Last of 2 parts

WHEN the life of the most promising leader of the third-generation Lopez clan, Iloilo governor Benito V. Lopez, was snuffed out by a bullet at the age of 30, that was the beginning of the story of the ascent of his two young sons, Fernando and Eugenio, to prominence in national politics and the economy. This is the story told in some works of excellent historical scholarship: Alfred McCoy’s 1993 critical historical article titled “Rent-Seeking Families and the Philippine State: A History of the Lopez Family” in “An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines”; Raul Rodrigo and Oscar M. Lopez’s sympathetic two-volume set, “Phoenix: The Saga of the Lopez Family, 1800-1999”; and the huge art book by Rodrigo, “Undaunted: The Lopez Legacy, 1800-2010.” They tell the same story but from two different perspectives.

Fernando, or Nanding, after studying at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran and the University of Santo Tomas, went back to Iloilo as a lawyer. Eugenio, or Eñing, went to Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines Law School, but Eñing had other plans. He went to Harvard and, for his thesis, studied the dangers of the unhampered power of the Council of State in the American colonial government in the Philippines. For Rodrigo, it was apt for Eñing to have studied this because, as it turned out, he would spend a lot of time quarreling with some of the presidents “over abuses of executive power.” For McCoy, it was evidence that his rent-seeking was self-conscious because he eventually “manipulated” the Philippine state and demonstrated its weakness, as shown in his thesis.

The Lopezes supported Manuel L. Quezon’s move against Sergio Osmeña and the Hare Hawes Cutting Act, and this moved them closer to national power. Quezon regularly visited Iloilo and stayed at Eñing’s house. This gave him a reputation among the townsfolk that he could intercede for them with Malacañang.

Eñing resurrected his father’s local newspaper El Tiempo and also launched Iloilo Times. Quezon became an avid reader of these. He used these newspapers to bring down Gov. Mariano Arroyo in 1929 for being complicit in local gambling jueteng. The defeat of Arroyo made Eñing one of the most influential men in Iloilo commerce. But Rodrigo also demonstrated this as proof of the principled stance of Eñing against corruption, citing that the newspaper was the “least profitable enterprise” among his businesses.

The article and books chronicled the ways in which the Lopezes also worked to dominate Iloilo transportation by establishing Iloilo Shipping and, after dominating the city bus lines, controversially taking over Panay Autobus and then establishing the first airline

in the country, the Iloilo-Negros Air Express, Co. When World War 2 came, their savvy for flexibility and survival was demonstrated by their double dealing as publishers of proJapanese newspapers while helping the guerrillas.

As the war ended, the family began their move to become more national by controversially acquiring Binalbagan-Isabela Milling Company (Biscom). Eñing moved to Manila and acquired the Manila Chronicle newspaper, and Nanding would become one day mayor of Iloilo and by 1949, dominating the Liberal Party to become vice president to President Elpidio Quirino.

In 1956, the Lopezes established the Chronicle Broadcasting Network, which would eventually merge with the first Philippine Television Network Alto Broadcasting System of President Quirino’s brother to become ABS-CBN.

But they would have problems with the Diosdado Macapagal administration, which hated the Lopezes’ bid to dominate the economy and politics. Macapagal tried to restrict them, calling them “Filipino Stonehills who build and maintain business empires through political power, including the corruption of politicians and public officials.” Harry Stonehill was the American businessman who was found to have bribed a number of high officials of the land. Macapagal sought the removal of Eñing from the Meralco board. This led to the brothers’ decision to actively help put Ferdinand E. Marcos in office, and eventually, Fernando Lopez would run again for vice president as Marcos’s running mate. This relationship continued up to their reelection bid in 1969 but eventually turned sour as the Marcoses and the Lopezes accused each other of pushing for their interests in government and business.

When Marcos imposed martial law in 1972, the ABS-CBN Broadcast Center, one of the most sophisticated broadcast facilities in Asia, was taken over by Marcos cronies, and Eñing’s son, Geny, was locked up on charges of allegedly trying to assassinate the president. Eñing died after giving up all his businesses to free his son, which was not granted. The historical works on the Lopezes showed us to this point that rent-seeking is like a game that has maximum benefits but also extreme hazards for those who engage in it. These are lessons that echoed to the present with the ABS-CBN shutdown. Ultimately, we must reflect on what our institutions and our democracy have become because of it.