“You’re telling me that the man who owns three private jets and a penthouse that touches the clouds actually knows how to commute in a tricycle?”

Celeste’s laughter was a bright, melodic sound that cut through the humid afternoon air of Voen She stood at the edge of the dusty road, her hand shielding her eyes from the sun as she watched the most powerful man in the Philippine business sector struggle to fit his six-foot-two frame into the cramped sidecar of a colorful, rattling tricycle.

Lucian Aldridge, the man the tabloids called the “Iron Beast,” was currently dressed in a faded cotton shirt and a pair of generic slippers....