The real Cojuangcos

This is from an unpublished manuscript by Marisse C. Reyes and myself regarding the proclamation of martial law, its repercussions, Kris Aquino’s campaign for her dad in the 1978 Batasan Pambansa election under the party Laban and its founders.

In the family’s desire to protect the Cory presidency, her brothers Pete and Peping and her sisters Josephine, Terry and Passy, vowed they would not establish businesses nor take back corporations that they once owned. In spite of that the family was pilloried to the left and right as “Kamag-anak Inc.,” we remained silent. We have continued to remain silent 18 years after her presidency. We know who coined that “identity” to alienate us from Cory. Through the years we have become friends with those palace adversaries that we’d rather not name. Besides, they’re either old, dead or dying. With the victory of Noynoy Aquino the Hotel Mafia has brought back the “issue” to cover up their delinquencies. We can no longer remain silent and will make enemies to protect our reputations, if need be.

There are always two sides to a coin. I shall introduce to you the other side of our family, which has never been brought out in the media: the true side.

The year was 1972. Not only did Marcos incarcerate Ninoy upon imposition of martial law, he also persecuted my in-laws and our family businesses.

The family flagship business was Central Azucarera de Tarlac. They made money from sugar. But during martial law, as soon as the sugar came out from the mill it already belonged to Nasutra or the National Sugar Trading Authority. On paper, Nasutra’s task was to protect the sugar industry by providing it with a stable market in the wake of unstable world prices. But what actually happened was the contrary. In one particular year, world market prices rose to 60 centavos a pound. Peping’s family was paid eight cents. Just in that year their two companies, Hacienda Luisita and Central Azucarera lost P150 million. Or should we say the Marcos government “stole” P150 million from our family and we were only paid if they felt like paying us.

To quote Peping, “Papa found new ventures in the transportation business. He began buying into the bus companies of Pantranco, Alatco and Liberty Motors. He consolidated these investments into the Manila Trade and Supply Company (Mantrade), which grew into one of the top corporations in the Philippines. It handled the distribution of cars and other motor vehicles and spare parts.” 

Mantrade became the distributor of Ford Motors in the Philippines, run by Peping’s brother-in-law Ricardo “Baby” Lopa, and his brother Pete.

Let me quote my husband again, “Although the ‘70s was a bad decade for us our bank continued to hold out on its own. The First United Bank was established by my father Jose Cojuangco Sr. in 1963, after he was removed as bank president from the family-owned Philippine Bank of Commerce. In 1974, the Central Bank issued new regulations for financial institutions. Banks needed to have a capitalization of P100 million to get permission to operate. It was double the previous required capital of P50 million. The Central Bank wanted smaller banks to merge to create bigger institutions. But, strangely, no one wanted to do business with First United Bank.”

It was only later that we learned that Malacañang was behind the scheme. Being the family of Marcos’ number one enemy was beginning to haunt the Cojuangcos.

 “Learning from sources that the bank was beginning to flounder, Marcos’s men made their move to buy First United Bank. First United Bank was represented by Baby Lopa and my brother Pete. There were barely any negotiations and Marcos’s men haggled on the selling price, which was ridiculous low. Squeezed and pressured, Baby Lopa finally informed the Marcos cronies that the First United Bank board had come to an agreement, to sell at the Marcos’ dictated price. (They had no choice.) First United Bank was seemingly almost the government’s…”

 “Soon enough Marcos’s men had a startling request: First United Bank, our family bank had to lend them the money to buy out our bank. We were all in disbelief. It was no longer a matter of a supposedly fair transaction. It meant sacrificing a family’s integrity in the business world. And my father wasn’t willing to sacrifice the Cojuangco name with a shabby deal.

 “It was my cousin Danding who eventually bought the bank. He needed a financial institution for the coconut industry he was engaged in. The First United Bank was bought for more than P27.5 million by the Philippine Coconut Authority, where Danding was a director, in May 1975. Two months later, a new bank board changed the name of the First United Bank to the First United Coconut Bank. That bank would change its name again to United Coconut Planters Bank or UCPB.”

Obviously family businesses were not going to be spared and Mantrade came next.

“Our family business enterprise had so largely diversified that its industries ranged from construction to transportation. By that time, the government controlled fare rates and prices of industrial commodities. The transportation companies owned by the Lopas and us Cojuangcos were not given permission to raise our fares in spite of the escalation of the prices of fuel and spare parts. Business slowed down. Soon, the family had to sell shares. It wasn’t long before we lost the controlling shares to Pantranco.”

The construction sector of the company came next. Peping recalls, “Erectors was one of the companies under Mantrade that handled government construction projects. Among Mantrade projects was the new Central Bank building in Manila. But Erectors had a difficult time collecting from the government. The company began to suffer from the losses. It was the squeeze from the Marcos government that put an end to the Cojuangco ownership of Mantrade. We were forced to sell a multi-million peso business conglomerate for the sum of one million pesos.” 

But even this selling price had its pitfalls. It was only in later years, after the dictator’s downfall, that Peping learned the Marcoses still owed them money. My in-laws were only paid P.6 million. The remaining balance of P.4 million was never paid.

The so-called economic prosperity of the Marcos administration was one of crony capitalism, economic blackmail, business seizures, and financial greed.

Today, tomorrow, yesterday — you may all check, we never got back when Cory was president any businesses that were sequestered during martial law — nor do we care to now, during Noynoy’s term.