QUEZON CITY—“Many of my friends do not even know I am rich.”
Thus said Felimon R. Cuevas, chairman of the Cuevas Group of Companies (CGC), at the start of an interview at the Sulo Riviera Hotel here, one of the latest acquisitions of his company at close to P500 million.
Cuevas said “simplicity” is a secret of his success. He started his business in the early 1950s in Parañaque City when he opened a sari-sari store. He also engaged in offering installments to low-cost furniture and jewelries.
“I don’t show off and appear prominent in public that’s why my friends do not notice my status financially,” added Cuevas, who sat and ate without bodyguards or a secretary at the lobby-restaurant of the well-known Sulo Hotel which the CGC acquired in 2009.
Cuevas, however, stressed that his friends, including former Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada, helped transform him from “the poorest in their village in Cavite” to one of the most prominent businessmen of the country today.
But Cuevas said his success had been fueled by his business philosophy.
“Even If I was close to Marcos then, I helped everyone regardless of their political affiliations,” said Cuevas. “So when the new administration of Cory [the late President Corazon Aquino] came to power, I didn’t really have a hard time adjusting [in business].”
Cuevas, born to a poor couple (Feliciano Cuevas was a carpenter and his wife was a housewife) on Dec. 3, 1931 in Bacoor, Cavite, was named a special envoy with a rank of Ambassador by Marcos. He was first a personal bodyguard of the late President Ramon Magsaysay and later served in the Philippine Army as a captain during the Marcos regime.
Cuevas said that “as much as possible I had not created enemies over the years,” this being one of his business philosophies, saying this after being asked why his firm, Amalgamated Motors of the Philippines Inc. (AMPI), had remained the producer and supplier of plastic drivers’ licenses to the Land Transportation Office since 1983.
Run on a day-to-day basis by AMPI Vice President Erdie Cuevas, one of his four children, the firm is estimated to have produced 26 million drivers’ plastic licenses from 1998 to 2007.
“Actually, we give more income to the government as we only get about 30 percent of the total fee for every license,” said Cuevas.
AMPI reportedly invested more than P800 million for the new technology, installing 70 stand-alone equipment with digital cameras in all LTO agencies nationwide that can take the drivers’ photos in the same venue. It also put up 22 license renewal kiosks in accessible locations. The equipment had been provided with printers that enable the instant issuance of licenses for new applicants and renewals.
These innovations radically improved and revolutionized the production of driver’s licenses, introducing the durable type.
Improvements are the hallmark of the CGC which is primarily engaged in insurance, real estate, construction, property development and hotels.
After acquiring Sulo Hotel from Leandro “Biboy” Enriquez, the Cuevas family poured in P70 million for the hotel’s major improvement.
Cuevas asked his daughter Cristina, formerly based in Spain for, to come home and run the hotel which sits in a prime 1-hectare property at the heart of Quezon City.
“My daughter is the right person to operate Sulo because she has been engaged in interior design since she was based in Spain for 20 years,” said Cuevas, adding that their 70-room hotel was fully booked last week.
Cuevas said US Ambassador Harry Thomas was a recent guest who openly expressed his fondness of the hotel near the Quezon City Hall.
The former ambassador alsoannounced that the construction of more than 700 condominium units in front of the main entrance of the Sulo Hotel will start early next year. The twin towers will be called Sulo Suites and Residences.
The CGC also owns hotels in Lucena City and Tagaytay City.
The group’s property assets include tower condominiums, apartments, commercial and residential buildings, supermalls, a farm-type subdivision in Laguna, two other subdivisions in Cavite, and a memorial park in Calamba. It built the 8-story Cuevas Tower Condominium in Malate; the Cuevasville Condominium in Sampaloc; the FRC Mall in Talaba, Bacoor, Cavite; the FRC Supermall in Imus, Cavite; an 18-story condotel on Remedios and Nakpil Sts. in Manila; and recently purchased another condotel near the Clark Freeport in Angeles City, Pampanga.
Despite the expansion of the CGC in several areas and fields over the years, Cuevas warned other business people of “overexpanding.” He said he had “carefully studied” their company’s expansion projects before doing them.
“I slowly entrust all my businesses to my children and people, but there is only one thing I never gave to anyone, not even members of my family—to sign bank checks for the release of money,” said Cuevas. “By controlling the release of funds, I can determine if my business is doing well or not.”
Cuevas said hard work remains among the secrets of anyone’s success, adding that “I was already on the road and working by 6 a.m. when I was young.”
“I also never missed an opportunity to earn,” he added.
Cuevas cautioned others from relying on loans to start their businesses.
In the 1960s, Cuevas travelled to Japan to negotiate with officials of Hino Motors for the purchase of 20 trucks on loan. Despite not having connections and collateral, he successfully won the trust of Hino Motors. The Japanese firm even worked out a $50,000 loan to help him expand his trucking business, hauling petroleum products from the depots in Pandacan in Manila to Apalit, Pampanga and Cagayan.
By 1966, Cuevas’ fleet expanded to 70 tankers. He won a bid to supply the fuel needs of the former US military base in Clark and Subic in Zambales. He even supplied fuel in Cebu and Mactan.
Cuevas was introduced by his brother, former Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas during the Estrada presidency, to the petroleum trade. Serafin asked him to manage a gasoline station in Karuhatan, Valenzuela, Bulacan which was losing money.
Cuevas turned it into a profitable venture by taking on the job as a manager, gasoline boy and janitor.
With P1,000 savings, Cuevas gave back the gas station to Serafin and set up his own in a busier area selling P15,000 liters per day. That volume impressed top officials of a Filipino-owned petroleum company and he was given a 15-day credit and was encouraged to become a wholesaler distributor and buy his own gasoline tanker.
Cuevas had long left his petroleum businesses, selling them to start his present trades.
He also became a successful local and international sales agent, mostly of commercial trucks.
He said not all his business ventures succeeded, citing his failed fishing operations at the Dalahican area in Lucena City which collapsed after a strong typhoon destroyed it.
He said he did not finish college because he gave way to the education of his brother Serafin, who was taking law then. His poor parents could not afford to send them both to college.
But despite lacking a college degree, he was able to turn several opportunities into successful endeavors.
He expressed satisfaction that he has been able to provide employment to 1,000 people at any given time for many years. I plan to expand and employ more people,” he added.
