BizNewsAsia

Tonight, BizNewsAsia, my baby weekly business newsmagazine, celebrates its 24th anniversary. Meaning by midnight tonight, BizNewsAsia begins its 25th year, marking a quarter century of unrivalled and profound economic, business, political and social affairs journalism.

BizNewsAsia’s pass-on circulation is as high as 350,000. That is based on the sale of BNA’s most popular issue, The Power 100 (The 100 Most Powerful and Influential Filipinos) which has sold 35,000 copies. Each copy is read by an average of ten readers.

Today also, I mark my 77th year of life on earth.

My obra maestra is BizNewsAsia. Tonight in the grand ballroom of a Makati hotel, the elite, the movers and shakers in governance, business and the economy have been extremely generous to confirm their presence to celebrate with BizNewsAsia the things that count – business, the economy, the Philippines, the three things that matter to us as a people and as a nation. They are also the main focus of BizNewsAsia’s journalism.

Honored guests are led by the First Lady, Louise Araneta Marcos, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto, Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, Speaker Bojie Dy, half a dozen Cabinet members led by the new economic czar Finance Secretary Frederick Go and scores of tycoons and taipans led by SMC chair and CEO Ramon S. Ang, BDO chair and SM Investments chair Tessie Sy Coson, RCBC and HI chair Helen Yuchengco Dee, SMIC chair Amando Tetangco Jr. and Chinabank chair Hans Sy, the 2025 Management Person of the Year of the Management Association of the Philippines.

The guest of honor, First Lady Louise Araneta Marcos, will award Italy-made golden excellence trophies to two dozen honorees in fields and areas of expertise like public service, management, finance, pharma, the professions.

First Lady LAM has harnessed her intellect, legal prowess, strategic thinking and considerable people skills to bring about transformation in many facets of the presidency – renovation and restoration of Malacañang physical assets, the Pasig River, culture, diplomacy, health care, public welfare and inclusion while being the fulcrum of stability and unity in the First Family and in the nation at large, amid unprecedented challenges.

If I am confident that President Bongbong Marcos Jr. will finish his six-year term despite an unprecedented corruption scandal, which he himself exposed, and imponderable geopolitical challenges, one reason is LAM.

Senate President Tito Sotto is in the midst of a restoration project, to reclaim the chamber’s prestige and once pristine image as the bulwark of inclusive public service, independent thinking, profound nationalism and superior integrity and competence amid the biggest corruption scandal to engulf the chamber.

Over the last five years, Chief Justice Gesmundo has undertaken unrelenting judicial reform to render justice that is fair and timely, equal and inclusive, transparent and accountable. His 40 years in government, including stints as a PCGG commissioner, assistant SolGen and 12 years as Sandiganbayan justice, come in handy amid the ongoing largest anti-corruption drive ever.

I began my BizNewsAsia journey with what remained of my separation and provident fund benefit I got from Time Warner’s Asiaweek after 25 years of unrelenting quality journalism with what became the best-selling newsweekly in the Philippines and the rest of Asia in the 1980s til early part the 21st century.

In journalism, knowledge and experience are powerful forces to enable our public its untrammeled access to updated, reliable and useful information. Often exciting and entertaining, journalism is a fundamental tool of empowerment, for businesses to manage their enterprises well and for citizens to navigate their lives productively.

Today also marks 55 years of my professional journalism. Add six years of campus journalism and I have lodged exactly 60 years of journalism, nearly 80 percent of my life. I consider every Nov. 25th a Thanksgiving Day.

I covered and witnessed all kinds of events – fires, crimes, storms, massacres, massive floods, plane crashes, epidemics, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, three EDSA revolts, 14 coup attempts, the world’s two longest insurgencies – the NPA and Muslim separatism, and wars. I interviewed presidents, from Marcos I to Marcos II.

It has been an exhilarating, fulfilling journey, one marked by more triumphal ups than depressing downs. On balance I could not have asked for more in life.

I am a product of public elementary and high schools when state education was the best in Asia. I graduated with honors elementary and high schools in Tondo and would not have finished college were it not for a four-year scholarship I won after topping a citywide competitive exam.

I finished journalism at UST, magna cum laude, a full scholar for four years, with minor in economics and marketing. I took up three semesters of MBA at Ateneo Padre Faura.

In my MBA, I didn’t learn much that is new except for the technical aspects of reading a balance sheet and analyzing problems with numbers. I attended economics and banking courses, besides. I also finished global journalism at the University of Stockholm.

BizNewsAsia is a publishing success story. It took off greatly and never lost ground, despite three years of COVID and its after effects., including the loss of P4 trillion in GDP. While many publications closed shop and lost their moorings, BizNewsAsia instead grew in strength.

I also would like to thank The Philippine STAR for enabling me to write this Virtual Reality column for almost three years now.

When The STAR was being organized in 1985, its founders Betty Go Belmonte, Max Soliven and Art Borjal wanted me to join them in their brave enterprise and write a column. I could not, because of my non-compete agreement with my Hong Kong-based employer then.

It took 37 years to fulfill my other dream, that is write for the greatest daily in the Philippines, three times a week.

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