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Friday, March 29, 2024

BizNewsAsia is 14 today

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Today, November 25, my BizNewsAsia marks its 14th year of leadership as the Philippines’ largest and most influential weekly business and news magazine by honoring 30 of our best and brightest entrepreneurs, CEOs, and leaders for excellence and contribution to the betterment of the Filipino.

BizNewsAsia has a pass-on circulation of 350,000 readers with each copy being read on the average by 10 readers.

BizNewsAsia easily outsells local magazines and foreign brands because of its broad and deep coverage of business, politics and global issues, and outstanding profiles of personalities in business and governance.

As an owner, I write anything I want to write. That’s the beauty of press freedom. It belongs to the owner of the media. Precisely for that reason, I have also compiled friends —and enemies—in equal measure, in the same manner I bore and infuriate in equal measure.

I have had presidents for friends and have had presidents for enemies.  

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Those who are my friends understand the nature of my business—and of press freedom. Those who are my enemies do not—and are sometimes motivated by envy. Except for three countries, more journalists are killed in the Philippines than any other country. You know the most dangerous beat? Politics. The least dangerous beat? Business.

BizNewsAsia makes money three ways—advertising, circulation, and bulk order of special issues. In the course of 14 years, BizNewsAsia has had copycats and rivals. Luckily, nearly all withered by the wayside.  

When I started giving awards, yearly, to business people for excellence, the practice also engendered copycats. Now, nearly every business group or big company has its own awards.  

Despite the proliferation of such awards, those of BizNewsAsia remain much sought after. I can be an acerbic critic. Or a friend from a distance. Having covered business and politics for 45 years, I have known many of today’s tycoons, taipans, and politicians and monitored their rise to the top. Very likely, I know their warts and moles and I wouldn’t say, secrets.  

You know the saying behind every great wealth is a great crime? It is true—for politicians. They steal money. Tycoons and taipans do become rich but do so through dint of hard work, innovation, and vicious penny-pinching. Sometimes, they do cheat the public and their shareholders but time has a way of reckoning those things.

After I claimed BizNewsAsia is No. 1 (since 2001), the Bureau of Internal Revenue has been thinking I make plenty of money. So every year, I get three letters from the BIR—asking for my individual income return, asking for my corporate income tax return, and asking for my value-added taxes. Most of the time, the BIR people just want to know if they could also make money on the side.

The BizNewsAsia anniversary event starts at 6:45 tonight at the Garden Ballroom of EDSA Shangri-La Hotel.   It is also my 67th  birthday party.

I founded BizNewsAsia  in 2001, having just retired from 25 years of work, mostly as a senior correspondent of Asiaweek, the Hong Kong-based Time Warner weekly subsidiary. I jumped ship in the nick of time. A year after I left, Time magazine shuttered Asiaweek.

I used my Asiaweek retirement money and savings to buy perks I had always wanted to buy—new cars, new condo units, new lots south of Manila, plane tickets, and some jewelry for my four daughters. Also, just in the nick of time, I realized I needed I had to put up a business of my own or I would be jobless until I die.   Thus was born BizNewsAsia.

My best capital though was experience and the grey matter between my ears. I trained formally for journalism—four years in college at UST where I graduated magna cum laude, three semesters of MBA at Ateneo, and global journalism at the University of Stockholm.

I have always been a journalist— editor of the high school paper, managing editor of the university paper, The Varsitarian, acting business editor in the old Manila Times (at 23), business editor of the Times Journal (at 27), and senior correspondent and chief of Philippine operations of Asiaweek.   I made Asiaweek grow, in circulation, from 200 copies when I first joined it, in 1976, to 35,000 copies by the time Ninoy Aquino was assassinated, in 1983.

BizNewsAsia honors men and women for excellence and impact of their work. The awards are in three categories—Entrepreneurship Excellence, Management Excellence, and Excellence as a BizNewsAsia Real Estate Who Is Who (BREW).

The BREW awards are given to men and women for their outstanding work that improved the life and lifestyle of the Filipino, especially in real estate, its ancillary businesses, public service, and advocacy work.

The Entrepreneurship Excellence Awardees for their vision and management excellence are: Ramon S. Ang, president and vice chairman of San Miguel Corp.; Felipe L. Gozon, chair and CEO, GMA Network Inc.; Tessie Sy-Coson, chair, BDO Unibank and vice chairman, SM Investments Corp.; Edmund Gaisano Sr., chair, Gaisano Capital; Andrew Tan, chair-CEO, Alliance Global Inc.; Manuel B. Villar Jr., chair, Vista Land; Edgar “Injap” Sia, chair-CEO, DoubleDragon Properties Inc.; Amable R. Aguiluz V, founder, AMA Group of Companies; and Zenaida Tantoco, chair-CEO, Stores Specialists Inc.

Cited for management excellence are: PLDT chair Manuel V. Pangilinan, Lorenzo Tan, president-CEO, RCBC: PEZA Director General Lilia de Lima, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Trade and Industry Secretary Greg Domingo, Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras, and Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.

The BREW Excellence trophies go to: JJ Atencio, president-CEO, 8990 Holdings, Inc.; Jaime Bautista, PAL president; Arnel Paciano Casanova, president, BCDA; Ferdinand Constantino, CFO, SMC; Isaac David, president-CEO MTD Philippines; Levy Espiritu, president-CEO, DATEM Construction; Senator Loren Legarda, Edgar Saavedra, president, Megawide Construction; Rodolfo G. Valencia, chair, RGV Real Estate; Elizabeth Lee, president-CEO, EMotors; Felix Ang, president-CEO, Auto Nation Group; Toti Cariño, president, CREBA; Joey Leviste Jr., chair, OceanaGold; Marissa del Mar, president-CEO, Sol Terra; Wellington Soong, chair-CEO, Frigate Holdings and Management Corp.; and RoseMarie Basa, chair, PhilRealm Development Corp.

Former Senate President Edgardo J. Angara will be honored for lifetime achievement in public service and improving the lot of the Filipino.

Lawyer and SharePhil president Francis Lim will be honored for fighting for the rights of minority investors in corporations and for better corporate governance.

   

biznewsasia@gmail.com

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