The Star ‘legacy’ dream

It is a great relief to all of us residing in southern Metro Manila when our newspaper The Philippine Star moved over to the Amvel compound in Barangay San Dionisio in Sucat, Paranaque City. Naturally, because majority of The STAR employees live and commute daily in the most traffic-prone parts of the national capital region to reach our erstwhile office in Port Area in Manila.

The choice of our new office site was actually based on the internal survey done by the Management headed by our The Star president and chief executive officer Miguel G. Belmonte – or MGB as we fondly address him. MGB wanted a site that will be “commuter-friendly” to most of STAR employees.

“So they won’t have a hard time coming to work and going home,” MGB was quoted saying by Teresa “Tammy” Mendoza, our vice president for operations. From the survey results, it showed majority of the more than 700 employees live in southern Metro Manila. Partly because The STAR has company-assisted low-cost housing sites in Laguna and Cavite.

The transfer of The STAR was conceived before the COVID-19 pandemic period in 2020. Construction of the two buildings started in March 2021, or two years after the lot was purchased from the Amvel Land Development Corp. Last week, we moved to our new four-story building with glass walls as well as an annex structure connected by a bridgeway leading to the printing machines.

There are a lot of finishing touches still being done by the CT Consigna Construction Corp. that erected the twin buildings of The STAR as conceptualized by architect Zoilo Amador of the Design Group. Pouring back its earnings through the years and without borrowing, at least P800 million was spent to construct The STAR edifice. It might likely hit P1 billion for the other improvements still being made around the 4,714-square meter lot area.

For a week now, we have been holding offices in our brand new buildings. It proudly stands out in the middle of the soon-to-be-completed C5 Southlink.

Led by MGB, we paid a courtesy call on former Paranaque City Mayor and now Congressman Edwin Olivarez in his office at City Hall last Thursday. During our brief visit, Rep. Olivarez happily pointed out how “strategically located” our new office site is.

Rep. Olivarez reminded us the C-5 Southlink Expressway in Metro Manila will inter-connect the Manila-Cavite Expressway to the Circumferential Road 5 all the way to Taguig in the south and to C5 going north. Once connected, the 7.708-kilometer controlled-access toll expressway will loop around the land areas in that portion of Bgy. San Isidro. According to the C5-Southlink plans, the ingress and egress of the upcoming tollways will meet at that spot where the new building of The STAR is at the center, the former mayor turned congressman cited.

This C-5 Southlink project is being built at the cost of P15 billion, and is a joint venture of the Philippine Reclamation Authority; the Toll Regulatory Board and Cavitex Infrastructure Corp., a subsidiary of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC). The MPIC is the flagship conglomerate of our big boss, visionary businessman-industrialist Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP).

Disclosures: The STAR is part of the MediaQuest Holdings entities under the MVP Group of media companies that includes TV5 network; BusinessWorld, and Cignal CableTV. MediaQuest’s assets also include national radio station Radyo5, and original satellite TV channels One NewsPh, One Sports, Sari-Sari Channel, PBA and UAAP basketball channel The Varsity Channel.

It was in 2014 when MediaQuest acquired 80 percent of The STAR, the flagship newspaper of the publication companies owned by the Belmonte’s that include our tabloid newspapers, Ang Pilipino Star  Ngayon and PM or PangMasa, as well as our regional newspaper The Freeman of Cebu.

Rep. Olivarez welcomed The STAR as one of the new major business partners now of the Paranaque City Hall. To which I retorted: “We will henceforth be among the top ten taxpayers of Paranaque City Hall.” Since 1986 after the Philippine Daily Star was put up by the late mother of MGB, Betty Go Belmonte, and the founding fathers of our newspaper, headed by the late Max Soliven, The STAR has been consistently recognized as among the biggest taxpayers in the city of Manila for nearly half of the past 37 years of The STAR.

In turn, Rep. Olivarez projected very good business prospects for The STAR as far as the other major infrastructure developments that are also taking place around our new building site. He pointed to the on-going construction of the Light Rail Transit (LRT)-3 that will run from Baclaran going all the way to Cavite.

One of the LRT-3 station stops is located beside the SM Sucat which is just across our new building. Rep. Olivarez noted The STAR is now officially part of the sprawling commercial, industrial and business establishments all around Bgy. San Dionisio which, by the way, is one of the biggest barangays under his congressional district 1.

MGB recalled the construction of the new The STAR building started during the third and last term of Olivarez as mayor. He won in last year’s elections as congressman and took over from his younger brother Eric, who is now the incumbent mayor.

We missed meeting with Mayor Eric who was leading an early Christmas gift-giving to his constituents. MGB expressed our gratitude to the congressman for squeezing in our visit to his busy schedule.

In behalf of The STAR family, MGB graciously thanked Rep. Olivarez and his brother-mayor for the “ease of doing business” at the Paranaque City Hall. This facilitated the processing of permits, licenses and other local government requirements and enabled our building contractor to complete our new home within the timetable.

“My parents never dreamt we could put up such a ‘legacy’ building,” MGB waxed sentimental.

Thus, MGB proudly offers to his parents his own dreams come true for The STAR. As such, he vows to keep The STAR “legacy” building to stand true to its solid foundation: “The Truth Shall Prevail.”