Eugenio Lopez, Sr.

Don Eugenio Hofileña López, Sr. (July 20, 1901 - July 5, 1975) was founder of the Manila Chronicle and Chronicle Broadcasting Network.

Early life

Born Eugenio Hofileña López on July 20, 1901 in Jaro, Iloilo City. His parents were Benito Lopez, a former governor of Iloilo, and Presentacion Hofileña-Lopez. He is the elder brother of former Philippine Vice President, Fernando Lopez. He received his education at the Ateneo de Manila where he graduated in 1919, and later the University of the Philippines where he took up law and graduated in 1923.^[1] He earned his master of law degree from Harvard University.^[2]

The Story

"I remember during World War II, when we were hiding from the Japanese in the mountains of Dingle in Iloilo, he (Don Eñing) contracted a husband and wife teacher team to keep us abreast of our studies. During the latter part of the war, when we migrated from Iloilo to Baguio City, and when all the schools were closed down due to American bombings in the city, my father had us walk for miles to the De La Salle Training Center across town where some La Salle brothers gave us lessons in chemistry, geometry and typing. This was in the mornings, and in the afternoons we would have to walk a few more miles to where Sta. Escolastica sisters were residing, and then we would get some more lessons in English literature and religion."

Don Eñing brought the Lopez family to the zenith of its wealth and business success, and saw it through its most trying and devastating times. Inheriting the family business –which was confined mainly to sugar–early in the last century, Don Eñing expanded into different fields, including publishing and land, water and air transport. From the ashes of World War II he rebuilt the family business, going into the budding broadcast industry and, in 1962, led the group of Filipino investors that acquired Manila Electric Company or Meralco, then the largest corporate entity in the country.

From the end of the war on through the following decades, the growth of the Lopez empire seemed to have no boundaries. But 1972 and the declaration of martial law totally changed the family’s fortunes, as it changed the character of the business community and even the country.

The family’s print and broadcast companies were forcibly shut down by the government, and their interest in Meralco and its subsidiaries was forcibly sold. Don Eñing escaped incarceration only because he was in Boston at the time to receive the coveted Harvard University Distinguished Service Award, given in recognition of "his accomplishments as business leader, communicator, and champion of sound management in Asia".

Death

His eldest child and heir apparent, Eugenio Lopez, Jr. or Geny was jailed on charges of conspiring to assassinate Ferdinand Marcos. This was carried out by Marcos in order for Don Ening, who was at that time was in exile in United States to sell his businesses to him, his family and relatives and to his cronies. At one time, Marcos would send an then Philippine Ambassador to the US, Benjamin Romualdez, a brother of then First Lady Imelda Marcos at San Francisco, California where the elder Lopez was living along with his daughter, Precy and her American husband, Steve Psinakis to convince him to relinquish ownership of his businesses in his home country in order for it to sell to his entourage with a promise that his eldest child, Geny would be released from jail. Don Ening, agreed, but his firstborn would remain in detention. As a result, he was double-crossed by the Marcos regime and his businesses are now completely in their hands. Soon, he was diagnosed with cancer and would remain in grave illness until he died on July 5, 1975.

Legacy

But the lessons Eugenio López, Sr. taught his children–Geny who died in 1999, Oscar, Manolo who for many years headed Meralco, Presy who heads PASI, which extends educational assistance to poor communities, and Robby who died in 1992–by word and deed live on in the Lopez family through three generations. The Lopez group with its 17 companies and nine foundations remains today a model of responsible and responsive corporate citizenship.

As the family and the business group mark their patriarch’s 105th anniversary, it is apropos to recall his words uttered half a century ago: "The old business tenets have given way to the modern concept, which is not based on profits alone, but rather on the service it can render and the contribution it can make to the prosperity and progress of the nation as a whole."

See also

• Eugenio Lopez, Jr.
• Eugenio Lopez III
• Fernando Lopez

References

Further reading

• McCoy, Alfred W. (2009). "Rent-seeking Families and the Philippine State: A History of the Lopez Family". In McCoy, Alfred W. An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-22984-9.