Manny Pangilinan called Senator Trillanes a liar

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Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan called Trillanes a “liar” for insinuating that he has instigated the anti-China tirade to protect his business interest.

“I can tell him this to his face  ‘you’re a liar,’” Pangilinan said in a phone call from Tokyo late Wednesday night.

Pangilinan admitted that Trillanes came to see him asking him to ask Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario to tone down his rhetoric against China. “I told him I will tell him (Del Rosario) but he is only my friend and I cannot dictate on him what to do,” Pangilinan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

He also denied as “rubbish” Trillanes’ claim that he funded a lobby group to prod the US into siding with the Philippines against China on the territorial dispute.

Pangilinan said he was one of only several prominent businessmen who formed the US-Philippine Society in order to enhance ties between the two countries with no “sinister plan.”

“I do not meddle with Del Rosario’s business or schedule nor does he meddle in mine,” said Pangilinan.

Pangilinan also dismissed as pure speculation Trillanes’ claim that he wanted to create a diversion to prevent China from releasing its findings that the Recto Bank find of Forum Energy was not as big as advertised. Trillanes had claimed that  fueling the anti-China sentiment would allow Pangilinan the time to look for another buyer to sell the rights to Recto Bank.

Pangilinan said that Forum has only stated that the Recto Bank could possibly be the biggest gas find in the country based on initial studies but nowhere did the company claim that this was the “bible truth” as this was subject to further studies.

GMA7 majority owners willing to give control to TV5 - Gozon

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 MANILA - The chairman of GMA Network Inc. on Wednesday said the company’s majority owners are willing to give management control to the owner of TV5.
"Right now, what is on the table is 100 percent. If you're asking if we are willing to be a minority, the answer is no. We are not peddling our shares... they came to us to buy our shares and the offer is to buy all our shares," Felipe Gozon, GMA7 chairman told reporters in a briefing.
Gozon said he and the other majority owners - the Duavits and Jimenezes - who own a combined 79 percent of GMA7 are willing to sell their shares to Manuel V. Pangilinan, who chairs PLDT and TV5. InterAksyon.com is the online news portal of TV5.
"We're speaking as one voice. There's no intention to leave one behind," Gozon said.
He however said issues remain, adding that the sale of GMA7 to the PLDT group will not push through if no deal is sealed by yearend. But he is “not closing the door if three to five years from now” the PLDT group comes back with a fresh offer.
Pangilinan earlier said an agreement to invest in GMA7 may be reached within the year, and that the telecom giant’s media arm, MediaQuest Holdings, may be used as the corporate vehicle for the investment
Any PLDT investment in GMA7 however would be “below P100 billion,” he said. As of Wednesday, the market valued GMA7 at P33.6 billion.

Eric Quizon thanks Manny Pangilinan (MVP) for shouldering Dolphy's hospital bills

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Eric Quizon thanked TV5 chairman Manny V. Pangilinan on Saturday for footing his father’s bill at the Makati Medical Center where Dolphy was treated for 31 days before he succumbed to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on Tuesday.

“He took care of my dad’s hospital bills. Thank you, Boss Manny,” Eric, the Quizon family’s spokesperson, said in an interview with the GMA gossip show “Startalk”.

Prompted by interviewer Ricky Lo that it was MVP’s birthday, Eric acknowledged that it was in fact the TV5 chairman’s 66th.

“Pero sa halip na siya ang tumanggap, siya pa ang nagbigay ng regalo sa pamilya namin,” Eric said.

Mr. Pangilinan is the chairman of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, which owns and operates the Makati Medical Center through its affiliate, Medical Doctors, Inc.

On Wednesday, during the necrological service hosted by ABS-CBN, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Dolphy’s partner for the last 23 years, thanked the TV5 management for continuing to pay Dolphy’s salary throughout the remainder of his life despite being unable to work since November last year.

Pangilinan said the gesture was ”a way of demonstrating to Mang Dolphy and to the family we’re there for him. If he could fight his illness and get him back, that was a tangible way of telling him, ‘please come back, get well and recover fully.’”

In his eulogy on Thursday, he called Dolphy “a Filipino in the truest sense and, at bottom, a kind and generous man.”

He also thanked the Comedy King for portraying his uncle Jesus in TV5′s first film venture, “Rosario”, which was based on the life of his grandmother.

During the necrological service hosted by TV5, the Quizon family paid tribute to the medical staff that took care of their patriarch during his month-long stay at Makati Med’s intensive care unit.

Dolphy will be buried at the Heritage Park on Sunday.

TV5 and GMA7 merged have been denied

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MANILA, Philippines – Two of the country’s major broadcast firms denied fresh rumors of a deal that would result in an industry-changing merger.

In separate statements, officials said that while discussions on the possible acquisition by Associated Broadcasting Company (ABC), operator of TV5 of GMA Network Inc. were ongoing, no deal has been reached yet.

This was contrary to an article by newspaper columnist Ricky Lo published Monday.

In his column, Lo said ABC chair Manuel V. Pangilinan “virtually confirmed” the two companies’ merger, following a co-marketing deal between both firms with US-based cable TV provider Dish Network.

“To the best of our knowledge, the source of this information is claiming to have been misquoted,” GMA Network said.

“We humbly suggest that if the Exchange wants to verify the source of the information, they can do so with Mr. Pangilinan, who Mr. Lo attributed the information to have come from,” it added.

In a separate statement, TV5 president Ray C. Espinosa said the co-marketing deal with Dish network did not mean that ABC had merged with the larger, more profitable GMA7.

GMA7 is owned by the Gozon, Duavit and Jimenez families, while TV5 is a unit of MediaQuest Holdings, a subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) Beneficial Trust Fund.