Victoria “Hariette” Ong-Banzon President Circulo Hotel Inc.
Vice Chairperson Sacred Heart of Jesus Prime Holdings Inc.
Vice President Capiz Development Foundation Inc.
“I am happy I went home to Panay. I will be happier leaving a legacy of a well-placed and systematized management system that professionalizes and gets the next generation to carry on the family legacy of business with a heart for genuine and progressive countryside development.”
VICTORIA Ong-Banzon, known to family and friends as “Hariette,” could have easily secured a high-paying position in top corporations in Makati, Ortigas, Bonifacio Global City, or even abroad in Singapore, Hong Kong or New York. Yet, like all her siblings, she chose to return home to Capiz, now known as Roxas City.
NEW KIDS IN TOWN At 670 hectares, the Pueblo de Panay township (top photo) has changed the face of the countryside — or Roxas City in particular. What was once unutilized, unproductive and inaccessible land right smack in the center of Roxas City now has been linked via four bridges; it also ‘houses’ a 2-hectare integrated transport terminal, a Robinsons mall, a BPO center, schools and universities, a modern and energy efficient cold storage, a HACCP-accredited processing plant and hotels with at least 100 room units. The Pueblo de Panay Board of Directors (from left) Mary Daphne Ong; Vicente Ong III; Hyacinth Viterbo; Jose Nery Ong, chairman; Hannibal Zennon Ong; Nery Joachim Ong; and Victoria ‘Hariette’ Ong-Banzon, board secretary. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
“After finishing my degree in Industrial Engineering, there was this certain feeling that beckoned me to come home,” Ong-Banzon explained. She missed her family, desired to be with her aging parents and was eager to initiate countryside development in their hometown.
Ong-Banzon’s father, businessman Vicente Ong Jr., was the eldest of 11 children of Filipino-Chinese-Spanish mestizo Vicente Ong Sr. of Iloilo City and Valladolid.
NEW KIDS IN TOWN At 670 hectares, the Pueblo de Panay township (top photo) has changed the face of the countryside — or Roxas City in particular. What was once unutilized, unproductive and inaccessible land right smack in the center of Roxas City now has been linked via four bridges; it also ‘houses’ a 2-hectare integrated transport terminal, a Robinsons mall, a BPO center, schools and universities, a modern and energy efficient cold storage, a HACCP-accredited processing plant and hotels with at least 100 room units. The Pueblo de Panay Board of Directors (from left) Mary Daphne Ong; Vicente Ong III; Hyacinth Viterbo; Jose Nery Ong, chairman; Hannibal Zennon Ong; Nery Joachim Ong; and Victoria ‘Hariette’ Ong-Banzon, board secretary. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Her mother, Hilda Dioso, from Pandan, Antique, was a Medical Technology graduate of the University of Santo Tomas who was planning to work in the United States before her father “invited” her to settle down.
The patriotic Alonsagay-Dioso bloodline, which includes educators and civil servants, also counts Katipunero Gregorio Dioso of Laguna and Capitan “Tan” Juan Alonsagay, the first mayor of Pandan, Antique, among its members.
NEW KIDS IN TOWN At 670 hectares, the Pueblo de Panay township (top photo) has changed the face of the countryside — or Roxas City in particular. What was once unutilized, unproductive and inaccessible land right smack in the center of Roxas City now has been linked via four bridges; it also ‘houses’ a 2-hectare integrated transport terminal, a Robinsons mall, a BPO center, schools and universities, a modern and energy efficient cold storage, a HACCP-accredited processing plant and hotels with at least 100 room units. The Pueblo de Panay Board of Directors (from left) Mary Daphne Ong; Vicente Ong III; Hyacinth Viterbo; Jose Nery Ong, chairman; Hannibal Zennon Ong; Nery Joachim Ong; and Victoria ‘Hariette’ Ong-Banzon, board secretary. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
Ong-Banzon, born in Iloilo City, is the second of seven children (three girls and four boys). Her brothers include a civil engineer, a Fisheries graduate from University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas who assisted in their fishpond business, the CEO of the Pueblo de Panay group of companies, and an electrical engineer in charge of their construction and aggregates company.
The family endured significant challenges, including a sister miraculously surviving a rare autoimmune disease (“bleeding kidney”) at age 17 in 1990, and the birth of her youngest sister’s twin at 1.8 pounds in 1984 during a critical incubator shortage. These experiences solidified their family’s mission to be “a provider of affordable and excellent products and services in our various business interests” in the Philippine countryside.
“We are grateful for our business roots,” Ong-Banzon recalled, noting her grandfather supplied milkfish fries from Antique in the 1960s, and her parents operated fishponds raising prawns, milkfish and crabs in Pilar, Capiz.
She and her siblings spent summers as “vacationists” and on-the-job trainees in their paternal grandparents’ lumber and hardware, fuel station, passenger and cargo ship, and agricultural farm.
“Our business sense was influenced by the Ongs, while the faith side was from the Diosos,” Ong-Banzon shared, adding that her grandparents provided a “very solid foundation in faith, business and education in action,” teaching her to be “faithful to God and the country while leaving a legacy through the family.”
Ong-Banzon received her early schooling at the “Thomasite-founded Filamer Christian Institute” and St. Mary’s Academy Capiz before moving to Manila in 1980 to study at the Philippine Science High School. At UP Diliman, she initially pursued Business Administration and Accounting before shifting to Industrial Engineering.
“I wanted to become a doctor,” Ong-Banzon stated, believing then that “Medicine was the only way for me to help the needy.”
However, the tragic collapse of the prawn industry in the early 1990s, which had been the country’s top export earner, prompted a change in her path.
This industry fall was “the turning point of our family,” leading Ong-Banzon and her siblings to consider transitioning to another business or migrating abroad.
“Love for country made us transition into real estate with our first residential village, Twin Hearts Village, a simple residential project,” Ong-Banzon said.
Today, Ong-Banzon co-manages several family businesses with her siblings in construction, aggregates, real estate and hospitality in Capiz and Aklan in Northern Panay. She is the president of Circulo Hotel Inc., which operates condominium-hotels, an events place, and convention center and restaurants. This business unit boasts the “pioneer in hilltop events place” and the “first condominium-hotel in Capiz province.”
Concurrently, Ong-Banzon serves as vice chairperson of the Ong family group of companies, Sacred Heart of Jesus Prime Holdings Inc., which is the “umbrella company of about 15 other companies” in Northern Panay. She is also the vice president of Capiz Development Foundation Inc., a nonstock, nonprofit foundation dedicated to poverty alleviation, livelihood generation and values formation for Filipinos.
The family’s most prominent venture is the 670-hectare integrated township of Pueblo de Panay, located in the heart of Roxas City, Capiz.
Pueblo de Panay won the “Masterplan Development of the Year-Philippines” at Singapore’s Real Estate Asia Award in both 2023 and 2024.
Ong-Banzon noted that many people believe Pueblo de Panay Township and its developments have “changed the face of Philippine countryside.” CEO Bub Ong summarized their mission: “To be a meaningful catalyst and a source of pride in the communities where we do business.”
Ong-Banzon stated that the development of 670 hectares of “unutilized, unproductive piece of inaccessible land right smack in the center of Roxas City” is making their city globally competitive. In over a decade, the Ongs have constructed four bridges, a 2-hectare integrated Roxas City transport terminal, a Robinsons Mall, a BPO center, schools and universities, a modern and energy-efficient cold storage, a HACCP-accredited processing plant and hotels with at least 100 room units, among other developments. Pueblo de Panay Township is touted as Roxas City’s “next commercial business district or CBD,” with the Provincial Capitol of Capiz and Roxas City Hall soon making it their official address. The University of Perpetual Help also has a presence within the township.
The Ong clan plans to continue the legacy of excellence in public service, education and service inspired by Capiz’s prominent figures like President Manuel Acuña Roxas and “balik-scientist to the barrios” George Viterbo.
To achieve this, they have set aside 3,000 square meters of land for a UP Visayas campus within the township. They aim to rally UP alumni from Capiz and neighboring areas to help raise funds for an extension building, acknowledging the massive funding needs for a campus that will also maintain presences in Iloilo City, Miag-ao and Tacloban.
The township also features the “tallest” image of Jesus Christ, donated by the Ongs to the Archdiocese of Capiz, which is taller than the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ong-Banzon’s husband, Peter Antonio Banzon, an electrical engineer, is the division chief of the Advanced Science and Technology Institute of the Department of Science and Technology.
They attended the same schools in high school and college, and reacquainted at UP Diliman, where they were invited to a doctrine class in Opus Dei Center.
Ong-Banzon proudly shared that engineer Banzon, an expert in networking, played “a very important role in securing the first automated national and local elections” in the country. Their only child, Antonio Alberto, 25, graduated with a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from UP last year and recently passed the board exams.
Ong-Banzon stated, “I do not intend to retire soon. I will always be there for the family, church and country as long as I am alive.” She concluded, “Overall, I am happy I went home to Panay. I will be happier leaving a legacy of a well-placed and systematized management system that professionalizes and gets the next generation to carry on the family legacy of business with a heart for genuine and progressive countryside development.”
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QUICK QUESTIONS
What is your biggest fear?
My biggest fear in life is when the next generations would not be able to pursue the gains of the heroes of our country.
What really makes you angry?
The needy’s lack of access to education. As an industrial engineer and educator at heart who grew up on Panay Island, I saw how poverty can be eradicated through gainful employment.
What motivates you to work hard?
My vision to be a catalyst in countryside development, starting from the family corporations that my siblings have been endorsed with.
What makes you laugh the most?
When my reserved husband and serious people crack jokes, I really laugh.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
I wanted to be a stewardess because I thought I could eat clouds like cotton candy from an airplane. But then, at kindergarten, I learned that I could be an influencer in terms of leading — a leader-influencer.
What would you do if you won the lotto?
I would form livelihood programs for the marginalized and organize programs to teach people “to fish rather than be given fish.”
If you could share a meal with an individual, living or dead, who would it be?
It would be with either of my deceased parents. Both influenced the kids positively in terms of proper parenting. My father was the disciplinarian with a heart. My mother was like the loving “speaker of the house.”
What is the most daring thing you have ever done?
To teach in UP College of Engineering from 1991 to 1997.
What was the last book you read?
I was reading “1762” by Vin de la Serna Lopez, which actually relates to our family tree. It is a fiction book about the British Occupation of Manila and Cavite for two years. Manuel Rojo del Rio from Mexico brought a niece named Matilde Rojo del Rio, who became our great-great-grandmother. Their names appeared in our family tree and may explain our active apostolic lineage.
Which celebrity would you like to meet for a cup of coffee?
Celebrities mentioned in our family tree — Sen. Loren Legarda, Liza Macuja-Elizalde, Megan Young (also married to a Banzon) or Max Collins.
What is one thing you will never do again?
Maybe in the UP Engineering Sayawan event wherein I actually dared to play the role of a “babaylan” — the one that dances on fire — and attempted to dance wearing a malong.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In 10 years, I see myself having left a legacy through manuscripts and books that I promise to write on the family, business and apostolate.
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