The biggest media mogul in the country is not a Filipino owned company.
Unknown and has been hiding under the radar is the Indonesian tycoon,
Anthoni Salim, he controls the biggest multi-media conglomerate in the country-
both in print and broadcast media — the Philippine Star-TV5
Group.
That’s why when President Rodrigo Roa Duterte declared a war with the
two water giants, Ayala and Pangilinan – it is from the Manny V. Pangilinan
(MVP) the President should be worried-because this is not your ordinary
powerful oligarch.
(photo credit to Manila Times) |
Salim through his Hong Kong based
First Pacific Co. Ltd., controls “the Metro Pacific Investments conglomerate, one of whose
firms — not the largest largest in the group* — is Maynilad Water Services Inc.
This is the monopoly distributor of water in the metropolitan Manila’s
so-called West Sector as well as parts of Cavite, which made an astonishing P65
billion in the past 10 years.”
MVP is only his puppet, he has allowed Pangilinan to own only 1.6
percent of First Pacific and less than 2 percent of the conglomerate’s firms
here
This are just a sample of how the Indonesian tycoon Anthoni Salim made
a mockery of our laws (Constitution (Article 16, Section 11) with respect to ‘the ownership and management of mass media shall be
limited to citizens of the Philippines.’
For purposes of public information, clarity and truthfulness, we are
quoting in full the said article of Mr. Rigoberto Tiglao titled : “Maynilad
owner Salim’s media empire” which was published by The Manila Times, December 20, 2019.
Maynilad
owner Salim’s media empire
First of 2 parts
PRESIDENT Duterte, in going against what he calls the oligarchs exploiting the masses of metropolitan Manila through their water monopoly’s onerous rates, will be battling one of the most powerful magnates in our country — although he has remarkably succeeded in hiding from public view in the past 38 years.
PRESIDENT Duterte, in going against what he calls the oligarchs exploiting the masses of metropolitan Manila through their water monopoly’s onerous rates, will be battling one of the most powerful magnates in our country — although he has remarkably succeeded in hiding from public view in the past 38 years.
This is the Indonesian Anthoni Salim who, through many corporate layers,
controls through his Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the Metro Pacific
Investments conglomerate, one of whose firms — not the largest largest in the
group* — is Maynilad Water Services Inc. This is the monopoly distributor of
water in the metropolitan Manila’s so-called West Sector as well as parts of
Cavite, which made an astonishing P65 billion in the past 10 years.
Salim though has been so clever as to have brainwashed most people in
this country that his top executive Manuel V. Pangilinan owns the conglomerate.
A brilliant executive Pangilinan has been indeed that he has led the Metro
Pacific through nearly four decades to become one of the country’s biggest
conglomerates.
Yet, Salim for some reason has allowed Pangilinan to own only 1.6
percent of First Pacific and less than 2 percent of the conglomerate’s firms
here, according to the company’s public records which anybody can access
through the internet.
What makes Salim a dangerous foe is that unlike other oligarchs, he controls what could be the biggest media conglomerate in the country, the only entity that is both in print and broadcast media — the Philippine Star-TV5 Group.
Conspicuous
Indeed, since Duterte publicly went against Maynilad, conspicuous has been the fact that columnists from the two Salim-controlled newspapers Philippine Star and BusinessWorld have been solely the water monopoly’s de facto spokesmen. Romeo Bernardo, a board director of 15 Ayala companies, including Globe Telecom Inc. — who pretends to be an objective economist that he has carefully not disclosed his intimate links with the Ayalas in his columns — has been able to get his boss’ propaganda-through-jargon out solely through his column in BusinessWorld.
Indeed, since Duterte publicly went against Maynilad, conspicuous has been the fact that columnists from the two Salim-controlled newspapers Philippine Star and BusinessWorld have been solely the water monopoly’s de facto spokesmen. Romeo Bernardo, a board director of 15 Ayala companies, including Globe Telecom Inc. — who pretends to be an objective economist that he has carefully not disclosed his intimate links with the Ayalas in his columns — has been able to get his boss’ propaganda-through-jargon out solely through his column in BusinessWorld.
There is no doubt that newspapers and broadcast media play a dominant
role in forming public opinion in the modern era, and one of the major forces
in politics. Media outfits have the power to demonize or sanctify a political
official, such that politicians have made it a policy to cultivate the
friendship and support of the newspaper owners, its editors, and reporters.
A clear case of this has been the success of the Philippine
Daily Inquirer — in tandem with the ABS-CBN broadcast network — in
creating, starting in 1986, the myths of the Yellow Cult, that the Aquinos have
been the country’s savior. Another recent demonstration of media power has been
the non-stop
demonization of China, and the propagation of the lie that the
arbitration suit against China was a victory for us by the Philippine
Star. The stridently anti-China former Foreign Affairs secretary Albert del
Rosario has been a longtime board director in Salim’s holding company First
Pacific. Del Rosario in fact was chairman of a pension fund, as will be
explained in part 2 of this series, that financed the establishment of Salim’s
media empire here.
With that kind of weapon — media — under their control, no wonder
Salim’s Pangilinan at the Maynilad Christmas party defiantly said of Duterte’s
move against the firm: “We will not stand down.”
If unstopped, the Salim media empire could deal powerful blows against
Duterte, and even torpedo his plans for the continuity of his regime when he
steps down in 2022.
In the hope of enlightening more of our people what this hidden media
empire is, I am reprinting here a slightly abridged version of the chapter
titled, “Salim’s media empire: Ultimate transgression of RP sovereignty,” from
my 2016 book, Colossal Deception: How Foreigners Control Our Telecom Sector.
Neither Salim nor Pangilinan nor any of their executives have challenged any
data and conclusion in this book. I am publishing it here especially since the
book is currently out of print, and sold only in Amazon (including a Kindle
edition and Barnes and Noble.)
Chapter from Colossal Deception book:
“That we have lost our sense of nationalism and respect for the rule of law is most clearly demonstrated by the nonchalance over the establishment by an Indonesian tycoon, Anthoni Salim, of what is now the biggest multi-media conglomerate in the country.
“That we have lost our sense of nationalism and respect for the rule of law is most clearly demonstrated by the nonchalance over the establishment by an Indonesian tycoon, Anthoni Salim, of what is now the biggest multi-media conglomerate in the country.
“This is despite the clear directive by the Constitution (Article 16,
Section 11) that ‘the ownership and management of mass media shall be limited
to citizens of the Philippines.’ It is Salim’s ultimate transgression on our
sovereignty, never before done to us as a sovereign nation.
Salim through intermediary outfits is now the biggest media mogul in the
country.
“In March 2014 through corporate layers, mainly through Philippine Long
Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), he became the controlling stockholder with 51
percent shares, of the Philippine Star, which claims to be the largest
newspaper in the country with a circulation of 2.7 million — together with its
printing presses and six other smaller publications, including the
Cebu-based Freeman, one of the biggest newspapers in Cebu City.
“Salim’s intermediary entities paid at least P4 billion — there were
reports that it was really P6 billion — for the shares to the owner, the family
of Feliciano Belmonte, the Speaker of the House of Representatives during
President Aquino’s regime. It is certainly sad that an Indonesian has taken
over the Philippine Star, which had been set up and owned in 1986 by one of the
best corps of anti-dictatorship, anti-crony and nationalist journalists the
country has ever seen.
BusinessWorld
“With a 70 percent stake, the Indonesian also controls the business paper BusinessWorld, which was absorbed in July 2015 into the Philippine Star Printing Company, Inc., the corporate owner of the Philippine Star companies. An Indonesian magnate in effect put an end to its five decades of corporate and editorial independence maintained even through Martial Law, since BusinessWorld was before the highly respected BusinessDay.
“With a 70 percent stake, the Indonesian also controls the business paper BusinessWorld, which was absorbed in July 2015 into the Philippine Star Printing Company, Inc., the corporate owner of the Philippine Star companies. An Indonesian magnate in effect put an end to its five decades of corporate and editorial independence maintained even through Martial Law, since BusinessWorld was before the highly respected BusinessDay.
“Ray Espinosa, Salim’s chief Philippine lawyer and the only Filipino
director in First Pacific other than Panglinan, was appointed chairman of both
entities.
“Salim is the only media mogul today whose empire consists both of print
and broadcast media.
“He controls ABC Development Corp., formerly Associated Broadcasting
Network, founded in 1960 by a legend of Philippine journalism, Joaquin ‘Chino’
Roces, and taken over in 2003 by a group led by Antonio Cojuangco, who had sold
his family’s controlling stakes in PLDT in 1998. Salim through a PLDT entity
acquired it in 2010.
Flagship
“The media firm’s flagship is TV5, the third biggest network in the country, after ABS-CBN and GMA 7, both owned by the country’s oldest political-economic elites.
“The media firm’s flagship is TV5, the third biggest network in the country, after ABS-CBN and GMA 7, both owned by the country’s oldest political-economic elites.
Other than the main TV5 in metropolitan Manila, the network has stations
in the cities of Laoag, Baguio, Bacolod, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and
General Santos. It has also 20 affiliate or relay stations in smaller cities
all over the country.
“TV5 Network’s subsidiary, Nation Broadcasting Corp., which had been
established way back in 1963, manages its AksyonTV stations in Manila (TV-41),
Cebu (TV-49), and Davao (TV-29) as well as seven FM stations in the metropolis
and in six main cities of the country.
“TV5 has a news website, interaksyon.com, which converts the broadcast
entity’s content, including its news videos, to be accessed in cyberspace.
“Salim, through intermediary firms, also owns Cignal TV, now the
country’s largest satellite-to-home TV company with 1 million subscribers as of
September 2015. One of its latest moves in partnership with TV5 was the
establishment of the business news channel Bloomberg Philippines.”
How has Salim been able to defy the constitutional ban on foreign
ownership in media? Through an entity under PLDT, a firm he controls as its
biggest single stockholder, again through several corporate layers.
That will be for Monday.
*Among the biggest Salim firms are PLDT Inc., Smart Communications Inc.,
Manila Electric Co. or Meralco, Metro Pacific Tollways Corp., Light Rail Manila
Corp. and Philex Mining Corp.
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Report from Manila Times
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