Coincidentally, Velasco was the great-grandfather of the late Felisa Velasco Go, the widow of the late pre-martial law Chinese newspaper Fookien Times publisher Dr. Go Puan Seng, mother of the late Philippine STAR founding chairman Betty Go-Belmonte, mother of Canada-based Sing Tao Chinese newspaper chairman Andrew Go and Philippine STAR EVP Grace Glory Go; grandmother of Philippine STAR president Miguel G. Belmonte and editor-in-chief Isaac Belmonte, Philstar.com CEO Kevin Belmonte and anthropologist Joy Belmonte, Time magazine news director Howard Chua-Eoan, and Fookien Times Philippines Yearbook editor-in-chief Vernon Go.
When this writer recounted the 16 mansions and saga of Velasco to Miguel and Kevin during the recent funeral wake for Felisa Go, they were surprised to realize the long history of their lola’s family in the Philippines because the humble lady seldom spoke of her family’s past great wealth. Felisa was a kind and soft-spoken woman whom this writer had the rare privilege to interview in her Quezon City home along with her husband in the mid-1980s. The interview was then arranged by the late Betty Go-Belmonte. The grandfather of Felisa Velasco Go was one of the nine sons of Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco, who owned the famous Bazaar Velasco at 8 Calle Nueva near Escolta in Binondo, Manila from the 19th century up to the 1930s, when the Great Depression caused a lot of business to crash.
Velasco was a generous philanthropist in the Philippines and south China. His father and Velasco overcame the anti-Chinese discriminatory policies of the Spanish colonial regime, endured immigrant poverty, worked hard and struggled first in the candle business. Velasco later flourished in bazaar, textile trade, lumber, furniture, rice mill and real estate businesses. A scholar claimed that Velasco was, at one time, the wealthiest merchant lord in all Southeast Asia.
Due to its unique grandeur in showcasing ancient south China arts and architecture, and its vast scale, this complex of 15 residential mansions and one ancestral temple have also become a major tourist destination. There were more buildings in the complex but the 16 were the ones that survived the ravages of time. Among the features of the complex are the elegant calligraphy of imperial China’s three No. 1 scholars in the nationwide civil service examinations Wu Lu, Zhuang Junyuan and Lu Renxiang. The powerful samples of calligraphy are reminiscent of the films Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. The government has sought UNESCO to include this site as a historic and cultural landmark of Asia. Manuel Chua of Tulay Foundation said the Fujian government has written him that they are seeking to do restoration work in this complex, and some of the materials used in construction were from the Philippines. Manuel Chua had invited this writer and Rizal clan members to visit this amazing cultural landmark in April 1999 on the way to the national hero’s ancestral Siongque Village.
The 16 historic buildings still stand today on three hectares of land in Zhangli Village, Guanqiao (pronounced "Guan Chiao") town of Nan-An (also pronounced "Lamoa") county in Quanzhou City (Chuanchow City), Fujian province. Nan-An is also the county where the ancestral villages of many other famous people in Southeast Asia, such as the Ming Dynasty hero General Zheng Cheng-Gong (called by the Europeans in history as "Koxinga"), Ambassador Alfonso Yuchengco of RCBC Group, Regal Films founder Lily Yu Monteverde and Century Park Sheraton executive Julio Tan.
The bazaar was the Spanish colonial era version of our modern-day department stores and malls. University of British Columbia history Professor Edgar Wickberg wrote: "The most expensive version of the general store was the bazaar. The new export crop economy (of the 19th century) brought prosperity to many of those who participated in it, and people developed a taste for luxury goods, mostly European imports. The bazaar catered to this taste. The two largest Chinese-owned bazares in Manila were those of Chua Farruco, first located on Escolta and later at 6 Calle Nueva, and Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco, at 8 Calle Nueva. Their merchandise included Viennese furniture, Parisian-made musical instruments, cooking stoves, cabinet, ornaments for carriages, dinnerware lamps, galvanized iron for roofing, Chinese silks, European cottons and yarns of several grades and an infinity of fancy goods from the best manufacturers of Europe. Coincidentally, among the descendants of Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco from his eldest son’s family is entrepreneur Chua Po Suan Velasco Yang, matriarch of the Plaza Fair, Fairmart and Fair Center retail chain.
Some scholars speculate that Dr. Jose Rizal’s model for his Quiroga character in Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo was either Don Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco or another legendary 19th-century taipan Don Carlos Palanca Tan Quien Sien (whose penniless immigrant godson Don Carlos Palanca Tan Guinlay became the 20th-century founder of La Tondeña and after whom the country’s top Palanca literary awards was named). Another contemporary 19th-century self-made man was Dy Han Kia, founder of the Li (pronounced "Lee" in Mandarin and "Dy" or "Dee" in Hokkien dialect) clan of lumber entrepreneurs who included his grand-nephew pre-war "Lumber King" and Fookien Times/Chinese Commercial News/China Bank founder Dee C. Chuan, his nephew Dy Pac, his grandson Lee Tay, grand-nephew lumber magnate Dee Hong Lue (father of Catholic philanthropist Ambassador Howard Dee and father-in-law of United Laboratories founder Jose Yao Campos) and grand-nephew China Bank Chairman Dee K. Chiong (who granted first loans to many future taipans such as the Cebuano post-war entrepreneur John Gokongwei Jr.).
Betty Go-Belmonte |
There’s the story of the immigrant Cojuangco who, being dressed simply, was buying something at Estralla del Norte, but the manager wouldn’t entertain him. Cojuangco mentioned that his friend was Jose Velasco and this bazaar owner assured the manager that the Tarlac merchant was extremely wealthy despite his simple attire.
The late Justice Lourdes Paredes San Diego told this writer that she used to accompany her father, statesman Quintin Paredes, to visit their friend Jose Velasco in his four-storey mansion where the merchant had various concubines and exquisite Chinese furniture. Among the numerous Velasco descendants in the Philippines include Metrobank Group boss George S. K. Ty’s son-in-law businessman Martin "Bong" Dy Buncio, the Chan Ortiga family of Estrella del Norte and stockbroker Rene Lee’s wife Lottie Lee.
The late industrialist Salvador Araneta of RFM fame once wrote: "My parents, Gregorio and Carmen Araneta’s social life took us to places around Manila. Once we attended a party in Binondo, in the home of the famous Chino Velasco. There, for the first time, I saw the Chinese ladies with the small stunted feet whose growth was prevented by iron stays. They were aristocrats, following a rigid and seemingly cruel customs, assigning to small feet not just esthetic value but also social meaning." Actually, the bound feet was an imposition of the Manchu ethnic minority who ruled China under the Ching Dynasty, which Dr. Sun Yat-Sen overthrew in 1911.
The 81-year-old Elisa Velasco Lipio, whose husband Aloysius Lipio is a member of the Lee clan and owner of Cosmos Bazaar which imports Pilot pens, told Philippine STAR: "My father Jose Velasco was the sixth son of Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco. Our former home was a whole block bounded by three streets, Soler, T. Alonzo and Azcarraga (now Claro M. Recto Avenue). Our family used to have many guests, including the beautiful mother of John Gokongwei Jr. whom we used to call by the nickname Hwa-Hwi So and who used to play mahjong with our family members. The Bazaar Velasco and our other businesses suffered during the Great Depression after World War II, but as an eight or nine-year-old child in the early 1930s, I still remember going to Bazaar Velasco in Nueva Street to get two pieces of beautiful cloth colored red and white. Our family used to own vast properties in many places, including plantations all the way to Basilan island, where American troops recently helped trained the Philippine military to fight Moro rebels. I heard that our Basilan plantation was sold a long time ago to the family of Governor Alano. It is unfortunate to hear about the death of my niece Felisa Velasco Go, she was a very good person, a devout Christian. I also fondly remember my grand-niece Betty Go Belmonte, whose life of outstanding service to others and social idealism would have made our ancestor Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco very proud. "
Garment manufacturer Arnold Velasco, whose grandfather Jose Velasco was the sixth son of Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco and now president of the Xavier School Batch 83 Foundation, told Philippine STAR: "I heard stories about the wealth of our ancestor, but more important than all that was the memory of Mariano Velasco Chua Chengco as a generous philanthropist and Chinese community leader. He donated a lot to charities, schools and other civic endeavors here in the Philippines and also to his ancestral hometown. His father brought him here, but he was essentially a self-made man who overcame immigrant hardships and poverty during his lifetime. I wish all of our relatives could someday have a reunion, so that we can honor his memory after all these many years."