Eugenio "Geny" Lopez Jr was a man who had it all, had everything taken away from him, then triumphantly rebuilt his family's business empire. Take a look at this man of great vision, who introduced the power of mass media to the Filipino people
This feature story was originally titled as The Empire Builder, and was published in the December 2004 issue of Tatler Philippines. Majority of the House committee on legislative franchises adopted the recommendation of its technical working group to reject the bills seeking to grant the ABS-CBN network a 25-year-long franchise last 10 July 2020 after alleged numerous violations of the terms of its old franchise.
In his time, Eugenio "Geny" Lopez Jr was extremely wealthy not for what he owned, but for what he gave. He used money to create businesses that would improve the Filipinos' quality of life and to bring out the strengths and skills of his own people. His business philosophy was firmly anchored in public service. "Love people, use money," Geny was once quoted saying. "Often, businessmen make the mistake of thinking in the reverse of this axiom: Love money, use people. I have found that money should be looked upon as a tool to satisfy human needs. From here, everything else follows, including bottom lines that confirm how well you have done in the people business."
He was arguably the first business leader to talk about the soul's need for higher purpose in management, and by pointing out this paradox: "Spiritual fulfilment is conducive to long-term corporate success."
Geny followed his father's example of ensuring business growth by believing that financial returns resulted from good acts. He summed up the raison d'être of their family businesses: "We want people to have ready access to accurate information on events that affect their lives. We want them to enjoy their leisure time with good entertainment. We want them to be able to make telephone calls when they want to, to have reliable sources of electricity and potable water at the least cost, and to get to their destinations through well-built roads."
Geny's entrepreneurial spirit and charitable bent had been a Lopez tradition. He hailed from one of the country's oldest families, steeped in business and politics. Raul Rodrigo's Phoenix: Saga of the Lopez Family traces the clan's history back to the early 1800s in Iloilo. Patriarch Basilio Lopez, a merchant of mixed Filipino and Chinese blood, became the mayor of Jaro, a distinction given to the richest and most influential Filipino. His son Eugenio pioneered sugar planting in the Visayas in the mid-19th century. By the 20th century, the Lopezes owned the biggest sugar mill in the country and became the largest Filipino supplier of sugar to the United States. Eugenio's son, Benito, produced El Tiempo, the first daily newspaper in Iloilo and was also vice mayor of Iloilo City and a nationalist. Benito and his wife Presentacion Hofileña sired the second Eugenio in the lineage, who later became the founder of the future Lopez business empire and Fernando, who became Ferdinand Marcos' vice president before Martial Law.