As heir to the diversified ALC Group of Companies—composed of over 20 businesses spanning media, insurance, banking, memorial parks, property, and car dealerships—Dominic Edgard Angeles Cabangon, known as DEAC to his employees and associates, could have lived a life of privilege, power, and wealth.
Noting that he was “a leader in three aspects of the Atenean: the social, the spiritual and the intellectual,” Rodolfo Severino said “Alran takes life seriously, but not grimly,” and that despite his “flaws and weaknesses,” his “set of values is constantly before him like a guiding star.”
If not for the coverage of his well-attended 89th birthday bash last December—where he appeared frail and wheelchair-bound, surrounded by guests dressed in red—and the announcement of his death on Feb. 10, Jose de Venecia Jr., known as JDV or Manong Joe, might have slipped from public view.
Noblesse oblige—the idea that those with influence should use their position to help others—perhaps best sums up the life of Aniceto M. “Chito” Sobrepeña, former president of the Metrobank Foundation and the youngest Cabinet member under President Corazon Aquino.
“His story was one larger than life and, as in all great stories, greatness lies not in the achievements but in the underlying inspirations, lessons learned and shared, and the influence of the people who shaped one’s values and one’s heart.”
“Calculus, compositions, basketball — strange bedfellows, one may say. But not for Queena. Queens, Que. (Take your pick; rare is he who pronounces her name right on the first try.)”
One of the most contentious issues during President Corazon Aquino’s administration in the mid-1980s was the debate over the U.S. military bases agreement—whether to allow the continued presence of American forces at Subic and Clark. Among the personalities who steadily—and inevitably—found themselves involved in the heated debates was then Congressman Felicito Cruz Payumo.
He died on the trails of the Japan Alps on Oct. 12 doing what he loved doing most, and with the love of his life. That’s the part of the devastating news that gave some comfort to us, his friends in UP Mountaineers and beyond, who are still engulfed in grief.
Soon after earning his economics degree cum laude from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1965, Oscar S. Reyes made a decision that was both deliberate and unconventional: to find employment in a Filipino firm and not in a multinational corporation or MNC, as most graduates then were inclined to do.