Three prominent Filipino businessmen who led the expansion of their respective family business empires died during the Lent.
Banking and insurance tycoon and former ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco passed away Saturday, April 15. He was 94.
Mercury Drug Store founder Dr. Mariano Que, 96, died on April 14, while Roberto Aboitiz, 67, a director of conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures, passed away on April 14.
Yuchengco, who served as the Philippine ambassador to China from 1986 to 1988 and to Japan from 1995 to 1998, was the founding chairman the Yuchengco Group of Companies.
Companies under YGC include Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., EEI Corp., House of Investments and Great Life Financial Assurance Corp.
“Our bank is mourning the untimely demise of our chairman emeritus, Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco, who passed away last Saturday April 15, 2017,” RCBC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
Yuchengco was appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the presidential adviser on foreign affairs in 2004. He served as presidential assistant on Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation matters with cabinet rank from 1998 to 2000 and was appointed chairman of the Council of Private Sector Advisers to the Philippine government on the Spratlys issue (marine and archipelagic development policy task group).
Through his AY Foundation, Yuchengco has initiated many programs designed to benefit underprivileged communities.
He graduated from Far Eastern University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce and completed his graduate studies at Columbia University in New York in 1950.
Meanwhile, Aboitiz was a director of AEV since 1994 and served as chairman of the board from 2005 to 2008. “Mr. Aboitiz was a true leader who made valuable contributions to make AEV the conglomerate that it is today. He was instrumental in the development and success of the Aboitiz Group’s construction, real estate, and ship building businesses,” AEV said in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
