Power lunch and dinners

Lunch for me is important.

I especially enjoy it when in the company of people I don’t get to see often or really want to catch up with. It gets even better if the conversation gets so animated like it always does in the company of RSA, otherwise known as Ramon S. Ang, president and CEO of San Miguel Corp. Even without trying, any journalist or business student will surely pick up some valuable information or lesson to take away for life.

Unbeknownst to many I had the privilege of having lunch with RSA along with over a dozen executives almost everyday for more than four years. That was back in the time when we all had dreams of launching “All Asia Airlines” or Triple A for “The Boss” Danding Cojuangco. That was before Ramon Ang walked the path towards San Miguel Avenue and the Lord led me to various media establishments particularly Jarius Bondoc’s political tabloid “Isyu,” followed by a stint at DWWW with Bert Bacsal then to ABS CBN and now here at the Philippine STAR.

Yes lunch was always exciting in more ways than one. The food was generally Filipino with an exotic touch now and then, that would feature eel cooked in pork adobo and eggs. If anything the cuisine was always fattening and in excess. RSA would always tell us, “when people are full and content they work better and are generally happier.” He failed to consider that being full also meant we would be sleeping on the job up to 1:30. Those were certainly good lunches made more interesting in the company of guests both from high and low, celebrities and scoundrels of sorts who guaranteed a lunch hour more entertaining than any noon time show. In fact that’s where I got my training for my TV show “Straight Talk.”

As we headed towards different callings and directions, lunch with RSA turned from the daily to the extra ordinary. His busy schedule often takes up to 3 months before he gets a bit of free time for us to have a relaxed and undisturbed lunch like the good old days. And unlike the good old days where nothing controversial ever comes out from lunch, nowadays, the mere mention or disclosure of having lunch with RSA can both be the source of pride or the resulting prejudice from some people, not to mention highly speculative queries from fellow journalists.

For instance, when my friend and senior columnist of the Philippine STAR  Boo Chanco mentioned a recent lunch meeting we had with RSA in the company of French racing icon and former Ferrari chief executive Jean Todt, a motoring journalist tried to “put two and two together” and called me to ask if RSA or San Miguel was planning to invest on an international raceway? Or were they planning to put up an all Philippine Racing Team of young drivers? All that from the mere mention of “lunch with RSA” and a racing icon. I didn’t know what to tell the caller since I got too obsessed trying to find out what made Michelle Yeow fall in love with the much older and shorter Jean Todt? My wife Karen quips that it must have been a need for speed.

Quite recently, a number of friends from Channel 2 and Channel 5 tried to squeeze information or confirm reports that a major sale of shares of GMA7 had taken place involving people I knew. I was flattered by their presumption as much as they were disappointed by my ignorance! The only thing I could comment on was that for big businessmen such as RSA and MVP, acquisitions don’t automatically mean they want to jump into the business directly. Often times, they are merely being “investors” buying a product or commodity that they know will appreciate and can eventually trade. 

It is unfortunate but many people predicate breakfast, lunch or dinner with big businessmen as being all about deals, divulging information, or major announcements on projects and investments. Some take it as hint or a clue about levels of relationships, assuming that if you get invited to lunch you also have license to make impositions. The first time Boo wrote about lunch with RSA, I got asked for a referral, an endorsement for a business proposal and 2 requests for seat upgrade in Philippine Airlines! I can only imagine how harassed the executive assistants of RSA must be.  

Funny enough, I now remember that I also had dinner with former President Joseph Estrada almost every Friday at his Tanay Rest and Incarceration place in Tanay, Rizal. That also went on for 4 years and I was also pressured by a number of my colleagues to share or mention key information I came across during my “Fridays with Erap” doing Bible study. Had I done so I would have violated the trust and the confidentiality of those conversations, not to mention the fact that the sessions were about God’s word and not state secrets. As a result of my “None Disclosure” some colleagues dismissed me as selfish, while others obviously viewed my choice as a betrayal of journalistic stereotypes believing I should reveal or share what I learn for the sake of “public interest.” Doing so only serves selfish interests and self-promotion cloaked with journalistic trappings.

Looking back I’m reminded how those relationships then and now continue to bring me both favor as well as distrust. To the competitors or political enemies of ECJ, RSA and Erap, I was used and tolerated for practical reasons but never really trusted or promoted. After seven years in a particular outfit, a company CEO only realized during an exit interview that loyalties do not automatically cancel upon resignation or employment. Retaining one’s loyalty for past relationships can be sustained without preventing or compromising new ones, particularly those of a personal nature.

Last Wednesday, columnists of the Philippine STAR were invited to have lunch with Vice President Jejomar Binay at the Coconut Palace. I can only imagine what comments and suspicions such a lunch will raise. Yes “we” talked about many things, issues confronting government and even irritants that known enemies of the VP have been engineering. But what stood out for me was the fact that the second highest elected official of the Philippines made time to dine, talk and to listen to columnists unlike other key officials. Sharing a meal, sharing ideas and concerns are sometimes just as important and productive as stockholders meetings or cabinet meetings. But lunch and dinners are usually about sharing and not “trading.”

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