As the economy and stock market of the Philippines progressed and outperformed others, 11 Filipinos made it to the Forbes Magazine 2013 global billionaires' list, with five more Filipino billionaires added from a total of six last year.
Number 1 Filipino tycoon and business magnate Henry Sy, and his family, ranked 68th on the list with a net worth of $13.2 billion as of March 2013.
"The Philippines' richest man Henry Sy saw his fortune swell by more than $5 billion as shares of his holding firm SM Investments, the country's most valuable company, surged by over 50 percent, fueled by reports that it may merge its property units," Forbes said.
Lucio Tan, owner of tobacco, alcohol, airline and real estate firms, and his family ranked second in the Filipino billionaires list with a net worth of $5 billion.
The new members of the billionaires' list are this year are Consunji and family, Ty and family, the Co couple, Coyiuto, Tan Caktiong and family, and Gotianun and family.
Meanwhile, the biggest gainer title goes to Enrique Razon who debuted in the billionaires list just last year. Razon, owner of International Container Terminal Services (ICTS) which purchased various ports worldwide, saw his wealth hike by over $3 billion after Bloomberry Resorts, his hotel and casino venture, joined the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The names and ranks of the Filipino billionaires worldwie in 2013 are as follows:
1. No. 68 - Henry Sy ($13.2 billion)
2. No. 248 - Lucio Tan ($5 billion)
3. No. 258 - Enrique Razon Jr. ($4.9 billion)
4. No. 345 - Andrew Tan ($3.95 billion)
5. No. 503 - David Consunji and family ($2.8 billion)
6. No. 554 - George Ty and family ($2.6 billion)
7. No. 736 - Lucio and Susan Co ($2 billion)
8. No. 931 - Robert Coyiuto, Jr. ($1.6 billion)
9. No. 1031 - Tony Tan Caktiong and family ($1.4 billion)
10. No. 1175 - Andrew Gotianun and family ($1.2 billion)
11. No. 1175 - Roberto Ongpin ($1.2 billion)
Forbes noted that all the 1,426 billionaires of the world saw an increase in its aggregate net worth from $4.6 trillion to $5.4 trillion, which is roughly near (hundreds of billions in dollars) the gross domestic product (GDP) of Japan or the GDPs of France and Brazil combined in 2011.
Together, the net worth of the Philippine billionaires this year totaled to $39.85 billion, around 16.75 percent of the Philippine economy in 2012.
