Continuing a legacy: The people’s president
MANILA, Philippines — Miguel G. Belmonte’s success is fueled by people power — the power of the people who work with The STAR, who work for The STAR, and are served by The STAR.
His leadership is founded on respect for the people he leads, his determination to exceed their expectations and, above all, his devotion to the newspaper’s guiding light, his mother, the late founding chairman Betty Go-Belmonte.
“You know, we just adopted the management style of my mom. She was the one who was really totally people-oriented from the onset,” says Miguel, who was appointed STAR president by then chairman and publisher Max V. Soliven, in 1998.
“Having worked with her for close to seven years before her passing, I picked up a lot of her management style, which I continue up to today. That's why the culture in the organization for these past 40 years is really people-oriented,” Miguel elaborates.
“I know it's like a cliché and overused to say that we're like a family here, but we really are like a family here. Yes, we have to maintain discipline and implement the rules, regulations and policies of the company, and you know, you can't always please everybody, but it's just like family where there are also sometimes some disagreements and conflicts. We just work through it,” he points out.
Miguel has shown by example that ultimately, the success of everyone in The STAR, from the trainee to the editors, is powered by those who put their shoulders to the wheel every day. And though president and CEO, Miguel is that first shoulder on the wheel, typhoon, drought or pandemic.
“I believe the reason why the company is successful is because the people working here have always recognized our good intentions for them and appreciated it and returned to the company by giving their best, whatever their assignment. It's really a team effort and without everyone helping each other, we would not have achieved this level of success that we have,” he believes with his whole heart.
Written in the stars
He is singular, in the very words of his daughter Regina Belmonte Curtis; the only one of his kind. Miguel G. Belmonte is indeed singular — but one who doubles, nay, quadruples, what is expected of him.
Miguel has not only steered the newspaper to be the country’s leading broadsheet, he has also made the other newspapers in the group, like BusinessWorld, and Freeman in Cebu, robust and profitable. By the time he turned 60 in 2023, he had built not just a media powerhouse, but two state-of-the-art buildings in Sucat, Parañaque to house the headquarters and printing press of The STAR.
“As his kuya, I’m most proud that Miguel took the reins of The STAR after my mom died, to turn it into the powerhouse it has become. And he managed to do all this while remaining soft-spoken, mild-mannered, but highly competitive,” his eldest brother Isaac, former chairman of the STAR editorial board, once said.
Miguel, a Hotel and Restaurant Administration graduate of UP, was connected with a prestigious five-star hotel in Makati and was about to take up a post in Beijing when destiny intervened. In 1987, his mother asked him to organize The STAR’s personnel department as the newspaper was growing by leaps and bounds.
“At first, when Mom asked me to help, in my mind, it was going to be a temporary stay at The STAR – at the start just to just to help organize the Personnel Department, and then I was going to go to Beijing to work in Palace Hotel. Mom said the company had grown quite fast all of a sudden, and at that point she said she didn't even know how many employees she had. So, she asked me if I could organize that for her, and I immediately said yes, of course. I really had no idea that a good 40 years later, I would still be here,” says Miguel, the third of four children of former Speaker Sonny Belmonte and his wife Betty, who passed away in 1994.
Mothers, indeed, know best. Miguel Belmonte is living proof of that.
“But that's when Mom – I don't know if she had some plan, you know – but that's when she asked me to help come to start and help her just for that period in 1987,” Miguel reflects on how his destiny changed in 1987.
The dividends of obedience to a prayerful mother was reaped not just personally by Miguel, but by all those who found a life and a living in the newspaper.
“It was really my mom's asking me to stay that made me decide to stay the course. That was first and foremost; the feeling of self-fulfillment was just second to that.”
And what a journey it has been for the Belmontes’ youngest son (after Isaac, and Kevin, and before the youngest child, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte).
“It has been very interesting; often very challenging also, but after I got the hang of it, it actually became quite a fulfilling career. It's a goal-oriented kind of job, so it’s a challenge to always try to do better and do well in the industry, while also earning as much as we could to give value to the company. I had these very clear goals in my head, and not to mention the opportunity to be able to help our staff and have some impact in their lives so that working for The STAR will make their lives more comfortable somewhat.”
He decided to stay for good.
The journey to No. 1
Being the son of the chairman and major shareholder was no walk in the park for Miguel.
“Early on in my career, since I was quite young and with really no experience in the newspaper business, trying to earn the respect of the other senior, more mature executives in the company was one of the challenges. It was not as though being the son of Betty Go-Belmonte meant that it would all be smooth sailing for me.
“There were certain managers here that intentionally tried to make life difficult for me, and in fact, one of the early things I had to deal with here, handling the Personnel Department of The STAR group at that time, was somebody’s attempt to organize a union. Fortunately, that attempt did not succeed, and it has largely to do with their high respect and love for my mom and not really because of me.”
For Miguel, who has been happily married to his college sweetheart, the former Milette Francia, for 39 years now, the challenges in running a newspaper are as invigorating as the smell of fresh ink on newsprint.
“Through the years, there have been so many different kinds of challenges — one of which is the challenge of beating your competition, especially that The Philippine STAR was a bit late in the game, and for most of our years were just playing catch-up. But we managed to do it — to overtake all our competitors, no matter how much bigger they were than us at the beginning.”
He is also deeply grateful to the late founding publisher Max Soliven, who became chairman after Betty’s passing, “because although he is extremely hard to please, and is not the easiest guy to work or get along with, he was one person who really believed in me. He was the one who really pushed my career forward, especially after my mom's demise.”
So much so that during Soliven’s wake in 2006, Miguel said, “Uncle Max believed in me even more than I believed in myself. That is something that I'm forever grateful to him for.”
“But of course I would not be here if not for Mom, that much is clear to me.”
Miguel, carrying on his mother’s mission to help the less fortunate, has given The STAR’s humanitarian arm, Operation Damayan, not just its lifeblood but also his own time. He consistently joins outreach missions, often with Milette beside him.
Fair is fair, everyday
How does this father of three (Reggie; Mikey, a Quezon City councilor; and Santi, who now works in The STAR as well) balance the editorial and business side of running a newspaper?
“That’s one of the big challenges and it's a day-to-day kind of challenge,” acknowledges Miguel, whose real name is Jaime Miguel, his first name from his late grandfather, the esteemed pre- martial law newspaperman Jimmy Go.
“I hope it doesn’t sound like a boast but luckily, I seem to have a natural knack for balancing them out because, of course, we respect editorial independence. As a newspaper company, we have to respect that there are really certain things that are non-negotiable. In spite of that, I think that we've been quite successful because we always treat everyone with fairness. If there's an issue concerning some company or even some individuals — a politician or somebody in government service — we always give them their side, give them the opportunity to explain themselves.
“It's really a balancing act, but I think The STAR has been very successful in that respect. I have almost never heard The STAR being described as unfair or even biased, except of course on social media where calling out the media is par for the course. It’s not easy, but we’ve done a good job in this respect.”
New horizons
In the firmament where The STAR shines bright, and with it, the truth, what beckons on the horizon?
“To be honest, it's very hard to predict the future of our business; it's evolving at a very fast pace, just the same way that the world is evolving at a very fast pace. So we're always trying to keep up and try to come up with new ideas. A lot of our efforts are trial and error because when it comes to the media business, nobody has really discovered the perfect business model, or even how to deal with the digital age or with the mindset of the younger generations, starting from the millennials going down to Gen Z and Gen Alpha,” says The STAR president and CEO.
“We just have to do our best and through the years, we’ve always come up with a strong management team. We also have a lot of very talented young people working in our organization now and I have full faith in them that even when I'm not here anymore, they'll be able to continue managing and building the company. They are the future of The STAR. We're always here to guide them and give advice and opinions, but I think at this point, the future of the company will be more in their hands, not in mine.”
If he could whisper something to his mom on The STAR’s 40th anniversary, even in a dream, what would his message be?
“I just hope that she's happy in heaven with how far we've taken her company. One of my main motivations is really to continue my mom's legacy. Whenever anyone sees The Philippine STAR, it is the legacy of Betty Go-Belmonte and everybody who had at some point in their lives been part of the company. The Philippine STAR belongs to them. We just carry on the best we can. Hopefully, God-willing, we can still continue to do well in the future in the coming years.”
The STAR’s guiding light shines bright, its glow unwavering. Betty Go-Belmonte’s legacy knows no sunset because she passed the torch to her son Miguel G. Belmonte, whose leadership is the sun that now illuminates The STAR’s path.
