Leonardo S. Sarao
Leonardo Salvador Sarao, Sr. was the founder and owner of the Sarao Motors, a company known for designing, manufacturing and selling the jeepney, the most popular mode of transportation in the Philippines. He is not the first person to alter the surplus jeeps left behind by the U.S. Army from World War II, but he saw them as a business opportunity for mass transportation. He redesigned the surplus jeeps to increase its functionality by extending the body to accommodate at least twice the number of passengers and by putting some railings at the back and top for extra passengers to cling to, and for cargoes. He revolutionized a burgeoning industry and changed the life of generations of Filipinos.
Leonardo Sarao was awarded The Outstanding Filipino Award in 1997 for Entrepreneurship. He started Sarao Motors from a borrowed PHP700. Though he only attained Grade 6 level of education because of poverty, he was able to make the company grow into a multimillion peso conglomerate.
He was a relative of Leonides Sarao Virata, a respected and distinguished Filipino economist served as Secretary of Trade and Industry and Chairman of the Development Bank of the Philippines during Marcos regime.
