Lopez war spooks family businesses in Phl

Rarely is a war’s fallout contained; more often, it ripples far and wide, across classes and generations.

The ongoing Lopez family feud is no exception, and the shockwaves are rattling family-owned conglomerates in the country, my sources say.

This is now the latest hot topic whispered over lunch, dinners or sometimes, afternoon tea, with some of those affected fervently hoping that the Lopez family will finally resolve things so as not to affect other businesses in the country.

They have reason to worry. I heard that investors are raising concerns that the Lopez war may also happen in other family enterprises in the Philippines.

Shareholders, including large foreign funds, are worried that their respective companies may also go the way of the Lopez conglomerate which, to borrow its favorite metaphor, is having a phoenix moment, except that it’s the reverse kind – the ashes linger and the comeback seems impossible, at least for now.

We all know what’s happening to the Lopez empire, or whatever is left of it. The majority of the third-generation cousins – grandchildren of the late Don Eugenio Lopez Sr. – are caught in an ugly war between Piki Lopez, the son of Oscar Lopez, and Gabby Lopez, the son of Geny Lopez and the eldest male among the cousins.

They are caught in a bitter legal war over some of Piki’s decisions related to First Gen’s deals with Enrique Razon’s Prime Infra.

The cousins claimed they were caught unaware of provisions of the deals, including what they describe as poison pills.

For now, there’s an impasse of sorts, and there’s no telling what will happen next. They voted to remove Piki from Lopez Inc. but Piki managed to secure a court injunction.

First Gen insiders say it’s business as usual, although that can’t be said of the share price. First Gen’s shares have tumbled from P18 per share on March 2 or since the war erupted in public to P16.56 per share at the end of last week.

It was also noticeable that First Gen’s board of directors decided to change the mode of its annual stockholders’ meeting from an in-person event to a virtual one, perhaps to avoid questions from investors.

Family constitution

As for other family-owned corporations worried about the spillover effects of the Lopez war, they had to assure their investors that they have constitutions and shareholders’ agreements that will prevent them from meeting the same fate as the Lopez family.

Unfortunately, the Lopez woes stem from a lack of a family constitution, something they tried to craft before but never quite succeeded in doing so. Why is this?

Raffy, the brother of Gabby, explained this in a Facebook post.

“For four years, I strived to unite the family as we retained family consultants to help us craft a family constitution and create a governance structure that would guide not only us (third gen) but all future generations – our children and our children’s children.

“For something like this to work, there must be full buy-in from all four branches. However, there was ONE person who was NEVER on board – Piki. When we tried to look into FPH (First Philippine Holdings) and its subsidiaries, Piki would always say, ‘Why are you looking at FPH when ABS is clearly the problem?’”

‘The problem’

Indeed, from Piki’s point of view, the problem is ABS-CBN, which is why he did not agree to infuse P2 billion of reserve funds from Lopez Inc. into the distressed media giant as fresh capital.

I couldn’t help but wonder: what is P2 billion if it would mean saving the family’s legacy business, its employees and maintain a still powerful, influential media tool for the Lopez conglomerate?

Reserve funds from Lopez Inc. are comprised mostly of dividends from First Gen, the remaining crown jewel, as well as Rockwell Land and a few other businesses of the Lopezes.

Apparently, Piki did not want another infusion unless there would be drastic changes in ABS-CBN’s operations, which have been affected by multibillion-peso disbursements.

According to the company’s financial statements, from 2020 to 2025, ABS-CBN paid around P12 billion for “Property and Equipment.” Perhaps Piki’s view is that these property and equipment purchases were too much, considering the company no longer has a franchise.

And then there’s the issue of high salaries of top executives. Roughly P214 million was spent for the salaries of the company’s top five executives in 2025 alone, higher than the P207 million spent in 2024, according to the company’s financial statement.

Related to this, Piki believes that half of the P2-billion requested infusion from Lopez Inc. will benefit only a handful of top company officials.

ABS-CBN, however, vehemently denied this. In a statement in March, it said that regarding the claim that the capital infusion could go to payouts for certain executives, “no such payouts have been made, and no such payouts are planned. This claim is equally baseless.”

Some former ABS-CBN employees seem to confirm this as they said their retirement pay has not been settled, meaning no payouts have been made.

For sure, it can’t be business as usual for ABS-CBN. If the Lopezes really want to save the company, there must be drastic changes in its operations, including reducing all the fat.

But the way I see it, ABS-CBN is still worth saving, not just for its public service role but for the Lopez conglomerate, the influence it wields.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.