Young patriarch in Lopez Holdings

While we have been, for the last 30 days, watching the political headlines, especially the who’s who in the Cabinet of President-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, we paid scant notice to an equally riveting changing of the guards — nay, generals — in two big institutions we have lived with for more than a century.

I am referring, of course, to the changeover of leadership in the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), where the suave Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP to friends and associates) effectively fortified his management control of the country’s largest utility company when he was elected chief executive officer.

Manuel M. Lopez (Manolo to family and friends), the architect of the turnaround and growth of Meralco after gaining it back from the Romualdez family, retained the Meralco chairmanship.

In just a few days, Manolo was elected chair of Benpres Holdings, which was renamed Lopez Holdings, after elder brother Oscar M. Lopez announced his retirement. 

That makes Manolo the new patriarch of the Lopez family, presiding over a conglomerate that includes energy generation, broadcasting, telecommunications, and a number of other businesses.

Manolo can hardly be called a “patriarch” of the Lopez Group, because he is not even 70. He is only 68. Patriarchs I know are seventyish and eightyish!

And yet Manuel M. Lopez (Manolo to friends, and MML to business associates) is used to being thrust prematurely into awesome tasks.

When he was much younger, he was carried on the shoulders of EDSA heroes, kept him aloft the gates of Meralco, and he landed on the “sacred” grounds of the giant utility firm to the hearty applause and tears of joy of loyal employees.

That was a glorious moment when the Lopez family regained their family “jewel” from the Romualdezes, which managed to take control of the company under the aegis of martial law.

Manolo’s easy gait and winsome qualities have endeared him to people who are actually his subordinates. His warmth and gentlemanly manner tell you he was “to the manor born.”

Will the huge tasks on his shoulders wear him down, banish the easy ways, and bring wrinkles to his countenance? I don’t think so. I make this fearless forecast: Manolo will remain the handsome, warm and caring gentleman that we all know.

Now on Manolo’s shoulders is the challenge to carry on a tradition of top-caliber leadership, which has transcended the test of time and withstood political upheavals in the country, since it was begun by Meralco founder Don Eugenio Lopez.

Meralco’s Ping de Jesus paid a fitting tribute to Manolo in the latter’s recent birthday celebration in a poignant brief speech.

“Manolo applied himself to the job at hand with a passion that can only be described as extraordinary. And such fervor has similarly infused extraordinary energy on him as he introduced one key change after another to bring Meralco in step with the tempo of modern times.”

 Apart from having “M” as the first letter of his name, De Jesus said Manolo also has a big “M,” meaning malasakit (caring) emblazoned in his heart.” 

“When Manolo declares that one performs best especially during tough times, we better believe him, because he, in truth and in fact, has gone through the crucible of the most difficult and gut wrenching moments in his life. That was when the dictatorship took over Meralco under the aegis of Martial Law — and his entire family was rid of the fruit of their lifework and their undying devotion.

“As Manolo wants to recall, that new day dawned on Friday, February 28, a few days after the EDSA People Power. And the heroism of it all did not escape Manolo because, that fateful day, a crowd of people lifted him up on their shoulders, carried him all the way to Meralco. And when the gates were closed, so many hands acted as catapult to lift him over the gate.

 “Once inside, he set foot once again on hallowed ground. That was the first time Manolo got back to the Meralco they own. As he recalls, he was on ‘Cloud 9’! He received — and fittingly so — a hero’s welcome.

Manolo may bear scars of the tribulations he has gone through, but he does not show them. As the new Lopez patriarch, he is expected to bring in his vintage management style, marked by a caring, easy-to-do-business-with demeanor — and yet a tough industry player when he is challenged by forces out to harm the Lopez legacy.

The young patriarch is also expected to bring in renewed energy and a new vision to a centuries old company, and then redirect it to new roads and new doors of opportunity.

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On another front, I just returned from a visit to my hometown, Gingoog City. Being with my sisters Louella, Tenten and Gingging, brother Greg, and super-niece Jekjek, was invigorating; over cups of coffee, we talked about our golden days, of the happy times we had with Papa and Mama and the other siblings who are now living in Iowa and Blacktown, Australia.

The “old” hometown of Gingoog has assumed a “new” image, with more concrete, Mediterranean-colored structures built by marriages between foreigners and local girls, commercial shops and call centers. The streets are swept clean. The air is positive and hopeful, with the re-election of Mayor Ruth de Lara Guingona, and the helping hands of former Judge Potenciano de los Reyes, who is in the thick of preparations for the July 19-22 Charter Day celebration, and musical artist Mark Fernandez.

Providing a classic culinary touch is Europe Cuisine, which is owned and run by Jose Maria Rangel of Valencia, Spain, and his wife Elda Gomez of Gingoog. The two met in Cebu several years ago, lived in Australia for more than a dozen years, and finally settled in Gingoog.

The quiet businessman Willy Soriano and his vivacious wife Suzette (of the Ong family of Concepcion, Tarlac) brought us to the restaurant where we had pepper steak and lasagna (which is French), a veggie pizza, and fish fillet smothered in dill and white sauce. Had we more time, we could have had paella, the restaurant’s pride. Most of the diners at the place are foreigners, Suzette said. Jose joined us, then gave us to take home a dozen fresh red tomatoes which he himself grows along with herbs, in his farm in Sibulig, some 20 kilometers away from Gingoog. When you’re in this part of Misamis Oriental, be sure to drop in at Europe Cuisine.

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