The project, initiated in the late 1980s, fell on the lap of an industrious and forward-looking native of Balaoan, La Union, whose legacy we commemorate following his passing on Jan. 27, 2025 at 81: Antonio “Tony” A. Turalba Sr. AAT to colleagues and staff, Turalba was an architect, real estate tycoon, and founder of the Active Group of Companies.
“To our surprise, we sold it in one day,” recounted Turalba Sr. of Arcadia in his official biography authored by Krip Yuson. The project, which he undertook on behalf of PCIBank after the bank faced challenges pursuing it, was an instant hit —a testament to Tony’s ability to take calculated risks and turn them into extraordinary achievements.
“I felt I had to outdo the price of Corinthian lots,” said Tony, referring to the going rate at that time of P2,000 per square meter.
Arcadia is just one of many signature developments of the Active Group, which Tony co-founded with his wife Maria Christina “Tina” Valera Turalba, also an architect. The others include the Town and Country subdivisions, the Avignon Tower condominium, the ACT Tower, and their crown jewel, the over 200-hectare Mount Malarayat Golf & Country Club and Residential Estates in Lipa, Batangas.
“Under his leadership, we did more than build homes,” the Active Group said in a statement. "We created opportunities for people to enhance their lives and achieve lasting stability through quality, value-driven communities.”
From tobacco trading to architecture
Tony was born in 1944 to Tomas Agtrap Turalba, primarily a trader of flue-cured Virginia tobacco leaves, and Alejandra Asperilla Turalba. He had six siblings.
A product of a local public school, the young Turalba often accompanied his father on his tobacco-buying trips, “going from one town to another, barrio to barrio, buying tobacco,” he recalled.
This early exposure to his father's business — coupled with his mother’s involvement in livestock trading— instilled in him the entrepreneurial spirit that would serve him well decades later.
After graduating high school, Tony headed to Manila and enrolled in an engineering program at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1959. He later shifted to the College of Architecture, where he met the love of his life, Tina, who graduated two years ahead of him. In 1970, Tony passed the architecture board exams and, in 2021 he was honored with the UPAA Lifetime Distinguished Alumni Award.
Turalba & Associates
After marrying in 1966, Tony and Tina started a handicraft business and, in 1970, founded design firm Turalba & Associates in a 50-square-meter space at Tina’s parents' home in Quezon City.
From pursuing design-and-build residential projects where they received a 10- to 15-percent professional fee for design and project management, the Turalba couple would subsequently oversee the housing projects of V.V. Soliven, who was a relative of Tina.
There, Tony learned the ropes and honed his skills in the real estate business, evolving into an all-in-one builder moving on to becoming an all-in-one builder — designing, constructing, and later selling mid-rise buildings. These included the J. Moreno Building, the CPJ Building, and the ACT Tower, the initials of Tony and Tina, which serves as their corporate headquarters as they retained ownership of a few floors. All located in the Makati Central Business District, these projects were developed under the then-newly-formed Active Construction Inc.
Town and Country
But it was in land development, particularly the middle-income segment, that Tony saw bigger opportunities.
Through the series of Town and Country subdivisions — from Bulacan and Antipolo, to Cavite and beyond — they were able to pioneer such innovations as the “Park In Every Block,” providing homeowners a venue to socialize and for kids to play, and the concept of a short-term “maintenance fund” to “augment the maintenance expenses of a completed Active development.”
The Asian Crisis and Mt. Malarayat Golf & Country Club
Riding the wave of the real estate boom of the 1990s, the Turalbas briefly ventured into banking through Active Bank (formerly Maunlad Savings & Loan, later acquired by Plantersbank) and explored the initial public offering (IPO) of their holding firm, Active Group Inc.
It was around this time in 1995 that Tony, then 49 years old, embarked on his most ambitious project yet — the development of a former poultry farm into the P3-billion Mount Malarayat Golf & Country Club and Residential Estates.
The onset of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, however, pushed Tony to pause and reassess his aggressive expansion plans. He was forced to cede control of prized personal properties to banks, including one in Forbes Park, in order to cover mounting loans under a dacion en pago, or payment in lieu, arrangement with banks.
Not wanting to terminate staff, he and the company’s top executives gave up their salaries. “We did that until we could recover, for something like 10 to 12 years. But still, we continued developing, little by little,” said Tony.
Dream fulfilled against the odds
And when the coast slowly began to clear, the Active Group finally inaugurated Malarayat’s 27-hole all-weather championship golf course designed by the internationally-renowned J. Michael Poellet Design Group. It was the culmination of a dream — realized against the odds — of a man of perseverance, foresight and grit.
“I am truly blessed to be a son of a truly great man,” writes Tony’s son, Antonio “Toti” Turalba Jr., Active Group CEO and an architect himself. “Not only are you an inspiration to the family but you’ve inspired countless others. I will miss you Pops, rest well. Love you.”
Apart from wife Tina and son Toti, Tony is survived by daughters Antonella, who holds an MBA and Masters in Real Estate Development from the University of Southern California; Anjeanette, an architect; and Angela Khristine, an ophthalmologist.
Features Reporter
