TAIPAN John Gokongwei Jr. marked his 80th birthday on Friday by donating an unprecedented P10.25 billion to education and other causes.

Gokongwei surprised his children and business associates by announcing that he would donate his entire personal shareholdings in JG Summit Holdings—equivalent to 25 percent of the listed conglomerate, or about P10.25 billion—to charity.

“Life has been good to me,” Gokongwei told over 1,000 business associates and friends who packed the Gokongwei-owned Crowne Plaza hotel in Ortigas. “I want to give back the blessings that I have received.”

Gokongwei and his wife, Elizabeth, control half of JG Summit, which had a market capitalization of P41.46 billion as of Friday.

The taipan's conjugal half would accrete to the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation, which already owns 16.61 percent of JG Summit.

Gokongwei said the considerable paperwork for the transfer would take at least two weeks.

Foundation biggest shareholder

Once completed, the transfer would make the Gokongwei foundation, at 41.6 percent, the biggest shareholder of the food, airline, telephone and real estate conglomerate.

In peso terms, the additional transfer effectively places over P17 billion of the wealth of Gokongwei, who can be said to be the local Warren Buffett, for disposal to his favorite beneficiaries, mainly schools.

The newest beneficiary, which will get P50 million, will be the University of San Carlos in Cebu, where Gokongwei put himself through high school during the war years while buying and selling goods on his bicycle.

That rusty bike sowed the seeds that blossomed into an Asian business empire that is also celebrating its 50th year.

Saying he had already exceeded by 10 years the average life span of Filipinos, Mr. John announced that he wants to devote more time to “philanthropy, reading and traveling.”

In the last five years, the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation has released over P400 million to various schools, chiefly to De La Salle University, where Gokongwei acquired an MBA degree, and Ateneo de Manila University.

Gokongwei currently chairs the foundation, but the taipan said he would eventually relinquish management to professionals. Its trustees include accounting guru Washington Sycip and retired Bangko Sentral Governor Gabriel C. Singson.

To keep the multi-billion endowment intact, the foundation relies on the cash dividends generated by JG Summit for its operations.

Thanking neighbors, professors

At the birthday celebration, Gokongwei also thanked his Cebu neighbors, Mario Mendozona and Ramero Valenzuela, who kept an eye on his orphaned family during the difficult war years, as well as his MBA professors in La Salle—Cesar Virata, Vicente Paterno and the late Edgardo Tordesillas—and early business partners Ignacio Gotao and Dr. Pacifico Yap for his success.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success,” Gokongwei said, quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson.