History of the term
The origin of the term "Konyo" or "coņo" to refer to the affluent members of Philippine society draws from an earlier (1800's) usage of the word coņo to refer to Peninsular Spanish expatriates living in colonies such as the Philippines and Latin America. This, in turn, was a result of the ultra-excessive use of the word coņo as a swear word and expletive on the part of Peninsular Spaniards beginning sometime in the 1800's and continuing today. Many Latin Americans and educated Filipinos of the late 1800's, while they spoke Spanish, did not always use the same oral expressions that Peninsular Spaniards from the "Mother Country" used. Aside from the "ceceo" (pronouncing the "Z" or the "C" in "ce" or "ci" as a soft "TH" sound), the over-used coņo expression set the expatriate Spaniards apart from the native-born locals. Coņo thus became a term that certain Latin Americans (as well as Filipinos of the late 1800's) used for Spaniards which was in analogous fashion to how New Zealanders and Australians continue to refer to the British (especially the English) as "Pommies." (Pommy derives from "POM", or Prisoner of the Motherland - which refers to the England-born English as not being "adventurous enough" to settle outside of the English Motherland.)
The usage of coņo as the favorite expletive for expatriate Spaniards therefore gave them the label. As these expatriate Spaniards, referred to colloquially as "coņos, were at the top of the food chain in the Philippines and generally held the highest prestige, the term coņo later on found itself being used on the broader creole and mestizo caste who may not necessarily have been of Spanish descent (some were of French, German, Lebanese, etc backgrounds).
As time went by, the label's usage broadened further to include most members of the Philippine upper classes, regardless of their racial background. Today, rich people who are seen to live a very European-style standard of living, even if they be of Chinese-mestizo or native Filipino descent are sometimes referred to as being coņo."
The word coņo often requires a certain Eurocentric orientation, since the richest members of Philippine Society - namely, the ethnic-Chinese Taipan class - do not even qualify for the label due to their non-European orientation. That the word coņo originally meant "cunt" and later meant "Spaniard" has surely gone a long way to becoming a word associated with a certain Euro-centric sector of the upper crust of Philippine society shows just how far a word's meaning can change.