Sun­trust Prop­er­ties Finds Its Beacon in a Strong Leader

Noth­ing tests a cap­tain’s skill more than rough waters. And by that meas­ure, Atty. Harry M. Paltongan, pres­id­ent of Sun­trust Prop­er­ties Inc., has proven him­self many times over.

So it was no sur­prise to the teams in Sun­trust Prop­er­ties, a wholly-owned sub­si­di­ary of Mega­world Corp., when Paltongan was named “Asia’s Esteemed Leader of Integ­rity and Innov­a­tion in Cor­por­ate Excel­lence” at the Golden Icons’ 2025 Asia’s Pin­nacle Awards: Sum­mit of Excel­lence, held last month at Okada Manila.

“His recog­ni­tion under­scores how he suc­cess­fully blends strin­gent eth­ical stand­ards with innov­at­ive foresight, estab­lish­ing that strong val­ues are the found­a­tion of industry lead­er­ship,” the award-giv­ing body said in a Face­book post announ­cing the recog­ni­tion. “Under his dir­ec­tion, Sun­trust con­tin­ues to set new bench­marks for excel­lence and trust in real estate.”

INSPIRING PROGRESS

Paltongan joins a dis­tin­guished group of people “whose excep­tional achieve­ments con­tinue to inspire pro­gress, shape indus­tries, and elev­ate stand­ards of excel­lence in gov­ernance, busi­ness, law, media, and national ser­vice.”

The tim­ing was also serendip­it­ous. He accep­ted the award just a week after Sun­trust cel­eb­rated its 28th anniversary.

Paltongan’s jour­ney with the com­pany began under dif­fi­cult cir­cum­stances. His first task was to retrench most employ­ees at a time when the com­pany had only one project to sell and dis­in­ter­ested buyers. They were unsure about homeown­er­ship amid the Asian fin­an­cial crisis.

Estab­lished on Nov. 14, 1997 under the vis­ion of chair­man Dr. Andrew L. Tan to serve the afford­able hous­ing mar­ket, the com­pany struggled through lean years from the onset until 2004. Hope­ful for bet­ter days then, he led the com­pany, intro­du­cing major policy reforms, upgrad­ing sys­tems, and strength­en­ing cor­por­ate val­ues. When Paltongan assumed pres­id­ency in 2007, the com­pany had already begun see­ing an increase in sales, improved col­lec­tions, and a grow­ing invent­ory and port­fo­lio.

In 2008, the com­pany was renamed Sun­trust Prop­er­ties Inc. It was a more optim­istic iden­tity that signaled the com­pany’s read­i­ness for a brighter future—something that would swiftly take shape.

Today, Paltongan is the cap­tain not only of Sun­trust Prop­er­ties but also of Sun­trust Eco­town Developers Inc., Sher­wood Hills Golf Club Inc., Sun­rays Prop­erty Man­age­ment Inc., and Gov­ernor’s Hills Sci­ence School.

In his accept­ance mes­sage, Paltongan said: “I humbly accept this very pres­ti­gi­ous award, and I am accept­ing this for my very huge Sun­trust fam­ily... employ­ees, Sun­trust­ees, con­tract­ors, and joint ven­ture part­ners.”

STRENGTHENING COMMITMENT

Paltongan also reaf­firmed Sun­trust’s com­mit­ment to help­ing address the coun­try’s hous­ing back­log, estim­ated at 6.5 mil­lion units, by build­ing homes and com­munit­ies where Filipino fam­il­ies can truly thrive. At the same time, he high­lighted in his speech integ­rity and innov­a­tion, which mean doing what is right even when it is dif­fi­cult, and the com­pany’s drive to con­tinu­ously seek solu­tions that deliver mean­ing­ful value.

“We are not just cre­at­ing com­munit­ies of sub­di­vi­sions and con­domin­i­ums... We are also build­ing indus­trial parks to provide work for the Filipino people. We cre­ate what we call town­ship projects with the concept of live-work-play,” he said.

To date, Sun­trust has developed more than 50 projects nation­wide and has helped more than 20,000 Filipino fam­il­ies achieve not just homeown­er­ship but their ideal homes.

And most def­in­itely, these fig­ures will con­tinue to climb.

2025 MILESTONES

For this year alone, the com­pany recor­ded new mile­stones.

In Davao City, it held the prop­erty bless­ing and cere­mo­nial turnover of One Lakeshore Drive Towers 1 and 2 within Mega­world’s Davao Park Dis­trict. It also wel­comed new homeown­ers in Tagum through Palm City, and cel­eb­rated the bless­ing of La Rivi­era in Cadiz City, Negros Occi­dental. In Baguio City, Sun­trust, mean­while, marked the turnover of The Mist Res­id­ences.

With its 28th anniversary theme, “Beacons of Hope,” Sun­trust Prop­er­ties com­mits to bring­ing the prom­ise and joy of home own­er­ship to more Filipino fam­il­ies—guided no less by its stead­fast cap­tain.

Philippine Daily Inquirer: Vaughn Alviar, 6 December 2025