted into Plantation Number One - sugar land between the barrios of Balitoc and Lucsuhin facing the sea.

Generally speaking. though. the hunting sprees worth mentioning occurred in that part of the hacienda now called Coto. This was a tiny peninsula of some 3.200 hectares. from the edge of Calatagan to the lighthouse of Santiago. forming a special pocket where the animals were trapped. with no possibility of escape except through the town itself.

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AYALA

The better hunting zones were Punta Buaya. Saguingan. Calumbuyan. Mataas na Gulod. Dayap. Tambo. Palo Bandera.

Hojas de Agua. Farola. and Camua. In 1935. according to estimates made by our chief huntsman. Norberto Hernandez whom we called Intoy. the Coto peninsula must have sheltered 3.000 animals - deer and wild boar combined.

The hunters and guides at the time were Norberta Hernandez. nicknamed Intoy. chief huntsman; Catalino Torres. nicknamed Talino; Maximo Urcia nicknamed Mokio; his brother. Kake Urcia; Juan Hernandez; Tomas Hernandez; Atanasio Cueto; Manuel Gacela and Bartolome Vivas. My constant guide since childhood toward whom 1 fostered special affection and esteem was Mokio Urcia. father of !king, Santiago and Juan Urcia. !king became the principal caretaker of Calatagan. while his brothers work for my nephew. Enrique Zobel. in his Bigaa Hacienda which also formed part of Calatagan until 1947.

The animals in the hacienda were deer. wild boar, mountain cats, monkeys. iguanas and giant bats. There were wild ducks and all kinds of birds. among them various species of turtle doves. There were also pythons. various serpents and poisonous snakes. including the large kind called sawa.

First class wood trees like mol ave and tindalo grew in the forest.

I also remember that one time. my Tio Antonio. hoping to improve our forest stock. imported a species of deer from Indochina.

bigger in size than the native species, and with more antlers. This was a gift from Senor Lichauco, Marcial 's father, a good family friend, who later served as Philippine Ambassador to England.

This new species was let loose near the Farola, a place quite far from the hacienda, but the experiment failed because these animals always ended up in the town plaza.

It seems that they never got along with their native counterparts which were more fierce and they could never adjust to their new environment. Then, at one time, a small boy was accidentally killed when a deer of this species attacked him near the wall of the manor house. Perhaps the deer was then suffering from an unbalanced state technically called "Rust" in which they are reputed to become more fierce than usual. For these reasons, attempts to improve the native stock with an imported species were never repeated.

The biggest hunting expedition in the history of Calatagan took place in May 1913. It was organized for the American Governor General, William Cameron Forbes who. like my Tio Antonio, also loved the sport. Hunters who took part said that 25 shotguns were used.

They said that the following were present: Tio Antonio; my father, Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala; Tio Edward Soriano; Tomas Earnshaw; Francisco Ortigas; Joaquin Elizalde, Sr.; Jose Zaba rte; John Kennedy; Federico Martinez; Manuel Nielo; Manuel Iriarte and Faustino Perez.

There were close to 400 hired guides and foresters from Nasugbu, Calatagan, Balayan, Calaca and Lemery who were

CALATAGAN -

transported to Calatagan on the MIS Tito and the MIS Don Antonio. The hunting activity lasted two entire days and some 150 deer and wild boar were caught. Since the manor house bedrooms could not accommodate everyone, beds were set up in the living room and even in the dining room.

Horses had to make countless trips to transport the guests from Taal and Lemery.

All in all, there were approximately 600 persons including guides, hunters, underbrush beaters, jockeys, servants and guests. The cost of the hunting expedition amounted to P15,000, considerably a real fortune judged by the standards of the time.

The dog packs consisted of English bloodhounds owned by Tio Antonio and by some families of Nasugbu, Balayan and Lemery.

I remember quite well my first hunting experience when I was accompanied by Mokio Drcia who was to be my hunting companion for many years, until the dictates of health forced me to give up the sport. Mokio taught me the "mysteries" of the hunt - how one is to come upon the quarry, what one ought to do on such encounters, how to aim. Although I learned a lot from Tio Antonio, it is an entirely different thing to fend for one's self in the forest. Because of the density of the forest, we often used slugs for fear of accidentally firing at a person or at one of the hunting dogs within a radius of 10-15 meters. Mokio cleared the way, cutting huge branches with his ax; then he prepared the hunter's chair from fallen tree branches, camouflaging it at the same time, so that the animals would not immediately note the human presence.

VISI TS TO AN ENCHA NTED COUNTRY

88

At the sound of the hunting horn, the dogs went after the prey. After some 15 minutes, Mokio touched my arm as a signal.

Not being well initiated in the "mysteries" of the hunt, I did not at first heed his signal.

I was therefore caught unprepared when a doe crossed the clearing, and though I fired, I missed the target. My first mistake.

Two does followed with the same results.

The third was a stag and by then I had enough time to aim well. I fired two shots at its head and it collapsed in front of me - my first deer. When we went to pick it up, however, I was surprised to see how small it was - just like a mastiff dog.

When I first saw it, I had imagined it as approximating an elephant in size. However, the catch deserved everybody's esteem as the first deer I ever got. There were congratulations, but none of the ceremony customarily celebrated in Spain when a guest killed his first deer or boar. Here we were just members of the family, and in the Philippines, we have never really gotten accustomed to the ceremony.

On some occasions, the ladies joined the men in their hunting expeditions. My grandmother, Carmen, who was well advanced in years, used to go. She sat on a chair that was carried on the shoulders of four men. If the trip was long, more men came along so that they could take turns in carrying the chair. On the other hand, Tia Carmen Gargollo, Tio Antonio's wife, preferred to ride a horse a 1a amazona.

Notwithstanding, both women did not really take to the sport.

Years later, sometime between 1925 to 1935, my wife Carmen, and Jacobo's wife,

Angelita. also participated in some of our hunting trips. Although both Carmen and Angelita knew how to ride horses. both preferred the chair.

Speaking of dwarfs. fairies. witches and the like. I recall only one occasion in Calatagan when we heard reports about the tigbalan. The natives believe in the existence of these creatures either because of hearsay or because they allegedly experienced frightful encounters with them.

In one of those famous hunting expeditions. I and my faithful guide Mokio Urcia and Norberto Hernandez. chief huntsmen were waiting in the hunting outpost. The hunting horn had sounded fifteen minutes earlier and the baying of the dogs could still be heard in the distance. The forest was quiet and a soft breeze caused the faint rustling of the leaves. Suddenly we heard three ' strong thumping sounds accompanied by a short. penetrating. neighing sound.

All three of us fixed our gaze on a nearby wide-spreading balete tree. Since curiosity is a vice with me. I iIrunediately tried to find out what could have caused the noise - whether it had been a bird. a woodpecker or some other animal.

Intoy smilingly informed me that it must undoubtedly be a tigbalan which was complaining as we had rudely awakened it with our noise. I protested. saying that such beliefs were nothing else but tales and that it had to be an unknown bird. Both insisted that it was the tigbalan. reputed to dwell in gnarled. dense and ancient trees like the balete.

When I asked Intoy if he had ever seen a

tigbalan. he answered in the negative. saying that he had heard of its existence from his father who was now dead and that his father. in turn. had learned it from his ancestors. It could not have been a woodpecker as the sounds emitted were like the huge strokes of someone chopping a tree with a heavy metal instrument. But the mysterious element was the neighing sound following such blows. Our discussion broke off at this point. since no one dared to investigate further by climbing the tree; so we eft the tigbalan to continue its sleep in peace.

Afternoons in Calatagan. outside of the hunt and the chase. were unforgettable.

When we were children - after the early afternoon siesta which was normally short or almost negligible - we begged grandma to let us playa sort of hunting game with the goats that were brought to pasture near the hacienda. She happily acceded to Olu request and ordered the old huntsmen to fence off an area where the goats were confined. With toy shotguns and the aid of some barking dogs. we ran after the goats simulating a chase. This went on for ar, hour or so. When we got tired of the game. we returned the goats to their owners with a token of a few pesos.

Late in the afternoon. my grandmother used to sit in the huge balcony of the manor house which faced the church and the town plaza. At about 5:30 p.m .. the womenfolk of the town came to visit her. as they felt obliged for one reason or another to pay their respects to the hacienda owners. At the same time. they exchanged ideas and impressions. asked for advice and talked

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AYA LA

about their problems. These informal gatherings used to last until past seven in the evening when they gradually took their leave one by one.

There was a religious custom which impressed us and which continued to be practiced for years: the Angelus. As the bells chimed the hour of six. everyone stood up.

My grandmother obliged us to do the same.

Together we recited the Ave Moria. After prayers. everyone a pproached my grandmother to wish her good evening: "Magandang gabi po" - to which she replied.

"Mogan dang gabi po noman ". This meant that first we had given praise and thanks to God and then. that the evening tide had began. It was a beautiful custom that continued to be practiced until the manor house was torn down in 1958.

Another custom which I ought to mention is how the younger persons greeted their elders by taking the right hand and touching it to the forehead to manifest respect. This action was accompanied by a slight inclination of the head as a s.ign of obedience and deference. This custom is deeply rooted among the people of the whole a rchipelago and we first saw it practiced in Calatagan. They used to do it to my grandmother and my uncles and later when the ownership of the estate fell on our shoulders, we also became the recipients of this custom. ~

- AHonso Zobel de Ayala y Roxas

F

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By 1884, the Ayala family as much as the Ayala business had began to grow. The Roxas, Ayala and Zobel bloodlines had come together; so did their various endeavours and entrepreneurships.

Milestones came one upon the other - weddings, births, graduations, new homes, yet more weddings.

Holidays came, trips were made and parties were held.

Although never concerned with being in the social limelight, the Ayalas dutifully did the rounds as all Manila then were either friends or family.

Milestones in the business were also marked new beginnings, mergers, anniversaries. The photographs of these years capture an elegant gentility and a solid sense of family.

90

Inner court of the Zobel home in Intramuros. Watercolor drawing by Karuth, 1858.

91

Hallway of the Zobel home in Intramuros. Watercolor drawing by Karuth, 1858.

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~~--;---!--~-, 'I -, ",,,,,~ , I

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Bedroom, Zobel home, lntramuros.

Watercolor drawing by Karuth, 1858.

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THE EARLIEST ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHS IN THE AYALA FAMILY ARCHIVES A RE OF THE FIRST ZOBELS IN MANILA. CHARACTERISTICALLY ADVENTUROUS, THEY POSED WITH EASE AND CHARM FOR THE NEWFANGLED DEVICE CALLED A CAMERA AND THUS BEGAN THE DEEP-RANGING ALBUM OF GENERATIONS WHEN THE ZOBEL HEIR, JACOBO, MARRIED INTO THE ROXAS-AYALA FAMILY...

94

Jacobo Zobel Hinsch and his wife, Ana Maria Zangroniz (seated, righV with their daughters Amanda and Maria del Carmen

95

l

Jacobo Zobel Hinsch and his daughters Amanda and Maria del Carmen

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Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz and his sister Maria del Carmen

97

)

JACOBO ZOBEL ZANGRONIZ (1842 - 1896)

TRINIDAD A YALA DE ZOBEL (1856 - 1918)

98

ENRIQUE ZOBEL DE AYALA (1877路 1943)

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O{i.t.i..na.- J. • ..A,~",e..."

C....... Mor.c..eie. Gc.La.s~

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The office building of Ayala y Cia., 1901. Located on Echague street in the Quiapo district of Manila, the office took care of the distillery and real estate holdings. Owner and manager Enrique Zobel de Ayala stands alone at a window, far left.

100

The estate house on the east bank of the Pasig River, Hacienda San Pedro de Makati, 1901

101

102

Carriages at the church grounds in Calatagan, Batangas where the Roxas, Ayala and Zobel families took to spending their holidays shortly after the turn of the century

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CARMEN A YALA DE ROXAS

PEDRO PABLO ROXAS

(1846 - 1930)

(1845 - 1912)

104

ANTONIO ROXAS Y DE AYALA (1881 - 1915)

105

The sisters, 1hnidad Ayala de Zobel and Carmen Ayala de ROlCas (in dark gowns, seated center, left and right respectively), with some of their sons and daughters. Among them are Antonio ROl(as, his wife Carmen and their son Antonio, Jr. (seated, righVi Enrique Zobel de Ayala (standing, third from lefV and his wife Consuelo (standing, elCtreme lefV and Margarita Zobel de Melian (standing, fourth from lefV.

106

Antonio ROl(as stands behind his mother, Dona Carmen Ayala de ROl(as, in the family's vacation estate in Baguio. With Dona Carmen are Antonio's son Eduardo, daughter Ramona, wife Carmen and son Jose. Standing beside him is his son Antonio Jr.

107

The staff of the vacation home in Baguio with Antonio Ro}(.as (rear row, with a haV and his son Antonio, Jr.

!

Antonio Ro}(.as riding with his son and namesake Antonio in Baguio

108

Hunting in Calatagan . American Governor General Francis Burton Harrison (with a tie, center right) rides alongside his host, Antonio ROl'as, 191 3

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Trinidad Ayala de Zobel photographed in 1912

11 0

Enrique Zobel de Ayala with his wife Consuelo and their sons Jacobo and Alfonso

Enrique Zobel de Ayala with his three children Jacobo, Alfonso and Mercedes, shortly after their mother, Consuelo, passed away in 1908

111

CONSUELO ROXAS DE ZOBEL

FERMINA MONTOJO DE ZOBEL

112

BORN AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY, THE FIFTH GENERATION OF THE DESCENDANTS OF DON DOMINGO ROXAS INCLUDED THE BRANCH THAT CARRIED THE SURNAME ZOBEL. TO COMMEMORATE THE SPANISH ROOTS OF THE FAMILY, SOME OF THE HEIRS USE THE FULL NAME OF ZOBEL DE AYALA ...

)

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Mercedes Zobel y Ro.xas going for a ride

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The Zobel brothers Jacobo and Alfonso

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ALFONSO ZOBEL DE AYALA (1903 -1967)

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Fermina Momojo de Zobel at home

T he Zobel sisters: Matilde, Mercedes, Gloria and Consuela (who married respectively Luis S. Albarracin, Joseph R. McMicking, Ricardo de Padilla and James D. Alger)

117

On the day of their First Communion: Fernando Zobel, Maria Elena Lizarraga and Jose Maria Soriano

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Carmen Montemar de Soriano and her sons Jose Maria and Andres (who are great grandsons of Carmen Ayala de Ro}(as)

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./

Wedding portrait of Mercedes Zobel y Ro;cas and Joseph Ralph McMicking, 1931

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Wedding portrait of Carmen Pfitz and Alfonso Zobel de Ayala, 1928

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The wedding of Angela O/gado and Jacobo Zobel y ROl(as, 1926

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The wedding of Matilde Zobel Montojo and Luis Albarracin, 1951

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As AYALA

Y COMPANIA,

FOR THEN THE BUSINESS WAS CALLED, MARKED THE CENTENARY OF ITS FOUNDING IN 1934, A WHOLE NEW GENERATION WAS BEGINNING. TH IS IS THE SIXTH GENERATION OF THE DESCENDANTS OF DON DOMINGO ROXAS, A GENERATION THAT WAS TO WEDGE THE FAMILY BUSINESS INTO THE MODERN AGE - PAST THE RAVAGES OF WAR, PAST THE D ISLOCATION AFTER THE WAR, PAST THE CHALLENGE OF NEW DEMANDS AND RESPONSIBILIT IES -

WITH GRIT AND HARD WORK,

INTO THE VISION THAT CREATED THE AYA LA CORPORATION...

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Jacobo and Angela Zobel with their only son Enrique, 1927

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The baptism of Jaime Zobel de Ayala in the Lourdes Church, Intramuros, 1934. The godmother was Angela Olga do de Zobel, and the godfather, Enrique PJitz.

126

The children's table during the family party held on the occasion of the baptism of Jaime Zobel de Ayala, 1934

127

THE YEAR 1934 WAS THE CENTENARY OF THE AYALA Y COMPANIA AND THE CELEBRATIONS WERE AS MUCH THAT OF THE FAMILY AS IT WAS OF THE COMPANY...

128

The first centenary of the Ayala y Cia.: Employees and friends gathered for lunch in the home of Enrique Zobel de Ayala, 1934.

129

In the home of Margarita Zobel de Melian (seated, second row, elCtreme left). Seated with her are her brother Enrique Zobel de Ayala and his wife Fermina, with their son-in-law Joseph McMicking on her left. Others in the photograph are: Alfredo Melian, Angela O. de Zobel, Raul Me/ian, Mercedes de McMicking, Sylvia Melian and Eduardo Melian (standing, rear row)j Gloria Zobel, Jacobo Zobel, Leopolda Me/ian, Consuela Zobel, Enrique Zobel and Fernando Zobel (seated, front row).

130

The dining room of the home of Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala on Leon Guerrero Street in Ermita, Manila . The house was design ed by the architect Andres Luna.

131

Jacobo Zobel (third from left) with other aides de camp during the inauguration of Presiden Manuel L. Quezon as the president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, 1937

132

Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala (standing) accepts membership in the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Correspondiente de la Real Academia de la Lengua Espanola, 1938

133

AYALA

THE SECOND 50 YEARS

A family portrait in the home of Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala, 1938, includes Matilde Zobel, Jacobo Zobel, Alfonso Zobel de Ayala and Carmen PJitz de Zobel (standing, rear row); Angela de Zobel, Fermina Montojo de Zobel, Consuela Z obel, Gloria Zobel, Don Enrique, Joseph McMicking and Mercedes Zobel de McMicking (seated); Enrique Z obel, Victoria Zobel and Fernando Zobel de Ayala (on the J7oor).

The portraits on the wall are of Trinidad Ayala de Zobel and Jacobo Zobel Zangnoniz, the parents of Don Enrique.

134

FOR EVERY GENERATION, THERE IS ALWAYS CALATAGAN - A PLACE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, A REFUGE BY THE SEA, A CHANGE OF PACE AND A RETURN TO THE COMFORT OF FAMILY HISTORY.

)

135

The hunters with some of the deer after a hunt in Calatagan, 1937

Alfonso Zobel de Ayala at the head of the picnic table set up in the woods of Calatagan during a hunt, 1937

136

By the sea in Calatagan are Enrique Zobel, Angela Olgado de Zohel, a guest, Fernando Zobel, Carmen Pfitz de Zobel, Consuela Rivera, Consuela Zobel and another guest {seated on the bancaJi behind them, Matilde Zobel steadies her niece, Victoria Zobel.

Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala and his daughter Matilde in a carabao-drawn cart during a picnic in Calatagan

137

Carmen PJitz de Zobel rides on the portable bamboo chair that was el<elusively for the ladies who wanted to join the deer hunt in the woods of Calatagan, 1937

138

PART

3

The Third Fifty Years 1934-1984

J

THE HEIRS AS WORKING PROFESSIONALS

IN

between the two World Wars, Ayala y Compania was a conservatively run firm with little interest in other lines besides insurance, finance and real estate. It had a brief plunge into sugar with the title transfer of Central Azucarera de Calatagan from the Roxases to the Zobels in 1934, but the property was smaller and less productive than Nasugbu. The Hacienda Calatagan did not enter significantly into the company history until the 1960s when it 'was turned into a seaside resort with an international clientele.

Ayala was a familiar name to most Manilans. The family's patronymic was preserved in the name of a wide concrete span across the Pasig and that of a boulevard leading to it, both heavily travelled on a normal day. The name commemorated the existence of the old Ayala distillery on the Pasig's northern bank as well as the proximity of old Ayala family residences around General Solano and San Marcelino streets at both ends of the bridge. But few passersby associated the name with the firm. It was small even by prewar standards. Even after it moved in 1931 from Echague street in Quiapo to the EI Hogar Filipino building on Juan Luna street near the Escolta, the partnership did not have more than 50 in its employ. The offices occupied a single tiled floor , manned for the most part by bookkeepers clad in the prim white suits of the period.

THE YEARS

Manila in 1936 sholl'S traffic along Jones Bridge leading to the commercial district where th e EI Hogar Filipino building near Escolta street used to house A,l'ala y Compania, then, as now, located in the heart of the business districl,

141

AYALA: T HE T IIIR D 50 YEA HS

Downtown Manila in the 30s: Although motorcars were appearing in greater numbers, the horse-drawn carriages measured the true pace of the city where the seasons turned gracefully.

In lhis quiet interlude, Ayala established primal lines of business in insurance and real estate.

For the partners, business was not always flush. Colonel Joseph McMicking, who joined the firm in 1931, recalls that it once was so strapped for funds that it had to lop off some of its real estate holdings in a hurry to raise cash. The global depression slowed trade and capital was hard to come by. The prewar years are remembered with nostalgia not because they were particularly bountiful but because they were the last in which Manila observed its Old World manners and civility. Politicians were consumed by dreams of independencio but they did not blatantly cheat and steal. The seasons turned gracefully; although motorcars were appearing in greater numbers on Taft Avenue, the clopclop of the horse-drawn coretelos in Quiapo measured the true pace of the city.

It was in this quiet interlude, nonetheless, that Ayala established its primal lines. In insurance the most significant contributions came from Antonio Melian, Francisco Ortigas, and Jose McMicking, Joseph's father.

Having seen the insurance business flourish in Lima, Melian saw no reason "why the same success could not be attained in the Philippines," he wrote young Joseph. The vehicle he chose for his entry was EI Hogar Filipino, a building society which issued mortgages and returned earnings to its members in proportion to their contributions to the fund. The mutual insurance concept quickly became popular with small earners. They could participate with only a few pesos.

In 1910, the same year Melian launched EI Hogar Filipino, the Ayala partners joined several others in establishing Insular Life Assurance Company, which was to remain Ayala's major affiliate in life insurance. Both companies broke into a virtual monopoly held by foreign insurers.

Then another idea occurred to Melian. Why not create a third company to underwrite insurance on properties financed by EI Hogar and other institutions? Some degree of rationalization in the property insurance field was certainly in order. Premiums widely varied depending on whether the property-owner was Filipino, American, or British, Melian recalled. Policy-holders also experienced long delays in settlement as this had to be decided in London, where most of the fire insurance companies issuing Philippine policies had their home offices.

Melian drew up a list of incorporators for Filipinas Compania de Seguros from Manila's leading business families. Aside from his brothers-in-law, Fernando and Enrique Zobel, he recruited Pedro Casas, Vicente Arias, Miguel Ossorio, Ignacio Ortigas, and Francisco Ortigas.

There were a few false starts, caused by the difficulty of getting all these eminent comerciantes together. On March 6, 1913, Melian finally assembled all of them - except for one, Francisco Cavera, who somehow failed to get the summons. Pedro Casas was sent out to locate the missing incorporator and bring him

THE HEIRS AS WO RK ING PROFESSIONA LS'

142

back - "by force, if necessary," according to one contemporary account. Don Francisco was finally found at the Casino Espanol with cocktail in hand, unaware of the fuss that he had caused. The following day all the organizers met the initial subscription of P277,000, and Filipinas was soon in business on the Escolta.

Although Filipinas started out with some life policies, it was in the non-life field that it pioneered.

Antonio Melian served continuously as President or Director of Filipinas until his retirement 22 years later. He saw Filipinas affiliate with Insular Life and spin off yet another venture, Philippine Guaranty Company, which specialized in fire insurance. A 1933 regulation requiring the separation of life and non-life underwriting resulted in the creation of another Filipinas subsidiary, Filipinas Life Assurance Company, which is still known under that name.

Melian had ambitious plans to raise capital for .Philippine development through EI Hogar Filipino, but these did not materialize. In the 1930s EI Hogar, like many other financial intermediaries, was struggling as a result of the Depression. It did not get much encouragement either from American advisers to the Philippine government. They were never sold to mutuals as capital-generating instruments. Filipinas Life, however, remained in the Ayala corporate family until the present, as did its parent , and P~ppine Guaranty.

Although not an Ayala partner, Francisco Ortigas was the trusted lawyer for both the Zobel and Roxas families and in that capacity had a hand in organizing their insurance investments. He was an incorporator of both Filipinas Compania de Seguros and Philippine Guaranty.

Jose McMicking was the technician in many of the insurance ventures the Ayala partners got into. He owed his Scottish name to his father, a McMicking of Ayshire. The elder McMicking was one of scores of hardy Scotchmen who came to the Orient to start fabulous careers in trade in the 19th century. Jose was Insular Life's first general manager. Philippine Guaranty's official history also credits him for its inception.

McMicking proposed an Insular Life subSidiary that could cover buildings mortgaged to the company. On June 6, 1917, Philippine Guaranty was incorporated; Vicente Singson Encarnacion was president and McMicking was general manager . On October 6 of the same year, McMicking wrote its first policy in his own hand - a P10,000 coverage of a three-story building on Carriedo street owned by Manuel Arias.

Philippine Guaranty and Filipinas Compania de Seguros, together with a younger affiliate, Universal Insurance and Indemnity Company, form the present day FGU Insurance Group, a division of Ayala Corporation.

Jose McMicking died in 1942 after more than 24 years of service but his son, Joseph, took up the reins in the difficult postwar 143

Antonio Melian: The visionary for the primal line in the insurance business that Ayala entered and still carries," he worked as president or director of the company fo r 22 years.

Jose MCMicking: A hardy Scotchman, he was the shaper of many of the insurance ventures that the Ayala partners went into. He worked in Ayala f or 24 years and then his son, Joseph, took up the company reins in the 40s.

A YA L A : T H E T H I RD 50 YEA HS

years when Philippine Guaranty stood to lose much of its assets from the nearly-total destruction of southern Manila and other parts of the country.

The prewar Ayala partners were in insurance only as investors; their company was mainly engaged in real estate.

Although the record is hazy on this point, Benito Legarda Jr., a scholar on entrepreneurial history, believes that the firm's first small-lot residential sales were near the Old Meralco carbarn at the southern end of Ayala bridge. The fact that some of the streets in that area had names associated with the family - Melian, Fernando, Enrique, for instance - suggests that this may have been so. These residential sales could have been transacted as early as the 1920s.

The first Ayala subdivision in Singalong, south of the Pasig Ril'er: Developed in the 30s, this was a residential tract for modest earners, Hence, the lots were small, The streets today still bear names associated with the family - Zobel, C. Ayala, Enrique and Ferna ndo,

In the 1930s, Don Enrique Zobel (fourth from right, upper photograph) was run路 ning Ayala y Compania, with the assistance of his sons, Alfonso and Jacobo, and of his brother Fernando, The office was a large building on Echague street in Quiapo district, a cen路 trallocation that made it easy for the tenants and land路buyers of Ayala's then beginning business in city real estate,

After the y unger Zobels brought the huge Hacienda Makati into the firm, Ayala y Compania took parcels of this estate to develop four subdivisions in the Singalong-San Andres district.

Ayala Securities Corporation was reorganized and subsequently two new companies, San Lorenzo Company Incorporated and Makati Development Corporation were formed to handle the sale of subdivision lots.

The Ayala heirs concede that these early efforts at property develppment were not particularly distinguished. The SingalongSan Andres streets were narrow and poorly-drained, flooding easily after a strong July downpour. The land was sliced up in small lots so that they could sell faster'. These neighborhoods remain lower-middle class in character.

But one can scarcely blame the prewar partners. In those days there was little art in real estate, much less vision. "All a developer had to do was to draw lines on a map and get his plans stamped at City Hall," says Legarda whose own family was engaged in this business before the war. The partnership also needed a fast turnover because cash was short for everyone in those times.

Rentals from commercial properties in what was then downtown Manila - Juan Luna, Binondo, and Gandara - contributed to therfirm's income. Its best-known rent-earner was the old Ayala Building on Plaza Santa Cruz.

T H E HEIRS AS WORK ING PHOFESSIONALS

144

In 1936 Ayala started its involvement in merchant banking with the establishment of another subsidiary, Credit Corporation of the Philippines. Its initial function was to manage the portfolios of Ayala-related insurance firms. Its postwar successor is the Ayala Investment and Development Corporation (now BPI Investment Corporation).

All these blocks were put in place when Enrique Zobel de Ayala was the senior managing partner. Although not all the years he knew were prosperous ones, he preserved the Ayala patrimony for another generation of managers. Through difficult times he continued the family's Medici-like tradition of patronizing culture and the arts. Don Enrique's generous commissions helped establish Fernando Amorsolo as the country's premier painter.

He had more than his share of personal tragedy. Seven years after his marriage , he lost his wife, Consuelo, to one of the deadly cholera epidemics that swept Manila early in the century. She was only 30 when she died in 1908. Among her numerous charities was Gota de Leche, which sheltered foundlings .

Three years later Enrique courted and married Fermina Montojo, the niece of the Spanish admiral Patricio Montojo who lost his fleet to the guns of Commodore George Dewey in defense of Manila Bay. From this second marriage Enrique raised another family of a son and three daughters: Matilde who married Luis de Albarracin, a Spanish businessman; Consuelo who married James Alger, a U.S. Army general; Gloria who married Ricardo de Padilla, also of Spain. Fernando, the only son by this marriage, was an active partner until he handed over the management of Ayala Corporation to his nephews, Enrique and Jaime, and gave his fpll attention to his art.

Alfonso Zobel de Ayala as a student: in knickers and with a great smile

The family of Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala: Twice married, he had four daughters and three sons. His eldest daughter is Mercedes (second from right, standing)i his eldest son was Jacobo (extreme left, standing) and then Alfonso (extreme righ t, standing). By his marriage to Fermina MOn/ojo (second from left, standingJ; Don Enrique's da ughters are M<fl.iJde, Consuela and Gloria. FernaJdo- is his youngest son (in the stroller). '>

145

AYALA: T HE TH lllO 50 YEARS

Col. Jacobo Zobel: ever the cavalry man, he was torn between duty to the fam ily business and the pursuit of his military career.

Enrique Zobel as translator for the US Army: Too young to join the army where his father, Jacobo, was a major, Enrique Zobel volunteered as translator for the American soldiers directly after the liberation of the Philippines. He sits for a picture atop the hood of an Army jeep (right, in dark jacket). Today, Enrique is a commissioned officer with the rank of major in the Philippine Air Force.

In the 1950s Fernando Zobel de Ayala's canvases, full of soft, comforting visions, had already caught the attention of Manila's art cirles. To patrons, there was a certain cachet in having a Zobel hung as the centerpiece of their living-room walls. Fernando took on a bigger cause than his own artistic career - the promotion of the new school of Spanish abstract painting - and that was to bring him to Cuenca, Spain, as a permanent resident.

In his engaging travelogue Iberia, James Michener shows us a glimpse into why Fernando chose this out-of-the-way 15th century Castillian town as his retreat. Out of three cliff houses overlooking the Rio Huecar, Fernando had created a striking setting for the works of Spanish contemporaries like Antonio Suarez, Luis Ferto, and Rafael Canogar. "It was a visual feast," writes Michener who was brought to Cuenca by Fernando. "If we looked to the right, we saw a spectacular valley, or to the left, a series of brilliant canvases by painters I had not previously heard of."

The end of the Pacific war left Ayala in a fairly battered condition like many other Philippine companies. Some of its commercial properties were spared but the Ayala building was burned by the retreating Japanese Marines in the battle for Manila's liberation. Worse, Insular Life faced bankruptcy.

In October, 1944, as U.S. carrier-borne Helldivers rained bombs on targets around Manila Bay, a panicky Insular board withdrew large amounts of cash from the Bank of the Philippine Islands and deposited them in the vaults of the Philippine National Bank. The directors were seeking what they thought was a safer haven for the company's reserves.

The move backfired, for President Osmeiia's postwar government nullified all bank deposits (although not withdrawals) in Japanese-issued "Mickey Mouse" currency . .The transaction did not hurt the Ayala bank but it was a disaster for the Ayala insurance company.

Insular Life could have declared force majeur and closed down as did all its prewar competitors except for National Life.

But Colonel McMicking insisted that the company had a social obligation to remain in existence and keep its policy-holders' savings on its books. It was a principled thing to do although not without its costs.

The company regained solvency when the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation, a government agency, subscribed to '11.7 million of its preferred shares. Only one million of this subscription was actually paid out, for Insular Life soon recovered client confidence with its decision to honor all claims, including those on policies paid for in wartime pesos. But since an insurance company's cash outflow increases with every new policy accepted, Colonel McMicking had to keep strict limits on the amount of new issuances until the company could rebuild its reserves.

Under this self-imposed rationing, Insular Life lost most of its old agencies as they sought other companies for which they could

rHE HE IHS /IS W ORKIN G PHOFBSS /ONA LS

146

handle larger volumes. Philippine American Life, started as a new postwar enterprise with no previous liabilities, spurted ahead at Insular Life's expense.

Ayala y Compania reopened for business in 1945 on one floor of the Insular Life building on Plaza Cervantes. Working conditions were tough on everyone. The elevators did not work; the telephones were dead. Antonio Roxas, a Zobel relative who had his office five floors above Colonel McMicking's, had to walk down to confer with the Ayala partner and then climb back. So did the Colonel in reverse when he wanted to see Roxas. Because of the rocketing postwar inflation and food shortages, the partners gave free rice to the staff, which had grown to 150 by war 's end.

More important for Ayala's survival as a family~perated company was its need to break in a new generation of managers.

After Don Enrique died in 1943, his eldest son, Jacobo,was next in line to succeed him. Jacobo , however, had his heart elsewhere. He was the dashing cavalryman in the family. During the early days of the war, he served with General Vicente Lim in a holding action against the Japanese as General Douglas MacArthur's FilAmerican forces retreated towards Bataan. He survived the Death March - the ragged procession of sick and dying prisoners~f-war who were herded by their Japanese captors from Bataan to concentration camps in Central Luzon.

Jacobo Zobel was torn between his responsibilities to the family and his passion for the rugged life. He retained his army commission and as late as 1950 was in command of a cavalry squadron tasked with pursuing Hukbalahap rebels operating between Mt. Arayat and the Manila outskirts. At one time he came within a pistol shot of his main quarry, Huk Leader Luis Taruc.

Taruc, who later forswore violence and became a member of the Philippine National Assembly, told Jacobo 's son Enrique, that he avoided capture only by freezing atop a tree while Colonel Zobel sat on horseback right below him, unaware of the Huk chieftain's presence.

Eventually, Colonel Zobel relinquished his Ayala partnership and remained in uniform until his retirement. He was serving as military attache in the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo when his wife, the former Angelita Olgado, died in 1962. Two years later he married Sachiko Morita, the daughter of a Japanese banker. He lived in Manila with his second wife until his death in 1971.

With Jacobo unavailable, the burden of running the company fell on Alfonso, Enrique's second son, and Joseph McMicking. The pair made an excellent team, Joseph providing the ideas and Alfonso putting them into action. They took turns running the comppny; one would stay in Manila for two years and be mainly responsible for the business while the other would be abroad; then they would switch places.

The family owes Alfonso a large debt for refusing to buckle under a Japanese colonel's demand that he sign away the title to 147

As aide de camp to President Manuel L. Quezon, Maj. Jacobo Zobel (second from right) stands beside the ailing President's wheelchair, 1941.

As aide de camp to President Sergio Osmefia, Maj. Ja cobo Zobel fo llows the President and General Douglas MacArthur in Malacanang, 1945.

A I'/ I LA : T N E 7'/ 11/10 50 I'BA HS

Joseph R. McMicking: Associated with the company since 1931} he always pro· vides the broad perspective} preferring to see the company as a whole and the company within the national history.

part of Hacienda Makati to the Japanese military. The Japanese specifically wanted to gain control of Nielsen airfield which was smack in the middle of the Hacienda, its two runways lying almost exactly where today's Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas are laid out. In those days the Japanese got practically everything they wanted, and they thought they could do the same with Alfonso.

But the tactful Alfonso talked his way out of the bind. "They put a gun to his head," says Colonel McMicking. "If he had given in to them, we would have lost everything."

Alfonso was probably the least known of the Ayala partners for he was a silent, almost reclusive man. But Colonel McMicking who knew him better than any other person outside of his immediate family places him among the "greatest" of the partners.

Colonel McMicking was the other distinguished soldier in the family. As the second-ranking intelligence officer on General MacArthur's staff, he was included on the PT-boat squadron that bore the General and his top deputies from Corregidor when the fall of that island fortress was only weeks away.

President Roosevelt ordered the dramatic escape to save MacArthur for the rest of the Pacific campaign. When the General made good on his promise to return to the Philippines, Colonel McMicking waded ashore with him from the ramp of a landing craft in Leyte.

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Typewritten program for the wartime inauguration of Manuel L. Quezon as president of the Philippines} 1941: Inscribed with greetings and autographs for Colonel Joseph McMicking who was with the staff of General Douglas MacArrhur} the program carries the signatures of Quezon} Sergio Osmeiia who was the vice-president} Jose Abad Santos who was a cabinet member} and General MacArthur who wrote "To a very gallant soldier".

THE HEI RS AS WORK ING PR OPESSJONA LS

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148

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ALFONSO ZOBEL DE AYA LA (1903 . 1967)

149

AYA LA : T HE T HIR D 50 YEARS

Forty years ago. fresh out of a provincial high school. I came to the ci ty to look for a job. any job. in order to go to college. This was not unique even then because hundreds of students like me were in the same job sea rch.

The job at Ayala was initially meant to be a means to an end. It was scary fo r me to join a company where most of the employees spoke Spanish. To give yo u an idea of how familiar I was with that language. I thought that the first na me of Ayala and Soriano was "Edificio" which was prominently shown on two buildings near where I worked.

I never left the Ayala group since then. I never regretted the decision.

Among family corporations in the Phihppines. Ayala stands out unique in that all employees are given a fair share.

No one starts out in Ayala with the cards stacked against him just because his first name is not "Edificio".

- SalvaGor Lorayes during Awards Ceremony honoring him as the oldest service awardee of Ayala Corporation. 1981

Colonel McMicking is widely associated with the success of the Makati development although it runs against his Scottish grain to claim any credit beyond being part of a team that pulled it off. Accounts of what specific individuals did for the firm tend to be overblown, he notes wryly. "It's what the company did as a whole that counts," he says.

Ayala oldtimers acknowledge, however, that Colonel McMicking, the only American citizen to have shared senior Ayala management duties, brought a unique contribution to the firm. He not only shuttled between the Philippines and the United States; he was truly a man of both worlds. His ideas for developing Makati were inspired by what he saw in California, his alternate home. Press accounts acclaim him for having worked a miracle in Makati, but the Colonel has a more perfunctory description of what the firm did. "We had the land, we had some problems about developing it, and we solved them," he says simply.

The destruction of southern Manila created vast opportunities for anyone who had raw land available for new housing.

American shells reduced practically all of historic Intramuros to rubble; residential areas in Ermita, Malate and other bayside neighborhoods were also levelled during the bitter street-to-street fighting. These fashionable districts were eventually rebuilt but many of the old residents moved out to the suburbs.

It was other developers who initially benefited from this exodus. The spillover was mainly to the new subdivisions north of the P sig River - to San Juan, Mandaluyong, and farther out to Quezon City. The homebuilder's instinct was to locate north of the river for this part of Greater Manila was largely spared by the war. Moreover, Quezon City, since the Commonwealth years, was to be the official capital and thus the logical site for a new government center and for the major educational and research institutions.

Makati was way south of the preferred development areas. If anything, the lower-income families who could not afford to buy into the subdivisions of the Tuasons and the Ysmaels in Quezon City were going south instead and building at the edges of the Ayala property. Unless Ayala did something about it, Makati would be hemmed in by squatters and substandard construction and its land values placed in jeopardy.

The original Hacienda was already reduced in size by the prewar parcelling of the Sing along-San Andres subdivisions, the sale of the land now occupied by the Manil? South Cemetery to the city of Manila at a nominal price, the donation of another large lot to the Santiago hospital, the sale of lots around the Sta. Ana race track, the old poblacion in Makati and the South Cemetery, and the cosmopolitan subdivisions. Only 900 hectares were left of the sprawling cogon fields bought by Jose Bonifacio Roxas.

T il E H EIRS AS W ORKIN (; PIWFESS /ONA LS

150

Whatever it did, Ayala had to get the maximum yield from the last raw asset it had on its books.

This is where Colonel McMicking's idea came in - a modern multizone subcity to be built in stages over 25 years, each zone complementing and enhancing the value of the others. Integrated urban planning was not new; Colonel McMicking saw it in the San Francisco Bay area where he lived part of the time. But most Manilans had known little of it outside of the original Luneta-toErmita mall that American architect Daniel Burnham laid out early in the century along the lines of the District of Columbia . The rest of Manila was practically built in laissez-faire fashion. The skyline that sprang from Makati and the neat ordering of shopping centers and residential villages within its periphery, were thus a revelation to everyone else.

It was a masterly stroke for Colonel McMicking and his fellow-planners to first open up that part of the Hacienda that was farthermost from the center of Manila . Forbes Park, as this segment was to be called, established New Makati's first-class character, and once it did that, it made the land closer to Manila more attractive than it would have been otherwise. Makati probably would not have worked as well as it did if the development sequence had been reversed.

The Manila press that hailed Forbes Park as the new "Beverly Hills" missed the analogy by a good 250 miles. Colonel McMicking had no intention of recreating the ornate monuments to the inflated egos of screen stars. The Colonel was¡ inspired by the more decorous Spanish-mission homes around Palo Alto , south of San Francisco; they were comfortably girded by lawns and trees but were not necessarily opulent. If Forbes Park seemed like the ultimate in posh living , it was because everything else suffered in comparison with it.

To give Forbes Park a class all to itself, the Ayala planners borrowed an old gimmick from U.S. suburban developers: the country club atmosphere. It now seems to have been wasteful for Ayala to have lavished so much high-priced real estate on a golf course and a polo field when these acres would have probably fetched many times their current value if subdivided into residens."", e..b...

I was profoundl y struck that the tradition of servi ce beg un by Don Pedro de Brito is s till ve r y muc h alive in the Makati of tod ay. It was s upre mely hear tening to lea rn th a t th e hig h cost of hous ing with whi ch Ma ka ti is usua ll y associated was preceded by a low-cost housing project to whic h not mu ch a ttention has been pa id, but whic h was nevertheless unde r taken a nd acco mplished. It is to be hoped that the bus iness community of Maka ti wi ll cont inue in th is direction: will use th e econom ic leadership they have ac hieved, through the wise em ployment of their God-given talents. not to widen still more the gap between the ve ry rich and very poor, but to bring about, through the even more imaginative employment of the same Godgiven talents, a state of society that sha ll respond to the prayer of the wise man in the Old Testament; I mean the man who prayed God to give him neither pover ty nor riches , but that sufficiency of material goods that would enable him to measure up to the full dignity of a human being. intended by God not only to inhabit a new heaven in the next life, but in this life - in this life -to build . by his labor, sweat. and tears. a new earth.

- From Horacio de la Costa's "The Meamng of Makati". 1968

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Fernando Zobel de Ayala's advertising concept for Fo rbes Park found its way into these graciously rendered cartoons.

The artist supervised advertiSing at Ayala Corporation fo r a time, and as such, som etimes did th e ads himse(( Forbes Park quickly established new Makati's f irst-class character.

, I Yll t , l : T il E Tl lll fIJ 50 n ';,1I18

In many ways. Makati is a monument.

and its people. monument builders.

While engaged in the business of creating memorials to themselves and their aspiration. they conceive ideas . sometimes sturdy and gilded: sometimes echoing the hollow. the imitated. the puppet-like froth of life. forgetting that in the end we really can't take it with us.

Makati. as I see it. is also a prophet's land. It once foretold - as it still does - how order can create bea ut y for the benefit of future generations.

For it is not so much a showcase of material development but a showcase [or humanity and fo r nature . It shows us. even now. how a smile will shape up. how a muscle can grow. amidst concrete and bent-light; how human affection can flourish - in brief. how a ma n will be. in some unspeCified future date. the master of his world.

- From faime Zobel de Ayala's "Makati as I see it"

tiallots. But in 1948 when Ayala broke ground in Makati, Forbes Park was about as far from Manila as anyone cared to live. The extra amenities had to be thrown in to assure the residential sales.

Ayala persuaded the Manila Polo Club, then in Pasay, to sell its land to the U.S. government and move to Makati. With the proceeds of the million-dollar sale, the club built its present home in Forbes Park. The Manila Golf Club had no objection to moving in, too. for its old Caloocan site was no closer to Manila than Makati.

But it refused to merge with the Manila Polo Club which would have saved space and construction costs for both clubs. Ironically, the Manila Golf Club foreign members who rejected the merger were soon to leave the Philippines. Their successors had to settle for separate existence from the polo club.

It was only meet that the first Makati development be named after W. Cameron Forbes, the bachelor American Governor General who helped bring polo to the Philippines. He organized matches between the American cavalry officers from Fort Stotsenberg (now Clark air force base) and Filipinos who took up the sport. Before he left he donated the land for the old Polo Club.

The Boston Brahmin also left his mark on the Philippines in other ways: many of the country's roads and ports were modernized under his administration. In 1953 he sent a letter to his fellow Harva d alumnus, Fernando Zobel de Ayala, consenting to the baptismal. " I am delighted to have my name attached to so worthy a development," he wrote.

The Makati plan seems so neatly logical now that it is hard to imagine how much of a gamble it was to Ayala y Compania in 1948. To build Forbes Park and the roads. utility connections. drainage and other civil works whose expense had to be privatelyborne, the firm had to sell the downtown Ayala building and borrow funds which foreign banks could not immediately repatriate.

Ayala knew that it would not see the returns from this seed money for many years.

At the start nobody else saw any sense in building homes that far out. The first thing potential buyers worried about was security. In the late 1940s Manila was threatened by Hukbalahap rebellion fed by old agrarian grievances and the proliferation of arms left by the Pacific war. Sometimes the sounds of gunfire were heard as close by as the city's outskirts. To assure buyers that they could live safely in Makati, Ayala laid out street lighting and provided jeep-borne security patrols at its own expense.

Forbes Park lots were offered for as low as '6 a square meter, or a third of the development costs. By comparison, Manila bayside property was selling for as high as '60 a square meter. Buyers had to be given financial incentives to hold on to their Makati land and build within three years of acquisition.

Adding to buyer resistance were the strict building codes imposed by Ayala. Owners could construct dwellings on only 30 per

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cent of the lot; the rest had to be saved for lawns, shrubbery, or a swimming pool. The backyards could not be used to raise poultry or hogs. These rules were intended to preserve the quality of the whole neighborhood. Although such zoning regulations were previously unheard of, Forbes Park owners were later to appreciate what these did to the value of their property.

The Ayala partners demonstrated their confidence in Forbes Park by being among the first to move in. The company accounts show that John L. Manning, president of the Ford Motor Company agency, was the first to buy a Forbes lot. The sale was made on January 19,1949. That year only nine other lots were sold. But the trickle later became a flood as word spread that Forbes was the real-estate buy of the decade. Indeed, Forbes later made enormous profits for its owners. Land originally purchased from Ayala at'6 a square meter was worth as much as '1,600 a square meter in 1978, a 30n-fold increase in 26 years.

Ayala did not reap the same kind of profits from Forbes for it owned only a few of the 500 luxury homes that were eventually built there. But Forbes cast a gilt image on the whole New Makati, doubling and tripling the value of future sales.

Next to rise were the Rizal Theater and the Makati Commercial Center. The shopping and entertainment facilities were intended for the convenience of Makati residents but such was Makati's growing snob appeal that It also drew patrons from Manila and Quezon City.

The McMicking plan called for the Ayala Avenue-Paseo de Roxas complex to be Greater Manila's new financial and business center. That concept was quickly translated into concrete and steel. Ayala raised a modern eight-story office building to set the tone for the district. It was soon joined by other buildings: Insular Life, San Miguel Corporation, Manila Banking, Philippine Air Lines, the Makati Stock Exchange.

With proximity to Makati's business offices, boutiques, and cinema houses as the main draw, the other Ayala residential enclaves opened up to strong demand - San Lorenzo (1952), Bel Air (1954), Urdaneta (1957), San Miguel (1960), and Magallanes and Dasmariiias (1962).

Colonel McMicking's plan succeeded beyond expectations. In 1978 a Manila newspaper counted 225 financial institutions with a Makati address. These included 55 commercial banks, two development banks, 10 savings and loan associations, 100 financing companies, 49 insurance companies, and eight pawnshops. Altogether, the sub city sheltered 23,332 firms of all kinds, paying P1.25 billion in annual taxes.

Amazingly, this conglomeration of commerce - indeed, this creation of a whole mini-city with higher living standards than the country had ever known before - was the work of a single private developer, with no public-sector aid except for the cooperation of the municipality of Makati.

153

Maka ti in the late 50s was lillie more than a neat grid of city planning that in less than 25 years grew into the major business and financial hub of the country.

According to the available evidence.

Manila 's very first stone structures were built on the initiative of two men who arrived together in 1581: Fray Domingo de Salazar. the first Bishop of the Philippines . a Dominican . and Father Antonio Sedeno. the Superior of the first band of Jesuit missionaries to be sent to the Philippines.

Before he became a Jesuit. Father Sedeno had been a military engineer. so of cours J he was promptly comm issioned to fortify the city. He had the ability. as far as that was concerned. He a lso had the workmen. for the Chinese had begun to come to Manila to stay. not merely to trade. and there were s tonemasons among them .

But where was the stone? This was where Bishop Salazar came in. The Bishop wanted stone too for his church a nd house and so. being a man of enterprise . he went prospecting for it up the Pasig Rive r. in a barge. And when he got as far as Makati he found it : good building adobe. It was from Makati. then . that the first stones for Intramuros ca me. For all we know some of the existing city walls may still be of Makati adobe.

- From Horacio de 1a Costa's "The Meaning of Makati ... 1968

AYA L A: T H E T HIIW .sO \'ÂŁ,IIlS

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Inevitably, though, Makati's magnetic appeal drained the old Manila of many of its tax-paying citizens and commercial establishments. This was partly Manila's fault for it failed to keep up with the competition for patronage and revenue from the growing suburbs. Its streets were in disrepair; its sanitation services wanting. City Hall was a sinkhole of politics and performed well below the expectations of its constituents. Makati simply demonstrated that business and homeowners will go to the location which would provide the most amenities and convenience for their money.

The crush for Makati space created problems for the developer too. Ayala certainly underestimated the volume of traffic on its roads and the demand for parking space. The convenience was enjoyed mostly by those who lived and worked in Makati. Those who had to commute had to fight traffic jams getting in and out of these Golden Acres. To ease the curbspace shortage, Ayala recently constructed additional multi-storey parking buildings. It has also retained an Australian consulting firm to think up ways of breaking the rush-hour bottlenecks.

The only limits to Makati's prosperity are those of the Philippine economy itself. Falling commodity prices have hurt the stock exchanges and the rising rate of corporate bankruptcy has cut sharply into the banks' earnings. Makati has not quite overtaken Singapore as a financial center. One Ayala vision that has yet to materialize is of its architectural handiwork serving as the banking Nub for the whole Southeast Asian region. That could still come true if the Philippine economy rebounds and Filipino businessmen regain confidence in the next few years. The best compliment Makati has received are the attempts of other Southeast Asian developers to replicate it in their own cities - in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta.

By 1968 Ayala was ready for another stage in its evolution.

Colonel McMicking was retiring at 60 as was his wish. Don Alfonso had died the year before so it was time for a new generation of managers to take over. By then, too, most of the original Ayala land inventory had been expended in the massive Makati development. The company had to look to other fields to sustain growth in the next decades.

The partnership had served the family well for 92 years but as a legal entity it was no longer adequate to oversee the diversification planned for the future and to protect the partners from the increasing risks of starting up new business. Ayala y Compania was thus dissolved and a modern Philippine corporation, Ayala Corporation, emerged to take its place. The Ayala partners and their close associates took all the stock; it was not until eight years later that Ayala Corporation was opened to public investors and listed in the Philippine exchanges.

Fernando Zobel de Ayala. the next in seniority after Don Alfonso and Colonel McMicking, had helped the family rebuild its

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.-\(follso Zobel de Ayala and Joseph R. fI.1d\tirkillr,: pioneers in the creation ,\ /aknti.

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Fernando and A lfcJllso Zobel riP /I),ala.

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Joseph H. McMickinf!, and Enrique Z()/Jf /

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AYALA

T H E THIIW 50 YEARS

"During the Japanese time, and this is one

story only very few people know, my fa ther was suffering fr om dysent ery and the re were no drugs available , "At abou t midnjght, he had this dysentery attack and so, to make himself comfortable, he had to go out of the house with a candle and look for guava leaves to boil so that he could have something to drink , He was walking around the 'house with his candle looking for guava leaves when all of a sudden the Japanese soldiers were all over the place arresting me and my father , "We were brought to the muniCipal hall and interrogated for five hours , The Japanese asked us what were we signaling with those lights, They did not seem to believe us, " Finally, at about five o'clock in the morning , they released us , When we left the municipal hall , we saw about 2,000 peopl~ of Calatagan surrounding the municipal hall armed with nothing but bolos, "The people told us that if the Japanese would not let us out that morning then th ey would atta ck the muniCipal hall, " ] fe lt tha t if they did attack the place, all of them would die because the Japanese had a U kinds of machineguns there, Now, I didn 't ask those people to go there, And neither did my father, who had just been released from the Death Camp in Capaz, Tarlac, "Can you find that kind of bond anywhere else in the world?"

- From: Noel de Luna 's " Profile: Enrique Zobel", Business Day, February 27, 1984

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business but now he wanted to work only on his painting and the curatorship of his unique museum of Spanish abstract art. The responsibility for running the corporation was thus passed on to his nephews, Enrique and Jaime, Enrique Zobel, Jacobo's only son, was elected President and later, Chairman of the Ayala board of directors. Jaime Zobel, Enrique's junior by seven years, was named senior vice president and the next ranking executive.

As earlier Ayala management teams did, the two cousins divided duties according to their personal strengths and inclinations. Enrique, str eetsmart, rugged, extroverted, ran the company from day to day and broke in its new ventures. Jaime, cerebral and polished, looked after administration, insurance and personnel and, like his father Alfonso, created a balance in the management team, Until he was brought into the management at McMicking's insistence, Enrique was an unlikely candidate to succeed as tmpan of the house of Ayala. He was much like his father who loved horses and the life of a gentleman rancher. He still prefers to spend his weekends in Calatagan where he spent much of his childhood and where he still raises cattle.

He studied animal husbandry from UCLA. Years later he would tell graduates of the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation that their country could be better-fed and more prosperous today if it had been fashionable for their parents to take up agriculture instead of law.

If he excelled in anything as a young man, it was in polo, his father 's sport. He had the best string of blooded ponies in Manila and rode them to a six-goal handicap, one of the highest ever given to a Filipino. His triumphs on the field seemed to come from sheer aggression rather than finesse. He often got a blistering earful for his hard play from Don Manolo Elizalde, who refereed many of the Manila Polo Club's classic matches. Don Manolo was such a respected gran sefior of the sport that even Manila's poloplaying aristocrats could not talk back when he blew his whistle on an infraction of the rules.

It was as a diamond-in-the-rough that Enrique came under Colonel McMicking's tutelage. The Colonel treated Enrique like a son, tempering his character and forcing him to accept the responsibility of corporate leadership. As it turned out, Enrique's presidency was suited for its times. The husky blunt-spoken Zobel scion had to personify a company that no longer catered exclusively to the rich but was becoming a large, highly-visible corporation that was accountable to outside shareholders and the public at large.

With the 1960s and the 1970s came greater public awareness of the gulf separating the rich and the poor. Although Ayala no longer owns most of the land on which stand Makati's pockets of fenced-in affluence, it is still associated in the minds of '

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its critics as a symbol of the exclusiveness of the few who control a disproportionately large share of the country's wealth. No single company, of course, can be blamed for this economic duality that has been engendered over the centuries. If anything, Ayala through the years, has been among the most liberal of Philippine companies in the discharge of social responsibilities. But the times called for a spokesman for Philippine business who could address these sensitive issues frontally. Enrique Zobel felt it was his obligation to speak.

In his speeches he distinguishes between the "working rich" who earn everything they make and the "idle rich" who simply live off their inheritance. The Zobels, he insists, all work for their living. Indeed, Enrique Zobel toils harder than any of his Calatagan ranch hands. He is constantly airborne overseeing Ayala interests from Brunei to Silicon Valley.

His associates say he is aggrieved by the inability of his business peers and people in authority to do more to create employment for Filipinos. From the lips of this Ayala heir have come such startling shiboleths as "private sector socialism."

The populist touch is no pose. Since his father had sold off his shares in Ayala, Enrique had to buy his own participation on loans from the McMickings. He had literally worked his way up.

Jaime Zobel took the more traditional route to Ayala stewardship: a baccalaureate in Madrid, an architectural studies degree from Harvard and management courses conducted by the Harvard Business School. He is called the "quiet Zobel" only because he is less heard on the business-luncheon circuit than his cousin.

While serving as Philippine Ambassador to the Court of st.

James's, Jaime steeped himself in the workings of the City, as London's financial district is still called. Jaime is the traditionalist while Enrique is the entrepreneur.

Late in 1983, Jaime Zobel became the chairman of the board and president of the Ayala Corporation.

I was privileged in the sense that I had learned from the experience of my father. During the war , he was in Bataan and was with the infamous Bataan Death March . I had to take ca re of the family. And although we were well-todo . the banks were all closed. there was no money and I had to work for a living.

I drove a horse buggy and charged people 10 centavos for fare . And doing that kind of thing, you soon get to rea lize what poor people have to suffer in their every day existence. And when you have gone through the same system, you realize and understand why there is discontent between the 10 per cent rich in the Philippines and the 90 per cent poor : So you say to yourself: "The only way for everyone to survive is to develop a very strong middle class ," And so this is what really gave me the idea that as a big company, we can set the example. In most countries in Asia . big compa nies a re leaders. So hopefully if we begin to share the wealth , others will follow in our steps .

- Enrique Zobel as quoted in a n In te rview in Hyatt Mago;~in e, 1982

On his way to Queen Elizabeth II to present his credentials as Philippine Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Jaime Zobel de Ayala is ushered by the royal protocol officer into horsedrawn carriage in London, 1970 .

â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ With his wife (nee Beatriz Miranda) and their children, Jaime Zobel de Ayala as Philippine ambassador prepares to lea\/e for his presentation of credentials to Queen Elizabeth II in London, 1970.

157

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Enrique Zobel, Colonel Joseph McMicking and Jaime Zobel de Ayala: They function as professionals within the professionally· managed Ayala struc· ture.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala reads the citation engraved on a silver tray which he presented to Enrique Zobel upon the lal· ter's retirement as president of Ayala Corporation in 1983.

Even before its incorporation, Ayala was already becoming a professionally-managed firm. Colonel McMicking was the idea man for Makati but his scheme was translated into bricks and mortar by development specialists like Colonel Charles Archibald McVitie, Colonel Jaime Velasquez, Salvador Lorayes, Miguel Ortigas and Alfredo MeHan. As Ayala Corporation continued to diversify, more operational responsibilities were delegated to managers who were hired and promoted on their merits. Outside Qf the board of directors, Enrique and Jaime are the only Zobels in sehlor management positions. And even they, Enrique says, are fun€tioning as ' professionals."

Another milestone was turned in 1973 when Ayala invited the Mitsubishi group to acquire 20 per cent of its shares. The tieup is mutually advantageous. Other major Japanese industrialtrading conglomerates like the Mitsui and Marubeni groups already had strong Philippine positions and Mitsubishi did not want to be left behind. In addition to opening up its own Philippine subsidiary, however, Mitsubishi also chose to merge its identity with the oldest Philippine business house. This form of entry does away with many regulatory difficulties for a foreign investor.

The Mitsubishi connection likewise gives Ayala access to the legendary expertise of Japan's number one trading company. The association no doubt helped Ayala establish itself as the top performer among the twelve Philippine trading companies accredited by the Board of Investments. At the same time Ayala retains its character as an entirely Philippine-run enterprise. Mitsubishi has two seats on the board but no representation in management.

Ayala and Mitsubishi jointly acquired the Philippine Oil Company, the country's largest coconut oil refinery, but sold it to a government-sponsored consortium before edible oil prices started a long decline.

Past Ayala partners and their wives were long known for their personal charities. The new corporation continues the philantrophic tradition but in the style of modern western institu-

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tions. Before he retired, Colonel McMicking and his wife, Mercedes, established and were the principal contributors to the Filipinas Foundation, Incorporated, the most richly-funded institution of its kind in the country. Among the Foundation's principal beneficiaries is the Ayala Museum whose iconographic collection of Philippine fauna and flora, costumes and artifacts is an unequaled resource for scholars. Over 200.000 schoolchildren visit the Museum every year to see its dioramas that depict the sweep of Philippine history. Ayala also leases 10,000 square meters of prime Makati land to the Asian Institute of Management's Scientific Research Foundation at a nominal rent of one peso a year.

Ayala today is one of the country's largest corporations in assets and sales. A substantial cash flow still comes from the Makati properties that it has retained. It is rebuilding the Makati Commercial Center and the Magallanes Commercial Center and adding another shopping center to the Greenbelt Square complex.

The New Alabang town that Ayala acquired from the Madrigal family is rapidly becoming a clone of Makati as the demand for more middle-class housing spills further south towards Laguna de Bay along the South Superhighway. In Alabang, Ayala has laid out the same planned clusters of dwellings and commercialrecreational malls tr..at have made Makati a landmark development - but at prices that are below Makati 's inflated values.

In 1973. however, for the first time in Ayala's recent history, it earned less than half of its income - sp cifically, 46 per cent of the total - from real estate rentals. The turnaround was inevitable because of Ayala's diversification away from its major postwar line. The other divisions were catching up fast.

Ayala's strong thrust into food-processing and agribusiness reflects Enrique Zobel's faith in these industries. The Philippines has a growing population that now approaches 50 million; it has actual and potential farmland that can grow a wide variety of fruits, vegetables and feedgrain. "It just can't miss," Enrique says.

He looks ahead to the day when the Philippines will not only be able to feed its own people but also export its surplus edibles to Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. These land-scarce countries import food from the United States and Australia which are much farther away than the Philippines.

Pure Foods Corporation, in which Ayala has a substantial stake, is now the country's largest canner of processed meats; its products fill supermarket shelves all over the country. It may be just a matter of time before Ayala gets into the cultivation end of the industry. It is cooperating with a number of Davao farmers who are growing corn varieties suitable for export.

In the width of its sectoral interests and in its lengthening geographical reach, the modern Ayala Corporation is starting to resemble one of those multi-functional Japanese corporate families, with integrated banking, trading, and production arms.

159

Jaime Zobel de Ayala and Mrs. Zobel at a party, 1982. Educated in Harvard and steeped in the business since he joined the Ayala Corporation in 1965, Jaime Zobel de Ayala - described as polished and cerebral - assumed the office of chairman of the board and president late in 1983.

A I' ll LA : TH E THlHD 50 YEA HS

We grew up as a family corpora tion. All our employees have been wi th us fo r ages . It is a family sort of rela tionship where you tell everyone wha t you a re going to do. why you made a profit. why you may not be making a profit and what the problems coming up mig ht be . lf you give the right explanation - and be very honest about it - the peopl e will believe you and trust you.

- Enrique Zobel as quoted in a n int erview in Hyo tt Mogozine. 1982

Enrique Zobel and Jaime Zobel de Ayala f7ank Col. Joseph R. McMicking and Mrs. McMicking during the reception m arking the retirement of EZ from Ayala Corporation, 1983.

One division, Makati Development Corporation (this is the second corporation with this name as the first one was merged into Ayala in 1968) has constructed roads and sewerage systems in Brunei and Papua New Guinea. Ayala owns hotels in Makati, Davao and in Singapore. It is in two of the country's fastest-growing nontraditional exports - electronics and garments. An Ayala semiconductor plant in Manila makes micro chips for U.S. and European customers. Another Ayala factory manufactures elastic bands for swimsuits to be sold in western markets.

Ayala's trading volume is small in comparison with the Japanese sogo shosha but it is still growing. A mark of increasing sophistication in this highly-competitive field is the expansion of the "third-country" accounts - transactions on behalf of nondomestic buyers and sellers.

Forming the financial bedrock of the Ayala conglomerate is the Bank of the Philippine Islands in which the corporation has a 40 per cent share. Since Pedro Roxas bought Ayala's first shares in this bank, it has become one of the largest private~wned commercial banks in the country.

Over the 150 years of its history, the family 's most striking feat has been to remain in active management of its fortunes for six successive generations. One can think of few other merchant dynasties that have exhibited such longevity. Over that century and a half the family went through one revolution, a transfer of sovereignty fronJ. one world power to another, and two wars. Each of those shattering events could have caused the family to pull out its Philippine roots and return to the land of its ancestors, as indeed many members did. But always there was one or two strong men or women to hold the clan together and carryon the heritage.

From the family tree sprang individuals of strikingly different personalities - stolid counting-house merchants and artists, social lions and very private men. Indeed, there has been enough diversity to weaken the line or cause it to disperse in several different career directions. But most of them were held by a bond of loyalty to the family and what it stood for, and this sense of mission never wavered through the generations.

The story of Ayala since World War II would not be complete without a very special mention of Mercedes ZObel McMicking, who became the family matriarch in the post war era. In her quiet way, most major decisions and appointments were hers. She exercised it with advice, and the power to deny. It is therefore to her that a major credit of what Ayala is today, belongs. She joins the other great ladies of Ayala's past - Dona Margarita, Dona Carmen and Dona Trinidad.

Challenges abound for this and for future Zobel generations.

They have to continue to find other avenues for growth besides real estate, the most finite of their resources. They have to be prepared to ride out more shocks and buffetings for those are part

T H E H EIHS AS W O /i K 1N G P/i O FESS10 NA J.S

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Mercedes Zobel McMick ing: family matriarch of th e p(}st-war era.

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AYALA

TIlE. '/'I-I I/W 50 YEfl lIS

In the past , East Asia was looked upon

primarily as a source of raw material and cheap labor . Today, the West realizes that tremendous opportunities for trade exist and that the region has become the next biggest market after Europe. Some have even labelled the 21st century as the "century of Asia ".

- Enrique Zobel es quoted in an interview in Hong Kong Profile. 1982

of the developing-country experience. A corporation as big as Ayala already is has to continue to widen its geographical base, and this means training a new cadre of managers that can operate regionally and in several continents. The competition will no longer be just other Philippine enterprises but also those from Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Some of the needed foundations are being laid; Ayala has been hiring its share of MBAs from Harvard and Wharton and is evolving into a company of business technocrats. Philippiiie corporate culture still requires strong leadership at the top, but future Zobels will have to learn to manage in collegiality with the men and women who will share Ayala's fortunes in the next 50 years. ~

Three generations in the same venture: incumbent president Jaime Zobel de Ayala, J . R. McMicking and Enrique Zobel with the corporation's new cadre of able managers - Inigo, Fernando and Jaime Augusto Zobel.

TI l E H EIRS l IS ~,\ 'OIlKJN(; PIWFESSION,ILS

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T sell land. One way -

HERE ARE MANY ways to develop and

and a classical one in the Philippines - is to slice off a piece of land, develop it as cheaply as possible, sell it and forget about it.

1bis is the salami approach, much like a butcher sells his baloney. He slices off as much as you want to buy, he sells that much to you and then forgets about it. And why shouldn't he? The first slice and the last cut are worth about the same.

Land, however, is not salami. It usually represents a huge investment in time and effort, and it sells slowly. Once sold, it may be out of your hands but it doesn't disappear.1t has an effect on the rest of the land around it, whether it's yours still to sell or it is somebody else's land. If the first lot turns into a slum, the value of the last piece will suffer.

Land development has many parallels to an extractive industry like coal or iron because like it, it carries the problem of depletion. Every square meter sold is raw material gone forever. However, if you plan it right, each sale can increase the value of what you have left. For lack of a better description, let us call it creative selling. 1bis is what we started to do in Makati in 1946.

The end of World War IT found Manila divided in two: the devastated part south of the Pasig and a virtually intact half north of the Pasig. The intact half, including East Manila, began to grow sensationally. The south remained static and some parts began to deteriorate into slum districts. Unfortunately for us, all our land is located at the far southern extremity of Greater Manila. Nobody had serious intent in buying there.

We could have done one of two things.

Let matters take their natural course

("Time solves all things"), develop our land as cheaply as possible, and sell as overflow space for Manila. If we did this, we would watch our raw material gradually vanishing; as it vanished, we would have less and worse land to sell.

On the other hand, we could try to turn our area into a magnet sufficiently strong to reverse the northward and eastward movement of Manila's population.

This was a big proposition: you cannot force people to buy south when they want to go north and east. You have to persuade them. You have to make them want to go South. Therefore, what could we do to our raw land to make people want it, despite its 12-kilometer distance from Jones Bridge?

The answer is obvious: offer the purchaser so very much for his money that he wouldn't be able to resist buying.

Easier said than done. We were as short of cash as the next fellow in 1947 to 1950.

1bis difficult decision caused sleepless nights for myself and the other Ayala managers. We knew that business in the Philippines had tUways been, historically, a price market. We didn't know whether quality would sell. It is now amusing to recall that almost all our friends and advisers thought it would not. However, you know how we decided.

With our basic decision made, we proceeded to deliberately build the finest real estate development in the Philippines.

Anything less could not have accomplished our purpose.

After about a year of planning, construction started in January 1948 in that area for pleasant and gracious living that now goes by the name of Forbes Park.

The features of Forbes Park, now so familiar, were considered a financial extravagance: fully paved full-width roads,

163

AYALA

underground drainage, a good water system, elaborate landscaping, restrictions on the use of land.

We had to overcome many crises. The worst came in early 1950. When we were just ready to sell our first lots, people were frankly scared to live that far away from the center of population. 1bis was during the Huk crisis. Highway 54 was a long, dark, and little travelled road. We could not find interested buyers even at six pesos a square meter when it had cost us more than double just for the improvements.

Rapidly we had to make further decisions, each one meaning an important new investment, seemingly throwing money into a bottomless pit. First, we built our personal residences and went to live in Forbes to show faith in our own development.

Second, we proceeded to build twenty handsome houses for rent, not only to show our confidence but to establish a desirable standard of construction.

Third, we installed an elaborate system of street lights, starting at Buendia Avenue and we created a private, uniformed and motorized system of guard patrols.

Then, to discourage purchasers from buying for speculation and to create rapid construction, we offered a significant refund of purchase price to buyers who agreed to build within a short period of time.

Finally, although this was an a priori determination, we sold our land initially below the price we wanted to average for the whole area and, automatically, after X number of square meters were sold we raised the price on the remaining lots. In this way, as a reward for their faith, the original buyers made a profit and, as satisfied customers, became the best possible advertising for our land.

The accumulated impact of all these moves made itself felt. By giving our customers the maximum possible for their money, Forbes Park became the first magnet we needed for Makati.

We have become deeply committed to the principles of creative selling, which means creating more magnets. We sell nothing unless, through its sale, we improve what we have left. Forbes Park was only the first step. You are familiar with some of the ofuers: the industrial strips along Buendia and Pasong Tamo; San Lorenzo Village; our new apartment building and a six-story office building that has just been started on Ayala Avenue.

Each of these developments has a role to play in creating values. Each step makes possible the next, like in chess, where the move of a knight can have a decisive effect in the defense of a king.

We think that Makati will someday be not only the finest residential section around Manila but a first class industrial section around Manila and the best business district as well. Eventually, it will include a shopping center with parking for 3,500 cars; playgrounds for children, and parks with fountains and sculpture; schools, museums, hospitals and hotels.

This cannot happen overnight. But we know it will happen, and when it does, it will have happened because we sold our land wisely.

On the day of completion twenty to forty years from now, we will have built together - you as much as we - the most beautiful, the most modern city in all the Far East.

Most of my business career has been intimately connected with one of these suburbs: Makati. And Makati is one of the best examples of the kind of development I

mean. I can't believe that I can be accused of bragging if I say it is a show piece. It is one of the sights of Greater Manila. Proof of this is the fact that almost every foreign visitor to our shores is shown Forbes Park and San Lorenzo Village and it is shown with pride as an example of what Filipinos can accomplish.

Once upon a time - and it wasn't so long ago - Makati was merely grassland and very poor riceland. During the late 20's and early 30's, its character began to change. The growth of Santa Ana and CuliCull gave Makati a certain amount of national fame. John Canson, for instance, built the largest cabaret in the world right in Makati.

An entirely different sort of international reputation is now growing up about Makati. Against the ever decreasing number of old-timers who remember Webb's place, the entire nation has heard of Forbes Park. Forbes Park has become a legend and a symbol; it appears in comic strips and in local movies, and it has become a byword in the Philippines for a certain quality of living, whether that quality be the "millionaire's row" of the tourist booklets or the "mortgage alley" which is the name given to it with a smile by its own residents.

The process that caused this change was long and complicated. One point has to be made clear: it didn't happen by chance. It had to be planned. Forbes Park and San Lorenzo Village did not simply grow out of the ground - they were created.

The rapid but well-<>rdered growth of Makati need not be exceptional - it could very well be the rule throughout the country. What is required is sound planning so as to develop an area along lines clearly suited to the interest of its inhabitants. A

THE M A KATI ADVENTURE

164

plan that makes sense gains the support of everybody: provincial and municipal officials, the people, civic organizations, its neighboring communities, and finally, the nation at large.

The magnitude of the task in Makati alone is astounding. For instance, to meet the 1980 telephone requirements, the Telephone Company had to install some 20,000 new telephones which represent, at today's cost, an investment of approximately P15,000,000. The electrical demand will increase by 130,000 kilowatts (this was the total power demand for Manila in 1953) which will require an investment of P78,000.00 on the part of Meralco for generating capacity and distribution systems.

Obviously the development of suburban areas around Manila requires materials and services, management and labor on a gargantuan scale. No one entity, government or private, could provide everything that is required.

In the specific area of Makati, we try to act as a catalyst: to plan, to encourage, to prod, to make the bits and pieces of the jigsaw puzzle fit with a minimum of waste motion and frayed nerves. But of course, it is obvious that we would accomplish very little unless we have the active and enlightened support of our government officials and, above all, of satisfied customers. In the final analysis, the fate of a city, whether it will be well run or badly run, whether it will be a beautiful one or an ugly one, is a fate that is in the hands of its population. m

- Joseph R. McMlcldng

F

o

L

I

o

n Makati, New Alabang and Calatagan - they are the planned communities that have been set up by Ayala Corporation. The best known is Makati which, since the 60s, has become the financial and business center of the Philippines, as well as the prime residential area.

The newest endeavour is the community of New Alabang, mainly a residential area amid great hectarages of mango orchards. New Alabang represents a pioneering move - just as Makati did in its time to create another focal point, prime quality community.

Both Makati and New Alabang are within Metro Manila, right in the core of national economic life.

The first planned community of the Ayalas, however, is in the countryside of Batangas. It is Calatagan where 150 years ago, they set up their sugar farms and mills and, as the years went on, their ranches and vacation homes. Today they share ownership of Calatagan with the people with whom they began the business a century and a half ago.

165

MAKATI Strewn with the petals oj fallen flowers from young narra trees, a small walk leads to a stone marker which states that this park was once the site of the original manor of Hacienda San Pedro de Makati. In 1851, Jose Bonifacio Roxas bought this hacienda, which extended from the Pasig river inwards for over one thousand hectares. It was the swampy marsh by the river which gave the place its name Makatl~ meaning the ebbing tide.

The planned city of modern Makati occupies only a little over 30 square kilometers of that once vast hacienda.

166

The church of San Pedro de Makati rises on a hillock once known as Buenavista, because it had a magnificent view of the Pasig river and the low hills across. Although that view is now obstructed with buildings, the church remains, a bright and neat structure rebuilt on its original site, above left. A shady lane recalls the tree路lined roads of the old hacienda, above right.

Memories, too, speak from the empty window incised into the cracked wall of an old house that still stands today beside the river crossing in the township of Makati, above.

167

Residents of the modern, planned city of Makati live in various village estates, some of which edge right up to the main business district, top photograph. Other residents live in high-rise apartment buildings, of which two of the newest stand right on the main boulevard, Ayala Avenue itself, facing page. The premier residential estate in Makati is Forbes Park, which was developed first and whose land value has been known to rise as much as 900 per cent annually. Santuario de San Antonio, a Catholic church, is a landmark in the plaza of Forbes Park, above right. In the Manila Polo Club - which was among the first to transfer to Forbes Park in the 50s - a dressage rider gets set to leap over a barrier, above left.

168

Known as the Ayala Triangle, this island of greenery is formed by Makati A venue to the left and Paseo de Ro;<.as to the right as they both touch Ayala Avenue at the base of the triangle.

The Makati Stock E;<.change building is the only business edifice within the Ayala Triangle, which includes a soccer field, now unused, known as the Ugarte Field, and a small building, called the Nielson Tower, that was once the control tower of an international airport Paseo de Ro;<.as is named after Don Domingo Ro;<.as who in 1834 formed the first partnership that grew into what is Ayala Corporation today. His son, Jose Bonifacio Ro;<.as, owned Hacienda San Pedro de Makati, the beginning of the planned city of Makati today.

When Don Domingo's daughter Margarita married Antonio de Ayala in 1844, the Ayala name came to the family and the business.

170

171

Unusually deserted in the flush of early morning, Ayala A venue is the central and premier thoroughfare in Makati, above. The address of prestige, it is bordered by banks, hotels and various offices, many of which are Philippine-based international companies. Interestingly, the 180-[eet width of Ayala Avenue was dictated by its first use as the runway of an international airport in the 1930s.

Business buildings along the 1.9路kilometer avenue adhere to strict rules: full use of the frontage, no more than 12 storeys in height, mandatory airconditioning, and no commercial outlets in order to prevent pa rking on the avenue itself. Hence, Ayala Avenue remains a neat boulevard where traffic only occasionally piles up, facing page.

172

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Turned into color blurs by their speed, buses and jeepneys take office employees and other workers to Makati. As a business and commercial hub, Makati is highly populated during working days by employees of more than 30,000 businesses. From the beginning of the planned development, Ayala's zoning code ruled out all factories from the area and every effort is made to control pollution from gasoline-burning motor vehicles.

175

Central Makati is alive with people: employees who take the airconditioned public buses to work as well as brightly dressed women doing their errands, above, and all sorts of plucky vendors, like the young man peddling garlands of sampaguita flowers, facing page.

176

177

A short but busy street in the Makati Commercial Center, Hotel Road - named after the first international hotel in the area, the Hotel Intercontinental Manila - is flanked on two sides by shopping malls and small tree-shaded parks, upper photograph. Among the businesses found in Makati, the garments industry enjoys a major market and buyers are invited to view the lines during e)(c/usive fashion shows, lower photograph. Parapets and staircases create a sculptural design in the lobby of the Greenbelt Square, one of the newer buildings in the redevelopment scheme of the Makati Commercial Center, facing page. After 25 years, the redevelopment is progressing in the early 80s in order to give way to bigger, more modern facilities that would increase leasable space, improve the tenant mi)(, and widen the services.

178

The core of cultural activities in Makati, the Ayala Museum includes an art gallery and a diorama of history, upper and middle photographs. Moreover, the Rizal Theater - formerly only for cinema - has been renovated under the direct guidance of Jaime Zobel de Ayala, lower photograph, to add yet another venue for the performing arts, in addition to theater facilities already developed by Ayala within the museum and in the penthouse of the Insular Life building.

180

Cooing to a tame swamp hen, a child and her mother enjoy the Ayala Aviary, a serene sylvan refuge within the commercial center. Filled with tropical trees, shrubs and vines, the aviary is home to hundreds of sweet-tempered birds that have learned to live with the people, mostly children, who visit them throughout the day. More than anything else, the aviary is a dramatic proof of Ayala's ever-present concern for the amenities of the environment, a truly gracious surprise that the miniature woodlands always endow its visitors.

181

As the day wanes, the cool lawn of the Glorietta is the carpet on which a family rests, above. All four malls of the Makati Commercial Center lead to the Glorietta, where concerts are often held. Mirrored on the pond is the cross on the facade of the Catholic chapel, built in 1983, to serve the office workers of Makati, facing page. A circular edifice, it rests upon a lily pond and is entered through small bridges within the Greenbelt park.

182

Sunlight glints on the monument of Sultan Kudarat, a hero of Mindanao, who is remembered in Makati through this statue that marks the convergence of Makati A venue and Paseo de ROi(as.

184

In the early morning, a street sweeper neatens up the monument to the soldiers of Bataan which stands in the Ayala Triangle, upper photograph. Heroes also remembered in Makati are Gabriela Silang, an 18th century woman warrior who took up her rebel husband's cause against the Spanish colonial army, left photograph, and Pio del Pilar, a general of the Philippine revolution of 1898 who once lived in Makatl~ right photograph.

185

Blossoming in the rain, lotus J70wers soften the lines of the buildings which border the Ayala Triangle. There is a conscien tious planting program in Makati which blends lush trees with blooming tropic plants.

186

Walking down a flagstone path beneath a young raintree, a man goes about his errands that take him into the Ayala Triangle. Planned as a pedestrian's city, Makati has broad sidewalks and many greenswards.

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As night falls on Paseo de Ro)(as, the lights of passing cars trace the silhouettes of pedestrians who are among the last to lea ve the Makati business district. At night, it is a brightly lit but silent city, sentinelled by its tall business houses.

However, the business center is but one of several sectors in Ayala's well-planned Makati that also includes leisure and entertainment areas. Of these sectors, the residential estates ha ve a constant 24-hour population density.

189

NEW A silver-blue airconditioned coach takes commuters to and from the New Alabang Village, which is a 20-minute ride southeast toward the countryside, 18 kilometers from Ayala Avenue in Makati. Lovingly carved out of hectarages of mango orchards, the new residential village is a chic address with wide roads and great houses, but the landscape remains that of a fresh countryside bright with j7owers, shady with trees, cool in the evenings when a summer moon rides the skies.

190

Townhouses clustered around a compact swimming pool punctuate a small corner of New Alabang Village. The greater parI of the 670-hectare residential village is taken up by vast landscaped gardens around manorial homes.

191

An early moon touches with light the facade and to wer of the new church of Santa Susana, the parish of New Alabang Village. Once a quiet barrio, A labang had an ancient parish church made of stone and brick which the new residents had hoped would serve them. But it had grown structurally weak and was too crampedj hence, the new church was built in a style reminiscent of the old barrio chapel.

192

The rolling green of the New Alabang Golf and Country Club leads the eye to the softly J7ushed sky shortly before dusk falls on the 74-hectare sports center. In addition to the 18-hole golf course, the country club has two full-size regulation polo playing fields side by side and 12 tennis courts, among other sports facilities.

193

Seared by summer, the tall grass turns to gold in this f ield beneath mango trees in New Alabang Village. A clause in every deed of sale prohibits the cutting of big trees. New Alabang was once a series of orchards, of which many trees still remain. In addition, Ayala has planted 4,000 acacia and narra trees and the blueprint requires 8,000 more trees along the streets.

194

An architect's house fully captures the countryside ambience as it nestles among trees, shrubbery and the sturdy tropical grass of its spreading lawn.

195

Ivy-covered wall tempered with bricks holds back the ebullience of blooming bougainvilla and gives a glimpse of the roof and windows of a house along the main street in New Alabang Village.

196

Just as the man depicted had once guided his horse to a gentle cant~r beneath these flowering flame trees, the monument of Jacobo Zobel (1902-1971) rides in the plaza of the town of Calatagan_ He was the great-great grandson of Domingo Ro)(.as who first owned Hacienda de Calatagan, which is now partly owned by his heirs and by the people who work the land just as their ancestors did.

197

Flowering trees and shrubs border the pasture where a her,c/ of cattle grazes. Late in the afternoon, a bell rings and the cattle turn around as one to head for the stables. Serene order such as this, which even animals are trained to keep, is a great part of the quality of life in Calatagan, a most ancient land that was once home to preHispanic communities of Filipinos whose pottery technology is part of Philippine archaeological lore.

Preceding page: Like a field of J7owers, seaweeds raise round heads at low tide as clampickers wade among them. Part of Calatagan juts to the bountiful sea where the harvest includes crabs and tuna.

200

Surrounded by friends and kin, a young bride - whose veil fails to hide her soft shy smile - arrives at the Calatagan church for the wedding ceremony, right. The guests fill the church to outf7owing, left, and a young bridal attendant prefers the patio and the company of her mother and friends. The first Calatagan church was built by Dona Margarita Ro}(as de Ayala in the 1860s. The present church stands on the site of the original church.

201

The spirit which binds the people of Calatagan to the Ayala family goes back many generations.

They live and work together now, just as their forefathers have done before them. Loyalty binds them as they move through the predictable rhythm of farm life: harvesting peanuts, riding to the pasture or raising roosters, an enthusiastic endeavor which Enrique Zobel shares with an old路 timer in Calatagan, left.

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AYALA IN ART

other than being a tale of enterprise, is also an account of how this family was always involved in the promotion of Philippine art through four or five gene · rations, a fact that is not well known.

When the Ateneo de Manila con· ferred an honorary doctorate in humane letters on a scion of the family, the painter and scholar Fernando Zobel in 1963, the Jesuit University cited him for his unique role in the development of Philippine art in the postwar period. By extension, the Ateneo was also citing the role of the Ayala family in the promotion of the arts in the Philippines during the last 150 years. The citation reads in full:

T

HE

AYALA

STORY,

Fernando Zobel - paintel', businessman and scholar - belongs to two countries at once: h.v blood and citizenship, he belongs to Spain; by birth, residence and education, he helongs to the Philippines ... his innuence upon Philippine aJ1 and thought has been considerable. To Filipino artists, he has been an inspil'ation: as a lecturel', he has opened the eyes of many to the possibilities of artistic cl'ea tion; as a scholar, his books and al'tides have commanded the respect of the scholady wodd. Most of his WQJ'ks have been published on this ca mpus, with the impl'int of the Ateneo de Manila or in the pages of PhiLippine Studies. He has made all students of art his debtors by cl'eating the Ateneo Al't Gallery and placing on pel'manent exhibit there his own unique collection of Filipino contemporary art ...

Don Fernando gave up work as an executive in favor of art. His interest in the arts may be said to be the full flower· ing of the collective interest shown by in· dividuals in Don Fernando's family tree, particularly his father Don Enrique Zobel, his grandfather Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz and his great grand· uncle, Mariano Roxas. We could also make a case for Don Fernando's great gr eat grandfather Domingo Roxas and for a German watercolor ist who came a·visiting in, 1860 and w ho married a grand·aunt of Don Fernando's.

From 1963 to the present the family's interest in the arts has been upheld by the Filipinas Foundation and other instrumentalities in the Ayala group of companies, but of this we shall speak towards the end in this history of the art involvement of the family .

There is a miniature portrait on ivory of Domingo Roxas which could have been painted by the famous miniaturist of the time, Damian Domingo, who headed the first art school in the country with the help of the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, a sort of businessmen's club of the period.

Did Don Domingo support the art academy directly or indirectly? It is not known. But when in 1834, the school was closed upon the demise of Damian Domingo, its absence was felt in certain quarters among the intelligentsia.

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,1 YAL I

One of the sons of Don Domingo, Mariano RoxCl$, was interested in the arts, despite his law and business background. Mariano Roxas eventually became the champion for the school's reopening. The historian Carlos Quirino describes this involvement: The principal supporter of such a move was Mariano Roxas y Ubaldo, younger brother of Jose Bonifacio Roxas and Margarita Roxas de Ayala, one of the leading creole families of the period. Of the three children of Domingo Roxas, the outstanding businessman of his generation, Mariano' showed a deep interest in the fme arts. Although he had graduated in law from the University of Santo Tomas, he did not practice his profession assiduously, and neither did he immerse himself in business as his father, brother and sister had done. As a member of the tribunal of commerce, he found there were idle funds lying in its treasury - so why not use them for a valid artistic purpose?

Having in mind the academies of and drawing in Madrid and Barcelona as models, Mariano Roxas and his associates addressed a petition to Madrid on May 21, 1845, for the reestablishment of the school through Governor General Narciso Claveria.

They claimed that the school was needed "for extending knowledge in this branch of the fine arts, so that craftsmen in general can acquire that level of perfection, of elegance and of excellent taste which will help them progress, and consequently aid the prosperity and expansion of commerce."

Don Mariano then went to Europe to follow up the case of his father's embargoed properties. Meanwhile the recommendation for the reopening of the school was approved by the Queen.

While in Europe "waiting for the slow wheels of bureaucracy to move" on his father'S properties, as historian Quirino puts it, Don Mariano visited museums such as the Prado in Madrid and the Louvre in Paris.

The result was a new brainchild which he embodied in a letter dated p~ting

Facing Page: Dra lV in.~ s f ro/ll flU!

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Ferna llc/o Zohel

AYALA IN ART

204

June 8, 1848. It was addressed to the Queen and recommended the establishment of a museum containing works of art of every sort for the use of the school. The letter reads in part: He that has the honor of approaching your Majesty has traveled extensively through Europe and has noticed that there is scarcely a city of secondary importance, even those that can hardly be caUed progressive, without a more or less extensive museum in which painters and sculptors can fmd models to copy, as weU as an effective means for the furtherance of their studies, and for the completion of the same with honor for their persons and glory for their land. Why should the Philippines be deprived of these advantages?

Why should a land replete with the elements necessary for the development of the fine arts lack this most powerful medium which can be acquired at so little cost?

Referred to Manila, the recommendation was not endorsed by the Tribunal.

Possibly the reason for the disapproval was that the recommendation had not gone through channels. The Junta de Comercio which subsequently replacPod the Tribunal later submitted the same proposal to the Queen in 1855. This time it was presented by the art school's authorities and was subsequently approved in Madrid.

That was how copies of the works of Spanish masters such as Murillo, Rivera, Velazquez, and other European masters were commissioned for the use of the Manila academy. In this regard, the Englishman Sir John Bowring, visiting Manila in 1860, observed that" ... the city had a nautical college and an academy of fine arts which has not, so far, produced a Murillo or a Velazquez."

The German Karl Karuth was another visitor in 1858. His watercolors of old Manila became the only visual documentation of certain landmarks of the city which, in 1863, was levelled by an earthquake. Karuth married Carmen Zobel Zangroniz, Don Jacobo's sister, in 1858, the same year when the watercolors were painted. He did not marry

directly into the main stream of the Ayala family, but he played a dominant role in the development of an early art consciousness in Fernando Zobel who as a young boy was familiar with the 1858 watercolors.

The writer Nick Joaquin describes Lhis heritage of a rt consciousness: Among his (Jacobo Zobel's) modern dp,· scendants is the young painter Femando Zobel. whose obsession with Philippine life and culture led to the rediscovery of these 18511 watercolors. Fernando remembers that when he was a child, his father used to show him these sketches, which had been gathered into an album. A fa mily treasure, the album was always kept in a safe. After his father died, the fam ily forgot aoout the album. They supposed it had perished during the Liberation, when the Zobels' house was destroyed.

A few months ago (1952). Fernando was ran· sacking a Zobel bodega for relics of the past when he came upon the lost album. The bind· ing had decayed, but the sketches were unharmed, dazzling hi eyes with their clea r beauty as he turned the yellowed pages; the album was intact. He now guards it with his life; to every historical· minded Filipino, it is cer· ta inly priceless - a glimpse of a city that vanished a hundred years ago.

The school which Mariano Roxas had helped to reestablish, together with the museum which he had first envisioned, may not have produced Murillos and Velazquezes by the time of the Bowring visit. After all, it had reopened only in 1849-50, and the "models" were commissioned only after 1855 when the need began to be too deeply felt to be ignored.

But the next three decades - the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s - witnessed the emergence of a Philippine school of portraiture and the Grand Style school of artists who were trained in the academy by its directors, among them the Spaniards Jose Nieto, Manuel de la Cortina, Nicolas Valdes, Agustin Saez and Lorenzo Rocha. Rocha was assisted by Lorenzo Guerrero - himself a highly competent artist. Guerrero is mainly known in art history for having taught Juan Luna and Felix Resurreccion

AYALA IN A HT

206

Hidalgo, the country's greatest painters of the 19th century. Guerrero encouraged the pair to fulfill their artistic destinies in Europe and they did in the tradition of Neoclassical and Romantic art.

During these decades, the Spanish authorities became increasingly paranoid about a repetition of what had happened to its colonies in South America. As a result, members of the family after Domingo Roxas were either watched, harassed, imprisoned or exiled, on suspicion of harboring separatist sentiments and in connection with certain local "mutinies."

Through it all, however, the interest of the family in the arts did not wane.

Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz (1842-1896) became the logical protagonist for this interest, the ball carrier, as it were, during his time.

After he married Trinidad Ayala, Don Jacobo took off with her in 1876 for Europe. He stayed there for several years with his family to give full vent to his cultural inclinations, especially in the fields of archaeology and numismatics.

In 1882 he returned with his family to Manila where years before, at age 30, he worked as regidor. Jose Rizal 's biographer Austin Craig calls Don Jacobo the "best Spanish mayor of Manila". Don Jacobo had been engaged in civic projects and in planting fl ame trees along the streets to beautify the city. The practice of planting flowering trees seems to have been handed down to his descendants as may be seen in the residential villages in Makati.

Even as the clouds of revolution and unrest began to gather darkly over the archipelago, Don Jacobo was upset about the academy of fine art initiated

by Damian-Domingo and resurrected by his uncle-in-law Mariano Roxas. This was over a decree dated March 9, 1891 , placing the academy under the school of I arts and trades.

In a long letter written in the style of the period, dated July 13, 1891 and addressed to the Minister of Overseas Affairs (Ultramar), Don Jacobo pointed out the illogic of such a move. The academy was separated from arts and trades a year later.

The letter also serves as a document of the family's continuing interest in and concern for the art school, particularly over the appointment of its director, this time the cuarteron Lorenzo Rocha for whom Don Jacobo had the highest admiration.

Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz passed away at age 54 in 1896. It was the same year that Rizal was executed on charges of treason at the Luneta. The two were alike as fullblown intellectuals: both were respected scientists and men of letters known not only in their own country but in Europe, true Renaissance men both. The family's enthusiasm for tile arts was rekindled a generation later in Enrique Zobel, one of the three sons of Don Jacobo. Some seven years after his father's passing, Don Enrique went to Japan for a few months. During that brief interlude he became interested in the manufacture of porcelain ware. On his return, he set up a porcelain factory.

But he is known more today in the area of arts and letters, and in archaeology, through his patronage of the great Filipino painter, Fernando Amorsolo; the Premia Zobel which he initiated in 1921 ; and the Calatagan diggings for early Chinese porcelain which started in early 1934 under his inspiration.

His son, the painter Fernando Zobel, tells the story of what in effect was the first ceramic factory in the country which had its precursor in the glazed-tile project of Pedro (Don Perico) Roxas in the preceding century, in a 1961 article published in Philippine Studies: In 1903 my father, Enrique Zobel de Ayala, was forced by poor health to take a short vaca· tion in Japan. While visiting a porcelain factory

in Tokyo he met a young Filipino, Francisco Quintos, who had been working there for three years. Zobel remembered that the land he administered in Makati had a long ceramic tradition and the idea came to him that Makati might hold interesting possibilities for the manufacture of porcelain. He brought Quintos back with him to Manila and the latter spent some time coUecting kaolin and clay sa mpl e~, mainly around Laguna. The samples were tested in Japan in April 1903 with encouraging results and by June of the same year a com· pany called "La Porcelanica" was formed by various members of the Zobel, Roxas and Brias families with an initial capital of 1'6,000 which graduaUy increased to some 1'25,000 ....

Meanwhile, Quintos constructed a Japanese· style, wood· heated furn ace entirely made of Philippine materials, and the first porcelains were produced between July and Nove mber 1904. These were principaUy plates, flower pots, jars, cups and tea sets, usually featuring elaborate multicolored and gilt decoration, in· cluding, in one case, the portrait of the pur· chaser. Eventually, l'efr(lctor." bricks and porcelain insulators were also produced. The produ ts of the factory were shown in the Cal" nival Exposition of 1909 and l'eceived a prize.

This pia eering venture eventuaJly closed shop; e factory was dismantled and the equipment was sold to the Bureau of Education for P600. Its products were not competitive enough w ith Japanese imports, except for the bricks and insulators with their very few and far between customers' orders. Fernando Zobel further gives a mini-critique on one of the extant samples from the kilns of the factory: Stylistically, the piece . . . comes I1rmly withi n the decorative taste of the "fin·de·siecle" st.vle execrated by the purist critics of the fi rst half of our century, and now rediscovered and found "amusing" by a new generation of critics willing to forgive a certain amount of confused design if given a little decorative exuberance in exchange. There is nothing about this piece that identifies it as a Philippine product. The motif is a woozy·Europeanized adaptation of a traditional Japanese subject; it could have been done in France, England or Germany during the 1890's. The technique has the anonymity of competence without inspil·ation. For those who like to read between tl-re lines this small dish makes an interesting exa mple of Philip·

207

A \', ILA

E~quisitely in pen-and-ink, Fernando Amorsolo drew the principals of Ayala y Campania in the 30s: Antonio Melian, Fernando Zobel and Enrique Zobel de A_vala (from the top clockwise).

AYALA IN ART

208

pine craft ideals dUl'ing tile lirst dec<1de twentieth centlll'Y-

or the

Shortly after 1915, the painter Fernando Amorsolo began to make a name for himself in Manila where his portraits were being talked about nearly as much as his landscapes.

Amorsolo caught the eye of Don Enrique Zobel who asked to meet him.

The painter thought that Don Enrique wanted to have his portrait done.

Instead, Don Enrique offered Amorsolo a grant. Given his talent, Amorsolo should go to Europe, see the works of great artists, study and improve himself - this was the encouragement that Don Enrique offered him.

Thus, from 1919 to 1920, Amorsolo lived, worked and studied in Madrid, just as Don Enrique had suggested. He received a stipend from Don Enrique and part of the amount went to the support of the artist's wife and child in Manila while he was away.

Today, because of that interest shown by Don Enrique, a selection of the works by Amorsolo is the core of the Ayala Museum's art collection. A number of Amorsolo works may also be seen in the offices of the Ayala companies.

The portrait that Amorsolo had thought he would be asked to do in 1919 he eventually did some 25 years later not one but 16 portraits. These are portraits of 16 members of the family, rather 15, as two portraits are of Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz. The 15 are: Domingo Roxas (1778-1848), Antonio Ayala (1805-1876), Margarita Roxas de Ayala (1815-1869), Jose Bonifacio Roxas (1818-1880), Mariano Roxas (1820-1864), Pedro Roxas (1845-1912), Carmen Ayala Roxas (1846-1930), Jacobo Zobel Zangroniz (1842-1896), Trinidad Ayala Zobel (1856-1918), Fernando Zobel I (1876-1929), Enrique Zobel I (1877-1943), Antonio Melian (1879-1928), Jacobo Zobel IT (1902-1971), Alfonso Roxas Zobel

(1903-1967), and Matilde Albarracin (1913路1 952).

Zobel

Eight of the 16 portraits are dated three have no dates, while the rest are dated 1944, 1958, 1960 and 1946

1961.

Don Enrique's patronage of Amorsolo was immediately followed by the Concurso Literario Enrique Zobel de Ayala - or Premio Zobel - which he set up in 1921. A pioneering effort in the country, the Zobel Prize was envisioned to promote literary and historical work in Spanish, and to help preserve the language and the culture it stood for in the archipelago.

This was the time when English was beginning to be accepted as the new language of communication and education, and even as a vehicle for literature.

Don Enrique's grandfather, Antonio de Ayala, had in fact in the preceding century proposed the teaching of English (and French) in a language school for aspiring businessmen, so that it was ironic that the grandson had to lobby against its exclusive use to the detriment of Spanish as proposed in the Confesor Bill of 1922. The most outspoken Hispanophile of our day, the writer Nick Joaquin, has been quoted as saying apropos of the Premio Zobel: So proud is the tradition behind it and so emi-

nent are the names with which it is associated that no other literary prize in the country has the aura, the distinction, and the glory of the Premio Zobel. Commonwealth, Palanca, 01Stonehill awardees in English know nothing of the apotheosis which, in the old days, awai ted a Zobel premista. To win a prize today is merely news; to win the Zobel Prize used to be an event.

Joaquin further claims that, if all the lJrizewinners were put together in a volume, even by themselves alone "they would provide such variety in reading matter and constitute such an impressive array that the Philippines might come to be known in other lands as a nation of creative writers."

209

AYALA

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The Premio Zobel medal is gil'en in recognition of merit for a literary or historical work in Spanish. Established in 1921, the Zobel award encourages the preserl'ation of Spanish as language and as culture in the Philippines. The fron t of the medal, upper photograph, identifies the award as IiterarYi the back of tre medal, lower photograph, bears the portrait of Don Enrique Zobel who initiated it and in whose memory the a~...'ards continue to be given today.

Among the premistas are: Manuel Bernabe, Jesus Balmori, Leon Ma. Guerrero, Enrique Fernandez Lumba, Jose P. Bantug, Sixto Y. Orosa, and Antonio M. Abad. Behind the Prize is the Academia Filipina, a select group of some 30 scholars and writers in the Spanish language. The cash award that goes with the Premio Zobel is now P10,OOO, plus a possible membership in the Academy in addition to a medal and a certificate.

Don Enrique's interest in Calatagan echoes his father's love for archaeology.

The discovery of Chinese ceramic ware in the graves of pre-Christian Filipinos in the Calatagan area first came to be widely publicized in the latter 1950s. The very first diggings, however, were initiated in 1934 by Don Enrique, in cooperation with the National Museum.

More than a thousand artifacts of porcelain and stone ware - of Chinese and Siamese origins - were initially uncovered, including fragments of local pottery and some crude stone tools.

Many important pieces were immediately donated to the National Museum by Don Enrique and his son Alfonsoi they include stoneware jars, plates and saucers from the Yuan, Sung and Ming periods, Sawankhalok jarlets, and Chinese and Mexican coins.

That Don Enrique's son, Fernando, eventually began to devote himself to painting was as much a matter of choice as of fate. Fernando Zobel could have elected to manage the business interests of the family, and he did for some time in the 1950s with his two nephews, Enrique and Jaime. But the siren call of art became so insistent that no middle ground nor compromise was possible.

He apparently could not see himself running a business empire and painting on the side, or vice versa. And so, when the choice had to be made, he made it in favor of art.

It was a decision that also meant taking up residence in Spain, but not before he

AYALA IN A RT

210

had contributed to the world of Philippine art as a teacher, an artist and a patron. Furthermore, he continued his father'S and grandfather's interest in archaeology, in cooperation with anthropologist Robert Fox who worked with the National Museum. The systematic excavation of Calatagan became the prototype for various digging sites in the archipelago in the ensuing years. It was during Fox's diggings that the famous Calatagan Jar - the only one of its kind bearing pre-Spanish inscriptions ever found in the Philippines - was uncovered.

Initiating the re-excavation of Calatagan in certain preselected sites was merely one of the artistic involvements of Fernando Zobel. Coming back from college and graduate studies at Harvard University in the postwar years, he became closely associated with the Art Association of the Philippines (founded in 1948). He became one of its early presidents. But it was in the ambience of the Philippine Art Gallery (PAG) where he developed the friendship of certain artists and writers, both Filipino and foreign, a camaraderie which eventually resulted in the triumph of the modern art movement in the Philippines.

Fernando Zobel first started to exhibit his works at the PAG in 1952, followed by other one-man shows in 1954, 1956 and 1957. The first exhibit still had traces of the works of certain Americans - particularly of the Boston School - who had influenced his early development. But the second, held at the Contemporary Arts Gallery, clearly established him in the avant-garde of Philippine art, together with the Philippine Neorealists Vicente Manansala and H.R. Ocampo, as well as with younger artists of his generation, such as Arturo Luz. Fernando Zobel initiated the use of the term "non-objective" art in Philippine

critical circles. This he demonstrated in his saeta paintings, which were colorful abstractions on canvas gesturally executed with the use of a syringe full of wet paint instead of the traditional brush. He was the forerunner of abstract expressionism in the Philippines, trail-blazing for younger artists in the 1960s, such as Lee Aguinaldo and Jose Joya.

Example was strengthened by precept when the Ateneo de Manila asked him to set up an art appreciation graduate program in the early 1950s, which he continued up to the start of the 1960s. His highly popular classes at the Ateneo nurtured two of the best critics of Philippine art today.

Surveying the art scene in 1953, the American writer and former Manila resident Patricia Brooks had this to say, among other things, in an article published in the Saturday Evening News: " . ..

To appreciate and support the young moderns, the public must first be educated to modern art. To this writer's knowledge there are only three sources of such education: the classes of Victorio Edades and Vicente Manansala at Santo Tomas University and the class of Fernando Zobel at the Ateneo Graduate School."

So successful was Fernando Zobel's crusade for the acceptance of modern art in the Philippines that he eventually found himself defending Amorsolo against the new critics, among whom were former students of his at the Ateneo. He wrote his defense in an article published in The Insurance Line in 1960, a valedictory statement of sorts: It seems to me that Amorsolo's real contr ibu·

tion is that he brought light to Philippine paint· ing. His predecessors had merely transfer red the dark classical palette of Europe to the Philippine scene.

Amorsolo did not invent his weapon. He was fortunate in that the French impressionists discovered a way of painting in a light key. But Amorsolo had the wit to recognize the tool at

his disposal, and the intelligence to know how to apply it. For the first time, the true color of the Philippines was transfe rred to canvas in all of its blinding brilliance.

The artist of the Ayala family then goes on to relate the modernist painter Hernando R. Ocampo's brightness of palette to Amorsolo's chromatic lightness, and to thank in "affectionate tribute" the man who had taught him when he was a boy of 10 "to mix my first colors and to use my first brushes." The same theme is developed in an earlier article (Philippines Free Press, 1958) in which he assesses the tr iumph of the moderns: The "victory" of the moderns is confined, like most victories, mainly to prestige. I think I pointed out before that the painters who ex· periment ca n seldom support themselves through the sale of their paintings. This applies to every country [ can think of.

Ou r "conservatives," however, should not be overlooked. Luna's skill and Hidalgo's subtlety are qualit ies that could be studied witl1 profit by a good many contempora'iY painters, par· ticularly those who claim to be following in the tradition of Luna and Hidalgo. And Amorsolo's discovery of Philippi ne color has never been sufficiently apprecia ted although it has af· fected in one way or another the color sense of three generations of subsequent Philippine painters.

What appeared then as a pyrrhic victory for the moderns must have contributed to his decision to leave. While his father Don Enrique was merely the patron of Amorsolo at a crucial time in the artist's career, Fernando Zobel became the one big - one is tempted to say the only - collector of the 1950s, not to mention the assistance that he was quietly extending to needy artists and writers, especially those leaving for abroad who would approach him for help while he was still holding office on the Escolta.

The deeper reason was that, probably unknown even to himself at the time, he began to face a blank wall in the Philippines insofar as his artistic growth

211

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These sketches by th e artist Fernando Zobel sen'e as th e immediate record of more than a thousand art(facts con· sisting of porcelain and stoneware IvhiciJ were excavated from pre-Hispanic gral'esites lVithin the Zobel hacienda, Calatagan, in Batangas. Consisting of jars, plates and saucers from Yuan, Sung and Ming dy nasties, th e artifacts signa lled the beginning of intensil'e scholarly in terest in pre·Hispanic gral'esites in the Philippines and made th e term Calatagan pollery a Significant reference point in Philippine archaeology. Fernando Zobel wrote of the .finds and donated many important pieces to th e National Museum . O.f tremendous significance were stoneware of Philippine provenance and several carvings from stone, also o.f Philippine handiwork , which served as burial m em en toes.

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sculptor Ramon Or/ina talks about his work, which is sculpting glass, during an ejl(hibit in the Ayala M useum . Compact, with a strong foundation of Philippine iconographic ma terial, the Ayala Museum draws a predominantly young crowd to its historical diorama, its chamber music concerts every Friday, its library and rare books collection, and its art ejl(hibits in a small, friendly gallery hall.

was concerned. This crisis manifested itself in what he describes in his own notes in the family archives as a "deep depression" (un estado de fuerte depresi6n). Also, towards the close of the decade, he was beginning seriously to show his works in Spain and to enter into the mainstream of the Spanish modern art movement in the company of young artists like himself.

The patronage that he thought was not there in Manila in the latter 1950s finally sprang up in the Philippine art market as we know it today. The seeds that he helped plant took a period of 20 years to germinate, but when they did sprout the seedlings quickly grew into giant trees before one's eyes, so to speak, resulting in an artistic affluence particularly in the field of painting, the likes of which had never before been experienced. ernando Zobel donated his art collection to the Ateneo. It was in fact around the initial Zobel donation that the Ateneo Art Gallery was established.

Since then the gallery has enlarged its collection with works from other donors. But as the curator, the critic Eric Torres, a former Zobel student, states in the exhibition notes for "Early Works 1959-1965 by Major Artists from the Ateneo Collection" (Ayala Museum, Dec. 1979), the "main strength of its collection has always been the paintings donated by its first donor."

Today, in the 1980s, there are plans to institutionalize the art program that Fernando Zobel started at the Ateneo (he actually started a movement), with the Ateneo Art Gallery as an adjunct, and with an art school as a goal in the not too distant future. One of the moving spirits is the painter Federico Aguilar Alcuaz, one of Don Fernando's early proteges. Behind the project is the Ateneo Endowment Fund, which is headed at the moment by Jaime Zobel de Ayala.

A YA LA IN A RT

212

In 1961, the Filipinas Foundation Inc. was organized and in effect began to institutionalize the various interests of the Ayala family in the promotion of the arts in the country, with the exception of Premio Zobel which was already an institution by itself.

The most visible presence of the FFI is the Ayala Museum of Philippine History and Iconographic Archives.

Established in 1967, the Ayala Museum moved to its present site on Makati Avenue in 1974. Since then an aviary of Philippine birds has been added to its many attractions and museum operations have expanded to Vigan, nocos Sur. Although basically a science foundation, the FFI has published books by some of the country's leading writers, such as Nick Joaquin. As part of its publication program, it inaugurated the Filipinas Journal of Science and Culture in 1981.

"Quality of life" was the theme of Fernando Zobel's acceptance speech upon the conferment of that honorary degree on him by the Ateneo de Manila in 1963. "To recognize quality when you see it" was to him the mark of an educated man. This theme says much of the Ayala family's involvement in the arts during the last 150 years, the ideals that have motivated and motivate them, and also articulates a business philosophy that is particularly relevant to the Philippine setting: There are many definitions of education and its aims. One of them particularly caught my attention. It was made by a president of Harvard College many years ago. It went something like this: ''The aim of education is to make you recognize qUality when you see it."

To recognize qUality when you see itl One's first reaction is to dismiss the statement with a shrug. To recognize qUality indeed. Anyone can do that almost from the moment of birth.

Life is a long series of choices and every hour adds to this pile. We choose before we even talk and most of the time we think we choose well. Education is an acquiring and a filling; all these years of effort surely have another purpose ... or perhaps by now you are begin. ning to wonder with me: do they?

I would go a step further. You can recognize qUality when you see it and still reject it. There are tJlOusands of reasons why this might hap. pen. One of them concerns us particularly because it is typical of young countries. Il can be summed up in a very popular local expression that crops up constantly in conversation: "good enough."

All sorts of things, it appears, are "good enough" for Manila and, by extension, I suppose, good enough for the Philippines as well.

If you stop to think of it, the term "good enough" mer.ns exactly the opposite of what it seems to say. It means that something is not really good enough, that you are aware that a higher standard or a higher quality exists, but that for one reason or another - the weather perhaps - you are prepared to accept, or at least tolerate, the less good.

I would propose, quite simply, that nothing is good enough except the best.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when anything at all, particularly in the field ~f culture, seemed like an indisputable blessing.

There was so little movement, particularly in the arts, that every amateur effort, no matter how inadequate, sounded like a victory of sorts. That was the day of "good enough" when anyt hing at all wOl·th doing was worth doing even badly.

The whole country has grown up since that day. The Philippines has acquired or created samples of practically every activity and object known to man. We are no longer surprised to fmd a poet; we are surprised when we find a good one. We are no longer delighted to find a school; we are delighted when we fmd one that believes teaching more important than dividends. The list can be extended in· definitely.

There is a lot of talk about discarding foreign standards and creating standards peculiar to

the Philippines. In one sense I agree; in another sense I disagree completely.

I disagree if creating Philippine standards means accepting a philosophy of "good enough"; in other words, in accepting the obviously inferior product, idea or performance simply because it seems easier and because one can get away with it. In this sense interna· tional standards are essential to the Philippines. They are essential in the sense that a ruler is essential to a carpenter: he uses it to measure and to compare results.

But I do agree with the idea of creating Philippine standards if the idea means that such standards have to be better than stan· dards abroad. The day that becomes the ac· cepted philosphy in this country, on that day and not before, the whole world will stop to watch and listen.

The historians among you - and most educated men are historians of sorts - will know that what I'm talking about is not impossible. Il has happened over and over again to small nations with large souls. And it has happened because private individuals have in· dividually decided to accept and attempt nothing but the best, having first been pri· vileged by educa tion, as you have been, to recognize the best when you see it.

Don Fernando's theme - a theme for quality of life - r ecalls Mariano Roxas' plea for the reopening of the art school and the establishment of a museum; Jacobo Zobel Zongroniz's letter to the Overseas Ministry on the primacy of art over craft and Enrique Zobel's advice to the young Amorsolo. It also recapitulates the ideals of the Ayala family. ~

- Leonidas V. Benesa

213

AYA LA

Don Fernando Zobel (right) with King Juan Carlos of Spain during a reception which the monarch gave in honor of artists. The artist of the family, Don Fernando lived in Cuenca, Spain, where he founded the Museum of Abstract Art in cooperation with Gustavo Torner and Gerardo Rueda. An adopted son of Cuenca, he also maintained residences in Madrid and Sevilla. In the years (1951 to 1960) when he lived in Manila shortly after he graduated from Harvard (Class '49, philosophy and letters, magna cum laude), he taught in Ateneo de Manila, wrote many articles on art and culture and painted e;<tensively, starting his no\\'famous saela series of non-objective art.

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THE AYALA ART COLLECTION The Ayala art collection is found in the various corporate offices. in the Ayala Museum. in the archives. and in the Ateneo University art gallery to which Don Fernando Zobel donated his collection of paintings. circa 1950 to 1960.

Among the artists whose works are in the Ayala collection are:

FERNANDO AMO~SOLO ANGELITO ANTONIO LEE AGUINALDO ANG KIU KOK FEDERICO AGillLAR ALCUAZ TAM AUSTRIA MANUEL BALDEMOR TOMAS BERNARDO BETSY W. BRIAS BEN CABRERA PORFffiIO CASTAfiffiDA ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ CHABET DAMIAN DOMlNGO ANITA MAGSAYSA Y HO ABDULMARI IMAO JOSE JOYA CESAR LEGASPI JUAN LUNA (c. 1881)

214

ARTURO LUZ ALFREDO LIONGOREN DA VID CORTEZ MEDALLA VICENTE MANANSALA MAURO MALANG SANTOS J. ELIZALDE NAVARRO HERNANDO OCAMPO ALFONSO OSORIO RAMON ORLINA VICTOR OTEYZA JOSE RIZAL (c. 1887) MANUEL RODRIGUEZ SR. FABIAN DE LA ROSA IBARRA DE LA ROSA JUVENAL SANSO ROMEO TABUENA FERNANDO ZOBEL

Study of Fighting Cocks FABIAN DE LA ROSA Oil on wood. 118 mm. x 128 mm.

1935

215

Sunday Morning Going to Town FERNANDO AMORSOLO Oil on canvas, 119.25 cm. x 103.75 cm.

1958

216

Clouds of Conscience ALFONSO OSSORIO Oil on masonite. 274 mm. x 113 mm.

1956

217

Joseph's Coat

HERNANDOR.OCANWO Oil on lawanit. 123 mm. x 97 mm.

1956

218

Dambana

VICENTE MANANSALA Oil and tin strips on masonite board.

142 mm. x 98 mm.

1956

219

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Castilla VlII

FERNANDO ZOBEL Oil on canvas, 214 nun. x 130 nun.

1960

220

Carnival Forms II

ARTURO LUZ Oil on canvas, 121 mm . x 140 mm.

1957

221

Mudfish

ANG KIU KOK Watercolor, 97 DUD. x 142 nun.

1959

Gazing Bird and the Approaching Storm FEDERICO A. ALCUAZ Oil on canvas, 75 nun. x 101 nun.

1964

222

Granadean Arabesque JOSE JOYA Oil on canvas, 73 nun. x 182 nun.

1958

223

FERNANDO ZOBEL: AN ARTIST AS A PAINTER, AS A MAN

FERNANDO ZOBEL died in Rome on June 2, 1984. His heart simply gave way.

He was three months short of his 60th birthday.

Rome - what more fitting city is there for an artist in which to come to the close of his creativity'? Fernando was there on a summer holiday, the annual holiday he took to visit the art museums of Europe.

His next stop was supposed to have been Venice. His previous stop was Madrid, which is one of the three cities in Spain, the others being Sevilla and Cuenca, where he maintained residences. He tarried in Madrid this last time solely to see once more - for who knows how many times'? - Velasquez' Las meninas at the Prado museum. "We may assume that the images in Las meninas were still in his retina when he died," said his friend, Gustavo Torner. Fernando's ultimate summer holiday - as was his entire life - was a pilgrimage for art.

The newspapers and magazines of Spain immediately and prominently carried the news of his death. There were obituaries written by newspaper reporters. In addition, there were memoirs spontaneously contributed by those who knew Fernando well, such as a tribute by the eminent doctor, Jose Antonio VallejoNajera, and by artists who had worked with Fernando, such as Antonio Saura and F. Calvo Serraller.

The articles reviewed his life's work as an artist. With unanimity, they also drew

his portrait as a man most generous and ready to help, not just in a material way, but in the deeper sense: in encouragement and inspiration, in the spontaneous out-pouring of his largesse of heart.

Calvo Serraller wrote: "Zobel always helped young artists, anyone of them who approached him. He did it with ease. giving his time and his attentive conversation, which grew into spirited discussions. 1 will always remember him as one of those rare persons who could speak deeply about art. without limits or boundaries. with knowledge and depth. The reason was simple: from head to foot.

Zobel was an artist - as a painter. as a man."

Just a week before Fernando passed away. his name was proposed as the sole candidate. representing the field of painting. to be director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Spain.

The news of his passing was first relayed to the members of his family, to his friends and to his fellow artists. The telephone call from Rome woke up Gustavo Torner. Fernando 's partner in the work of founding and running the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca .

"1 wept very much. 1 wept as 1 had not wept in years." said Torner. "He was my best friend and it was excruciating to have to say that he was. " Torner immediately began a project he had not imagined he would be called to do "10 soon. a project that challenged him

225

with its pain as much as with its opportunity to honor Fernando Zobel in the best and finest manner. a project which - Torner realized - would not have been allowed by Fernando . were he alive. for he was in the core a truly simple man.

Torner soon discovered that he was not alone in his project. The art circles of Spain also wished to pay tribute to Fernando. The government wished to join for Fernando had received the highest award for art from the King of Spain and was, in effect, a national a rtist. The city of Cuenca. which Fernando had placed in the map when he chose it as the site of the Museum of Abstract Art. wished to render him the highest official honors.

Together with the mayor of Cuenca .

Torner went to select the loveliest place in which to rest Fernando's mortal remains.

"His entire life was a project." said Torner. "He never spoke ill of anyone. He was a man who lived in painting. He was profoundly Spanish. although his origins were Oriental. his education Ame rican and his culture universal. Above all, at heart he was a simple man who loved simple things - as he had shown during the 20 years when he lived in Cuenca."

To the last exquisite detail. Torner planned the funeral of Fernando. whose fine taste and spirit he knew well. It was an official funeral - for the nationally known artist of Spain. for the prominent

son of the city of Cuenca. It was a personal tribute, a loving fa rewell - for the family and friends of Fernando were stricken to the heart by his sudden passing. It was, above all, an artist's funeral - full of beauty, symbol and faith.

"Fernando was equilibrium par excellence." said Torner as he went about, gathering the elements of the final tribute to Fernando. "He was the sum of different qualities that are rarely found together. He was a universal man while profoundly Spanish. He knew how to be lofty while he knew how to enjoy humble things. He savored perfection and quality. He was profoundly good and intelligent.'

Through the countryside that Fernando loved so well, along the plains of Castille where he had said that in his imagination he saw the passage of kings , soldiers, knights and peasants, his remains passed at the head of a cortege from the Madrid international airport to Cuenca.

It was an official day of mourning in Cuenca . Flags flew at half mast. The city council had voted to award Fernando Zobel with the gold medal, the highest honor, in appreciation for his work as artist and as the a rt patron who chose Cuenca for the site of the most prestigious international center for abstract art in all Spain. It was as well to the affable and generous citizen of Cuenca whom Fernando was that the highest

honors at the ofrical funer al were r endered.

At the cathedral of Cuenca waited the mayor and the city council, the ecclesiastics who presided at the Funeral Mass. the artists whose work Fernando encouraged, the people of the city among whom Fernando had moved as an ever cordial and cheerful neighbor .

Eight young men ca rried the casket on their shoulders. They were students of the Fernando Zobel High School, a school named for him in appreciation of the help and encouragement he gave . They stood at attention as the mayor draped the flag of Spain upon the casket; on the flag , he laid the ribbon bea ring the gold medal.

Inside the brilliantly-lit cathedral, the bier was surrounded by the finest handiwork of the 17th century; fo ur giant candlesticks of wrought silver and a black velvet counterpane appliqued with silver flowers and leaves. They were the only ornaments. There was not a single flower nor wreath.

The priest who offered the Funeral Mass was a close and cherished friend of Fernando for many years. His voice broke many times as he gave the homily.

There was a choir, an ensemble of eight voices, singing the music Fernando loved. There was a lone flutist whose pure notes , wafting through the vast cathedral, recalled with what great delight Fernando himself had played the flute.

226

After the Mass, the funeral cortege headed for the cemetery of Cuenca, nearly two kilometers northwards.

Everyone walked. High and low, young and old, they traced the roads and pathways where Fernando himself often walked. They passed by the landmarks and landscapes that he celebrated in drawings and in photographs that he gathered in three books that he made about Cuenca. They gathered along the children who used to run after Fernando, calling his name and clustering about him in curiosity and affection.

This custom of the children of Cuenca had given Fernando the occasion to tell one of his favorite anecdotes, an amusing story, with the laugh on him.

During the Holy Week processions in Cuenca, Fernando used to march behind the image of the Nazarene. He wore the traditional penitent's garments, which consisted of a long purple robe and a deep hood that hid his face. Nevertheless the children recognized him when they sa w his big shoes.

"Don Fernando, Don Fernando," they cried and chased after him in the procession. As much as his hearty laugh, those large shoes - as his friends knewwere a signature of Fernando who liked to take long walks in comfort. Thus, he had strolled many afternoons on the streets of Cuenca, gathering friends and children.

As a parishioner of Cuenca, Fernando

had joined the Hermandad de San Isidro, an association of the simple folk who wished to honor the farmer saint. As such, he was entitled to be buried in an area set aside for members, an outcropping apart from the public cemetery.

Here Gustavo Torner found a nook, a tiny garden strewn with wild flowering plants that cascaded to the ravine of the river Jucar 500 meters below. It was a hanging niche, just as the museum which Fernando founded was made up of hanging galleries upon the cliff overlooking the river . It was a resting place that seemed suspended between river and sky and thus commanded a magnificent view of the city of Cuenca. "A most beautiful view" , Fernando himself once said when he came upon it during his long walks.

Within this tiny, wild, hanging garden upon a cliff, the family and friends of Fernando clung close together to bid him farewell. A grey marble slab was drawn to seal his tomb. Upon it was chiseled by hand, the simple inscription: "Fernando Zobel de Ayala y Montojo, painter.

Manila, 1924 - Rome, 1984" .

Then came the flowers. At first , they were single offerings: a rose here, a lily there, laid upon the marble as a fond thought or a gentle tear. Soon everyone began to place flowers too - garlands and great wreaths, simple nosegays and big bouquets. In one exuberant pile, they covered the whole marble expanse of his tomb and, as the sun set upon the cliff

above the river Jucar, all that could be seen of Fernando Zobel's grave was this magnificent mound of Cuenca's early summer flowers . " Rarely has Spain owed so much to one man in the field of art and of culture," wrote Dr. Vallejo-Najera. "I have not known anyone who was able to fuse creative talent, esthetic sensibility and erudition in such exceptional level.

These features , so rarely found together, allowed Fernando Zobel to be the ferment, the catalyst, in Spain's realm of culture. It will take a long time before the full extent 0 his influence on the artistic climate of Spain can be measured. He was highly visible in the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca, but that is only the tip of the iceberg in his colossal work of creativity and of teaching."

Fernando Zobel was fi red with the idea of giving abstract artists a base, hence he founded the museum of Cuenca and it became his life work, the institution of his generosity of spirit. As the careful and caring founder , he also provided for the continuation of the museum when he donated it to the Juan March Foundation only less than two years before he died.

"Zobel truly believed in the art of today," said Gustavo Torner. " He had faith in it. He had the sensibility for it. At one and the same time, he knew how to value a two-thousand-year-Dld piece of Greek art and an avant-garde work. This was

227

one of his greatest gifts. With it, he reached the deepest understanding of culture , which gave his life its true dimension and real worth."

He wanted the Cuenca museum for the sake of other artists, but its founding, together with his work as a painter, earned for him a solid niche in Spanish modern art. Official gratitude was profuse - for the Cuenca museum, the Spanish government gave him its most prestigio us decorations and awards, including the gold medal which is the highest award for any artist in Spain. The honors were heartfilling. With typical grace and good h umour, Fernando accepted them . There was a gentle shrug too for he did not believe in being too serious about himself. "It is about time," he quipped when he received the gold medal for a rt and he gestured at his greying hair. 2iiil

- Monina Allarey Mercado

Important dates and events in the Ayala story I. From 1834 to 1884 1834 Domingo Roxas invites Antonio de Ayala to be his industrial partner: establishment of CASA ROXAS and of DESTILERIA y LICORERIA DE AYALA y CIA Johann Andreas Zobel opens LA DROGUERIA y BOTICA DE ZOBEL along Calle Real.

Intramuros

future Bank of the Philippine Islands) 1856 Margarita Roxas de Ayala donates her vacation house and estate, La Concordia , in Santa Ana to the Sisters of Charity who arrive in the Philippines to establish COLEGIO DE LA CONCORDIA, a school fo r girls 1862 SOCIEDAD ROXAS HUOS sells Hacienda Cala tagan to Antonio and Margarita de Ayala 1864 Jose Bonifacio Roxas resigns from SOCIEDAD ROXAS HUOS MargaTita and Mariano Roxas establish ROXAS HERMANOS to replace SOCIEDAD ROXAS HUOS

1836 Jacobo Zobel e Hinsch marries Ana Maria Zangroniz

1866 Jacobo Zobel Hinsch dies on board a trans-a tlantic steamer to New York

1837 Domingo Roxas purchases Hacienda de Calatagan from the estate of Mariano de Castro

1868 Margarita Roxas de Ayala dies at age 54; CASA AYALA is set up to replace ROXAS HERMANOS

1841 Domingo Roxas is arrested for alleged involvement in the rebellion of Apolinario de la Cruz

1870 Carfllen de Ayala marries Pedro Pablo Roxas

1842 Birth of Jacobo Zobel y Zangroniz

1872 Jacobo Zobel y Zangroniz is charged with sedition in the Cavite Revolt and is imprisoned

1843 Although acquitted, Domingo Roxas dies in prison Margarita, Jose Bonifacio and Mariano Roxas form the SOCIEDAD ROXAS HUOS to replace CASA ROXAS 1844 Margarita Roxas marries Antonio de Ayala 1848 Jacobo Zobel e Hinsch takes over management of the family business 1849 Jacobo Zobel e Hinsch becomes a naturalized Spanish citizen 1851 Jose Bonifacio Roxas buys Hacienda Makati (1,616 hectares) from Simon Bernardino Velez for P52,800 Antonio de Ayala becomes the Director of BANCO-ESP ANOL FILIPINO DE ISABEL II [the

1875 The Royal Audiencia acquits Ja cobo Zobel y Zangroniz 1876 Antonio de Ayala dies Ja cobo Zobel y Zangroniz ma rries Trinidad de Ayala Hacienda Calatagan goes to Carmen Ayala de Roxas Carmen de Roxas and Trinidad de Zobel establish AYALA y CIA to replace CASA AYALA 1877 Jacobo Zobet y Zangroniz joins AYALA y CIA 1880 Jacobo Zobel y Zangroniz is elected to the Board of BANCO ESPAf'l'OL FILIPINO Jose Bonifacio Roxas dies and Hacienda Makati goes to his son Pedro P. Roxas

230

1883 DESTILERIA DE AYALA wins second prize at the Exposicion Internacional de Amsterdam

II. 1885 to 1935 1888 Jacobo Zobel y Zangroniz introduces a system of streetcars in Manila through the COMP ANIA DE LOS TRANVIAS DE FILIPINAS 1889 DESTILERIA DE AYALA wins first prize at the Gran Exposicion Internacional de Paris 1896 Jacobo Zobel y Zangroniz dies; Dona Trinidad de Zobel takes over her husband's business Pedro P. Roxas is accused of helping the Katipunan and is thrown into jail 1898 Pedro P. Roxas is acquitted and the embargo on his properties is lifted 1903 LA PORCELANICA, a ceramic factory, is established by Enrique Zobel de Ayala in San Pedro, Makati 1907 Margarita Zobel y de Ayala marries Antonio Melian IV, Conde de Peracamps 1908 Consuelo Roxas de Ayala dies.

She was the wife of Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala and foundress of the Gota de Leche institution.

1912 Pedro P. Roxas dies; his heirs establish VDA. y HEREDEROS DE PEDRO P. ROXAS Central Azucarera de Calatagan is set up with a milling capacity of 500 tons per day 1913 FILIPINAS COMPANIA DE SEGUROS is set up 1914 Termination of VDA. y HEREDEROS DE PEDRO P. ROXAS and adjudication to

Antonio Roxas who enters it in the newly formed VDA. e HIJOS DE PEDRO P. ROXAS Separation of the Zobels from VDA. y HEREDEROS DE PEDRO P. ROXAS and the adjudication of Hacienda Makati to Jacobo. Alfonso and Mercedes Zobel y Roxas

1936 Establishment of the Credit Corporation of the Philippines (now AYALA INVESTMENT AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION) 1937 To handle the growing business of subdivisions. AYALA SECURITIES CORPORATION is established

1959 Part of Hacienda Bigaa is sold to J. R. McMicking (Hacienda Balabatican) .

1960 Makati Commercial Center rises on 26 hectares Development of San Miguel Village for lower income groups

1943 Don Enrique Zobel de Ayala dies Dona Trinidad de Zobel becomes sole owner of AYALA y CIA 1915 Antonio Roxas extends the boundaries of Hacienda Calatagan by purchasing the barrios of Baha and Talibayog

1946 AYALA y CIA sells to AYALA SECURITIES CORPORATION the real estate.路business of the partnership plus a portion of the raw land in Makati Hacienda Calatagan becomes the property of Jacobo and Alfonso Zobel y Roxas. pro-indiviso

Antonio Roxas dies and leaves his mother. Dona Carmen de Roxas. as the sole manager of the estate 1917 Jose McMicking becomes manager of Philippine Guaranty

1948 Start of the development of Makati area with the creation of Forbes Park Ayala managers develop the Ayala Master Plan. a 25-year urbB{l development program

1918 Dona Trinidad de Zobel dies 1924 The China Underwriters Life and General Insurance Co .. Ltd. is set up DESTILERIA DE AYALA is sold to Carlos Palanca (La Tondena) 1929 The Zobels join the partnership of AYALA y CIA. entering Hacienda San Pedro Makati as part of their assets 1930 Dona Carmen de Roxas dies

OJ. 1935 to 1983 1931 Hacienda Calatagan is adjudicated to the heirs of Dona Consuelo Roxas de Zobel (Jacobo.

Alfonso and Mercedes Zobel) Joseph McMicking marries Mercedes Zobel 1934 Central Azucarera de Calatagan and Hacienda Calatagan form part of the assets of AYALA Y CIA

1949 to 1952 The towns of Calatagan and Lucsuhin and Coto are subdivided into small lots and sold to their bonafide tenants

-

1952 Newly created SAN LORENZO COMPANY. INC. purchases raw land from AYALA y CIA for development (San Lorenzo Village) Jacobo Zobel donates Hacienda Bigaa to his only son. Enrique Zobel Olgado 1954 Development of Bel-Air Village for the middle income group 1957 Development of Urdaneta Village for the upper income group The Land Tenure Administration. a governmimt corporation. purchases parts of Calatagan and Bigaa with the object of reselling the same to their bona-fide occupants

231

1961 Colonel Joseph McMicking and wife, Mercedes. establish the FILIPlNAS FOUNDATION, INC. 1962 Creation of Magallanes and Dasmarinas Villages 1965 AYALA CORPORATION absorbs PUREFOODS. INCORPORATED 1967 Creation of the Ayala Musewn at the Insular Life Bldg.

1968 AYALA y CIA ceases to be a partnership and becomes a corporation Enrique Zobel and Jaime Zobel de Ayala become the President and Vice-President respectively of AYALA CORPORATION 1973 AYALA CORPORATION signs a memorandum of agreement inviting participation of Mitsubishi. a Japanese firm 1977 AYALA CORPORATION begins garment production 1978 Start of the renovation plans for both the Makati Commercial Complex and the Greenbelt Square Complex 1980 AYALA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION enters into contracts with Brunei and Papua New Guinea An investors' agreement is signed Signaling Ayala Corporation's involvement in integrated micro electronics 1983 Jaime Zobel de Ayala becomes the President of Ayala Corporation

I

I i

II

BmLIOGRAPHY

Mallat de Bassilan. Jean. Les Philippines.

Paris: Arthur Bertrand. 1846.

A. Books:

Mahathir Sin Mohamad . The Malay Dilemma.

Singapore: Federal Publications. 1970.

Argensol. Bartolome Leonardo de. Conquisto de los Islas Malucos (1609). Zaragosa. 1891.

Mas y Sanzo Sinibaldo de. Report on the Condition of the Philippines in 1842. Madrid . 1843.

Filipiniana holdings of the Ayala y Compania Library as of December , 1960. (various pagings) Ayala Corporation. Library. Printed materials concerning the Philippines in the Ayala y Compania Library. Makati, 1958. [14 pp.)

Diaz-Trechuelo . Ma r ia Lo urdes Spinola.

Primary sources of the his tory of the Philippines in archives and libraries of Spain .

Manila , 1969. [247 pp .)

Alip. Eufronio M. Political and Cultural History of the Philippines. Manila: Alip and Brion Publications. 1950.

Michener. James A. Iberia. Connecticut : Random House. Inc .. 1968.

Ball. B. L.. Rambles in Eastern Asia. Boston: James French and Company . 1855.

Morga. Antonio de. Sucesos de las Islas Filipinos 1559-1636. Mexico. 1600.

Blair. Emma Helen and Robertson. James Alexander . The Philippine Islands (1893).

Cleveland. Ohio: A. H. Clark. 1909.

Murillo Velarde. Pedro. Histori a de 10 Provincia de Philippinas de 10 Compania de Jesus, Manila, 1749.

Bowring. John . A Visit to the Philippine Islands . Manila : Filipiniana Book Guild. Inc ..

1963.

Retana y Gamboa. Wenceslao Emilio. Indice de personas nobles y otras de calida d que han estado en Filipinos desde 1521 hasta 1898.

Madrid. 1921.

Aya la Corporation , 1979-1983.

Schurz, William Lytle. Th e Manila Galleon.

New York : E. P. Dutton and Company. Inc., 1959.

Brooks. Patricia. "Art in the Philippines Today," Evening News Saturda y Magazine.

Sept. 12, 1953.

Stevens, Joseph Earl. Yesterdays in the Philippines. New York: Charles Scribner's. 1898.

Buencamino, Victor, "Manila Under Japanese Occupation," Bulletin of th e American Historical Collection [BAHC) Vol. VllI, No.1. Jan . - March 1980. pp. 30-40.

Cela. Camilo Jose. Barcelona.

Ediciones Alfaguara . S. A.. 1970.

C. Periodicals: Anonymous. " Ba mboo Breezes Ameri-cans in the Philippines. Bulletin of tIle American Historical Collection . Vol. IX. No.2. pp . 99-101.

Annual

Repor ts .

Madrid :

Comyn. Tomas de. Estado de las Islas Filipinos en 1810. Madrid. 1820.

De la Costa. Horacio. Readings in Philippine History. Manila: Bookmark. Inc .. 1965.

Elles. Henry T. Hong Kong to Manila . London : Smith. Elder and Company: 1859.

Thomas. W. H. Life in th e East Indies. Boston: Lee and Shepard , 1872.

Catajoy. Juvenal. "Ayala Perspective" series, Kuwentong Ayala. 1978-1981.

Estanislao. 1. P .. and Montes. V. S. Philippine Economic Structure from the 20 's to the 70 路s.

Manila: Sinagtala. 1974.

Torres y Lanzas, Pedro. Ca talogo de los documentos relativos a las Islas Filipinos existentes en el Archivo de Indios de Sevilla , Barcelona, 1925 .

Goodman. Grant K.. "The Good Fight. " BAHC, Vol. IX, No.1. pp. 86-87.

Estrada. Angel and del Carmen. Vicente. The World of Felix Roxos. Manila: Filipiniana Book Guild. 1970.

T\1bangui. Helen. et . al. The Filipino Na tion: A History of the Philippines. New Yo rk: Grolier International. Inc .. 1982.

Halsema . James, "Hubert Phelps Whitmarsh: Adventurer. Writer and First Governor of Baguio." BAHC, Vol. IX, No.2. p. 65 .

Filipino Heritage. Vol. VI and VII. Lahing Pilipino Publishing. Inc .. 1978.

Valdepeiias, V. B. and Ba utista, G. M. The Emergence of the Philippin e Economy. Ma nila: Papyrus Press. 1977.

Joaquin , Nick, "The Other Manila," Philippines Free Press. Dec. 13. 195 2, p. 54.

Foreman. John. The Philippine Islands. New York: Charles Scribner路s. 1899.

Golay. F. H. The Philippines: Public Policy and Notional Economic Development. New York: Cornell University Press. 1961.

Younghusband, George John . Th e Philippines and Round About. MacMillan and Compa ny, 1859.

Yule, Henry. The Diary of w. M. Hedges.

London: Hakluyt Society, Vol. I - III , 1889.

Jagor. Feodor. Reisen in den Philippinen.

Berlin. 1873 .

La Perouse. Comte de Jean Francois Galaup de. Voyage de 10 Perouse autour du monde.

Paris. 1797.

Legarda . Benito Jr. American Entrepreneurs in the 19th Century Philippines .

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Undated .

Le Gentil de la Galaisiere. Guillaume Joseph Hyacinthe Jean Baptiste. Voyage dans les mers del' Inde. Paris 1779-81 . English translation in Manila. Filipiniana Book Guild. 1964.

MacMicking. Robert. Recollections of Manilo and the Philippines during 1848-1850. London : Richard Bentley. 1851.

Powell, !for B., "The British in the Philippines in the American Era. " BA HC, Vol. X, No.2. pp . 37-55 .

Program notes, Commencement Exercises, Ateneo de Manila, March 24. 1963.

Quirino. Carlos. "Manila 's First Art School."

The Chronicle Magazine. July 15, 1967 . pp. 12-13.

B. Unpublished papers and Catalogs: Aguirre, Alfonso J. "The History of the Ayala Family," unpublished manuscript. 1981.

Ayala Corporation. Information Services Department (Archives). Makati bibliogra phy: an index to published and unpublished materials on Makati, Filipinas Foundation Inc., 1972. (47 pp.)

Roces. Alfredo, "An Iberian Interlude " . Amorsolo. 1975. p. 42 .

Rosca. Ninotchka. "The Oldest Corpora tion in the Philippines." 1975 Fookien Times Yearbook. pp . 158-1 69.

Zobel. Fernando "Fernando Amorsolo. Hi s Contribution. " Th e Insurance Line series .

1960. No . 1. pp . 11-1 2.

Ayala Corporation. Information Services Department. File of published and unpublished material including documents on the Ro xas, Zobel and Ayala families.

"From Luna to Luz". Philippines Free Press.

Aug. 30. 1958 , p. 67.

Ayala Corporation. Library. Classified list of

"The First Philippine Porcelain." Philippine Studies. Jan. 1961 . pp . 17-19.

233

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author and the editor of this book would like to thank Colonel Joseph R. McMicking and Fernando Zobel who reviewed historical fa cts and contributed many insights.

They would also like to thank Enrique Zobel and Jaime Zobel de Ay ala who sent many photographs from the family album.

)

235

THE AUTHOR Eduardo Lachica is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal with diplomatic and international economics as his beat.

He wrote the story of the Ayala family and the business in 1961 when he was the chief investigative reporter of the Philippines Herald. The Ayala story was part of a major manuscript on the history of Philippine business houses which appeared in the Philippines Herald magazine. For this book, he expanded and updated the Ayala story to cover the recent years. He was encouraged and assisted in his research then by Don Fernando Zobel as he was assisted in this updated manuscript by Col. Joseph R. McMicking and Jaime Zobel de Ayala.

Born in Manila, Lachica studied at the Ateneo de Manila (Class '52, bachelor of literature in journalism) and was a Nieman Fellow in Harvard University.

In addition to numerous articles in the Christian Science Monitor and the Asian Wall Street Journal in both of which he worked as a correspondent, Lachica is the author of the book, Huk: Philippine Agrarian Society in Revolt, published by Praeger Publishing Co., New York, 1970.

Lachica belongs to the Harvard Club of New York. He resides in Washington, D.C.

236

THE EDITOR

THE CONTRIBUTORS

Primarily a writer, Monina Allarey Mercado has also crafted a career as book editor. She has been working on the Ayala story for the past three years, creating the book concept and directing the research, the writing, the photography, the design and production work.

In recent years, she worked as editor of The Filipinos Journal of Science and Culture and of The Sultan of Brunei, both publications of the Filipinas Foundation, Inc. She is at present working as the editor of two other books soon to be published by FFI. These are Ma-i, a pictorial treatise on the cultural values of the minority peoples of the Philippines and The History of Science and Technology in the Philippines.

Mrs. Mercado is a graduate of Maryknoll College, A.B. literature, magna cum laude.

Leonidas V. Benesa has written numerous articles and books on Philippine art, among them, Joya Drawings, Vera-Reyes , 1973, and Okir: The Epiphany of Philippine Graphic Art. Interlino Printing Company, 1982. He graduated with a Master of Arts in English Literature from the Ateneo de Manila. At present, he writes a weekly art review for the Philippines Daily Express.

THE DESIGNER Other than this work, Frey G. Cabading has designed other books of which three have received international citations. Philippine Atlos (Fund for Assistance to Private Education, 1974) received a technical book citation in the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1975. Philippines: Where Asia Wears a Smile (Ministry of Tourism, 1975) was cited for design in Creativity 6, a New York exposition, in 1976. Almanac for Manilefios (Mr. & Ms. Publishing House, 1979) received a total book design citation at the 1980 International Graphic Biennale, Brno, Czechoslovakia.

Mr. Cabading heads Grafika Manila, a graphic design consulting firm. He is also a consultant for graphic and editorial design of the Geneva-based UNCTAD. Mr. Cabading graduated from the University of the Philippines, Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Virginia Benitez-Licuanan completed her Bachelor of Science in Education at the Missouri State Teachers' College. after which she did graduate work in English at Columbia University in New York. For 20 years after World War II she wrote a daily column, "Incidentally" for the Manila Chronicle. which although ostensively abo ut Manila society, was a very influential opinion column. Among the books she has written a re Filipinos and Americans: A Love-Hate Relationship, a history of Baguio and the Baguio Country Club, 1982, and Money in the Bank. a history of money and banking in the Philippines. commissioned by the Philippine Commercial and Industrial Bank (PCIB). She is also preparing a compilation of the letters of her late mother, Paz Marquez Benitez, a well known short story writer.

Bernardo M. Villegas writes current subst antive economic analyses. He is the author of several books, among which is Strategies for Crises: Story of the Philippine National Oil Company (Center for Research and Communication, 1983). He also coauthored the following books: Productivity: Path to Philippine Progress (Sinagtala Publishers, 1982) with Pastor Lorenzo; Economics: An Introduction. first edition with Rolando Sto. Domingo and the second edition with Victor Abola. He studied in Harvard University where he obtained his Ph.D. in economics.

237

RESEARCH

AYALA MUSEUM JUVENAL CATAJOY CENTRO CULTURAL HISPANICO. EMBAJADA DE ESPANA INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT (AYALA ARCHIVES).

AYALA CORPORATION LOPEZ MEMORIAL MUSEUM ATT .SALVADORJ. LORAYES PHILIPPINE NATIONAL ARCHIVES PHILIPPINE NATIONAL LIBRARY. RARE BOOKS SECTION

238

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

Pictures

EMIL DAVOCOL

.... . .. All photographs from page 166 to Page 202. except for the following: Pages 169. 170 and 172

JAIME ZOBEL DE AYALA FRANK ALVIZ

Page 180 (lower photograph)

ERNESTO RAMIREZ

Page 191

RODOLFO DE LEON

Page 192 Page 215 to 223

EFREN SOCORRO

Drawings

RICO MARIANO

Pages 35 and 39

ELMER GERNALE

Pages 41 and 46

PORFIRIO DACANA Y

Page 47

Sketches

FERNANDO ZOBEL

. . . .. . . Pages 49 to 59. 83. 90. 165. 205 and 214

239

I

JUAN LARRAZABAL DE AYALA _--,_ _ MARIA LOPEZ 1 (ca. 1475)

II

MARIA ORTIZ DE MENDOZA _ _,.-_ _ JUAN DE AYALA (ca . 1500)

1

'1__ MARIA DE ULIBARR

TIl

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IV

Ii I

I

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VI

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IX

I

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DOMINGO ROXAS 11'182-1843)

I

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MATIllAS EUSEBIO DE AYALA _ _ (b. 1744)

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:"::RARY

IN ASSETS, scope of activities and sales, Ayala Corporation is one of the Philippines largest corporations today. Although its substantial income still comes from real estate in the country's premier urban area, Makati, and in the development of the New Alabang estate, Ayala has gone into various other activities. Its latest strong thrusts are into agribusiness and food processing to meet the needs of the PHilippine population. Moreover, the Corporation continues to integrate its bank in& trading and production areas, while widening its sectoral interests and lengthening its geographical reach. One division has constructed roads and sewerage systems in Brunei and Papua, New Guinea. Ayala owns hotels in Makati, Davao and Singapore. It is in two of the Philippines' fastest growing nontraditional exports - electronics and garments. Forming the financial bedrock of th e Ayala conglomera te is the Bank of the Philippine Islands in which the Corporation has a 33-lh% share. Since Pedro Roxas bought Ayala's first shares in this bank shortly before the turn of the century, it has become the iargest privately owned commercial bank in the Philippines. Over the 150 years of its history, the Ayala Corporation has been actively managed for six generations by dedicated and competent members of the fa m ily. One can think of few other merchant dynas ties that h ve exhibIted such longevity. As Ayala widens its base, a new cadre of anagers continues to be trained. Ayala has been hirinl?, its share of MBAs fro m Harvard and Wharton and is gaining strengtli and identity as Ii com pany of business technocrats. While Philippine corporate culture reo quires strong leadership at the top, the mem :rs ( the j m ily who are working professionals in the Corpo. ation reahz tha.1 their strength continues to be their management in collegiality ith tra 'l ed, hardworking and idealistic technocrats.

AYALA fOUHDATION.l"kl .

F I LIP I N A S

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II E R I TAG E

Ayala: the Philippines' oldest business house I by Eduardo

LIB R A R Y Lachica

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