Introduction

From Calle Real to a Nationwide Footprint

For more than 125 years, the name La Filipina has stood on Iloilo's busiest corners. What began in 1901 as a modest bazaar selling imported textiles and hardware on J.M. Basa Street — the famed Calle Real — is today La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp. (LFUGC), a diversified Filipino group with interests in flour milling, animal feeds, fertilizer, sugar, hog farming, real estate, banking, and hospitality.

Headquartered in Iloilo City, the company today employs an estimated 5,001 to 10,000 people nationwide and operates through a portfolio of household brands including Amigo and Segurado flour, La Filipina flour, and RiCO Corn Rice. Its story is inseparable from the mercantile history of Western Visayas, and from three generations of the Uy Gongco family who rebuilt it through war, revolutions in industry, and rapid Philippine growth.

1879 – 1940s

Julian Uy Gongco: The Immigrant Founder

Julian Uy Gongco was born in 1879 in Amoy (present-day Xiamen), Fujian Province, China. Like thousands of Hokkien migrants in the late Spanish period, he crossed to the Philippines in search of opportunity, arriving in Iloilo in 1895 at the age of 16.

He first worked as a store helper in the bustling port district, learning Bisaya, Spanish, and the fundamentals of wholesale trade. Iloilo then was the Philippines' leading sugar port, second only to Manila, with steamships loading sugar for the world. Six years of saving and apprenticeship gave him enough capital to open his own shop.

In 1901, at age 22, he opened "La Filipina" on Calle Real — a deliberate tribute to his adopted country. The store sold imported fabrics, shoes, hardware, and later, basic food staples. It was one of the first Chinese-Filipino bazaars to adopt fixed pricing and direct imports.

1901 – 1931

Building La Filipina on Calle Real

The original location on J.M. Basa Street placed La Filipina at the heart of Iloilo's commercial elite. Calle Real was lined with Art Deco and Neoclassical buildings housing banks, shipping firms, and bazaars. By 1905, demand prompted a second branch in Jaro.

Julian cultivated a wide import network — sourcing textiles from Manchester and the United States, hardware from Europe, and rice and sundries from Hong Kong and Amoy. His reputation for fair dealing earned him inclusion in the 1931 prestige volume Men of the Philippines, published by the University of Michigan collection, which profiled him as one of Iloilo's leading merchants.

By the late 1930s, La Filipina was not just a store but a wholesaler supplying smaller tiendas across Panay, Negros, and Romblon.

"From a single mostrador on Calle Real, Julian built a name that meant 'you can trust the weight and the price.' That name survived everything that came after." — Family history recounted in The News Today

1941 – 1949

War, Loss and Rebirth

World War II nearly ended the story. During the Japanese occupation of Iloilo, Julian Uy Gongco was imprisoned and the stores on Calle Real and Jaro were looted and burned. The founder did not live long after liberation, dying in the mid-1940s.

Reconstruction fell to his son, Uy Chiong (also known as John Uy). In 1946, amid a city of ruins, Uy Chiong reopened La Filipina with salvaged inventory, selling to a population desperate for basic goods.

The capital needs of post-war trading were immense. In 1949, Uy Chiong entered a pivotal partnership with businessman Tan Chin Eng, formalizing the business as a general merchandising partnership that could import in bulk and extend credit to provincial retailers. This partnership restored La Filipina's pre-war reach and set the stage for industrial scaling.

The Second Generation

Alfonso Uy: The Engineer Who Scaled an Empire

Born June 9, 1939 in Iloilo City, Alfonso A. Uy grew up behind the store counters. He joined the family business full-time at age 15, balancing high school at the Ateneo-affiliated schools with bookkeeping and deliveries.

He assumed active leadership in 1960 at just 21 years old. Determined to bring technical discipline to trading, he enrolled in chemical engineering at Central Philippine University. In 1964, he graduated magna cum laude and placed second nationwide in the Chemical Engineering Board Examination — a feat profiled extensively by the SheMae Gomez blog "The Trailblazer: Dr Alfonso Uy".

That engineering mindset defined his strategy: move from trading other people's products to manufacturing essential ones.

"Engineering taught me systems. Business taught me people. You need both to build anything that lasts 100 years." — Dr. Alfonso A. Uy, in interviews

1971 Onward

Incorporation and Diversification

On the advice of his growing management team, Alfonso Uy incorporated the business in 1971 as La Filipina Uy Gongco Corporation. The timing coincided with the government's push for food security.

Instead of remaining a dry-goods importer, LFUGC vertically integrated:

Flour Milling became the anchor — with mills in Iloilo and Mindanao producing Amigo, Segurado, and La Filipina branded hard and soft wheat flour for bakeries nationwide. Feeds and Fertilizer followed to serve Panay and Negros' hog and sugar planters. The group added sugar trading and milling services, large-scale hog farms, corn processing (notably RiCO Corn Rice as a rice alternative), and agri-logistics.

In the 1990s and 2000s, under Alfonso's chairmanship, the group diversified into finance (investments in banking), real estate, and property development in Iloilo and Guimaras. This later included joint ventures in the Iloilo Business Park — including the Courtyard by Marriott Iloilo and Festive Walk Mall — cementing the family's role in the city's modern renaissance.

Modern flour milling
Modern flour milling operations today — a far evolution from the 1901 textile bazaar

Present Day

La Filipina Today

More than 123 years after its founding, La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp. remains privately held and family-led, with corporate headquarters in Iloilo City and operations in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

According to company profiles on The Org and PhilJobNet, the group employs between 5,001 and 10,000 people across its subsidiaries. Its core food brands — Amigo, Segurado, La Filipina Flour, and RiCO Corn Rice — are staples in supermarkets, bakeries, and community stores.

The official website describes the group as "engaged in flour milling, feeds manufacturing, fertilizer blending, sugar milling and refinery, hog farming, and real estate," with a mission rooted in "feeding and building the Filipino nation."

Family Tree

JULIAN UY GONGCO (1879–1940s) │ Born Amoy, China • Arrived Iloilo 1895 • Founded La Filipina 1901 │ └── UY CHIONG (John Uy) │ Reopened store 1946 after WWII │ └── Partner: TAN CHIN ENG (1949) │ └── ALFONSO A. UY (b. June 9, 1939) │ Joined at 15 (1954) • Took leadership 1960 │ B.S. Chemical Eng'g, CPU 1964 (Magna Cum Laude, Board Top 2) │ Chairman Emeritus, LFUGC Group │ m. PAZ GONZALEZ UYGONGCO │ └── THIRD GENERATION LEADERSHIP ├── Management of Flour, Feeds, Sugar, Real Estate divisions └── PIA PAZ G. UYGONGCO President, Uygongco Foundation Inc.

Community

Legacy in Western Visayas

Beyond commerce, the family's civic imprint is significant. The Uygongco Foundation Inc., led by Pia Paz Uygongco, focuses on Iloilo, Guimaras, and Capiz with programs in health, education scholarships, livelihood training, and disaster relief.

As reported by Panay News, the Foundation has built classrooms, funded medical missions, and supported farmers' cooperatives — continuing Julian's original ethos of community-based enterprise. Alfonso Uy himself has been recognized by The News Today as one of the "Most Inspiring Ilonggo Entrepreneurs," and served in various regional business councils.

Today, walking down the restored Calle Real, past the heritage buildings that once housed La Filipina's first mostrador, the company's trajectory reads as a commercial biography of Iloilo itself: immigrant grit, wartime survival, post-war industrialization, and modern diversification.