Don Juan Antonio and Don Francisco Orbeta established themselves in Manila towards the first quarter of the nineteenth century; there they owned a business called Orbeta Company. Don Juan Antonio was a nephew of Don Francisco and was born in Plencia in 1823.

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His Uncle was Don José Ramón de Orbeta y Echevarría, who was born in Plencia in 1881 and later became involved in commerce throughout the Philippine archipelago, became Commander of the Coast Guard in Algeciras, Spain.  According to his military service records he participated in the extermination of a faction led by the traitor Torrijos.   In 1832 he requested a position as War Commissioner with the applicable staff.  From 1829 to 1847 he was the Captain of the Disciplined Militias of the Pangasinan 2’ Regiment of Luzón with the rank of Commander.  In 1846 he was given a two year license to travel to the Peninsula (Cádiz) to take care of personal matters (…) his trip aboard the frigate Preciosa was accomplished via the Isthmus of Suez.  His children Luis (1830), Jose Antonio (1831), and Francisca (1832) were born in Algeciras,  Don José Ramón died in Seville in 1859; his wife Doña Venancia Suertegaray died in the same city in 1891.

It is important to note the double facet of Don José Ramón as a silk merchant and accredited diplomat in China, according to Don Xabier Ibarzabal,  he was also involved in the origins of the Asian trade between Cantón, Macao, Wamposa, and Amoy.

According to Pio Baroja in his book “La Estrella del Capitán Chimista, two Orbeta brothers owned ships including an old ship named La Bilbaina, and wanted to get rid of it.  The frigate was renamed Isla de Panay.  It was consigned by Menchacatorre and Company to make a trip to the port of Amoy transporting cargo and passengers, all of them Chinese.  The ship was under the command of José Villaranda, a friend of the Orbetas.  The Orbetas were in partnership with a fellow Basque named Don José Antonio de Cucullu Ibarra.  In the early 1840s Don Juan Antonio established himself in Madrid, from where he resumed his commercial activities. Before that he resided in Binondo, in La Escolta Street, the commercial center of Manila, where he leased a store named “Almacén del Capricho, along the shore of the Pasig river.  To this regard José Rizal explains in his Noli me tangere, how a tributary of the Pasig river, served, like most other rivers in Manila, as a bathing place, sewage, laundry place, fishing spot, transportation and communication path, and even as a source of potable water where the Chinese water salesman felt it was convenient to work. It is also important to note that this powerful artery is also the noisiest center of traffic and a place dominated by the constant movement of ships.  Additionally, La Escolta Street is also the site of one-story edifices with stores owned by Chinese merchants.

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