It’s no accident that Chinese Filipinos (or Filipino Chinese) you often find in any part of Binondo are dominant figures and major contributors in the spiraling business climate within this district of Manila.
Plaza Lorenzo Ruiz, one of the main thoroughfares in Binondo, which leads to Divisoria (via Juan Luna) or the 168 Mall (via Reina Regente)
For one, history shows that during the Spanish period, Chinese immigrants who converted to Roman Catholicism and married indigenous Filipinos, were granted special privileges by the Spanish authorities that saw them and their descendants expand from basic traders to money lending business, land leasing and landholding.
Hundreds of years later, the immigrants’ descendants or the Chinese mestizos have expanded and improved the businesses passed on to them by the ancestors. As such, Chinese Filipino businessmen—who handle small, medium-scale and big businesses play significant roles in the Philippine economy today.
When we were still kids, my dad and mom, who used to run a hardware business in Cubao, Quezon City during the late 1970s and the early part of the 1980s, have always taught us (I have four other siblings) the value of hard work, wise use of financial resources and generosity.
These virtues were foundational in the success of numerous Chinese Filipinos till the present, which is why it’s common to hear a one-syllable Chinese surname owning among others food business, real estate, academic institution or banks.
Though Filipino-Chinese people may remain a small minority in the grand scheme of Philippine population, I believe God has strategically placed Fil-Chinese people in this more than 7,000-island archipelago to be a blessing to the country’s economy.
Filipino-Chinese businessmen are among the leaders in foundations that help the financially challenged people or the less fortunate, sponsoring or helping out charity institutions, among others.
They do that out of charity and desire to be a blessing to their community.
I just wonder what more God can do through them when they get reached out through the Gospel, get discipled and released to do ministry?
What a day that would be!
What do you think?