Business magnate Ben Chan on his passion for promoting Filipino culture

What projects in the last two years are you most proud of? Why?

Ben Chan (BC): The pandemic has put to a halt some of our projects during the last two years. However, some of those we have resumed working on are the following:

The third Ternocon, a convention and competition focusing on the terno, or the Philippine national dress, happened with a culminating activity on January 2023. Organised with the Cultural Center of the Philippines, we have aimed the project to preserve an integral part of our Filipino heritage through education, exhibition and public awareness.

It has been our passion to promote Filipino culture through fashion design. This has been translated into the numerous publications that hat we have. Despite the pandemic, we have been working on a book A Terno Century, that traces the evolution of the Philippine dress with butterfly sleeves through ten decades of photos from museums and private collections, a follow-up to our Fashionable Filipinas book on the evolution of terno.

The opening of new global brand stores in the Philippine market introduces new concepts in affordable luxury in fashion, new trends in food, and heritage home furniture brands. This includes a diverse portfolio such as luxury skincare brands, fashion brand Urban Revivo which has 300 offline stores globally with a design centre in London, and Viabizzuno, which has been shaping a new vision in lighting design for the past 23 years. We have just opened the new Fritz Hansen flagship store designed by Jaime Hayon. We will also be opening food concepts from various cuisines around the world.

In our little way, we also made sure we were able to contribute to the recovery phase of our country during the pandemic. We procured Astra Zeneca vaccines for our employees, suppliers and their families. In addition, we also donated vaccines to different local government units.