Old railway system creates bus empires -2

Filipino firms can be multinationals

A business partner and bus industry rival of Johnny

Hernandez is the self-made billionaire and former

Palawan logger Jose "Pepito" Chavez Alvarez of the

Columbian Motors Group. He bought out the

Hernandez family's control of Philtranco (400

buses) late last year.

Hernandez is an investor in Sta. Rosa Motor Works

Inc. (producers of Nissan buses and trucks),

Columbian Autocars Inc. (producers of Korea's Kia

vehicles and Japan's Mazda), Asian Carmakers Inc.

(producers of BMW vehicles).

The 56-year-old Pepito Alvarez also controls

Tritran, a leading firm with about 300 buses and

which Alvarez bought from the heirs of the late

Eugenio Trinidad (a maternal uncle of Johnny

Hernandez).

While in Puerto Princesa City a few years ago,

Pepito Alvarez recounts to this writer his inspiring

"rags-to-riches" career.

He says he used to work for his in-laws the Roa

clan of Cagayan de Oro City as manager of a

Toyota car dealership in the South. He also learned

the lucrative logging business during visits to

Indonesia, and he exported logs to Japan and

started importing vehicles back to the Philippines.

After earning a fortune from Palawan and Indonesia

logging operations, billionaire Pepito Alvarez is now

the country's biggest manufacturer of buses and

trucks, as well as a major car producer.

Unlike many politicians with old-fashioned ideas

about trade and investments favoring

protectionism, Alvarez favors globalization. He is

one example of a progressive Filipino entrepreneur

with a global perspective and with bold overseas

investments.

Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Thac Dinh tells

this writer that Alvarez is the biggest Filipino

investor in Vietnam today, a booming nation

following the reformist policies which are

transforming China into a future economic

superpower.

A visionary who had long foreseen the irreversible

future trend of globalization that some politicians

still refuse to see, Alvarez had been scouting for

Vietnam business opportunities since 1989.

In 1991, Alvarez established Vietnam's first and

biggest postwar vehicle manufacturer with

Nichimen Corp. of Japan and the Vietnamese

government as partners.

Through his Vietnam Motors Corp., Alvarez had

already invested billions of pesos in Vietnam and

helped establish a strong Philippine presence in

Asean's next "economic miracle".

The Alvarez business strategy is brilliant and

economically advantageous for the Philippines,

since Vietnam is the strategic gateway to the

resource-rich Indochina region and its huge

potential market.

The former owners of Philtranco were American

servicemen led by A.L. Ammen before World War II.

They sold Philtranco to the Tuason clan of

Chinese-Spanish mestizo landowners, then sold to

Mantrade of Antonio Lopa (related to the late

textile industrialist Ramon Siy Lai, whose mother

was also from the Lo clan). Johnny Hernandez

controlled Philtranco for only one year, before

selling it to Alvarez.

Other leading tycoons of the strategic bus

transport industry nationwide include billionaire

Ricardo "Ric" Yanson of Bacolod City who controls

Satellite Ceres Liner (1,200 buses) in Negros

Occidental; the Paras and Nisce clans of Tarlac,

Tarlac of Philippine Rabbit Bus Lines (500 buses)

and the Tengco clan of Baliwag, Bulacan of Baliwag

Transit (500 buses).

Other bus owners include the Potenciano clan

which controls BLTB Co. (300 buses); the Saulog

clan of Dagupan Bus Co. (200 buses) and Saulog

Transit (150 buses); former Rep. Samuel Dangwa

of Dangwa Tranco (200 buses) and controversial

Ilocos Norte politician Rudy Fariñas of Fariñas

Transit Inc. (100 buses), and others.