BizNews Asia marks 11th year, cites business icons
Top tycoons and statesmen to be honored for excellence
Corp. and CEO of Petron Corp.; Tessie Sy Coson, chair of BDO and vice chair of SM Investments Corp.; Felipe Gozon, chairman and CEO of GMA Network Inc.; Helen Y. Dee, chair of House of Investments and Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.; and Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr., chair and CEO of San Miguel Corp.
Recipients of the Management Excellence Awards are: Lorenzo V. Tan, president of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.; Nestor V. Tan, president of BDO Unibank Inc.; Henry Sy Jr., chairman of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines; and Zenaida Tantoco, president of Rustan Commercial Corp.
The 2012 BizNewsAsia Real Estate Who Is Who or BREW awardees are: Darlene Berberabe, president and CEO of Pag-IBIG Fund; Elizabeth Lee, president of EMotors Inc.; Felix Ang, president of CATS Motors Inc.; Willie Soong, president of Jaguar Cars Inc.; Bansan Choa, chairman and CEO of I-Remit; Manuel Lazaro, chairman and CEO of Philippine Constitution Association; Alfred Ty, president of Federal Land; Allen Roxas, president of State Properties; Elena Lim, founder and chairman emeritus of the Solid Group of Companies; Senator Loren Legarda; Felino Palafox Jr., founder of Palafox Associates; Amable Aguiluz V, chairman emeritus of AMA Group; Jesus Tambunting, chairman and CEO of Plantersbank; Joey Salceda, governor of Albay; Mel Lopez, chairman and CEO of PNOC Exploration Corp.; and Rachel Arenas, representative, Third District of Pangasinan.
BREW awardees are those who helped improve the life and lifestyle of Filipinos for their management excellence and innovation in property development. Tonight’s award ceremony will be hosted by Cong. Ed Zialcita and Rosemarie Basa.
If there is a journalist who has invested so much, in terms of his work and passion in a single political family in this country, it’s Tony Lopez.
When the charismatic opposition leader Senator Benigno S. Aquino Jr. (Noynoy’s father) was jailed, Cory Aquino would call up a number of newspapermen to help cover his trial before the military tribunal.
Cory thought that the glare of publicity, from the international press (Tony represented Asiaweek of Hong Kong, Mainichi Shimbun of Japan, and German television of Germany for many years) would prompt the military tribunal to treat Ninoy with some degree of fairness and objectivity.
Tony covered the Ninoy Aquino trial, one of only four newsmen who covered his trial with regularity.
Each December, Ninoy was given a Christmas furlough by Ferdinand Marcos. Tony would visit the senator at his Times Street house and each time, he welcomed Tony like a long lost brother.
Ninoy gave him extensive interviews. A former journalist, the senator typed the answers in Tony’s presence. He gifted Tony with four poems, signed by him, and which he said he composed just for Lopez.
Just before Ninoy flew to Manila via Taipei on August 20 and 21, 1983, he asked Asiaweek to imbed a reporter or photographer in his flights. Tony was deemed too high-profile to be the reporter. But Asiaweek boarded a photographer from Hong Kong. His photograph became the picture in the 500-peso bill you see today.
When Ninoy was assassinated, Tony Lopez’s Asiaweek story was a bestseller. The issue sold 10,000 copies in one day. The funeral issue was also a bestseller –– it sold 10,000 copies in one day.
Lopez also fielded a full time team to cover the Agrava Commission’s daily hearings on Ninoy’s assassins. His was the only publication that gave a blow-by-blow account of the Agrava trial.
When Cory launched her candidacy for president, Asiaweek backed her to the hilt although Marcos was very fair to Lopez and granted him an interview each time he asked for one (including an exclusive, three days after Ninoy’s assassination).
Later, Asiaweek was sold to TimeWarner, which quickly killed the magazine to stop a rival from overtaking them in Asia. Lopez founded BizNewsAsia a year after leaving Asiaweek.
BizNewsAsia, the Philippines’ largest weekly business and news magazine, marks its 11th year tonight by honoring the Philippines’ business icons, entrepreneurs and CEOs at a gala dinner at the Intercontinental.
BizNewsAsia remains the country’s No. 1 weekly business and news magazine, with a pass-on readership of more than 350,000. Each copy is read by at least ten readers.
BizNewsAsia was founded in 2001 by journalist Antonio S. Lopez to focus on the things that count— business, the economy, and the Philippines. He is the president, publisher and editor of BizNewsAsia.
A multi-awarded senior journalist, Lopez finished journalism, magna cum laude, from UST. He also attended three semesters of MBA studies at The Ateneo and global journalism at the University of Stockholm.
His balanced and objective reporting during the Marcos years helped lead to People Power in 1986 that installed President Corazon Aquino, put the Philippines on the world map, and won him a Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) award in International Journalism in 1986.
The TOYM medal and trophy were given by no less than President Aquino herself.
Lopez has covered all five recent presidents, from Diosdado Macapagal to Benigno Aquino III.
A specialist writer on business, the economy, politics, Asian and world affairs, he has monitored the rise to riches of many of the country’s leading tycoons.
Tonight’s BNA guests are led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and former House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr.
Senate President Enrile and Speaker De Venecia will be honored with the BNA Statesmanship Award.
To receive the Platinum Business Icon Awards are: Ramon S. Ang, president and COO of San Miguel