Andrés Soriano was an influential Spanish citizen businessman in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 and the leader of the Philippine Falange

Philippine Falange

The Philippine Falange, the informal name for the Spanish National Assemblies of the Philippines was a Philippine falangist political party that was a branch of the Spanish Falange. It was founded in 1936. The party was initially led from the late 1930s by Spanish citizen and businessman Andrés...

, acting as an agent of Spanish ruler Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

 of the Spanish Falange

Falange

The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....

 from the late 1930s. He served as finance minister of the Philippines during the Quezon administration.

He was well known for expanding the San Miguel Brewery that eventually became as San Miguel Corporation

San Miguel Corporation

Established in 1890 as a brewery, San Miguel Corporation is Southeast Asia's largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company with over 17,000 employees in over 100 major facilities throughout the Asia-Pacific....

. He also established many philanthropies and encouraged good employee relations by sharing profits with his more than 16,000 employees by establishing a pension plan that paid retired employees 25% of their salary, with guaranteed sick leaves and medical benefits. And in 1941, he founded Philippine Airlines

Philippine Airlines

Philippine Airlines, Inc. operating as Philippine Airlines, is a flag carrier of the Philippines. Headquartered in the Philippine National Bank Financial Center in Pasay City, the airline was founded in 1941 and is the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name...

, Asia's first air carrier.