How Duterte’s ‘tough’ advice helped Philippine tycoon Dennis Uy
- Before Duterte’s rise, the southern province of Davao was better known for its tropical fruit than for business powerhouses like Uy’s
- But in the past few years, Uy has spread far beyond the region, assembling assets that are eating into other industries
Philippine tycoon Dennis Uy has built an empire spanning oil, shipping, casinos and telecommunications, but eight years ago his oil-trading business was in trouble over government allegations of fuel smuggling.
“He said my image is soft, so I should practice before a mirror saying, “You son of a b****,’ 100 times,” Uy said in an interview in Manila. “He doesn’t like when a person is bullied.”
Uy says Duterte has not played a direct role in his businesses, but the advice worked. He was cleared of the smuggling charges and went on to quadruple profit at his Phoenix Petroleum Philippines in the five years through the end of 2018. Along the way, he says, he gained the toughness Duterte had been trying to instil in him.
“If you survived petroleum and shipping, it trains you to be battle ready,” said Uy, 46. “In petroleum, to get your 1 peso margin, you watch everything from storage to trucking, and it’s common to give credit and deal with currency and oil price fluctuations.”