Manny Pangilinan's Dream--Be The Country's No. 1 Media Mogul

Manny Pangilinan is positioning himself as the penultimate media mogul of the Philippines. Pangilinan, according to news sources, has offered 52 billion pesos to the majority owners of GMA Channel 7. Pangilinan sees GMA 7 as the second acquisition of a media entity in just three years. Should he finally buy the country's second biggest TV network, Pangilinan will become the country's no. 1 media mogul. 


Pangilinan has a ten percent stake at the Philippine Daily Inquirer and an unknown number of shares in Philippine Star. Basically, Pangilinan owns more than sixty five percent of the local media environment. With the acquisition of GMA, this will increase to seventy five percent. 


Seems like the convergence dream of Pangilinan is taking concrete shape. He will dominate the platforms, and hope to also dominate the content realm. Pangilinan should recognize that what sells are not platforms but content. People talk about content. It is content that sells.


In an era where platforms are being created independently of business interests, where the Internet is slowly being mined for newer applications that lead to consumers' empowerment, there will come a time where dominance in the traditional platforms would just be treated as a mere company acquisition than anything else. Surely, public opinions are slowly being shaped by information coming from newer, cheaper and even cost-free channels. 


Competition in the media sphere will eventually be dictated by consumers and users themselves. Fact is, right now, consumers and users of content are dictating the pace of the media revolution, and singular dominance will eventually be frowned upon even of consumers of traditional media. 


With free information now slowly permeating the farthest corners of the media realm, the possibility of a "dictatorship" of a few thru platform dominance is going faster South than North. The shift is inevitable, as platforms become more and more cheaper and user-friendly. Attempts at creating a singular platform of views and opinions will not anymore be possible in the traditional-sense; rather, the creation of a collective view will naturally spring from the cacophony of voices expressed online than thru the boob tube or paper. This is the liberation of the consumer from the commercialized content seen thru traditional media. 

What's in Canada? A chat with an old friend

When I was still a young reporter back in 1994, I met a young couple at the Pasay Press club, the first press corps that I ever decided to member with. 


Macon Araneta was, back then, writing and doing editing jobs at the old Manila Times. MT was then with the Roces' and I think Malou Mangahas was still the EIC(?). Anyway, Macon and I hit it off as good friends, along with her husband, Sandy, who was a Manager of Fedex but started as a journalist way back in 1984. 


Pasay Press Corps was just one solid organization back then, with Macon, Jemma (Tempo), Gigi de Vera (Malaya), Mike Frialde (Star), Nick Ferrer (Star), and of course, who could forget Roy Mabasa (Bulletin). James Catapusan and Elena Aben (of the Manila Bulletin) were my friends and mentors then. Aben used to be a member of my organization at UP, the Kabataan Para sa Bayan or Kabayan. Ariel Fernandez was a very young reporter of an unknown radio station and I was then, reporting for Radio Veritas. Glenda Galuno was also there and of course Mario of Pilipino Star Ngayon. Robert Requintana goes there every so often.


We were very big at that time, and whenever one goes, the rest of the group goes with him. When someone from the print group gets a story, we from the radio group reports it as it is. 


As we age, we of course, went on different ways. Most of the people I wrote here, continued on their journalistic careers while I, well, changed my path---from an investigative reporter, to a Marketing and PR manager. But, we managed to keep our ties very close and our communication lines open.


Yesterday, I met my long time friend, Sandy. For more than 10 years, he's been writing for a major newspaper. And he's waiting for his chance to go to Canada.


Why, I asked, when there are opportunities here? He told me that the economy is still bad. The things that we are seeing right now do not reflect the real score. He predicted that the economy will go south by next year. 


I asked why? He said that this new administration will mismanage things and this will impact greatly on the economy. He's apprehensive of the future, and therefore, decided that it's time to leave. 


He has just applied his entire family for Canada. His brother is there, along with his family. Our friend, Mio Cusi, is also in Canada. 


I told him, I have a friend, Geo Aguila who just got married here and migrated to Canada. If I remember, Geo married his girlfriend here and went off to find their future somewhere else. 


My conversation with Sandy struck me. How many people think this way? How many Filipinos think this way but somehow was'nt reflected in the surveys? Is there an undercurrent of hopelessness, that somehow, the media and the survey firms did not identify or failed to identify?


My friend has been with the media for decades, and opportunities abound in the area of business. But, no. He says there is nothing to hope for any longer. He lives comfortably with his family and his daughter and apo in Las Pinas, and he has no financial trouble. Yet, he, along with his wife, are thinking of migrating to Canada. 


I experienced living abroad, and yes, the economic situation there is better than ours. Yet, it is still best to live in one's country. There are certain things that we treasure here that you'll only find here, not anywhere else. 


Anyway, that chat kept me thinking--why not? I give myself one year. If things will not improve here, then, off to Canada I go. 

High Society Scam

Before that scandalous declaration of martial law in the 70's, people in high society were partying like crazy. Some of those who survived that era remember that time when the Lopezes were hosting parties left and right, in their palaces of pleasure, with wines flowing out of their fountains.

If Brian Gorrell is to be believed, Manila's jet-setting, high rollers are also doing the same shit their parents did in their prime. And I don't blame them. They're totally dysfunctional. Being rich is dysfunctional. Too much money in their hands. Too much coke in their heads (if this Australian gay guy is to be believed though).

When I was teaching history to a bunch of rich kids in one of Manila's top universities, I was exposed to this. I admit being friends with a lot of society people. They do party. They do kid around. They do use drugs. But they don't do what these "Gucci" group allegedly did--deprive this poor HIV-positive gay guy of his life's savings.

Drugs are crackers to these people. They have so much money to spend that they use this to buy happiness.

I remember so many incidents of socialites being raided because of drugs. When I was a beat reporter then, I used to cover so many instances of arrests of these druggies belonging to rich and known families. They were eventually freed and did not even spend a single month in jail. Maybe their parents put them in rehab. Some probably were exiled somewhere in the States.

People know Bora as a druggie's paradise. The reason why its so popular is its liberal drug-oriented culture. I know of some rich guys and gals going to Bora just to get their high. The police is sooo lax there that these rich guys don't give a damn. Bora is RP's version of Phuket or Bangkok. You can do whatever you want for as long as you have money and you have a short surname.

Everybody knows Tim Yap's a fraud. That's why he was kicked out of Inquirer. His articles suck. Its not even near the quality of Patricia Evangelista's writings. I was surprised though to learn that some of PhilStar's editors are junkies. It pains me to even read stuff about this because I know a lot of PhilStar editors and reporters and really, they are NOT junkies.

People in my industry treat lifestyle writers and editors with respect. The buzz is, the main section editors are the ones dirty. With Brian's tell-all blog, I have lost all respect to these so-called writers, especially from the lifestyle section of the Star. I heard PhilStar has fired two of their reporters and editors. Good riddance. With this scandal flying off the pan so to speak, its time for the PhilStar to make those changes. And fast!

Compared with these lifestyle wannabe writers, my section editor and reporter friends are angels. Yet, one glaring fact should be done.

Purge the industry with these scumbags and scammers. Cleanse the filth they caused.