Bill Gates secretly visits rice institute for 6 hrs

By: Jeannette I. Andrade, Maricar Cinco - 10 years ago

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. AP FILE PHOTO

Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates was in Los Baños, Laguna on Wednesday in a rare visit to the headquarters of the International Rice Research Institute (Irri), a major grantee of the American billionaire’s foundation.

Several sources working for Irri, located inside the compound of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, confirmed Gates’ six-hour visit to Los Baños, 66 kilometers away from Manila.

The Microsoft cofounder has been in the country since Black Saturday, apparently escaping detection until he was sighted on Wednesday morning at Irri.

According to immigration sources, William Henry Gates arrived in Puerto Princesa City on April 4 on a private jet with US registry number N887WM.

One of the sources said the world’s richest man (net worth of $79.2 billion), so named last month by Forbes magazine, wore a “violet shirt and a pair of khaki pants.”

“(He looked) just how he looked like in his pictures. Low-profile lang (only),” the source said.

Last month, Gate’s Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen was in the news when he announced on Twitter that he had found Musashi, one of Japan’s biggest and most famous battleships, in the Philippines.

Allen posted photos and a video online of parts of what he said was the battleship Musashi, found by his MY Octopus exploration vessel 1 kilometer deep on the floor of the Sibuyan Sea.

Musashi was found some 70 years after American forces sank it during World War II.

READ: US billionaire finds Japan’s famed battleship in PH

‘Confidential’

According to sources, who refused to be identified for lack of authority to speak to a reporter, Gates arrived at Irri around 8:59 a.m. on a Philippine helicopter.

Gates visited Irri’s boardroom, Irri’s experimental rice fields and gene bank, and had lunch inside the compound.

He reportedly left at 3 p.m.

A source, however, deemed that Gates’ visit was kept “confidential” since it was not announced through an office memorandum to Irri employees, unlike those of other “special visitors.”

“He is Irri’s biggest donor,” the source added.

Palawan island resort

A small plane, according to the source, took the American philanthropist to an island resort where he spent four days until he left Palawan for Manila on Wednesday morning on a chartered flight.

The source said that Gates landed around 10:30 a.m. at the general aviation area, a heavily secured site for private planes, near Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 4.

His private aircraft with its flight crew followed and landed around 1:30 p.m. at the general aviation area. It was spotted at the Asian Aerospace hangar.

Bruce Tolentino, Irri’s deputy director general for communications and partnerships, and secretary to the board of trustees, neither denied nor confirmed reports that Gates had visited the facility.

Gates foundation

“We have visitors who are officers of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF),” Tolentino said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

According to the Irri’s website, BMGF, which is being cochaired by Bill Gates himself, is listed as one of its philanthropic foundations and fund sources.

Tolentino, however, did not give a direct reply when pressed to confirm if Gates was among those visitors. Instead, he said the delegation, composed of “several members,” was headed by Dr. Pamela Anderson, the foundation’s director for agricultural development.

Delegation

He said the delegation arrived on April 4. Some members of the party left on April 8, while some are scheduled to leave on April 9.

“They (BMGF) were visiting us regularly, every quarter, for the last four to five years,”Tolentino said. Asked whether Bill Gates came at any time during those years, he replied, “no.”

BMGF donates about P16 million to P18 million annually to Irri for its rice science research, according to Tolentino.

Personal commitment

The foundation particularly funds Irri’s researches on “stress-tolerant” rice varieties or those that could survive flooding, drought and salinity, especially in the African and Southeast Asian regions, he said.

Rice research and global food security are a “personal commitment” of the Gates foundation, he added.

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Self-made billionaire

Gates cofounded the computer software giant Microsoft Corp. in 1975. Microsoft went public in 1986 and the following year, the company’s soaring share prices had made then 31-year-old Gates the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. He held the title of the world’s richest man by Forbes Magazine for 16 out of the last 21 years.

In 2006, Gates gave up full-time work at Microsoft and shifted to part-time work as nonexecutive chair to focus on the foundation he set up with his wife.

Founded in 2000, the foundation supports projects to improve health, reduce poverty and increase public access to technology.

In October 2008, the foundation awarded Irri a grant of $11.1 million to begin research on the first three-year phase of the C4 Rice Project.

The grant was to be used to develop and distribute over three years rice varieties that can withstand drought, floods and salty water in rain-fed ecosystems where farmers have little or no access to irrigation. Such conditions reduce yields, harm livelihoods, and foster hunger and malnutrition, a statement from the foundation said.

The grant was part of a $306-million package that nearly doubled the foundation’s investments in agriculture since it launched its agricultural development initiative in mid-2006.

1998 visit

Gates visited the Philippines on March 20, 1998. His daylong visit included a 30-minute Malacañang meeting with then President Fidel V. Ramos that was described as “purely social,” punctuated by photo sessions.

The two first met in Seattle, Washington in November 1997, when they witnessed the signing of several memoranda of agreement between Microsoft and Filipino firms and agencies.

While in the Philippines then, Gates also met with some of the country’s top business tycoons, including the heads of Ayala Corp. and Lopez Group. With a report from Inquirer Research