Mikey Cojuangco: Gibo is the smartest in our generation

What are the success secrets of the Cojuangco clan of Tarlac province, which has given the Philippines two presidents in the late President Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco Aquino and President Noynoy Cojuangco Aquino, two major presidential candidates Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) boss Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Jr. and his nephew former Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Cojuangco Teodoro?

This prodigious clan has also produced numerous other political leaders like Pangasinan gubernatorial candidate Mark Cojuangco, business tycoons like Antonio “Tony Boy” O. Cojuangco, Jr., even top celebrities like “Queen of All Media” Kris Cojuangco Aquino of ABS-CBN 2 and her first cousin actress/athlete Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski?

GMA News TV photo of cousins and 2010 presidential election rivals Noynoy Cojuangco Aquino and Gibo Cojuangco Teodoro

After the successful Nov. 17 Go Negosyo book launch dinner hosted by Joey Concepcion at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City, he and a few friends still lingered until midnight to chat around one table and I requested an exclusive interview with his friend Teleperformance president Miguel “Mikey” Ongsiako Cojuangco. Here are excerpts:

PHILIPPINE STAR: Why is your Cojuangco clan so successful in politics and business? Your aunt Cory was president, your cousin Noynoy is now president, your uncle Danding was a strong presidential bet and your cousin Gibo was a highly respected presidentiable in 2010. In business, many of you are doing well — of course Danding, your elder brother Tony Boy, etc.

MIGUEL O. COJUANGCO: I think it’s in the palm (pointing his index finger to the palm of his left hand).

What do you mean?

Our aunt Cory didn’t win as president until after her husband Senator Ninoy Aquino was assassinated in 1983. Noynoy also wasn’t a presidential contender until after his mother died. We have a role to play (in Philippine history).

Even your cousin, bar topnotcher, Harvard graduate and now BDO Unibank independent director Gibo C. Teodoro, was a very qualified presidential candidate, whom rival candidate Manny Villar said his family would vote for in 2010 if he himself wasn’t running.

Gibo, in our generation, I think he’s the smartest.

I read in Danding’s privately commissioned Cojuangco family history by the late National Artist for History Carlos Quirino that your hardworking immigrant ancestor Jose Cojuangco I came to Manila in 1861 from Hongjian village (pronounced “Hong-chiam” in Hokkien) in Fujian province, that he was once a carpenter who was hired together with other skilled Chinese laborers to do reconstruction work in Malacañang Palace for the Spanish governor-general. Isn’t that a dramatic “rags-to-riches” saga? He was then paid three centavos a day.

I thought he was a trade envoy from China.

He was an artisan who eventually became a successful contractor and trader in Malolos in Bulacan, then later moved your family to Tarlac.

One reason the family elders moved to Paniqui, Tarlac was because they knew that the train would end up there, and it would be ideal for trading.

The controversial late Ricardo Manapat, who was accused of changing the marriage records of the late Fernando Poe, Jr.’s father, he wrote the rumor that the Cojuangco wealth allegedly came from the Philippine Revolution’s money supposedly left by General Antonio Luna with your half-Chinese grand-aunt Ysidra Cojuangco, but historian Carlos Quirino told me his research yielded no such data and no such rumor in Tarlac. I heard the unmarried Doña Ysidra was a talented businesswoman who helped build up your family’s fortune?

That rumor on the revolutionary funds is not true. Yes, she was a very talented.

In your Cojuangco clan today, the wealthiest is your uncle Danding Cojuangco of San Miguel Corporation?

Among all of us, it was also tito Danding’s late father Eduardo, Sr. who branched out into other businesses outside of the sugar plantation and sugar milling. He went into plywood manufacturing, lumber concessions, but he died when Danding was still young.

What is your reaction to critics who complain that your cousin, President Noynoy Aquino, lacks strategic vision and work ethic despite his political popularity?

Like my late auntie Cory, Noynoy has no selfish agenda. Look at it this way, we’re now at the tail-end of his administration and for other presidents that’s usually the period plagued with many scandals, but there’s no corruption scandal with Noynoy.

Why is it that among so-called Marcos cronies, your uncle Danding Cojuangco is now still very successful in big business while most of the others are gone?

It’s because of Ramon Ang, that guy is a genius. I first met him years ago at Mars Disco outside San Lorenzo Village in Makati; that was when everybody left, after 1986. By the way, since we’re talking of Ramon Ang, I’d like to ask you what is the top school in the Philippines for producing the best businessmen? It’s Far Eastern University, because Ramon Ang, Henry Sy, and Lucio Tan all came from FEU.

What are your impressions of Ramon Ang as a businessman?

No one gives credit to Ramon Ang, but you have to call a spade a spade; without him, they (his relatives) wouldn’t be where they are today.

Why is your cousin Kris Aquino so successful as a multimedia star?

Kris is the biggest celebrity endorser in the country, she can sell anything. Why? It’s because she only says the truth. Would you or I admit in public that we have an STD?

Your nickname is the same as that of your talented actress and equestrienne cousin Mikee Cojuangco Jaworski?

(Laughs) Mikee, that’s the prettier one. My nickname is spelled “Mikey,” this is the macho one! (Laughs)

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