FORMER ambassador, industrialist and farm and sports advocate Eduardo “Danding” M. Cojuangco Jr. died on Tuesday evening (June 16) at the age of 85, leaving a huge footprint on Philippine business where, among others, he served as chairman and CEO of San Miguel Corp. (SMC). The diversified conglomerate, which owns the largest food and beverage company, has been credited with its generous support for the country’s response to the Covid-19 health crisis.
Cojuangco succumbed to pneumonia as a complication of lung cancer at St. Luke’s Medical Center.
The SMC issued a statement saying its “Board of Directors and the entire San Miguel Group deeply mourn the passing of our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr.”
“For decades, ECJ guided the San Miguel Group, making a difference in the lives of so many of our employees, past and present. Values he lived by—malasakit, and sama-sama, the idea that we either make it together or not at all—are at the heart of what it means to be San Miguel,” the conglomerate said in a statement.
“His contributions to our company’s history are numerous and indelible. An agriculturalist at heart, he championed the development of rural Philippines and the setting up of our agro-industrial operations.
“As SMC chairman, he guided our expansion, diversification and transformation. His vision for San Miguel—to be a beacon of hope for the Philippines and a partner in nation-building—remains at the core of everything we do.
“His impact on many other areas of Philippine life—sports, philanthropy—adds to his rich and enduring legacy.”
Senators mourn
Senate President Vicente Sotto III, partymate and friend of Cojuangco, led his peers in mourning the businessman’s passing.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto credited Cojuangco with inspiring the conglomerate’s multibillion-peso support for the Philippines’ fight against Covid-19, even as he acknowledged that SMC’s profit is “the labor of thousands of its officers and employees.”
In a statement, Recto said, “SMC’s decision to give more than P1 billion in the national pandemic fight, in ways longer than its product catalogue, was the corporate implementation of Danding’s philosophy to help the needy.”
Recto recalled, “it was this trademark of giving which drove SMC to donate gas to frontliners; to let aid trucks travel on its tollways for free; to stock community kitchens with chicken, meat products, flour; to equip hospitals with testing machines and ventilators; to flood clinics with disinfectant and alcohol; to dispatch its planes all over Asia in search of supplies; and to keep its payroll intact despite the plunge in sales.”
Moreover, the senator noted that “when profits give way to service during a national crisis, we know who was responsible for SMC passing its corporate citizenship test.”
Senate President Sotto, a stalwart of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) that Cojuangco had founded, said in a statement:
“I join the nation in mourning the passing of a titan in Philippine business and politics.
“The passing of our NPC chairman, Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco Jr., leaves a big hole in our hearts.
“He lived an extraordinary life, a successful man who wore many hats as he made waves in the business sector and splashes in public service. The vast ocean of entrepreneurship and political leadership will never drift as suavely and smoothly without his engaging presence.”
For her part, Sen. Grace Poe, whose late father, actor Fernando Poe Jr., was also a good friend of Cojuangco, said: “Mr. Danding Cojuangco always looked for ways to empower communities.
“He opened up opportunities for pervasive success as he believed deeply in the capabilities of Filipinos.
“We are saddened by his passing, but we celebrate a legacy, too, of the man behind iconic Filipino brands who in so many ways gave his share to make our country better,” added Poe.
Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, for his part, said that while Cojuangco’s “forays into business and politics are of public record,” as well as his “championing Philippine sports,” little known “were his charitable acts, unsolicited, done sans fanfare, and many anonymously.”
Cojuangco, added Angara, “was a practitioner of retail altruism and direct assistance to the down and out. The financials of his companies are meticulously recorded, but he kept no accounting of the help he extended to the needy, especially from the provinces close to his heart.
“These were sick people hospitalized, bright young people sent to college, OFWs in distress helped, small businessmen extended loans, and many more,” said Angara.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said: “I have been with the NPC since the start of my political career and I witnessed how he has shaped, over decades, the ideals and objectives of the party that centered on love for country. He treated us like family and I will remain grateful for his support.”
Ally of Marcos
Born on June 10, 1935, in Paniqui, Tarlac, Cojuangco attended the University of the Philippines-Los Baños College of Agriculture and California Polytechnic College in San Luis, Obispo, USA.
He was a close ally of strongman President Ferdinand Marcos, who fled along with his business associates that included Danding, on February 25, 1986. Cojuangco has stressed that while he never denied his closeness to the late dictator, he deemed unjust the allegations that the deals he made in the Marcos era were attended by crookedness.
Cojuangco was allowed to return to the Philippines three years later, after spending most of his time in Australia breeding horses.
He then formed the NPC to serve as his platform to run for President during the 1992 national elections, but only placed third and lost to President Fidel V. Ramos, who had the backing of his cousin, President Corazon C. Aquino.
However, NPC’s bet for Vice President was Joseph Estrada, who won by a landslide. Cojuangco’s party subsequently supported the presidential run of Estrada, who won in 1998.
It was during Estrada’s time that Cojuangco became the chairman and CEO of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., a position that he held since July 7, 1998, until his death.
Present at meetings
Cojuangco, who also has his own business such as in cement manufacturing, was always present during the stockholders’ meetings of San Miguel and its units, chairing the meetings. His last was during the stockholders meeting of Petron Corp. on June 2.
Before he assumed his posts, San Miguel was already a powerhouse in food and beverage sector in the country, especially in the beer business where the company until today sells nine out of 10 beers in the Philippines.
It was Danding who wanted San Miguel to do more and expand in the highly capitalized sectors of power generation, mining and petroleum refinery. It stayed in brewing beer, where it is known until today, and exported to other countries in the region with some success. It bought processed meat giant Pure Foods from the Ayala group, bought the domestic Coca-Cola franchise, and even expanded in Australia to buy National Foods.
SMC also went local, buying several big companies in the Philippines such as refiner Petron Corp., and at one time owned half of Philippine Airlines and a 36-percent stake in power distributor Manila Electric Co. It later sold stake in PAL and Meralco, partly to pay for its highly capitalized projects such as the tollroads and other projects where it either won the bid or bought the company who won the bid.
Today, the conglomerate is still the biggest company in the Philippines that can draw in P1 trillion in revenues a year, or about 5 percent of the Philippine economy.
With a report by Butch Fernandez
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza