Category: Business and economy

[2009] Lopez family: Sale of Meralco stake ‘a business decision’

This was among the few times the Lopez family members admitted publicly the pain and rift behind-the-scenes in the deals involving Meralco, the business power company in the country they once controlled. This was published in 2009 on the news sites of ABS-CBN and Newsbreak, both of which are now dead links. Reposting the story’s…
[2008] The inside story: How San Miguel worked its way into Meralco’s board

NOTE: This was a story I wrote piecing together the inner workings of a business deal announced to a shocked Manila business community in 2008. From various interviews, I learned how Ramon Ang’s weekend visit to Cebu to charm Winston Garcia of state pension fund GSIS resulted in last minute changes on who the Lopez…
Francis Lim’s new role as SEC chair has been a long time coming

Francis Lim’s appointment as SEC chair has been a long time coming, with many twists, turns, and bends in between. Back in 2011, Lim has already been considered for this post. But President Aquino chose another: Teresita Herbosa, Lim’s colleague at ACCRA law firm.
Out-of-the-box style for a documentary film

We had the sun and surf on one side, and the verdant mountain on the other
OMG, I’m a ‘film producer!

I have crossed over — or dipped my foot — to a whole new way of storytelling that’s far from my text-based or article-heavy journalism usual.
How a documentary captured the humanity of John Gokongwei Jr.

My decades of business journalism have taught me how straightforward, risk-averse, fact-based business people are when they are in front of a camera. How did we make Gokongwei Jr’s humanity shine in a documentary?
John Gokongwei: A multimedia biography project | Documentary premiere

The documentary answered the question: What did the late tycoon John Gokongwei Jr, the subject of my biography project, leave behind?
How Villar gained what the Lopezes lost in ABS-CBN

While we were sleeping, Filipino dollar-billionaire Manny Villar earned the right to (temporarily) use the channels that once belonged to the Lopez family’s ABS-CBN. This is how it happened.
‘Be humble, be patient.’ Take it from Carlos Chan, MAP Management Man of the Year 2021

Having experienced world wars and political upheavals, Filipino-Chinese tycoon Carlos Chan has this short and sweet advice to businessmen going thru difficult pandemic times.