PHILIPPINES – Through his Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC), businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan now has a 10-percent stake in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the broadsheet itself reported last week. ABC acquired the shares from the Ben Pangilinan and Pat Garcia families.
On August 6, the daily said in a statement it is confident that its new partners will uphold PDI’s editorial independence. On the Cocktales blog of former Inquirer columnist Victor Agustin, ABC president Ray Espinosa was quoted as saying: “Its affinity with Philippine Star and BusinessWorld, and now with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, will provide TV5 with the opportunity to develop suitable arrangements with these broadsheets for access to content and also to lay pipe to their respective columnists and opinion writers for the continuing development of TV5’s various public affairs programs.”
The development is the latest in the ongoing drive to realize Pangilinan’s vision of media convergence. MediaQuest Holdings, a subsidiary of Pangilinan’s PLDT, owns TV5 and is a minority shareholder in the broadsheet BusinessWorld. It was in talks to acquire a controlling stake in Philippine Star for over a year. A source revealed that MediaQuest currently owns 20 percent of the Philippine Star.
