Before the executive titles, billion-peso conglomerates, and high-powered boardrooms, they were simply three schoolgirls in uniform, walking the same hallways.
They may not have attended Immaculate Conception Academy (ICA) at the same time, but these former schoolgirls—now business tycoons—are united by a shared purpose: to pay forward their success by championing the ICA Greenhills Scholarship Foundation.
Robina Gokongwei-Pe, Teresita Sy-Coson, and Josephine Gotianun-Yap made a rare joint appearance—not to cut a ribbon, broker a mega-deal, or ring a stock exchange bell.
Instead, they sat quietly in the church pews during a thanksgiving mass held on July 11, 2026, at the San Juan campus, celebrating the foundation’s 20th anniversary.
The mass served as a poignant tribute to the dedicated educators and nuns who molded them. It also marked two decades of ICA opening doors to financially challenged students.
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BEHIND THE ICA Greenhills Scholarship Foundation
Robina Gokongwei-Pe looks back at the start of this 20-year-old foundation with fondness.
The President and CEO of Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. recalls how the late Sister Teresita Canivel, M.I.C., approached her to help organize the initiative, to which she agreed under one very specific, lighthearted condition: there had to be red wine.
“You know, I've been in this foundation since day one. Twenty years," Gokongwei-Pe shares.
"I was in ICA from kindergarten to high school, 4th year, so I'm very devoted to that school.”
She graduated from ICA in 1978.
The successful business leader continued: “I told her, ‘Sister Tere, I will join the Scholarship Foundation only if you provide red wine every meeting.’
"And she really fulfilled her promise, and, not only that, long after she passed they still serve red wine."
Founded on July 4, 2006, the ICA Greenhills Scholarship Foundation, Inc. (ICAGHSFI) was ultimately born from Sister Tere's vision to systematically help financially challenged families, ensuring that deserving students could finish high school and eventually reach college.
Sister Tere personally went from office to office, rallying support for her compassionate project.
This was how she recruited Gokongwei-Pe and Teresita Sy-Coson, who signed on as part of the foundation’s list of incorporators.
And 20 years later, Gokongwei-Pe is the vice-chairperson of the ICAGHSFI board that spearheads efforts to raise funds from the alumnae, parents, and friends of ICA.
The project has also gone beyond scholarships, as it now supports other charitable activities and educational sponsorships for partner communities in Tondo, San Juan, and Davao.
“To Sister Tere, thank you very much for planting the seeds of this foundation. Twenty years,” Gokongwei-Pe expressed.
ICA VALUES
Sy-Coson and Gotianun-Yap have kept their contributions to ICAGHSFI largely low-key, even as the foundations they lead have long supported education.
Sy-Coson, chairwoman of BDO and vice chairperson of SM Investments Corporation, is an alumna of ICA Batch 1968.
Leading the country's largest retail and banking conglomerate, she often speaks about the discipline and humility required to navigate immense corporate challenges.
The Philippines’ richest woman has also expressed her commitment to expanding access to education for Filipinos—an ethos shaped by her father, Henry Sy, who was unable to finish college.
“For him, if we can also give education to those that are interested and may not have the means, it will take them far,” she said in a speech in 2024.
Josephine Gotianun-Yap, the president and CEO of Filinvest Development Corporation (FDC) and vice chairperson of Filinvest Land, graduated from ICA in 1971.
She credits the school for instilling in her a sense of simplicity, faith, hard work, and discipline.
The real estate leader also underscored the importance of education in a 2024 interview, describing it as a powerful pathway out of poverty.
“Makikita mo so many people in one generation nag-iba na yung buhay nila.
"Many of them, yung parents nila minsan, driver, minsan farmer, etc. Pero pagdating… just for, because of education, by their generation, ano na sila, executives na sila sa office, right? And they've done very well,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Gokongwei-Pe’s insistence on having red wine at board meetings may come off as a lighthearted icebreaker, but it underscores a deeply rooted, two-decade commitment to uplifting financially challenged students.
While these three tycoons navigate the complexities of billion-peso industries, their shared dedication to the ICAGHSFI proves that the true measure of success is not just in accumulating wealth, but in distributing opportunity.