ENTERTAINING friends for lunch at home, hostess Mariquita “Kit” Salimbangon Yeung dons a white shirt, pants printed with tropical lemons and espadrilles, all by Dolce & Gabbana.

 

“I thought the matchy-matchy was too much. I decided to break the prints by wearing a white shirt instead,” she explains.

 

Famous for being one of Cebu’s most elegant and prominent socialites, she makes every luncheon or dinner memorable with fresh floral arrangements, lamps, cutesy accessories and bountiful food stations.

 

Then again, she’s also known for her big heart. Friends address her as “Dame Mariquita,” a reference to the Papal title Dame of the Order of St. Sylvester, for her socio-civic service.

 

Her achievements and her style savvy have earned her a place in this year’s “The Elegant Filipinas” list. This annual event, led by Tingting Cojuangco, honors women who embody appropriate fashion sense and service to the country.

 

Cojuangco quotes French designer Coco Chanel as saying, “Elegance is when the inside is as good as the outside.”

 

The event will be held tomorrow, Sept. 22, at Manila Diamond Hotel. Proceeds will go to the widows of the members of the Special Action Force (SAF).

 

The list also includes Felicia Atienza, president and CEO of Chinese International School, a K-12 International Baccalaureate World School; bag designer Marilu Batchelor; Marissa Concepcion, a member of social welfare organization Laura Vicuña Foundation Inc. and the Volunteers in Development, Education and Solidarity; breast-feeding advocate Michelle Tan; actress Dawn Zulueta, founder of Kahit Hindi Pasko Foundation; broadcast journalist Karen Davila; entrepreneur and marketer Stephanie Gonzalez of furniture company Philux; educator and dermatologist Pamela Huang Hernandez; and multi-awarded hotelier Vanessa Suatengco.

 

Enterprising

 

Growing up in Medellin, Cebu, Yeung assisted her father, Martin Salimbangon, when poor people came to the house to ask for medicine. She would get the medicines in the cabinet and hand them to him.

 

“We didn’t come from a rich family. My father was a school teacher and the barangay captain in Corva. People would ask him to settle disputes. The sick sought him for medicines. Since our house was sturdier than most, the homeless took shelter there during typhoons. I was my father’s little helper,” she recalls.

 

In 1978, she married Hong Kong diamond trader Carlos Yeung after a whirlwind courtship. She initially settled in Hong Kong and got involved in diamond trading as well.

 

As a mother, she put her education degree from University of San Carlos to good use. “I had practice with my children—Carla, 37, Martin, 36, and Joelle, 34. They went to the best schools in Hong Kong, but I helped them with their homework,” she says.

 

During vacations in Cebu, she would buy huge pieces of land, which later turned to into ventures.

 

The SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in Hong Kong from 2002 to 2004 drove the Yeungs back to Cebu.

 

“I was afraid,” she recounts. “I brought Carlos here. He wanted to do something. My brothers Cesar and Benhur suggested building a memorial park. Since then our business has grown into housing.”

 

The family established MSY Holdings, the name of which was taken after her initials. She is the chair, Carlos is the vice chair and son Martin is the president. The portfolio includes the Mactan Island Memorial Garden, Kandaya Resort in northern Cebu and the Bayswater Subdivisions in Mactan and Talisay.

 

Whey they travel abroad, the couple pitch their developments to Filipinos and foreigners.

 

While the company is successful, she has not forgotten her father’s advice: to continue helping others.

 

The aid should have a ripple effect, and it is important that the successful projects can be duplicated. The charity should also tackle critical problems such as poverty and health.

 

The eponymous Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung Charitable Foundation Inc. (MSYCFI) began in 1992 with medical missions to remote barrios. It also provided toilets in indigent communities and scholarships to underprivileged but bright students.

 

Since 1998, her foundation has been in partnership with Operation Smile Philippines (OSP), a program that offers free surgery to children with facial deformities that have impaired their speech and eating habits. In the Philippines, the ratio of children born with cleft lips and cleft palates is nearly two in 1,000.

 

“Operation Smile became my priority,” she points out. “I saw how life changed in 45 minutes. It’s amazing that some children don’t know how to interact with others. They can’t get out of the house for fear of being laughed at because of their harelip or cleft palate. One boy couldn’t close his eyes because of that.”

 

Over the past 18 years, her foundation has served 4,982 children under OSP and 24 children under MSYCFI’s doctors.

 

This year, 121 children benefited from the mission at University of Cebu Medical Center.

 

Dramatic

 

One of the most dramatic cases was a disfigured Carmen Entero, who was born with a life-threatening encephalocoele. A brain sac developed on her face which was slowly filling up with fluids.

 

The foundation sponsored her six-hour surgery at Mater Hospital in Brisbane by Dr. Richard Lewandownski, Operation Smile Australia, World Care Program.

 

Fearing the injection, children would cry before surgery. Yeung comforted the kids. One deformed child narrated how her neighbors taunted her for many years.

 

“Their insults were more painful than the needle. They criticized me for being ugly,” said the child in Bisaya.

 

Yeung’s eyes were moist with tears as she hugged the child to console her. It must be painful for a mother to see her child crying like that,” she says.

 

“What I love most is teaching mothers how to care for the children,” she adds. “Mothers make life difficult for these children with harelips or cleft palates. They scream at them or beat them up. My role is to teach them how to love their children for who they are.”

 

She recalls that when she began her foundation, friends jested that while she was the founder, Carlos was the funder.

 

Today, individuals and organizations offer food and medicines or volunteer their time.

 

Big heart

 

Yeung is also the go-to person for raising funds for the church. She assists Msgr. Roberto Alesna in fund-raising activities for the Cebu Archdiocesan Shrine of Saint Pedro Calungsod, the recent International Eucharistic Congress, and the Eukaristiya-Garden of Thanksgiving at the Archbishop’s Palace.

 

She sets the example for generosity: “When people see that I donate, they follow. Members of the finance committee are also the donors.”

 

Her recent accomplishments were the Cebu Beautification Movement and the Osmeña Boulevard beautification project. She organized a masquerade-themed charity ball, which raised P10 million.

 

Yeung says she has never experienced donor fatigue. “My husband would say, ‘Don’t ask, just give.’ People love what I do. They see the problem through my eyes and my heart, and so they give. Cebuanos have a very loving and caring people. They are supportive.”

 

She attributes the blessings to having pure intentions. “I believe that the more I care, the more people will help. God loves me so much that He blesses me.”