(The Philippine Star) MANILA, Philippines — Real estate tycoon Manuel B. Villar Jr., the so-called brown taipan with a noteworthy rags-to-riches story, has gone a long way even in the country’s billionaire rankings, staying as the richest man in the country for the third straight year from only 12th place in 2016.
Villar, whose business empire has expanded since 2016 with bigger telecommunications and water businesses, has overtaken the usual crop of Spanish-Mestizo and Filipino-Chinese billionaires on the list and leads 17 tycoons in the country who made it to the latest Forbes global billionaires roster.
The Forbes’ 2021 Rich List, unveiled last week, saw 660 more billionaires compared to a year ago and with 86 percent richer today than last year, despite the COVID-19 global health crisis… Read More
