• Author: Resil B. Mojares
• Publication Year: 2013 (Second Edition)
• Publisher: Fundacion Escaño
• Pages: ~254 pages

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The book in 3 sentences

Escaño: A Family Portrait traces the centuries-long journey of the Escaño clan, beginning with their origins as 17th-century Spanish colonial scholars and following their rise as one of the most formidable business dynasties in the Philippines. Fueled by the vision and sheer entrepreneurial grit of the patriarch, Fernando Escaño, the family capitalized on the 19th-century abaca (hemp) boom to systematically build massive corporate empires in inter-island shipping, agriculture, and regional power utilities. Ultimately, the book is a compelling historical study of immense wealth, wartime survival, strategic dynastic alliances, and the resilience required to transition a monolithic, central family business into a modernized, diversified network of national corporations.

Key themes and takeaways

Vertical integration as a mechanism for survival and growth

• Logistical necessity: Fernando Escaño did not set out to be a shipping magnate. As his abaca trading business in Leyte exploded in the late 19th century, he realized that relying on third-party vessels to transport his massive harvests to Cebu and Manila was inefficient and costly.
• Building a fleet: To solve this, he began purchasing his own sailboats and steam vessels, essentially integrating his supply chain. He bought his first steam vessel, the 249-ton Nuevo Acuña, in 1892.
• Expanding into utilities: This practical, vertically integrated approach to business eventually extended to acquiring regional utilities. Recognizing the need for reliable infrastructure, the family became the principal shareholders of the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) in 1918, transforming a struggling power plant into the second-largest utility in the country.

Strategic alliances over fierce rivalry

• The art of the merger: The Escaños mastered the corporate and dynastic merger. Rather than competing fiercely with other prominent Spanish and Spanish-mestizo families in the Visayas, they sought strategic alliances.
• The Aboitiz partnership: The most prominent example occurred in 1928, when the Escaños and the Aboitiz family decided to pool their vast shipping interests. To avoid destructive competition, they formed La Naviera Filipina, which quickly became the largest Cebu-based inter-island shipping firm until World War II.
• Industrial marriages: The family also leveraged strategic marriages to expand their business expertise, merging their wealth with the industrial know-how of families like the Corominas, the Aberasturis, and the Lhuilliers.

The ancestral home as a geographic and spiritual anchor

• A central headquarters: Even as the family expanded its business operations globally, they remained deeply grounded by their hometown of Malitbog, Leyte.
• The heart of family culture: Their grand ancestral mansion, Casa Escaño, served as the physical and emotional headquarters for a sprawling, multi-generational family tree. It was the center of legendary parties, elaborate theatrical productions, and profound family unity.
• Unbreakable ties: The Casa anchored the family’s identity; even after it was completely burned down during the crossfire of World War II, the family’s first instinct upon liberation was to return to Malitbog and fastidiously rebuild their home.

Unprecedented resilience through historical crisis

• Surviving political transitions: The family navigated the turbulent transition of the Philippine Revolution and survived the violent Filipino-American War, which tragically claimed the life of their patriarch in a mutiny.
• Enduring wartime devastation: They endured the absolute devastation of the Japanese occupation during World War II. During the 1940s, they watched their massive shipping fleets sink, their power plants get blown up, and their family members suffer brutal executions.
• Creative reconstruction: Yet, they exhibited astonishing resilience, literally rebuilding their inter-island fleets using salvaged U.S. Navy surplus vessels and reconstructing their utility empire by pulling generators from decommissioned warships.

A profound commitment to the arts, culture, and civic duty

• Cultural patronage: Wealth for the Escaños was deeply intertwined with cultural patronage. They were not merely industrialists; they were artists, musicians, and performers.
• The Malitbog playhouse: They built a private playhouse in Malitbog to stage elaborate Spanish operettas and zarzuelas, complete with hand-painted sets and original music.
• A lasting artistic legacy: This cultural passion was passed down through generations, producing international fashion designers (Monique Lhuillier) and classical concert pianists (Ingrid Sala-Santamaria), ensuring the Escaño name became synonymous with refined living and the arts.

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The ultimate family headquarters: Casa Escaño

The Escaños did not just amass wealth; they cultivated a rich, elegant family culture heavily centered around their iconic home in Malitbog, Casa Escaño. Situated on the western shore of Sogod Bay, the house was a majestic landmark that commanded the attention of travelers arriving by sea.

Architectural grandeur and modern luxury

• Imposing construction: Built from thick coral stone on the ground floor and gleaming, first-class Philippine hardwood on the upper stories, Casa Escaño was a breathtaking Spanish-colonial residence.
• The corporate ground floor: The ground floor served as the bustling commercial headquarters, housing the offices and storerooms of their corporation, Viuda e Hijos de F. Escaño.
• The sprawling upper floor: Ascending the wide staircases with intricately carved wooden balustrades led to a sprawling upper floor containing thirty-three rooms, including six large bedrooms, two long dining halls, a private chapel, and vast corridors.
• Ahead of its time: At a time when rural Philippine towns lacked basic infrastructure, the Casa was a marvel of modern engineering. It boasted “blessedly perfect” plumbing, featuring flush toilets, porcelain tubs, and hot and cold running water.
• Elegant furnishings: The home was luxuriously appointed with a grand piano, fine European furniture, carpets, and tapestries.
• The panca fan: In the dining hall, a unique fixture known as a panca—a fifteen-by-two-foot cloth frame—hung from the ceiling. During lavish banquets, a servant would pull an attached rope to swing the panca back and forth, ventilating the room and refreshing the diners below.
• The antipolo comfort room: The layout of the house encouraged constant socialization. Alongside the modern water closets, the Casa featured an older antipolo style comfort room—a convivial communal bathroom featuring a row of five or six “places” that allowed family members to engage in lively conversation even while attending to personal necessities.

A hub of merrymaking and theatricals

• Formal but warm: Life inside Casa Escaño was a blend of formal elegance and spirited fun. An American guest in 1943 noted that the house was “the kind of place where you just automatically dress up for dinner”.
• The caida gathering space: The heart of casual interaction was the caida, a spacious anteroom featuring a large round table surrounded by Vienna chairs. Here, adults would gather to play card games like bridge or burro while sipping on a mid-morning ponche (a Casa specialty drink made of rum and secret mixtures).
• Parlor games: Children would play loteria (bingo) using cash capital generously provided by the matriarch, Doña Agustina, while playfully begging their uncles to cast “magic spells” on their cards to help them win.
• Massive holiday logistics: During the town fiestas and Christmas Eve celebrations, the Casa swelled to accommodate sprawling networks of relatives. The family hosted a sumptuous midnight buffet heavily laden with roasted pig, ham, cheese, and native delicacies.
• Accommodating the crowds: With sometimes over eighty family members congregating in Malitbog, the sheer volume of guests required the boys to set up cots in the pasillo (the corridor). Three cooks were kept on constant standby, and large coolers were stationed to ensure a steady flow of beverages.

Wartime destruction and faithful rebirth

• The Japanese occupation: The peace of Casa Escaño was violently shattered during World War II. When the Japanese Imperial Forces invaded Leyte, they marched straight for the mansion, interrogated family members, and turned the Casa into their military headquarters.
• The crossfire of liberation: The home eventually became the site of a fierce battle. During the American liberation of Leyte in late 1944, a combined force of American infantry and Filipino guerrillas assaulted the Japanese forces entrenched inside the Casa grounds.
• Burned to the ground: The mansion was heavily shelled by American landing craft, and the ensuing firefight—complete with machine-gun nests dug into the gardens—resulted in the total destruction of the house. By sunset, the grand Casa Escaño had burned down entirely, leaving only the thick brick walls of the ground floor standing.
• A fastidious restoration: However, the family’s attachment to their ancestral anchor was unbreakable. After the war, the surviving Escaños immediately returned to Malitbog and painstakingly rehabilitated the Casa, restoring it to its original, magnificent form by 1957.

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Interwoven dynasties: marriages and mergers

The Escaños expanded their empire by strategically linking themselves to other prominent Spanish, Spanish-mestizo, and Filipino families. These dynastic connections frequently blurred the lines between romantic family ties and calculated corporate strategy, allowing them to monopolize industries and outlast economic crises.

The Aboitiz family (business partnership and monopoly)

• Shared heritage: The relationship between the Escaños and the Aboitizes is one of the most significant and enduring corporate partnerships in Philippine history. Both families shared Spanish origins and navigated the same elite social spheres; the Aboitizes even took temporary refuge in Casa Escaño during the height of the Filipino-American War.
• The 1928 merger: By the 1920s, both families were operating massive, competing shipping fleets in the Visayas. Recognizing that fierce rivalry would only drain their resources, the two families merged their shipping interests in 1928.
• La Naviera Filipina: Pooling their resources and fleets, they formed La Naviera Filipina, creating an absolute monopoly in Cebu-based inter-island shipping that lasted until the outbreak of World War II.
• Modern co-management: The partnership proved so successful that it endures in the modern era; in 2004, the Escaños forged a formal agreement with the Aboitiz family to co-manage the Visayan Electric Company (VECO).

The Lhuillier family (marriage to global business empire)

• A French connection: The Lhuillier connection dramatically diversified the Escaño legacy away from heavy industry and agriculture. This branch was established when Henry Lhuillier, a French jeweler, married Angelita Jones, who was the granddaughter of the Escaño matriarch.
• From jewelry to finance: Starting with a modest jewelry business in 1953, the Lhuillier branch leveraged their entrepreneurial vision to pivot heavily into financial services.
• Building Cebuana Lhuillier: Over the subsequent decades, descendants like Michel, Philippe, and Marguerite Lhuillier expanded the enterprise exponentially, ultimately building Cebuana Lhuillier.
• A diversified modern portfolio: Today, Cebuana Lhuillier stands as the largest complex of pawnshop stores in the world, supplemented by the family’s massive investments in real estate, agribusiness, and luxury resorts like Le Soleil de Boracay.

The Corominas family (marriage and logistics integration)

• Corporate integration: The integration of the Corominas family began when Jose “Peping” Corominas married Paz Escaño. The Corominas family became deeply embedded in the operational structure of the Escaño empire.
• Managing the fleet: Jose served as the treasurer of the incorporated Hijos de F. Escaño and managed the family’s vital shipping offices in Cebu City as early as 1920.
• Independent transport empires: This deep immersion in logistics paid massive dividends in the post-war era. The descendants leveraged this inherited expertise to build their own independent transportation empire, eventually establishing the Corominas Richards Shipping Company, alongside major terrestrial transport ventures like Corominas Bus Liners and the Corominas Taxi Corporation.

The Aberasturi family (marriage and post-war ventures)

• Immigrant roots: The Aberasturi connection provided a crucial commercial lifeline when the central family corporation began to fracture. The link was formed in the 1880s when Bruno Aberasturi, an immigrant from Spain, married Justina Escaño, while his younger brother Dionisio married a niece of the family matriarch.
• Post-war agility: The Aberasturis were highly entrepreneurial. Following the devastation of World War II, as the central Escaño corporation struggled to reorganize, Lorenzo Escaño partnered with his brother-in-law Dionisio Aberasturi to form L. Escaño & Company.
• A lucrative pivot: This independent enterprise managed a fleet of converted passenger vessels, operated heavy trucking routes, established an agricultural trading hub, and eventually expanded into Mindanao to build a large cassava flour factory.

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Detailed summary and outline

Spanish origins and the 17th-century arrivals

• Don Fernando de Escaño: The Escaño family possesses a deep, documented Spanish bloodline that traces back to the 17th century. The first recorded Escaño to arrive in the Philippines was Don Fernando de Escaño, a distinguished Spanish scholar and jurist.
• A distinguished career in Spain: A native of Ecija, a town in the province of Seville located in southern Spain, Don Fernando had already built a formidable career as a judge (juez ordinario) for the Order of St. John of Malta and had published scholarly legal tracts.
• Arrival in Manila: Around 1670, Don Fernando voyaged halfway across the world, arriving in Manila aboard the galleon Buen Socorro. He was appointed as an Auditor (Oidor) of the Spanish colonial government.
• Clashing with corruption: Accompanied by his wife, Doña Leonor de Cordoba, and their six children, Don Fernando proved to be a man of intense Catholic virtue but clashed fiercely with the corrupt civil and church officials of colonial Manila. He pursued government reform with such zeal that he earned the bitter enmity of powerful cliques, eventually dying worn down by political intrigue.
• Ties to the church: Following his death, his descendants heavily intertwined themselves with the Catholic Church, earning the family a lasting reputation in Manila as “people of great virtue”. Several of Don Fernando’s sons joined religious orders, serving as parish priests and Dominican missionaries across the archipelago.
• The galleon trade: One prominent son, Don Juan de Escaño, amassed a massive fortune in the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade and became the principal benefactor of the Dominican Order, donating vast sums to establish convents and religious colleges.
• Migration to the provinces: Over the subsequent century, waves of later Escaño descendants and new immigrants migrated north, settling heavily in the Zambales-Pangasinan area by the early 1800s, setting the stage for the modern family’s emergence.

The pioneer and the “King of Malitbog”

• Fernando Villareal Escaño: The modern Escaño fortune, as it is known today, was built by Fernando Villareal Escaño. Born on June 6, 1841, in Bolinao, Zambales, Fernando was a man of extraordinary foresight and relentless work ethic.
• The global abaca boom: During the mid-19th century, the international shipping industries of the United States and England developed a massive demand for naval cordage, triggering a global boom in the market for abaca (hemp). Recognizing that the island of Leyte offered prime topography for hemp production, the young Fernando relocated to the Visayas.
• Starting from the bottom: Starting with little formal schooling, Fernando first found work in the 1860s as a mere employee (dependiente) for Spanish merchants in Tacloban. However, he quickly absorbed the intricacies of the trade.
• Establishing the Malitbog base: Around 1880, he moved to the coastal town of Malitbog and established his own general merchandise store. He began aggressively buying loose abaca from local Filipino farmers, establishing a sprawling network of agents (personeros) to collect crops from across southern Leyte.
• An intense work ethic: Fernando was an incredibly industrious entrepreneur, known to be in a state of “constant motion”. He personally handled his business affairs, waking up precisely at four o’clock every morning. He built a massive abaca press in Malitbog to classify and bale the hemp for global export.
• Birth of a shipping fleet: Realizing that paying third parties to transport his goods was cutting into his profits, he ventured into the shipping industry in 1892, purchasing his first steamship, the Nuevo Acuña, followed by a fleet of other vessels like the Escaño and Felix Melliza.
• The King of Malitbog: His immense success in combining agriculture, trade, and maritime logistics earned him the revered title “King of Malitbog” (Hari sa Malitbog). By the time he drafted his testament in 1896, the former employee had accumulated personal assets valued at a staggering two hundred thousand pesos—a monolithic fortune for the era.

Tragedy, assassination, and the matriarch

• Navigating the war: Fernando’s life came to a tragic and violent end at the turn of the century, a victim of the complex political crossfire of the Filipino-American War. As the Philippine Revolution transitioned into a war against occupying American forces, Fernando attempted to navigate a highly dangerous middle ground.
• A dangerous balancing act: He strategically supported the Aguinaldo-led Philippine Republic, serving as a special delegate to manage public treasury disbursements for the insurgents. However, as American troops rapidly occupied the port towns of Leyte, Fernando was forced to conduct business with the occupying colonizers, even hosting American officers at Casa Escaño.
• The mutiny: This perceived dual loyalty drew the fierce suspicion of local Filipino insurgents, who believed he was secretly pro-American. On the evening of April 21, 1900, mutineers commandeered Fernando’s vessel, the Escaño, off the coast of Panaon Island.
• A brutal assassination: Under the cover of darkness, the armed men brutally hacked the sleeping Fernando and his son-in-law, Isidro Lopez, to death with an axe.
• Doña Agustina takes command: Following the patriarch’s assassination, his 44-year-old widow, Doña Agustina Onting Faelnar (fondly known as Lola Tina), was thrust into command. Displaying remarkable fortitude, she successfully corresponded with insurgent generals to demand safety guarantees for her family, successfully retrieving the funds stolen by the mutineers.
• Corporate reorganization: As the political situation stabilized under the new American civil government, Doña Agustina smoothly reorganized the family business. She incorporated the massive enterprise as Viuda e Hijos de F. Escaño, placing her sons Lorenzo, Agustin, and Nemesio in management roles.
• Pivoting the business: Under her matriarchy, the family successfully pivoted away from the declining abaca market and heavily expanded into the lucrative global export of copra (coconut meat). Doña Agustina guided the family through its most vulnerable transition, balancing her legendary parsimony in business with the maintenance of their magnificent ancestral home until her death in 1926.

The monolithic corporate era: shipping and electricity

• Achieving industrial scale: Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Escaño family transitioned from a family of agricultural traders into a monolithic, modern corporate entity dominating public utilities and transportation. The family realized that their future lay in industrial scale.
• Forming La Naviera Filipina: In 1928, rather than engage in a costly and destructive rivalry with the powerful Aboitiz family, the Escaños merged their shipping fleets. This historic pooling of resources birthed La Naviera Filipina, a massive logistics firm boasting seventeen motor vessels that completely dominated Cebu-based inter-island shipping.
• Acquiring VECO: Simultaneously, the family aggressively expanded into the power sector. The Visayan Electric Company (VECO), founded in 1905, had initially suffered from terrible service and a low generating capacity of only 800 kilowatts. Seeing an opportunity, the Escaño family bought into the company, becoming the principal shareholders in 1918.
• Massive utility expansion: Under the brilliant management of Mamerto Escaño, the family poured capital into the utility, installing massive Atlas Polar-Asea generating units that boosted the plant’s capacity to almost twenty times its original output. They rapidly expanded VECO’s franchise, laying power lines across Cebu province and acquiring electric franchises in neighboring islands like Negros Oriental and Zamboanga del Norte, ultimately building the country’s second-largest utility.

A legacy of art, music, and cultural patronage

• A cultural movement: The Escaño family did not just pursue industrial dominance; they were profoundly committed to the arts, transforming their wealth into a vibrant cultural movement in the Visayas.
• The Malitbog Playhouse: In their hometown of Malitbog, they constructed a wooden “playhouse” adjacent to their residences, utilizing it to stage spectacular Spanish zarzuelas and operettas.
• Driven by family talent: These grand theatricals were completely driven by family talent. Don Lorenzo and his wife, Pilar Escaño, managed the productions, wrote original music, and directed large casts drawn from across Cebu and Mindanao. Agustin Escaño, an artist who studied in London, served as the set designer, meticulously painting the stage curtains and crafting the visual backdrops.
• Epic productions: The family successfully mounted ambitious productions such as La Geisha (1928), El Conde de Luxemburgo (1932), and La Viuda Alegre, drawing elite guests from across the islands to witness their performances.
• Professional artistic careers: This dedication to the arts blossomed into professional careers for subsequent generations. Jose “Peping” Corominas studied in Milan, Italy, winning top prizes in musical competitions and even applying to sing at the world-famous La Scala theater.
• Modern cultural icons: Today, the family’s artistic legacy continues through figures like Ingrid Sala-Santamaria, a celebrated classical pianist who founded the highly acclaimed Cebu Youth Symphony Orchestra (now the Peace Philharmonic Philippines), and Monique Lhuillier, who has achieved massive global recognition as an international fashion designer based in the United States. Mariant Escaño-Villegas has similarly promoted the arts by establishing the internationally recognized MEV Dance Company.

The dark times of World War II: devastation and survival

• A brutal interruption: The golden era of the Escaño empire was brutally interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. The Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945 unleashed unparalleled devastation upon the family, testing their resilience to its absolute limits.
• Scattering to survive: On the eve of the invasion, the monolithic family corporation was forced to cease operations, and the family scattered to various islands to hide. Some sought refuge in Bohol, while others fled to the mountains of Leyte or hid in the suburbs of Cebu City.
• Extreme deprivation: A family accustomed to grand mansions and lavish banquets was suddenly reduced to extreme, primitive deprivation. They survived by engaging in petty buy-and-sell trading, eating tough carabao meat that required hours of boiling, and using cut pieces of cardboard to cover the holes in their children’s worn-out shoes.
• Industrial destruction: The physical assets of the family were systematically destroyed. Their entire shipping fleet was lost. To prevent the Japanese from utilizing their industrial infrastructure, the U.S. Armed Forces preemptively blasted VECO’s massive power facilities in Cebu. In Malitbog, the Japanese Imperial Forces seized Casa Escaño, turning the beloved ancestral home into a military garrison.
• Hunted by the Kempeitai: The greatest tragedy was the human toll. The family lived under the constant, terrifying surveillance of the Kempeitai (the Japanese military police). Because the Escaños were suspected of being pro-American and secretly financing the Filipino guerrilla resistance, they were hunted ruthlessly.
• A dangerous game: Family members like Titing Escaño were forced to play a highly dangerous cat-and-mouse game, feigning friendship with visiting Japanese officers while secretly passing vital intelligence to the guerrillas.
• Imprisonment and torture: When the Kempeitai struck, they were merciless. Jose “Peping” Corominas was arrested and thrown into a flooded, rat-infested dungeon. He endured horrifying beatings and starvation, his weight plummeting from 190 to just 90 pounds, though he miraculously survived.
• Executions at sea: Other family members were not as fortunate. Eduardo Corominas, Manuel Escaño, and Alfonso Escaño were arrested by the Japanese military on suspicion of aiding the resistance. In a chilling display of cruelty, the three men were taken out to sea in the dead of night, tied to heavy weights, and executed by being dumped into the ocean.

Rebuilding from the ashes: salvage and reconstruction

• Total ruin: By the time General Douglas MacArthur’s forces liberated the Philippines in late 1944, the Escaño family had survived, but their empire was entirely in ruins. Their fleet was sunk, their power plants were blasted, and Casa Escaño had been burned to its brick foundations.
• Jumpstarting trade: Yet, the family exhibited an incredible capacity for rapid reconstruction. Immediately following the Leyte landing, Lorenzo Escaño capitalized on the chaotic postwar economy by acting as a purchasing agent for the U.S. Far East Economic Administration. Using six U.S. Army trucks, he scoured the province to buy abaca from local farmers, paying them in highly valuable military relief goods like canned food and cigarettes to jumpstart the family’s trading capital.
• Salvaging war surplus: The family rebuilt their massive industrial operations almost entirely by salvaging American military surplus. Having lost La Naviera Filipina, they established the independent Escaño Lines in 1946 by purchasing a single U.S. Navy surplus vessel, which they named the MV Luisa.
• Reconstructing luxury ships: They continued to buy military FS-type vessels, using their own machine shops in Cebu to completely reconstruct and remodel the drab military ships into luxury passenger liners with air-conditioned cabins and modern navigation technology, such as the MS Agustina.
• Resurrecting VECO: The restoration of the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) required similar industrial creativity. Family executives scrambled to beef up their damaged machinery by purchasing massive engines from mining companies.
• Harvesting a destroyer: In 1949, they executed their most ingenious move: Salvador Sala successfully negotiated the acquisition of a decommissioned U.S. military warship, the Destroyer Escort Spragge. The family dispatched a specialized dismantling crew to board the vessel and extract its two massive steam turbine generators, hauling them back to Cebu to install inside the VECO powerhouse, successfully resurrecting the region’s power supply.

The modern era: diversification and independent empires

• The end of the monolith: By the 1980s, the economic landscape of the Philippines had shifted, and the Escaño family had grown too large and complex to operate under a single, monolithic corporate umbrella. The original holding company, Hijos de F. Escaño, gradually divested its unified interests, liquidating its stake in Escaño Lines by 1989.
• Evolution through independence: Instead of collapsing, the dynasty evolved. Individual branches of the family leveraged their inherited wealth and business acumen to build highly diversified, independent corporate empires across the country.
• Energy dominance (Vivant): The Garcia branch of the family established Vivant Corporation, a publicly listed powerhouse focused on energy distribution and power generation nationwide. Through Vivant, they also retain a controlling stake in VECO, continuing to co-manage the utility alongside the Aboitiz family.
• Financial retail (Cebuana Lhuillier): The Lhuillier branch transformed a mid-century jewelry business into Cebuana Lhuillier, scaling it into the largest complex of pawnshop stores in the world, while heavily investing in real estate and luxury resorts.
• Industrial gases (Pryce Gases): Salvador (Joy-joy) P. Escaño parlayed his financial expertise into founding Pryce Corporation, establishing Pryce Gases, Inc. as a nationally recognized leader in the industrial gas sector.
• Logistics and transportation (Corominas): The Corominas and Gonzalez branches maintained the family’s historical dominance in transport, operating massive networks of cargo ships, bus liners, and taxi corporations.
• Heavy industry (PASAR): Descendants like Angel E. Veloso, Jr. moved into national infrastructure, serving as the chairman of the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation (PASAR), which operates the only copper smelter and refinery in the country.

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Top quotes

• On Fernando Escaño’s relentless drive and work ethic: “Escaño era siempre el obrero, el hombre que en fuerza de ser un completo self-made man…” (Escaño was always the worker, the man who by dint of being a complete self-made man…).
• On the elegance and luxury of Casa Escaño: “It was a beautiful estate with some thirty rooms… The plumbing was blessedly perfect… It was the kind of place where you just automatically dress up for dinner”.
• On the terrifying anxiety of the Japanese occupation: “We used to get ready to run on the average of once every ten days”.
• On the family’s profound musical talent: “I could write reams about the Escaños… The whole family was musical. Both Don Lorenzo and Mrs. Escaño wrote music. In prewar times, Don Lorenzo produced an opera once or twice a year in Cebu with local talent. Everyone in Cebu went to see them”.
• On the enduring legacy of the ancestral home and family gatherings: “If the walls of the Casa could speak, there would come out a tale of frolic and fun, merry-making, laughter and romance”.
• On the ongoing nature of legacy: “A family history is never written once and for all because its story is not yet finished, and memory can only work in piecemeal fashion”.
• On the founding patriarch’s ultimate character: Don Fernando died “as the excellent Christian that he was, and so indifferent to worldly advantages that he had not money enough for his burial”.
• On the business partnership of Don Fernando and Doña Agustina: A 1926 eulogy in Cebu’s El Precursor described the couple as “los mejores exponentes de los milagros que obran la laboriosidad y la honradez” (the best exponents of the miracles wrought by industriousness and honesty).
• On the cultural refinement of their hometown: “Malitbog is one town that knows how to live graciously,” remarked a visitor, observing the family’s deep integration into the community and their flair for entertaining.
• On the sweet-sad atmosphere of Casa Escaño just before the war: “We could see it on the bay, a cold glitter there, like something in a cellophane box, a box of glitter, and the moonlight came through the branches of the dark blue trees”.
• On the inescapable draw of the family’s shipping roots: When asked about the challenge of pursuing business in the highly competitive field of shipping, Edward (Eddie) Gonzalez simply shrugged and said, “Well, it’s in the blood, and that’s that”.
• On the enduring emotional anchor of Malitbog: “Today, Malitbog is almost like a dead town, good only it seems for swimming at the nice beaches,” reminisced Milagros Veloso. “Yet… Malitbog will always be the place”.
• On the character of Don Agustin Escaño: “He was always the perfect gentleman in everything he did”.