Consunji, dean of builders, 95
David M. “DM” Consunji, the world-renowned engineer behind the iconic Cultural Center of the Philippines and other infrastructure landmarks in the Philippines, died on Monday at the age of 95.
Consunji, hailed as the dean of builders and who founded construction company DMCI in 1954, had served as public works, transportation and communications secretary from 1970 to 1975 during the time of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Having built an empire from construction and then expanding to other businesses such as mining and power through his conglomerate DMCI Holdings, Consunji emerged as the country’s sixth richest man with a net worth of $3.68 billion, according to Forbes’ 2017 list of richest people in the Philippines.
He earned his civil engineering degree from University of the Philippines in 1946, heeding his father’s advice not to take up agriculture – his original choice.
In 1954, after initially working for friends and relatives, he established his construction company D.M. Consunji with P3 million in initial capital.
The company built homes and buildings but what really “catapulted the name DMCI into the building stratosphere was the Chapel of the Holy Sacrifice” in UP Diliman, according to an article in Moneysense.
The late Fr. John Delaney, then chaplain of the UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City, envisioned a church that was open on all sides to let in the air and the sun, and one where the altar would be at the very center so that the priest and the faithful could be one during worship.
Fernando Zobel, patriarch of the Zobels, was so impressed by the UP Chapel that he tapped DMCI to develop the Makati Central Business district.
His remains lie in state at the Capilla de San Francisco of Santuario de San Antonio Parish, McKinley Road, Forbes Park in Makati City, and may be viewed until Friday, Sept. 8.
Interment is on Saturday at the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig City after a 9:30 a.m. mass at Santuario de San Antonio.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Consunji’s honor to the UP Engineering Research and Development Foundation Inc. and Orani Suhay Foundation Inc.