A family's corporate social responsibility

Thirty-nine years ago, I was still in grade school then, the late President Ferdinand Marcos placed the entire country under a martial law regime. Simple folks like my family went about our daily lives without much complaint about the dictatorial rule in our country as we live in fear of reprisal from government authorities. For nearly two decades, our country was under martial law and Marcos was the only President I knew in my growing-up years.

It was only after the February 1986 People Power Revolution that we saw a peaceful change of leadership in the country. EDSA-1, as it is known, swept the late President Corazon Aquino into office. From then on, the leadership transfer in our country went on through democratic processes restored after EDSA-1.

From one generation to another, ex-President Aquino’s only son, Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III, was elected as the country’s President 24 years after EDSA-1. But Filipinos are very forgiving people, if not short in memory, to say the least. Not one of the Marcoses got jailed for supposed ill-gotten wealth. They have even slowly slipped back into power.

The widow of the late dictator, former First Lady Mrs. Imelda Marcos, is now congresswoman representing Ilocos Norte. Namesake son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., was elected last year as Senator while eldest sister, Imee Marcos, is incumbent Ilocos Norte Governor. In fact, Imee and Noynoy were together in Congress for nine years when the latter served as Congressman of Tarlac.

P-Noy’s slain father, former Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., was one of the opposition stalwarts and most vocal critic of the Marcos administration. In New York, P-Noy recalled the dark days in Philippine history and reminded Filipinos they should never ignore, much less forget, the lessons of the past. It was during that period in our country’s history when there were abuses, corruption, and wanton human rights violations by those in power.

The militant groups also commemorated the 39th anniversary of the declaration of martial law last Wednesday by holding a rally at the foot of Mendiola Bridge in Manila. It is just across Malacañang Palace where many bloody demonstrations against the Marcos regime took place.

At the posh, five-star Makati Shangri-La Hotel, there was a different kind of commemoration though of the martial law declaration in our country. It was remembered in a different light as having tested the unity and strength of a family whose fortune was almost run into the ground by those in power during the martial law regime.

Instead of crying over spilled milk, as we are wont to say, the First Philippine Holdings (FPH) marked on a positive note the day the Lopez-owned businesses, including the family’s crown jewel called the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), were taken over by the government during the Marcos regime.

The father-and-son team of Oscar Lopez and Federico Lopez chose to observe the 50th founding anniversary of FPH on Sept. 21 instead of its true founding day in June 1961 when it was first called as the Meralco Security Co. (MSC). The elder Lopez is chairman emeritus of the FPH while his son Federico, or Piki as he is fondly called, is its chairman and chief executive officer. He turned over the reins of their family business to Piki when he, too, turned 50 years old last year.

“On this very same day, Sept. 21st thirty-nine years ago, this golden age for MSC as well as the hopes and dreams of many Filipinos living at that time came to an end with the declaration of Martial Law and the forced takeover of all our major businesses,” the young Lopez recalled with no trace of rancor.

“This was the consequence of Lolo’s intransigence, exposing Marcos’ corruption and hidden wealth in his newspapers way before they came to light a little over a decade later. He was made an example to instill fear in any of the business elite wanting to challenge the power of the new regime,” Piki said.

He was, of course, referring to the family patriarch, the late Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Sr., who was one of the staunchest critics of Marcos’ abuses and corruption as exposed in the Lopez-owned media entities, The Manila Chronicle and the ABS-CBN television network. Marcos tagged him as among the oligarchs in the Philippines who were trying to dictate how to run the government. Geny Lopez fled the country following the martial law declaration and died three years later while in exile in US.

After the Lopezes got their companies back, thanks to EDSA-1, the FPH recovered from financial mismanagement of their businesses and, in fact, grew and expanded as well. After having established themselves as frontrunners in the energy industry, the Lopezes branched out into other projects such as the Rockwell Mini City, operating for awhile the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) and the Maynilad Water. The FPH also went into industrial parks in Batangas where it operates the 1,500-megawatt (MW) natural gas-fired power plant in Sta. Rita. 

Before eventually giving up majority control of Meralco to businessman-leader Manny V. Pangilinan, the Lopezes bought and acquired the Energy Development Corp. – now the second largest geothermal power producer in the world. Ex-Meralco boss Manolo Lopez is now P-Noy’s ambassador to Japan.

The Lopezes showed their family’s forward-looking policies in life rather than be trapped in the past and be remorseful. “Assets come and go, industries rise and fall, but values and principles remain,” the elder Lopez declared as far as the FPH is concerned.

The elder Lopez underscored their company’s nationalist principles and pursuit of social justice will continue whoever is in power in government even after their bitter experience during the Marcos regime.

“Each generation in turn will be living these values with the same zeal and passion,” he said, specifically addressing this to his son Piki. To which Piki riposted with a firm promise to do just that: “There is nothing a son wants more than to make his father proud.”

For the next 50 years, Piki vowed to lead the FPH with their family’s kind of corporate social responsibility that predated him when his lolo first put up their business empire.