For five consecutive years now, I am happy to say that my intention to document and list down top Filipino living intellectuals has paid off. Lots of secondary, college, and graduate students who surf my blog and read my articles keep on posting positive reviews and comments in my annual Pinoy Top Thinkers Today (PTTT).
For 2012, I must truly say that our country is
blessed with so much brilliance of brainpower. This is a country where bright
minds converge and where freedom to express your mind is highly scrutinized and
talked about; with the twist of social media’s increasing influence to every
Pinoy’s daily life which becomes inevitable and unstoppable.
The successful legal and political battle to oust
a former Chief Justice, supposedly, the fourth strongest man in the country, is
the trademark of this year. A historic first in the country’s evolving
democratic maturity fortified by the rallying support from the executive,
legislative, and judiciary branches of our government, which brought prisms of
intellect and best arguments in a politically-driven and quasi-judicial court
of the Senate; televised and viewed publicly by humorous and critical Pinoys
from different walks of life and fellow countrymen in many Filipino diasporic
communities abroad.
Nonetheless, this singular event had shown
luminaries and brightest lawyers our country has had; a joke that the
Philippines produces more lawyers would make our country forever a developing
economy because we argue a lot than acting on things concretely, and maybe
because most of our bureaucrats in the government are ruled by lawyers. That’s
why another theory is proposed that medical doctors should govern our
government mainly because they are more ‘methodical’ in prescribing solutions
to social issues of our country. I have no doubt that Dr Jose Rizal, the first
Filipino genius and foremost great thinker our country had, would certainly
agree with me.
Furthermore, the Philippines is beginning to
turn-around economically, regaining to tickle its momentum as it bandwagons to
Asian century’s limelight as a centrifugal force to lead the world economy.
That’s why technocrats from the business community are always wittingly
recognized in my yearly ‘who’s who’ of Filipino top thinkers because of their
ability to gain more wealth for the Philippines and exporting Filipino brand of
ideas in a very competitive global village.
Closest to my heart are also the academics,
scientists, artists, and sportsmen who continuously shine in their chosen
fields, giving more prestige to our country’s intellectual culture and
traditions.
Without much ado, here’s my roster of Pinoy Top
Thinkers Today with their surnames in alphabetical order!!!
Ramon Ang
(industrialist, visionary) – it is but fitting to list down this great guy
as one of Pinoy top thinkers today! He has done enough to sustain economic
buoyancy of the country, with his San Miguel Corporation, the largest and most
diversified conglomerate in the country! Under his management as the new
president of SMC, Ang’s unorthodox and out-of-the-box management style is
making a lot of headway within international circles, in particular the
ambitious re-fleeting and modernization program of PAL that includes the
purchase of 100 new planes. SMC is in every growth sector of our country and
still continues to be an investor in major growth projects. An alumnus of Far
Eastern University (FEU) with a mechanical engineering degree. From his humble
beginnings, he rose from the ranks and later was appointed as president and COO
of SMC in 2002. But his business relationship with Eduardo Cojuangco SMC’s top
honcho, as the Inquirer has recently cited, goes back as far as his humble
beginnings as the proprietor of a small firm that specialized in reconditioning
surplus engines. Ang also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Cyber Bay
Corporation andPetron Corporation.
Benigno
Aquino III (15th president of the Philippines) – a.k.a PNOY or Noynoy, he enjoys
popularity and sincerity of his vision to make our country great in the 21st
century! Now my third time to cite him in my prestigious annual gallery of top
thinkers alive, he placed the Philippines in the map of current deterritorialized
world as the new darling for investments and opportunities. His serious
policies to curb graft and corruption has made us Pinoy earn the respect of the
international community as we stride into higher notch for credit ratings,
transparency, and good governance worldwide. With this, our country continues
to become confident as a creditor for ailing European economies. A promising
young president, whose goodwill has impeached a chief justice, signed a peace
deal with the MILF, promoted reproductive health against the conservative
church, and is modernizing the country’s armed forces as he sees a new
architecture and landscape of security environment in the West Philippine Sea.
He relived the words of his great father Benigno Aquino Jr – a national hero –
that Filipinos are worth dying for!
Jaime Augusto & Fernando Zobel de
Ayala (high-end retailer kings, multi-awarded industrialists) – Jaime
serves as Chairman and CEO while Fernando works as President and COO of Ayala
Corporation. For many generations, they were one of the very few pioneering
families who put the Philippines in the world map of business. High brand Ayala
is very much known for luxury, sophistication, and quality of services,
products, and designs. They are the masters of growth, innovation and
diversity. A famous avenue in the country’s financial district is named after
them. They own one of the country’s largest banks - Bank of the
Philippine Islands. They own one of the country’s top telecommunication
networks - Globe Telecom. They own one of the country’s leading real estate
developer - Ayala Land. Other businesses of the Ayalas include water
distribution business Manila Water Company, information technology business
Integrated Microelectronics, Inc., business process outsourcing company
Integreon, and so on. Jaime’s Honors include World Economic Forum Global Leader
for Tomorrow in 1995, Emerging Markets CEO of the year in 1998 (sponsored by
ING), Philippine TOYM (Ten Outstanding Young Men) Award in 1999 and Management Association
of the Philippines Management Man of the Year Award in 2006. Most recently, Mr.
Zobel was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit on March 11, 2009. Lately,
the brothers Jaime and Fernando share their business secrets to Business Week
and Go Negosyo on the success of the Ayalas, to wit: Passion for the enterprise
is the formula for growth. Blood relations running the enterprise isn’t a
guarantee for growth, at best, it’s coincidental, not essential. It is one
thing to accept change, but it is more entrepreneurial to be the source of
change. And lastly, entrepreneurship is key to nation building.
Diosdado Banatao (philanthropist, engineer)
– a.k.a the Bill Gates of the Philippines! From his very humble beginnings from
Iguig Cagayan Valley and going big time to Silicon Valley in the US, he never
forgot his roots! He pursued his secondary education in a Jesuit run school,
Ateneo de Tuguegarao. After finishing high school, he obtained a bachelor’s
degree in Electrical Engineering at Mapua Institute of Technology and graduated
cum laude. He later completed an MS Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
from Stanford University in 1972 in order to enhance his craft as design
engineer for Boeing in the United States. According to http://www.forbes.com, he is the founder and
has been Managing Partner of Tallwood Venture Capital (Tallwood) since July
2000. From April 2008 to June 2009, he served as Interim Chief Executive
Officer of SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. (SiRF), a publicly-traded company
that was acquired by CSR plc in June 2009 (SiRF). From October 2006 to August
2007, he served as Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Inphi
Corporation. Prior to forming Tallwood, he was a venture partner at the
Mayfield Fund, a venture capital firm, from January 1998 to May 2000. Among his
achievements, he co-founded three technology startups: S3 Graphics Ltd in 1989,
Chips & Technologies, Inc. in 1985 and Mostron, Inc. in 1984. In his
comeback to the Philippines, he continues to offer scholarships to bright
students in Cagayan Valley and is willing to donate millions of dollars to
resurrect his defunct alma mater Ateneo de Tuguegarao.
Jejomar
Binay (15th vice president of the Philippines) - highly
educated, a seasoned politician, human rights lawyer, family man, and currently
the most trusted government official in the country based from survey results.
But will he become the Philippines’ president in 2016? Only time and destiny
will tell. But the Binay fever is everywhere! The current sitting
vice-president who aspires to become the next president has announced early on
his bid for the presidential post; forming aggressively a coalition opposition
party with former president Joseph Estrada. However, political analysts see
this coalition as “opposition but not opposition” party because of the very
high popularity of PNOY. Thus, in retracing Binay’s political roots, his
baptism of fire as a politician was realized when he became the mayor of Makati
city through the support of former president Corazon Aquino, the late mother of
the sitting president. But what I admire him most, is how cultured he came to
be. He’s standing tall as a proud Ibanag, representing an ethnic group up north
of Luzon with a very rich culture and tradition, and founded a heritage
foundation aimed at preserving the Ibanag culture. Being its chairman, the Ibanag
language is now included in the Department of Education’s Mother-Tongue Based
Multi-Lingual Education (MTB-MLE) program that will revive the dying Ibanag
language. Thus, more cultural exchanges, researches on tangible and intangible
culture of the Ibanags, and programs will soon be fostered and implemented by
the heritage foundation he started that will inspire other ethnic groups in the
Philippines to do the same endeavor of strengthening the richness of their own
and distinct culture.
Romulo Davide (Ramon Magsaysay awardee,
agricultural scientist) – the Philippines remains to be a pivotal
agricultural country in Southeast Asia in spite of its increasing service
industries. And you bet, farmers can be scientists, too. He’s one of the
pioneering agricultural scientists; and the rock star scientist among his
circle of agriculturalists. In his citation as one of 2012’s Ramon Magsaysay
awardee, the award-giving body recognized "his
steadfast passion in placing the power and discipline of science in the hands
of Filipino farmers, who have consequently multiplied their yields, created
productive farming communities and rediscovered the dignity of their
labor." He also invented the first Philippine pesticide that can
be used against roundworms or nematodes infesting crops. BIOCON is also
considered as a “practical substitute for highly toxic and expensive
nematicides.” Thus, the success of BIOCON, which first came out in 1992, went
beyond the Philippines as it is now being sold worldwide.
Juan Ponce Enrile (senate president,
statesman) – his recently launched and a book-seller 754-page memoir is a
must read! He played a pivotal role during Marcos’s martial law as his protégé,
being appointed the secretary of justice and defense minister. He’s a
controversial statesman from Cagayan who served the executive, legislative, and
judiciary branches of the Philippine government spanning from six
administrations/presidents. Manong Johnny, as he was fondly called, has lived a
very colorful life from rags to riches story. Highly educated here and abroad;
his persona is bigger than life, based from the recently shown documentary by a
leading television station and a biography written about his life. Despised by
many of his colleagues because of his exceptional wit, intellect, diskarte, and
memory of laws – his credibility as one of the finest lawyers our country has
had was cemented during the trial of the first ousted Chief of Justice only
this year. His own narrative about his life and his contributions to Philippine
politics and society can be captured as footnotes in our history. Rarely do we
have an elderly stateman in the Philippines, loved and despised, and who lived
a protagonist/antagonist image; shaping and influencing (whether good or bad)
landscapes of our contemporary politics, business, history, and society. I can
attest to his sharpness of mind, when I finally witnessed his fondness of
indigenous food found only in Cagayan, which I myself never saw and tasted in
my childhood also growing in the same province where he came from, during our
meeting with him and VP Binay, the Ibanag council of elders, and board of
trustees of the Ibanag Heritage Foundation, Incorporated at Coconut
Palace.
Lance
Gokongwei (technocrat, global achiever, heir) - he’s the heir of the
Gokongwei’s empire, serving as president and COO, while his father John
Gokongwei, still serves as Chairman Emeritus. A western-bred businessman and
graduated with double summa cum laude honors from the University of
Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics,
Applied Science; and the Wharton School of Business in Finance in a span of only
three and a half years. A young intellectual, technocrat, and global achiever –
he received distinctions such as the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year
in 2005, Ten Outstanding Young Men in 2000, and Class of Global Leader for
Tomorrow in 1999. Based from JG Summit Holdings, Inc website, he’s the
President and Chief Operating Officer of JGSHI. He had been Executive Vice
President of JGSHI and was elected President and Chief Operating Officer
effective January 1, 2002. He is also President and Chief Operating Officer of
URC, and JGSPC. He is the Vice-Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of
RLC and LMI. He is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cebu Air, Inc.
and DIGITEL, Chairman of Robinsons Savings Bank (RSB), President of Digital
Information Technology Services, Inc. (DITSI), Vice Chairman of JGSCMC, and a
director of OPMC, UIC and Singland. He is a trustee, secretary and treasurer of
GBFI.
Serafin
Cuevas (prime defense counsel, legal luminary) – despite his defeat as the
lead defense counsel in the recently concluded highly-politicized and
highly-publicized trial of an impeached chief justice Renato Corona, he has
shown brightly inside the august hall of the senate his wit and fortitude;
considered as one of the highly-respected legal luminaries in the country.
Having the right attitude, this prominent member of the well-organized
religious group of the Iglesia Ni Cristo, graduated law from the University of
the Philippines. A former Associate Justice, judge, top legal practitioner, and
professorial lecturer of law himself. When asked by senator Juan Ponce Enrile,
the presiding judge of the impeached chief justice, the latter having known by
heart the Rules of Court would respond immediately and sharply. The result of
constant study. He has the stature of not being bamboozled by anyone,
according to his fellow defense counsels. Recently, he bagged the
“Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award” by the UP Alumni Association.
Regina Paz Lopez (environmentalist, river
warrior, broadcast heiress) – a.k.a Gina Lopez is a celebrity in her own
right! Credit her in her majestic vision of leading and transforming informal
settlers to become river warriors as they clean up the esteros of Metro Manila in her usual all white fashionable outfits.
She debunks dominant theories that it’s normal to have increasing slums and
poverty porn in cities as it progresses, rather, she deems that cities should
remain clean and beautiful, the more it progresses. Although, a broadcast
heiress herself, her surname rings a bell when environment is discussed in
high-level conferences. With her family’s diversified communications and
broadcast industry, she can command her talents to mount a run for Pasig River,
which is usually a blockbuster among advocates of the environment, in her
effort to clean up Metro Manila’s state of the nation – the Pasig River. With
this, Gina has been recently appointed as chair of the Pasig River
Rehabilitation Commission (PRRC) after taking her oath, along with 35 other
appointees to various government agencies and offices before President Benigno
Aquino III in Malacañang . Also this year, Save Palawan Movement convenor
Regina Paz Lopez debated with one of the country’s prime industrialist and
communications mover Philex Mining chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP), caught
on video that went viral on YouTube in their frank exchange of views that
animated the crowd of mining industry stakeholders at one conference in the
country’s financial district. She’s also the Executive Director of the ABS-CBN
Foundation, Inc. espousing key campaigns and programs such as Bantay Bata
(Child Watch), Educational Television (ETV), Bantay Kalikasan (Environment
Watch), Kapit Bisig Para sa Ilog Pasig (Holding Together for Pasig River),
Sagip Kapamilya (Saving Members of the Family), Bayan Foundation (Community
Foundation), and Bayan ni Juan (Country of Juan).
Conchita Carpio-Morales (ombudsman) – she ruled
my gallery of Pinay top thinkers last year because of her accomplishments as
then associate justice and the first female magistrate to administer the oath
of office of the Philippine President. This year, she magnified again power and
positive change as the newly-appointed ombudsman of the country. As
opinion-maker Conrado de Quiros wrote, her appointment is, “a sea of change from the days of Merceditas Gutierrez where the
ombudsman existed to make sure that no venal, corrupt or piratical public official
would ever be brought to justice. Or threatened by it.” In an article she
herself wrote on ‘Corruption linked to culture of expectations’ – she lamented
in writing that, “the incidence of
corruption may also be partly attributed to a culture of societal expectations
that condition or pressure the minds of professionals like lawyers, doctors,
engineers as well as government officials to exhibit a high level of status
just to prove or satisfy the societal expectation or depiction of a successful
professional or leader.” Instead she elevates public service as a public
trust, a duty to society, and she calls for unified and comprehensive reform
agenda that can hit the mark in ridding this country of the corrosive element
of corruption and rebuilding the foundation of good governance.
Al Haj Murad (moro leader, bearer of peace)
– from a hardliner to voice of moderation, according to Maria Ressa’s
Rapler.com. He was a feared military commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front (MILF) who steered a once ragtag secessionist band of rebels under the
shadow of the more ideological and scholarly Hashim Salamat, from whom he
inherited the chairmanship of the country’s largest Moro rebel group. Murad was
one semester short of finishing his civil engineering course from the Notre
Dame of University in Cotabato City when he joined the Moro National Liberation
Front (MNLF) in 1972. According to stories, it is the violence in his Moro
homeland that brought Murad into the movement that for years had pushed for
separation from the state. Today he seeks to end that violence, giving up his
group's call for independence, and playing a key role in ensuring peace to
last. On 15 October 2012, he and President Aquino signed a preliminary
agreement after 32 formal meetings between the MILF and the government spanning
over more than a decade of peace negotiations and the terms of three
presidents. Thank you for bringing peace to Mindanao and to our Filipino Muslim
brothers!
Alfredo Pascual (university president, banker,
educator) – he’s the 20th president of the University of the Philippines –
armed with his BS Chemistry cum laude, MBA
from UP Diliman, and honoris causa in
Doctor of Pedagogy by the Angeles University Foundation in Angeles City. He
taught in ivy league institutions such as UP, Ateneo de Manila, and Asian
Institute of Management (AIM) before pursuing a career for 19 years as an
official at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the biggest financial institution
in Asia. With his corporate management and financial banking experiences, under
his helm being a seasoned advisor on public-private partnerships in
infrastructure, the national university, i.e., UP will soon see major
transformations in its landscape with a monorail now being build up; and
changes in its system as a new campus will soon rise at The Fort Global City in
Taguig through a signed a memorandum of agreement, with BCDA donating to UP a
4,300-square meter lot, for the UP professional schools which will initially
include the College of Law, College of Business Administration, College of
Engineering, School of Statistics and the UP Open University. But his real
challenge is to revive UP and make it one of Asia's top and best universities as it used to be!
Albert del Rosario (top diplomat) – being
the highest paid cabinet member of the Aquino administration, his philanthropic
spirit to give away his salary last year did not reap him enough success on how
to contain China’s growing clout in the West Philippine Sea. But diplomatically
speaking, as the year moved forward he did pretty well in his job as the
top diplomat of the country. He has gone to several battles and stayed buoyant
being a successful manager and entrepreneur at the peak of his career in the
business community, arming himself with his BS degree in Economics from New
York University. Then later, he became the Ambassador Plenipotentiary and
Extraordinary of the Republic of the Philippines to the United States of America.
But now as secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, his real challenge
is how to solve our issue/s with China and secure our territorial integrity. He
is expected to perform conscientiously in his job especially on how he
influences the ASEAN countries to bandwagon in our cause, how to safeguard our
overseas workers, and discipline his senior and junior diplomats acting like
kings and queens, and vacationers or tourists, when they are deployed abroad –
spending government’s money for personal pleasures and idiosyncrasy. Most
Filipino Foreign service officers and diplomats are so elitists in dealing with
OFWs abroad who are working so hard to pump prime our domestic economy! Please
discipline your employees!
UP Law Debate Team (future lawyers and
jurists) - this is my first time to give citation to a group of young achievers
and intellectuals. A group of six law students from the University of the
Philippines (UP) College of Law reached the semi-final round of the 2012 Jessup
International Law Moot Court Competition held in the United States. In the
international rounds, the squad from UP defeated law students from Boston
College, Kenya, Japan, Argentina, and Greece before yielding to Moscow State
University, which eventually emerged as champions after beating Columbia Law
School of New York in the finals. The young intellectuals also had colorful
personal backgrounds; some of them are sons of overseas Filipino workers while
studying in the premier university in the country. They are considered as the
future great thinkers of the legal community that the Philippines expect them
to be.
Wesley So
(chess grand master) – he’s the youngest Filipino chess grandmaster,
budding to become a super GM. Wesley achieved the GM title at the age of 14
years, 1 month and 28 days, making him the 8th youngest person to achieve the
Grandmaster title in the history of chess! A true epitome of a young
genius sportsman. His winning moves in the chess Olympiad are well studied by
neophyte chess players like me. According to http://www.chessgames.com, his first
foray into the international arena was at the 12th International Open held in
Nice in 2005, when he scored a creditable 5/7, placing =8th (9th on tiebreak)
and adding 35 points to his rating. He finished 2005 at the Singapore
International Masters Open, winning the award for the best U12 in the
competition and gaining another 37 rating points. In April 2006, he earned his
first International Master norm at the powerful 8th Dubai Open. However, news
came out recently that there’s a possibility that Wesley might migrate to
Canada and the Philippines could lose a potential world champion?
Henry Sy
Jr (retail prince, real estate czar) – he’s the second in command of the
Philippines’ richest family. According to http://smdevelopment.com,
as a management degree holder from De La Salle University, Henry Sy Jr is responsible
for the real estate acquisitions and development activities of SM Land, Inc.
and SM Development Corporation which include the identification, evaluation and
negotiation for potential sites as well as the input of design ideas. He
likewise serves as Vice Chairman of SM Investments Corporation, Vice Chairman
and President of SM Land, Inc. and Highlands Prime, Inc., Director of SM Prime
Holdings, Inc., BDO Unibank, Inc. and SM Residences Corporation. He is also the
President of the National Grid Corporation and Chairman of Pico De Loro
Beach and Country Club, Inc. And being the eldest son of the great Henry Sy,
he holds various executive positions in other affiliates and subsidiaries. In
his portfolio as a business strategist, in 2010 his One Taipan Holding Corp., a
privately-held holding company controlled by Sy family, bought out the 30
percent share of Monte Oro Resources controlled by billionaire Enrique Razon,
for USD350 million. Along with their ethnic Chinese identity, their prized SMC
is also aggressive in retail and property investments in China, the world’s
second largest economy and soon to be an economic superpower.
Luis
Antonio Tagle (cardinal) – will he become the first Pinoy pope of the
entire powerful Catholic church on earth in the future? Only God knows for
sure. But this newly appointed cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI has been educated
by the Jesuits and the San Carlos Seminary with a Doctorate in Sacred Theology
(S.T.D) from the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. In one
of online accounts, he was described as a then bishop known for his humility
and simplicity. He’s also known serving the communities going around riding his
cheap bike. Being an eligible papal contender, he was also quoted by someone as
"a rising star in the Asian
Church." Some prophesied him to be as quoted "a striking number of people who know Tagle believe that this is a
guy who, one day, could be pope." Thus, in one of his sermons, he
summoned his flock by saying that, “having
a faith means having a sustained relationship with God and that this faith
should transform Catholics’ relationship with other people.”
Janine
Tugonon (miss universe 1st runner-up) – well this is showbiz and entertainment at its best for this
gallery of thinkers! But mind you, if you’re a judge in a prestigious pageant
by means of sheer intellect and poise, or beauty and brains – Janine Tugonon
actually nailed it! This licensed pharmacist from UST had the best substantial answer among the contestants,
but thanks to a serious and well-thought of question asked, compared to an ordinary
query thrown to the winner with her honest and simplistic answer. But
hey, raise the roof to her famed “cobra walk!” I never knew that such cat-walk
exists and gracefully executed by a Filipina beau. Another brainy beauty queen,
famed for her “tsunami walk”, the UP architecture and board top-notcher Shamcey
Supsup became a runner-up in last year’s competition. But all in all, Janine
exudes a modern Pinay’s grace under pressure. She’s smart, hip and young, sexy
yet confident, plus her smile can captivate a great audience. And that’s beauty
and brains!
Jose Ramon
Villarin (university president, theologian, physicist) – a.k.a Fr. Jett among the Society of Jesus (S.J.)
congregation and to his students at ADMU. A scientist himself who graduated
with BS Physics magna cum laude and
as a class valedictorian. Subsequently, he entered the SJ and attended the
Loyola School of Theology, where he received a BA degree in Phi in Philosophy
and received his Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree, summa cum laude, in 1985. He then did graduate work in the US,
receiving a MS in Physics from Marquette University in 1987, and a Ph.D in
Atmospheric Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1997. I met him together with ADMU's former president Fr Bienvenido Nebres, SJ, as hosts in the conference on Culture and Leadership at Rockwell Ateneo. He received
the National Outstanding Young Scientist award in 2000 and the Outstanding Book
Award for "Disturbing Climate" in 2002. He is also an active member
of several local and international environment and climate committees, such as
the United Nations' Consultative Group of Experts for Developing Countries, and
the Inter-Agency Committee on Climate Change, among others. However, he
recently made news in headlines of leading newspapers; suffered the ire of
academics, columnists and civil society, when he misread a memo to his
university community on the vexing issue of the Reproductive Health bill, to
wit: Together with our leaders in the
Catholic Church, the Ateneo de Manila University does not support the passage
of House Bill 4244 (The Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and
Population and Development Bill).
