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Real estate magnate and former senator Manny Villar maintains his status as the richest Filipino with a net worth of $7.2 billion or around ₱349.7 billion.

This is according to the recently published Forbes World's Billionaires List for 2021.

Villar ranks 352nd worldwide on the strength of his many ventures including property conglomerate Vista Land & Lifescapes, shopping malls, Coffee Project café chains, and All Day convenience stores.

Following Villar as the richest Filipino is Enrique Razon Jr., who ranks 561st globally with a net worth amounting to $5 billion (around ₱242.8 billion). Razon runs the International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), the country's leading terminal operator.

Placing third at 925th globally is Lucio Tan with a net worth of $3.3 billion (about ₱150.2 billion). Tan is the founder and chairman of LT group, which has interests in tobacco, spirits, banking, airline, and property development.

Sharing the 1,008th spot are Andrew Tan of Alliance Global Group and the Sy siblings - Hans and Herbert - from the SM Group.

Also from the SM Group are Harley Sy, Henry Sy Jr., and Teresita Sy-Coson, who shares the 1,174th spot with Jollibee founder and chairman Tony Tan Caktiong.

Ramon Ang, president and vice chairman of San Miguel Corporation, is at 1,444 on the list, followed by JG Summit Holdings Inc. head Lance Gokongwei at 2,378.

Sharing the spot with Gokongwei is Alphaland chairman Roberto Ongpin.

Rounding up the roster of the richest individuals from the Philippines are Century Pacific founder Ricardo Po Sr. and Mang Inasal founder and DoubleDragon Properties chairman Edgar “Injap” Sia II at the 2,524th spot.

Overall, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos keeps his throne as the world's richest billionaire with a net worth of $177 billion.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, comes in second with $151 billion net worth under his name.

Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is in third place followed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

It's worth noting that the number of billionaires worldwide has increased in 2020 and 2021 despite the grim economic conditions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The number of billionaires on Forbes' 35th annual list of the world's wealthiest exploded to an unprecedented 2,755--660 more than a year ago. Of those, a record high 493 were new to the list--roughly one every 17 hours, including 210 from China and Hong Kong,” Forbes wrote in the accompanying article.

“Altogether these billionaires are worth $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion in 2020. The U.S. still has the most, with 724, followed by China (including Hong Kong and Macao) with 698. We used stock prices and exchange rates from March 5 to calculate net worths.”

Aside from their astronomical net worth, one thing that all these names share in common is that they took a risk to put up their ventures.

Speaking of risk and business, here are some of our local celebrities who followed their entrepreneurial dreams in the face of a pandemic: