Читать книгу Thirty Years Later . . . Catching Up with the Marcos-Era Crimes - Myles Garcia - Страница 5
I – The Oldie-garchs v. the Crony-garchs "Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practice to deceive."
Оглавление– Sir Walter Scott, Marmion
In their twenty-year rule, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos tried to destroy some of the old families who blocked their ambitions of absolute power, and in the process, install their own cabal who would be beholden to them. To a certain degree, they succeeded, but on another level, they also failed. We are seeing this manipulated shuffle of the deck at work in Russia today—in the Vladimir Putin years. In the wake of the collapse of the old Soviet Union, well-connected (with the Putin apparatus) entrepreneurs picked up a lot of the state industries that had been sold off and privatized.
As the rest of the world has also now seen so often, if a newly minted Russian billionaire steps out of line, he is very crudely dealt with. He is picked up, thrown into jail, or, if beyond the easy reach of the Kremlin, assassinated in the streets of London or Brussels. In a way, it’s as if the Communist Party never really left Russia – except that Putin and his gang, of course, levy “protection money” from Russia’s new rich—which is why they are the outer shell that Western sanctions hope to crack first in order to have the inner layer of Putin and his Kremlin co-thugs be breached.
Someday, when the whole Machiavellian world of post-communist Russia’s story is truthfully told, we will learn that it’s as if they almost took a page from the Marcosian Manner of Ruining a State 101, except that Marcos did it more deviously, if not more refinedly. At one point, the Russian billionaire count was at all time high of ninety. Marcos barely reached the fabled forty in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. His favors were doled out to far fewer.
Prior to Marcos’ ascension to the presidency, power and wealth in the Philippines, as in many post-war democracies like Pakistan, Mexico, Venezuela, etc., were concentrated in probably two dozen families and clans who owned 85% of the wealth and as such wielded tremendous influence and sway with whoever was seated in power.
Before martial law in 1972, here were the wealthiest, most prominent and politically influential clans in the Philippines—in three groups. I will try to point out in this listing satellite families who are in-laws or allied to the larger, more prominent line.
A.The insulares (term for the Spanish-descended Filipinos who were/are predominantly Caucasian) or the old mestizo families:
1.Zobel de Ayalas – Sorianos – Rojases (into insurance, banking, and incredibly successful land development – responsible for developing much of Makati, the Philippines’ postwar financial capital and having the most prestigious business and residential addresses). Although Zobel was actually a German pharmacist from Hamburg, he married into the Castilian Ayala family. The present day Zobel de Ayala family claims the ruling Bourbon family in Spain as fifth cousins, and somewhat closer to the Duchess of Alba.
Essentially, two branches today carry on the Zobel de Ayala name and empire: (a) the Jaime Zobel, Sr., branch now run by the two sons, Jaza (Jaime Augusto) and Fernando, and their five sisters. The second branch is (b) the Enzo line, essentially represented by son Iñigo, and to a much quieter extent, his only sibling, sister Mercedes.
The Zobel de Ayalas are probably the closest the Philippines have to having a “royal family” in the European sense of the word, who do look like Europeans. And they have tried to maintain those Caucasian (or mestizo) bloodlines through the generations. It was only recently that one of them, Fernando, chose a non-Caucasian for a mate. Iñigo Zobel is an active name in the international polo circuit, and they are the first Filipino family to present a daughter at the uber-exclusive La Bal des Debutantes, 2012 edition, held in Paris each fall. One of Jaime Sr.’s daughters, Sofia, is married to Santi Elizalde who comes from the next family on the list.
2.Elizaldes – the most prominent of the Basque-descended Hispano-Filipino families. There were five Elizalde brothers who in the 1950s and ‘60s ruled over an empire that included Yco Wax, Yco Paints, La Carlota Sugar Central, Tanduay Distillery (the reigning rum maker in the Philippines for years), Elizalde Paint and Oil, Elizalde Rope Factory, Samar Mining, Manila Steamship Company, Metropolitan Insurance Company, Metropolitan Broadcasting, and a few others.
3.Aboitiz – fourth- and fifth-generation Basques, come from the central city of Cebu. Their biggest holdings are several power companies in the Visayas, shipbuilding companies and a majority stake in Union Bank. Again, they intermarry with mestizas and fair maidens of fellow Basque extraction.
4.Ortigas – second only to the Zobels in terms of ownership of vast prime metropolitan Manila land which they developed into the second hub of exclusive subdivisions and high-rise, light industrial tracts—primarily that whole Greenhills/ Wack-Wack//Ortigas/Meralco areas of Mandaluyong, San Juan and Pasig. Like the Zobels and the Tuasons, the vast tracts of strategic Ortigas land were deeded to them from the Spanish crown. Allied families: Lanuza and Olbes.
5.Tuason – Like the Ayalas and the Ortigases, big land-owning family whose holdings were spread over Quezon City and Marikina, out of which the present University of the Philippines, Ateneo-Loyola Heights and Miriam College campuses were carved.
When Andres Soriano, Jr., liquidated his majority shares in Philippine Airlines around 1959, one Benigno Toda stepped in and bought the majority shares. However, the real source of the Toda purchase was Tuason money since Mrs. Toda was Rosemarie Tuason. The last First Gentleman of the Land, Mike Arroyo, husband of recent president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and the current Philippine Ambassador to the Holy See, H.E. Mercedes A. Tuason, both belong to this otherwise quiet and low-key clan.
6.Araneta – perhaps the largest, most diversified clan whose fortunes started primarily with sugar haciendas. Is made up today of three main branches actually:
(a) The most visible branch today is the J. Amado Araneta branch, responsible for developing Cubao into a commercial and entertainment hub of the capital city of the Philippines.
(b) The Gregorio Araneta branch. Gregorio married Carmen Zaragoza and had fourteen children. Among the fourteen Gregorio Araneta children are Salvador Araneta, founder of Araneta and Feati Universities; architect Luis Maria, and Fr. Fritz Araneta, former rector of the Ateneo de Manila. This branch also founded GAMI, Gregorio Araneta Machinery, Inc. (dealer of farm and heavy equipment), and developed the Araneta subdivision in Sta. Mesa.
(c) The Carlos Aranetas (LBCargo, among others).
There are some interesting Araneta clan in-laws. It is the first and only clan known in the world to have two former Miss International title-holders marry into the family (the first Miss International, Stella Marquez, formerly of Colombia, married Jorge Araneta; and the Philippines’ own Gemma Guerrero Cruz, 1964 winner, married Tonypet Araneta). It can also claim former First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo (2004-10) as its own, Arroyo being a grandson of Jesusa Araneta Lacson de Arroyo.
Two Marcos children are likewise married to two Aranetas: Junior married Louise/Lisa Araneta; and his younger sister, Irene, married Greggy Araneta, son of architect Luis. The 2016 Liberal Party for president, Mar Roxas, is a grandson of J. Amado Araneta on his mother’s side while his paternal grandfather was Manuel Roxas, first Philippine post-war president.
7.Madrigal – big real estate, banking, and industrialist family brought into prosperity by Vicente Madrigal. The middle generation of Madrigals (whose daughters married a Bayot, a de Leon, two Vasquez brothers and whose two sons married a pair of Abad-Santos sisters) have all passed on and dispersed their wealth to the third generation. Of the Philippines’ top ten older families, the Madrigals are probably the only ones who have sent two daughters into public service. One of Don Vicente’s daughters, Pacita Warns Gonzalez, served as a senator in the late 1950s, and then her niece, Jamby, also held a senatorial position in the 1990s. One of the Bayot girls was married to the current oldest Ortigas scion, Paquito, ex-ambassador to Mexico.
8.Delgado – another well-connected mestizo family who for some thirty years, owned and held the franchise for the Manila Hilton, the first American luxury hotel brand in the Philippines and one of the first high-rises built in Manila. Their other businesses are a freight brokerage concern, supply-chain management, express courier, chassis leasing and repair, and real estate management and development. One of the Delgados also used to be an ambassador to the Holy See, and various Delgados are/have been married to two Magsaysays, a Cojuangco, a Laurel, a Rufino, among others.
When I worked for a bank in San Francisco in the 1980s, I came across a letter from Don Francisco (“Paco”), patriarch of the Delgado clan, asking the bank for an extension of time on his $2 million letter of credit, with their large SF apartment as collateral.
From the pre-war times and going into the 1950s, there were also the
9.Ysmaels – family of Lebanese descent into steel and real estate. They owned the big tract of land which became New Manila. The heirs owned Ysmael Steel and the Fiat franchise for a while.
B.Amongst the more Filipino blood families:
1.Lopezes of Iloilo (Meralco; ABS-CBN, Chronicle newspaper). The Lopezes would soon become the arch-enemies of the Marcoses and their primary target in the dismantling of the old oligarchy. Today, the Lopezes have divested themselves of their majority ownership of Meralco (the Manila Electric Company) and have diversified into other lines of business. (The Lopezes are sort of related to the Aranetas through Victoria Lopez de Araneta. Satellite families: the Jalandonis, Javellanas, Jisons, Lopas, Montelibanos; also allied with the Tagalog Lopezes from Batangas.)
The rift between the Marcoses and the Lopezes continued into the beginning of Marcos’ and vice-president Fernando Lopez’s second term (1970), and its evidence was confirmed recently, at least from the Marcos side, when a memo from Marcos’ own handwritten diary surfaced. Page 12 from his diary, dated January 4, 1970, reads:
“We have to watch the Lopezes and Montelibano. [sic] They are still sore for my veto of their franchise to operate a telephone and telecommunications company anywhere in the Philippines and the NuVue – a cable television company . . .
They are the worst oligarchs in the country. I must stop them from using the government for their own purposes. Piding Montelibano is working on the reclamation project of Republic Real Estate – pending adjudication in the courts. Iñing Lopez strongly urged that I appoint Piding as Secretary of Finance, as if the position were vacant. This was a repetition of the recommendation in 1965.”
From the above, one could foresee the collision course the two forces were headed. By the end of January, 1971, it was all-out, open war between the two camps. Marcos sent his Public Service Commission, the Solicitor General, Bureau of Customs, and Bureau of Internal Revenue to go over the highly lucrative Meralco’s books and operations with the sole purpose of cutting down its revenue. Meralco was the Lopezes’ main cash cow and cornerstone of their pre-martial law empire. (More on this war later.)
2.Cojuangcos - the core of the combined Cojuangco fortune is the large sugar and rice mill in central Luzon called Hacienda Luisita. From three Cojuangco brothers sprang three branches:
(a) the Jose Cojuangco branch. Two of his children with Demetria Sumulong were Jose, Jr. (‘Peping’) and Corazon who married Benigno Aquino II. Cory became president in 1986. Her son, Benigno III (Noynoy) served as president from 2010-16. (One of Peping’s daughters, Mikee is the current International Olympic Committee representative to the Philippines. Surely, that position is not available to the ordinary Juan and Josefa de la Cruz.)
(b) the Ramon and Antonio branch. Playboy Tonyboy comes from this branch whose fortune rests with controversial, majority shares of the premier phone company in the Philippines, the PLDT.
(c) Finally, the Eduardo branch from whom Danding, staunch Marcos ally and crony, came. While he was individually wealthy on his own, he prospered multifold over with his association with the dictator and was, of course, in competition with his cousin (b).
The above (minus the Aboitizes who are not Manila-based) are, more or less, the “ten families” which Imelda Marcos referred to in a recent interview as “owning nearly everything in Manila” when she came into power. Of course, she failed to consider what her own family and Marcos’ combined ownership of property came to in that estimation of hers.
[The Aquinos (of Tarlac) and Imelda’s Romualdez clan of Leyte were perhaps the two most alike and evenly matched wannabe families in terms of drive, ambition, energy, and sibling composition. Both families were composed of children of a first wife and the more go-getting batch of offspring from the second union. Both Imelda and Ninoy were children of their fathers’ respective second marriages. Imelda might also be referred to as “IRM” later in the book.
The second batch of Romualdezes (from Remedios Trinidad) consisted of six children: Imelda, Benjamin (“Kokoy”), Alita (Martel), Alfredo (“Bejo”), Armando and Conchita (Yap). There were five older children (from first wife Juanita), among them Lourdes, Victoria, and Dulce.
The eight Aquino brood were Maur (Maria Aurora Lichauco), Ninoy, Lupita (Kashiwahara), Tessie (Oreta), Agapito (“Butz”), Ditas (Valdes) and Erlinda (Vargas). The first batch had Billy, Tony, Mila, and Paul.
The Aquinos and Romualdezes are actually related by marriage through a Paz Gueco of Pampanga. Gueco married Danieling Romualdez, uncle of Imelda. At one point in the early 1950s, the two clans would have been joined again when Paz Gueco arranged to have a young Ninoy Aquino squire a young Imelda Romualdez, fresh from the province, around Manila. One can only imagine what the union of the two clans would have resulted in had Ninoy first gotten to and proposed to Imelda, rather than Ferdinand.]
Back to the other leading clans and families:
3.the Rufinos – first family of Manila theaters; owned prime Manila real estate due to their first-class theaters. Satellite families – the Pantangco; Padillas; Prietos.
4.the Jacintos (Iligan Steel Mills; and at one time, Security Bank). The Jacintos were one of the first families to run afoul early of Ferdinand Marcos, and their Security Bank soon became a top Romualdez-Marcos crony bank. Satellite families: RJ was married to an Arroyo; then Frannie Aguinaldo.
5.the Concepcions. Two branches—the Joe-Raul-Mely branch who owns Consolidated Foods, Republic Flour Mills, Selecta Ice Cream (among others), and the smaller one which owns the Carrier Air Conditioning franchise.
6.the Kalaws. A family flying under the radar but very well connected (in-laws to the Benitez, Cuenca, Estrada, Ilusorio and Katigbak families, among others); also have/had large land holdings in suburban Manila; and a few illustrious lady-legislators among their ranks.
7.the Aguinaldos (owned major department store in Manila, both pre-and post-war and before Heacock’s, Rustan’s, ShoeMart. Had logging interests and other businesses, e.g., the black pearl farm in Davao later sold to Antonio Floirendo.
8.the Laurels (like the Elizaldes—five sons of Jose P. Laurel, president of the 2nd Philippine Republic [the last one under Japanese supervision], thus a political family with a Batangas base; owned Lyceum University and the Philippine Banking Corp.)
9.the Padillas, a large clan whose most prominent member in the 1960s was Senator Ambrosio Padilla, whose wife, the glamorous Lily de las Alas, was compared as a rival to Imelda Marcos among the senatorial wives, but who held seniority over the Marcoses in the Senate pecking order. The Padillas had large logging concerns and owned Feati University and NAMEI. Ambrosio and Lily’s daughter, Josie, a celebrated Manila debutante, married a Rufino.
10.the Jose B. Fernandezes, a shipping family; the Maritima Steam-ship company; then Far East Bank.
It should also be noted at this point that, even though the Philippines has a population of over 100 million today, Manila is in the ten million-plus range and that the Philippine ruling elite is pretty much schooled in the western mold for over 130 years. The top two dozen clans are also pretty much interbred, and from that Manila had its own “400.” Even during the final years of Marcos rule, when the old, aristocratic families had to show their true colors and take a stand on either side of the divide (either with the established ranks or with Marcos and Imelda’s new cadre of millionaires and industrialists), there were still backdoor, interconnecting lines between the various, rival clans and families.
When I entered high school at the Ateneo de Manila, many of my classmates were from the wealthier, more established families and pretenders. I remember one classmate, the son of a Court of Appeals judge, who once said, “Oh, all those (leading) families survived by hedging their political bets—splitting and having some members align with one party, and others align with the other.” I, coming from a smaller, not well-connected family, took this seemingly very astute observation to heart.
C.Self-made Tsinoys (early families of Chinese origins but who learned the ways of the ruling Spanish aristocracy)—in no particular order:
1.Don Carlos Palanca (La Tondeña Distilleries)
2.Don Alfonso Yuchengco (the insurance king of the Philippines)
3.the Osmeñas (from Cebu; married de la Rama of shipping wealth. In 1961, socialite Minnie Osmeña was wed in an $8,500 Christian Dior wedding gown flown in from Paris, to Joselito Jacinto of the steel family, thereby superseding Irene Marcos-Araneta wearing a Euro designer, Roberto Balestra, wedding gown by some 22 years.)
4.the Ongsiakos – textiles and married well
5.the Ongpins – real estate, banking, high finance, mining
6.the Montinolas (Amon Trading and Far Eastern University)
Nearly all of the old-time families mentioned above belonged to Manila’s “400” which flourished before World War II and into the first Marcos regime. Nearly all of the above could afford to send their sons and daughters to boarding schools in England, to the Ivy League universities in the US, and to finishing schools in Switzerland for the girls. This was the set to which Imelda and Ferdinand did not quite belong, and to which the couple, especially Imelda, aspired—or even hoped to supersede. Not that they were mean to her, but it must also have been young Imelda’s insecurities, coming from the poorer branch of the Romualdez family, that made her feel unwelcome into that elite. Back to the list.
7.the Sycips / Yutivo / Yu Khe Thai (GM-Philippines franchise)
8.Don Jose Yulo - (another large, land-owning family – Canlubang Dairy Farms; and one of Imelda’s most faithful Blue Ladies was Cecile Araneta Yulo Locsin)
9.Cu-unjeing (construction)
10.Lichauco – big land-owning family
11.Leopoldo Syquia (successful businessman)
12.the Tambuntings – pioneer pawnshop-owning family (before the Lhuilliers and the Ablazas)
And there was the subgroup of the taipans (Chinese-born businessmen who made good in the Philippines); most were sent or arrived in the Philippines after World War II when mainland China was all but certain to fall to Mao Zedong’s communist troops and did not want to try their fortune in the Nationalist stronghold of Taiwan. Most of the taipans came into their own, or vaulted up the “Richest” list after martial law was declared and foreign currency transactions were greatly overseen, controlled, and limited. Of course, a number of them (like Lucio Tan and Jose Yao-Campos) played ball with Marcos, having been his clients in Marcos’ early law career.
13.Henry Sy – founder of the ShoeMart empire; only the richest man in the Philippines today, per the 2015 Forbes List
14.Lucio Tan – touted as the current 2nd richest man in the Philippines
15.Andrew Tan – self-made billionaire, #3 on the list. Owner of real estate developer MegaWorld; owns the McDonald’s franchise in the Philippines and Emperador Rum Distillery
16.John Gokongwei – Universal-Robina; Robinson’s Malls; telecom
17.Tony Tan Caktiong – Jollibee Corporation
18.Mariano Que (founder of Mercury Drug).
D.the Intelligentsia and Professionals
And then there were the independent thinkers, opinion-shaping families who were not overwhelmingly wealthy but influential enough, especially amongst Manila’s intelligentsia, that their opinions mattered. To this category belonged independent senators like Claro M. Recto, Lorenzo Tañada, Jose P. Diokno, Soc Rodrigo, and Raul Manglapus, who more often than not would put Marcos in his place – thus Marcos also had special places reserved for them when martial law was to be declared.
There were also the Roceses (The Manila Times, Daily Mirror and Taliba, DZMT, Channel 5); the Guerreros, the Teddy Locsins (Philippine Free Press), the Legardas, the Mapuas, and the Marquezes/Benitezes (Philippine Women’s University and the small St. John’s Academy in San Juan) –often gadflies in the nape of the Marcoses. The number two periodical in the country, The Manila Chronicle, was already owned by the Lopezes, while the third newspaper at the time, The Manila Bulletin, was owned by Marcos groupie, Hans Menzi.
So it was in the above socioeconomic setting that Ferdinand and Imelda stepped in as new rulers in 1965-66, and then created their own bloc of industrialists and multimillionaires through whom they hoped to fully control the economy, making them de facto unchallenged dictators for life.
His and Hers
Of course, each one had his/her set of favored families. Collectively, the most damage inflicted and the biggest spoils acquired went to Imelda’s relations—her various Romualdez brothers and sisters, and one cousin’s husband, Herminio Disini, who reputedly got one of the largest kickbacks in history with a “commission” ranging from $17 million - $30 million from the awarding of the Bataan Nuclear Plant deal to Westinghouse. But let’s start with Ferdinand’s cronies.
There were eight early and most favored cronies of Ferdinand, so they got early pieces of the pie. They were, alphabetically, Roberto Benedicto, Eduardo (“Danding”) Cojuangco, Rudy Cuenca, Antonio Floirendo, Poten-ciano Ilusorio, Alfonso Lim, Juan Ponce-Enrile, Lucio Tan, and Jose Yao-Campos. Two of these, Benedicto and Ilusorio, were Marcos' so-called “brods” or fraternity brothers from the Upsilon Sigma fraternity from U.P.
How was the pie divided? Benedicto was the Sugar and Media king; Cojuangco and Ponce-Enrile split the Coconut franchise; Floirendo, bananas; Campos, pharmaceuticals; Lucio Tan, tobacco, amongst others; Cuenca, construction; Disini, nuclear energy; Alfonso Lim, Sr., logging; the Zamoras and Kokoy Romualdez, mining; Bejo Romualdez, offshore gaming; and others. Of course, Marcos was “King of Kings.”
Roberto Benedicto
From La Carlota, Negros Occidental, Benedicto developed an early friendship with Marcos at the University of the Philippines and Benedicto supposedly treated the struggling Marcos to sandwiches while both were in school. A little kindness, regardless of the stripe of your soul, never hurts. The association continued after both graduated from law school in 1939.
Although he was not a relative, Benedicto became part of the small Marcos circle in Malacañang and was one of the few with complete access to the president’s private quarters. Benedicto became the dictator’s favorite golfing partner. Largely in recognition of his loyalty to the dictator, he was showered with government sinecures and control over the choicest plums of economic activity. An ambassadorship (to Japan), the PNB chairmanship, and control over the country’s top exports formed part of the largesse Benedicto enjoyed.
At the height of his power, Benedicto’s empire consisted of no less than 85 corporations, 106 sugar farms, 14 haciendas, other agricultural lands, the Kanlaon Broadcasting Network (27 radio stations, 16 television stations), seven buildings, ten vessels and five aircraft. Residential lots and house in Ermita (I had been at his main house in Ermita), 14 hectares of real estate in Bacolod City, a penthouse in Kanlaon Towers, Pasay; 13.5 million shares of Oriental Petroleum held through Piedras Mining, and membership shares at exclusive gold and country clubs such as Wack-Wack, Canlubang, Alabang and Marapara. The golf and country club shares alone were worth $491,000 in the mid-1980s.
In return for the favors he received from Marcos, Benedicto served the dictator in a number of ways. On the political front, Benedicto worked as chairman of Marcos’ KBL party for western Visayas since it was organized in 1977 and delivered sizeable votes for Marcos’ candidates in subsequent elections. But the more important service Benedicto rendered for Marcos was as a most trusted front and as associate in many corporations and business deals. Benedicto was anointed a Marcos front man early in the dictator’s career of plunder and was even given a special power of attorney to deal on behalf of Marcos. The PoA, signed on October 14, 1976, gave Benedicto broad powers to act on behalf of Marcos, including the authority to receive payments, manage properties, and run business affairs. Benedicto is also known to have acted on behalf of the Marcos Foundation, a private trust that manages some of Marcos’ assets.
Among Benedicto’s overseas properties were a sugar mill in Venezuela, a trading company in Madrid, bank deposits, mansions and limousines in California, and other properties in Japan and the US. His deposits in Swiss banks alone were estimated to be $200 million. Rafael Salas, Marcos’ executive secretary and Benedicto’s cousin, estimated in 1983 that his cousin had a net worth of $800 million.
(Note: Benedicto’s adopted daughter, Kitchie, was my classmate at the same U.P. in broadcast communication studies. Kitchie went on to head operations of her father’s new network, Kanlaon Broadcasting Network, the only commercial network that was allowed to operate when martial law was declared while the other broadcasting and news outlets were shuttered.)
Eduardo (“Danding”) Cojuangco
The other Cojuangco family guy allied and identified with Marcos. A very ambitious man, Danding made his pile during the Marcos years with the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and cornered the coconut levy – with the Boss’ blessing of course. What was the coconut levy/monopoly? For years, farmers were required to fork over hard-earned money for a so-called coconut levy fund which never went to their welfare but instead became a PhP150-billion asset fought over by Danding, Juan Ponce Enrile, and others. These monopolies taxed the farmer for benefits that he would never receive, increased the difference between what the farmer received and what the world market paid for his crop, and successfully siphoned off a large proportion of farmers' incomes into the hands of Marcos's cronies. Marcos issued decrees that forced companies like Lever Brothers and Procter & Gamble out of coconut products markets, where they were paying market prices to farmers, and enforced a monopoly run by his friend Eduardo Cojuangco who paid half the world market price. Also, when one Zobel branch fought with their Soriano cousins for control of the venerable San Miguel Corporation, Cojuangco stepped in and grabbed Enzo Zobel’s sizeable bloc of shares bringing him closer to being majority shareholder.
Danding’s sister-in-law is Imelda Ongsiako-Cojuangco, one of Imelda’s Bluest Ladies. Danding’s wife is the beauteous Gretchen Oppen, whom Marcos in his early presidential years, had his eye on very closely. This made for a sticky situation because Danding was a favored crony but tried to keep his wife away from the Boss. Nonetheless, in their flight from power in 1986, they were one big family when Danding, Gretchen, and retainers accompanied the Marcoses in the escape to Hawaii. And when he returned home, his cousin Cory sat in Malacañang. At the expiration of her term in 1992, Danding had the nerve to run for president. He came in third and bested his old patroness, Imelda Marcos, who came in fifth.
As of late October 28, 2015, with some twenty-eight years in litigation, the anti-graft court, the Sandiganbayan ordered UCPB, to turn over 72.2% of its shares to the government. Plus, there are the persistent rumors that it was Danding who was behind the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, his cousin Cory’s husband—but which Cory refused to believe. Finally, there is the coconut levy, amassed to PhP150 billion, but is still a pending matter, among others, with the Philippine Supreme Court, as of early 2016.
Rodolfo Cuenca
One of the most obscene and shameless cases of overnight wealth hemorrhaging through presidential connections was that of Rudolfo Cuenca and his CDCP (Construction Development Corporation of the Philippines). A college dropout, Cuenca was a golfing buddy of Marcos and an early supporter from Marcos’ 1965 run. That long loyalty got more than amply rewarded in the twenty-year run of the Marcos kleptocracy.
Much of the illegal wealth that Cuenca made in government contracts was overpricing a lot of heavy machinery that was used very little or was not even appropriate for certain jobs, but as long as the government was going to pay and if not too many questions were asked, then why not?
At the height of the Marcos’ power, Cuenca headed a conglomerate that had a net worth of at least $750 million. Cuenca's son, Bobby, married Chingbee Kalaw Manotoc, daughter of a one-time Opposition senator, Eva Estrada Kalaw, and ex-wife of a brother of Tommy Manotoc who would become the first husband of Imee Marcos, Ferdinand’s oldest daughter.
Juan Ponce-Enrile
One of Marcos’ most agile henchmen, Ponce-Enrile was, like his mentor, once a brilliant corporate lawyer. Like Imelda, Ponce-Enrile was the bastard child of the daughter of a poor fisherman and a prominent local politician and lawyer, Alfonso Ponce-Enrile, but through sheer diligence and drive, ended up being one of the richest and most powerful men in the land, after Marcos, including marrying a prized trophy wife of Manila society, Cristina Castañer, of pure Spanish parentage.
(Little known fact: when Mrs. Enrile had a falling out with Imelda in the early Marcos years, and receded from Imelda’s circle, the Enriles named their mutt dog, Adlemi—wink, wink. Reverse the spelling. It’s not known how long Adlemi lived.)
When Enrile worked for his father’s law firm, he was assigned to handle the personal legal affairs of Ferdinand Marcos, who was senate president at the time. When Marcos was elected president in 1965, Ponce-Enrile became part of the inner ruling circle, and held a whole series of crucial and strategic positions—starting out as Undersecretary of Finance, then Acting Secretary. 1968-70, Secretary of Justice. Then as Secretary of Defense in 1970, he helped engineer the imposition of martial law by contrived justification. And then broke off from the Marcos power clique when he led a rebel group which helped oust Marcos in 1986. He then swore allegiance to the new Aquino government.
Enrile enjoyed a parallel success track as his mentor, Ferdinand Marcos. Assets-wise, he’s right up there with top cronies Benedicto, Cuenca, D. Cojuangco and Floriendo, sticking his hand in major industries, particularly logging and like Cojuangco, the coconut levy. Ricardo Manapat devoted 42 pages (pp. 163-205) on the extent of Enrile’s empire in Some Are Smarter than Others, which I cannot detail here due to space limitations.
Ironically, all the power and material success didn’t seem enough for Enrile. When he sat as senate president in 2014, he was charged and convicted with plunder, stemming from the pork barrel scandal. He was kept under “hospital arrest” at the Philippine National Police General Hospital at Camp Crame—the very scene of his last stand against Marcos at the People Power’s revolt in 1986.
In August, 2015, owing to his advanced age of 91, the Philippine Supreme Court granted Enrile bail of PhP1 million, which “released” the senator. Next thing you knew there he was onstage with Bongbong Marcos, Imelda/ Adlemi Marcos, and fellow-accused plunderer, ex-president Joseph Estrada, arms upraised in full campaign mode—making for a very venal picture of hypocrisy and all looking like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse reborn. The event was the launch of Junior’s vice-presidential candidacy for 2016.
Jose Yao-Campos
Like some of the other taipans, Yao-Campos originally came from Canton (now Guangzhou), China. After surviving the war as buy-and-sell trader in 1945, Campos started a small pharmacy called United Drug with partners on Sto. Cristo Street in Manila’s Chinatown district. He also Filipinized his surname to “Campos” along the way.
Yao-Campos became one of the most trusted cronies of Marcos. Tracing a relationship starting in the 1950s, Yao served as a close financial advisor, a dependable front man, and a loyal business partner until the very end. The relationship started when Marcos was first elected congressman. Campos later became one of Marcos’ financiers in the 1965 campaign. One of Campos’ first fronting roles was as Mr. Z in the stock scam of the late 1960s called the Benguet-Bahamas Deal, each of Marcos’ fronts acquiring the code names of Mr. X, Y, and Z.
In exchange for his loyalty, Marcos showered government support upon Campos’ companies. United Laboratories, Campos' premier asset, grew to be one of Asia’s largest pharmaceutical firms largely through this help. Campos ultimately became a very rich man, building a multimillion dollar real estate empire in Hawaii, Texas, Seattle, and Canada.
Finally died in May, 2006. His widow, Betty, ranks #24 in Forbes’ 2015 List of the 40 Richest Filipinos.
Alfonso D. Lim, Sr.
One of the lesser known cronies was logger Alfonso D. Lim, Sr. Lim, a close friend of Marcos, owned Fuga Island, a 10,000-hectare island in Aparri, Cagayan. Due to his special relationship with the dictator, Lim managed to increase his timber holdings to over 630,000 hectares which the Marcos government granted under seven separate timber concessions. The only problem was the maximum allowable concession area for a timber license was 100,000 hectares. It’s not hard to figure out how that special arrangement was made and how it stayed in place—considering all the special, lucrative “deals” meted out to those close to the ruling couple.
The Lim/Marcos case has almost come to a resolution with the indictment from the Sandiganbayan court in January 4, 2016 that found the Lims (father and son, although Senior died in 2002), the Marcoses (with the three children now named as “substitutes/heirs” to Ferdinand) guilty of illegal acquisition, and ordered that the following—the vast tracts of lands all over the country sequestered by the PCGG (with a 2006-appraised value of PhP511 million), two Cessna planes, a sea vessel owned by Sierra Madre Wood Industries Incorporated, and various assets in the name of Alfonso D. Lim—be returned to the Republic.
The anti-graft court also found that “For one Filipino out of 55 million to own, operate or in one form or another be financially interested in more than 600,000 hectares out of a total forest land of 14 million hectares is certainly unfair, unacceptable, and unconstitutional by any standard."
“So influential was Lim, Sr that he and Taggat Industries and sister companies (Sierra Madre Wood Industries, Inc., Pamplona Redwood Veneer Incorporated) received certain timber-related benefits without the knowledge, let alone approval, of the MNR [Ministry of Natural Resources]."
Lucio Tan
The perfect epitome of the self-made taipans (first generation mainland Chinese immigrants to the Philippines), Tan started out with almost nothing and rose to being one of the two richest men in his adopted country. But that success was not without controversy—tax evasion charges, lucrative friendships with presidents Marcos and Estrada which indeed landed him prime business opportunities in the country.
Tan knew Marcos even before FM became president. But it was during the Marcos years that Tan grew phenomenally rich. In 1966, he started Fortune Tobacco, which in a dozen years, going into the martial law years, would become the country’s largest cigarette manufacturer, and the cornerstone of Tan’s business empire. Critics have charged: “It was during martial law that Tan apparently developed his extensive patronage relationship with Marcos, winning extensive tax, financing and regulatory concessions in exchange for direct cash payments and political contributions to KBL (Marcos’ political party) and its candidates.”
During that protected period, Asia Brewery was set up in 1982, challenging the monopoly of San Miguel Corp. and therefore in direct competition with the other crony, Danding Cojuangco, who had gained control of the venerable San Miguel Brewery. It was speculated that Fortune and Asia Brewery’s quick rise to the top would not have been possible without special tax breaks from Marcos who, of course was cut in on the two big conglomerates.
In 1984-85, two years before the Fall of the House of Marcos, Tan tried to do a Disini in acquiring residency in Austria, using the same mechanisms and politicians which secured Austrian citizenship for Disini. While money was no object in that pursuit, it didn’t work out for Tan, and he failed to secure Austrian papers.
In 1993, Tan secured control of the country’s airline carrier Philippine Air Lines (PAL). His other businesses which flourished during martial and make up the rest of the Tan portfolio are Allied Bank, Philippine National Bank, Century Park Sheraton, Tanduay Distillers, Eton Properties, and University of the East, the biggest private university in the Philippines.
Most of these companies were investigated and sequestered after the fall of his boss, Marcos. But in December 7, 2007, the Philippine Supreme Court curiously removed the state’s sequestration of Tan’s companies, decreeing that “there can be no question that indeed, petitioner’s orders of sequestration are void and have no legal effect.” Really? As of 2015, Tan retained his spot on the Forbes List as the Philippines’ second richest man, with assets of $5.4 billion.
Geronimo Velasco
One of the most enterprising of Marcos’ cronies and the richest member of his cabinet was his energy minister, Geronimo Velasco whose “oil and energy” portfolio proved to be very lucrative both for him and Marcos. A former president of Dole Pineapple Philippines, the local subsidiary of Castle & Cooke, Velasco’s net worth at the time of Marcos’ fall and when government agents were starting to investigate him, was estimated to be around $50 million. He had properties in the most expensive areas of the Philippines and California, as well as the following corporations: Bataan Refining, Dole, Manila Memorial Park, Phil. Aerospace Dev. Corp., Phil. National Bank, Republic Glass, and at least thirty others as of the Manapat book listing in 1991.
Hers
Imelda, of course, when it seemed like she was going to become Heir Apparent later on, had to have her own support network of allies, financiers, generals, local politicians, etc. The Blue Ladies from the 1965 and 1969 campaigns were a start. (More on the Blue Ladies in Chapter III.)
First on Imelda’s “Most Favored” List were her brothers and sisters, starting with the brother closest to her, Benjamin (“Kokoy”). Not only was the small-time lawyer and one-time gofer for Marcos, one-time ambassador to the US, China, and Saudi Arabia, but Kokoy also got among the biggest spoils of war and peace from his sister and brother-in-law. Kokoy ended up being the majority shareholder of Meralco Company (formerly owned by the Lopezes) and Benguet Consolidated, the oldest, most lucrative mining company in the Philippines and first one traded on the NY Stock Exchange.
A second brother, Alfredo (“Bejo,” father of my ex-classmate, Margarita), got the shipbuilding and (off-shore) gambling concessions (later transferred onshore), among others. Sister Alita was married to Rudy Martel, whose family and own the Harrison Plaza/Century Park Sheraton property and steel (Marsteel), also among other concerns. There are others.
Antonio Floirendo
The best example of a “His and Hers” crony, who played and fulfilled the roles that serviced both Sir and Ma’am, was Antonio Floirendo, also sometimes known as “the banana king” during the heyday Marcos years. Floirendo started his career as a car salesman in Davao City (southern Philippines), selling Ford vehicles and parts in the late 1940s (although he graduated with a degree in mining engineering from Adamson University).
From Manapat’s book: “He overcame those modest beginning by slowly and shrewdly cultivating his connections with ruling politicians, starting from the administration of president Carlos Garcia in the late 1950s. He perfected the art of currying the favor of politicians during the 20-year rule of Marcos and used it to join the select group of Marcos cronies.”
“At the height of his economic power, Floirendo held one of the biggest banana plantations in the world, fronted for Marcos in a New York-based international sugar trading company, and served as Imelda’s dummy in many multimillion real estate deals in New York and shell corporations based in the Netherlands Antilles. He is now a millionaire with interests in agri-business, real estate, banking, and transportation. A high point in this former car salesman’s social climb was the marriage of his son, Antonio, ‘Tony Boy,’ Jr. to a Filipina who had earlier won the Miss Universe title.”
(That was Margie Moran who won the Miss Universe title in Greece in 1973. Today, she runs the Floirendo family’s Davao Pearl Farm, which used to belong to the Aguinaldos. Floirendo’s daughter, Linda, also married another son of Manila’s mestizo, Forbes Park-elite, Tonet Lagdameo, whose father was an ex-Ambassador to the US during Marcos I-Era years; Tonet’s older sister is married to Oscar Lopez, and an older brother, Tito, is married to Aurora Cojuangco, Danding’s youngest sister. So again with the crisscrossing, ruling Manila elite connections.)
Manapat continues: “Beyond serving as a business associate of the Marcoses, Floirendo is also a close friend who catered to their personal needs. When the Marcosess were in Davao, they stayed at the Floirendo mansion in the mammoth banana plantation Floirendo owned. The estate has a magnificent house, complete with a pool and waterfall. They threw lavish parties for the First Family and flew down planeloads of guests, food and drinks and entertainers from Manila, right in the midst of deplorable living and working conditions of the plantation workers. Wealthy and politically prominent, Floirendo figured as one of the more faithful businessmen in Imelda’s back-up group of Filipino industrialists. He was a regular member of Madame’s entourage in her trips abroad and invariably underwrote a good portion of her traveling expenses. When Mrs. Marcos visited New York in October 1985 to speak during the 40th anniversary of the United Nations, Floirendo was part of her caravan. In that trip, he was feted as Guest of Honor in one of the dinners with Mrs. Marcos as a reward for his services to the Marcos couple.”
Floirendo owned the mansion at 2442 Makiki Heights Drive in Honolulu, directly across from the Tantoco property where the Marcoses eventually settled for the long run in their exile in Hawaii. Through his Ancor Holdings, N.V., one of his several shell corporation registered in the Netherlands Antilles and set up with Roland Gapud’s help, he fronted for the purchase and ownership of three adjacent condominiums at the Olympic Tower on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, for Imelda. The walls of the three units were torn down to form a gigantic L-shaped apartment creating a panoramic view of the midtown Manhattan skyline. This was where the overflow of Imelda’s French Impressionist masterpieces was stored when they could no longer fit in the East 66th Street townhouse.
Despite his very obvious close ties to the Marcoses, Floirendo was strangely cleared of illegal amassment of wealth by the PCGG.
If Marcos had his United Labs and Jose Yao-Campos, Imelda had her Pascual Laboratories and Dr. Eleuterio “Teyet” Pascual. Pascual Labs was not so big as United Labs is or was, and while Imelda never muscled in on Pascual Labs in shares or otherwise as it was a family-owned enterprise, nonetheless, she partook of the largesse and profits it generated for its chief owner, Teyet Pascual.
Among those who benefited from floating in the orbit of Imelda’s glow were the Enriquez-Panlilio families (of Plaza/Sulo Hotel & Restaurant fame) who supplied food for most of Imelda’s events and extravaganzas. With that proximity to power and trust, came access to lucrative contracts. They expanded their hotel empire to the larger Silahis International and are also said to have partnered and fronted for Imelda in the Plaza International Hotel (now the Sofitel); and set up the Puerta Azul luxury resort in Ternate, Cavite, at the expense of disrupting and dislocating the lives of many poor families. They were also into real estate and shipping.
Perhaps the most controversial, egregious and blatantly obeisant of the Imelda cronies were the Tantocos (Bienvenido and Gliceria) of the Rustan’s Department Store empire. After her relatives, the sleaziest of the Imelda sycophants was “Glecy,” as she was better known in Manila circles.
Bienvenido and Glecy Tantoco built Rustan’s from a small gift shop in their garage at their old home in San Marcelino Street to the premier retailer in the Philippines in about twenty years’ time, before ShoeMart edged them into the number two spot.
Like the other cronies, the Tantocos squeezed special deals and legislation from their masters (for which they evaded a lot of taxes) just to line their pockets. For example, a 1974 presidential decree gave them a lucrative franchise to operate tourist duty-free shops at international airports, hotels, and choice commercial centers, in addition to Rustan’s. The decree per-mitted the Tantocos to import luxury goods without paying import taxes.
They were also active in gold, copper, and precious ore mining ventures, one of which was Eagle Mining Corp. When Bienvenido was president of the Metropolitan Museum of Manila (which his wife helped stock with the second-rate and bargain-basement Italian “masterpieces”), more than half of the museum’s original endowment of $595,000 was “loaned” to Eagle Mining. That loan was never repaid.
Glecy was an extremely active partner in Imelda’s secret New York real estate adventures. She was also notorious in Madison Avenue art galleries and at times was known as Imelda’s 5%-er advance-rear guard flunkie. She vetted art galleries for Imelda. When the galleries got word that Glecy and/or Imelda was stopping by, they knew to raise prices 15-25% more because Glecy drove a hard bargain. They knew she would insist on a 10% discount on the sale price and still extract an extra 5% agent’s commission.
In order to shield Imelda’s participation in the sale, Glecy would have the purchases billed either to Rustan’s or to Galerie Bleu, her store’s poster gallery. In many purchases, Tantoco could very well have made an extra million dollars or two in the dozen years she fronted for Imelda.
Eventually, the Tantocos faced a rather messy and ignominious end to their high-flying diplomatic lifestyle. Where Bienvenido once held the Philip-pine ambassadorship to the Vatican, he ended up facing terrorism charges in Italy. Glecy was actually arrested in Rome, and the couple eventually became international fugitives.
When his ambassadorship was recalled in April, 1986, he tried to seek political asylum. But on the sly, he also was buying and hoarding arms for a possible armed rebellion return in Manila. Instead of being considered for political asylum, the Italian carabinieri raided his exclusive Via Attica estate, where the ex-envoy and five bodyguards were arrested. The police found an arsenal of weapons one does not normally associate with a diplomat. There had been rumors that it was oldest Marcos daughter, Imee, who squealed on the Tantocos to the Italian authorities.
Glecy, meanwhile, was making damage of her own in the Americas. While her husband was fighting for his reputation in Rome, Glecy was still doing the bidding of her puppeteers. In late April, 1986, she traveled to Panama and had Declarations of Trust on the transfer of the New York properties to Adnan Khashoggi backdated to August, 1985, before the March, 1986, US court order freezing the Marcoses’ assets. And then she continued on to West Germany to take receipt of $25 million cash that Khashoggi withdrew from one of the Marcos-connected bank accounts in Geneva.
After a year of skulking in countries where she couldn’t be extradited, and with her husband under house arrest in Rome, Glecy tried to sneak into Rome International that same August, 1987, but she was arrested on arrival at the airport and spent seventy days in jail. Pleading a “bad heart,” she posted 100 million lira bail (about US$100,000 at the time—chump change for people who were probably worth $80 million at the time), plus, I’m sure, a few well-placed bribes to the prison guards. Three days later, the couple fled Italy. It seems they ended up in Morocco together with other Marcos refugees, like daughter Imee. With the right connections, they eventually returned to Manila, without facing any jail time there.
The Marcoses and Tantocos were thick as thieves to the end, because the Marcoses eventually stayed at the Tantoco manse in Honolulu for the longest time of their exile. In all the glowing write-ups of what a retailing pioneer the couple were, nowhere are their Marcos adventures, profiteering, being diplomatic pirates, mentioned. As particularly rapacious accomplices of the Thieving Tandem, their deplorable deeds should not be forgotten.
The cronies ruled and sat on the boards of at least twenty to fifty companies —although many of those were mere entities that existed on paper and had “headquarters” in P.O. boxes of tax-haven states like Liechtenstein, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and Panama. A number of the cronies still have pending cases with Philippine courts (page 124) and per the Forbes’ 2015 List of the 40 Richest Filipinos, eight who had connections with the Marcos regime and profited from that relationship, retain their positions on the list even after the PCGG tried to go after them:
Rank and Name:
#2 – Lucio Tan
#20 – Roberto Ongpin
#23 – Eduardo Cojuangco
#24 – Beatrice Campos (widow of Jose Yao)
#31 – Bienvenido Tantoco
#32 – Manuel Zamora
#47 – Juliette Romualdez (widow of Kokoy).
The Generals
Ferdinand and Imelda courted and rewarded as many generals and colonels of the Armed Forces as they could. While each had their own following, Marcos had the upper hand in support in the Armed Forces. To neutralize her husband’s advantage in placing many of his own province-mates in key positions, Imelda and her brother Kokoy courted the generals’ wives instead. They took pains to learn who could control or at least exert undue influence on their husbands when it came time to choose. But Imelda’s plans backfired when she “ordered” a number of generals to perform a skit in drag during birthday celebrations for husband Ferdinand in 1973. They resented the utterly strange “request” and never forgot the humiliation.
Sources:
Manapat, Ricardo, Some Are Smarter than Others, Aletheia Publications, New York, 1991
http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-23/news/mn-1864_1_united-states
http://articles.philly.com/1988-09-22/news/26233073_1_marcos-case-imelda-hawaiian-exile