Antonio Cabangon-Chua

Antonio Cabangon-Chua was a self-made billionaire and the head of the multibillion-peso ALC Group of Companies, a conglomerate engaged in various business activities, such as insurance protection, media, pre-need assurance, automotive, banking and finance, security, education, hotels, and real estate. 

The ALC Group’s media arm consists of Nine Media Corporation’s CNN Philippines, radio stations 97.9 Home Radio and DWIZ 882, the business broadsheet BusinessWorld, the magazine Philippine Graphic, the tabloid Pilipino Mirror, and the printing press Brown Madonna Press Incorporated.

He was the son of a well-to-do Chinese businessman who died without leaving savings for him and his mother. The young Cabangon-Chua had to take on odd jobs as a child just to survive. He became a shoeshine boy, an ice-drop peddler, a newsboy, a pan de sal vendor. His mother later put up a sari-sari store and he became its storekeeper. The store became a grocery store under his watch and that marked the beginning of his business success.

Cabangon-Chua served as Philippine ambassador to Laos appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He passed away on March 11, 2016.