MEDIUM RARE

Thank God there’s a Friday every week.

Last week it was Friday the ninth of August, and it turned out to be a fun night for the three of us. There was a fourth person, but he was not present though he might as well have been, for the number of times his name was mentioned.  

That name: Enrique K. Razon, the richest Filipino, second to none, owner of the Solaire restaurant where we would be eating and the Solaire theater where we would be watching La Sylphide, the ballet.  As of this writing, there are two Solaire hotel and casino resorts, one in Parañaque, one in Quezon City. There’s a third one in Korea.

Mr. Razon, EKR to you, chairman and president of International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), with a port in every continent of the world, is worth US$11.1 billion as of Aug. 13, 2024, according to Forbes. (Disclosure: He was my boss for eight years at Manila Standard.)

When I bragged to my companions about my past with EKR, suddenly dinner for three and Sylphide with Ballet Philippines became mere background. My nosey friends wanted to know what he’s like. I said, “Mysterious, like most rich men. He won’t talk about himself.” Lucky is the reporter who can get him to sit down for an interview; luckier if he will agree to be photographed. When he built a handsome cafeteria near his office “for employees only,” I asked why I was not invited. His reply: “’Cause you’ll write about it.”

Manny Villar, the second richest Filipino, is also a man of few words, though his stint in the Senate may have reduced some of that shyness. His wife, Senator Cynthia, is among the hardest working in the Senate, and she’s not shy to speak up where the environment is concerned.     

As EKR sets his sights on conquering a larger share of the continents for ICTSI, former Senate president Villar continues to draw a larger map for the estate of his dreams: a wonderland of ecological splendor and marvel that will be so breathtakingly beautiful its very nature will make it impossible -- nay, unnatural -- for humans to spoil it.

We need more rich men like these two guys.