other Cojuangco family guy allied and identified with Marcos. A very ambitious man, Danding made his pile during the Marcos years with the United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) and cornered the coconut levy – with the Boss’ blessing of course. What was the coconut levy/monopoly? For years, farmers were required to fork over hard-earned money for a so-called coconut levy fund which never went to their welfare but instead became a PhP150-billion asset fought over by Danding, Juan Ponce Enrile, and others. These monopolies taxed the farmer for benefits that he would never receive, increased the difference between what the farmer received and what the world market paid for his crop, and successfully siphoned off a large proportion of farmers' incomes into the hands of Marcos's cronies. Marcos issued decrees that forced companies like Lever Brothers and Procter & Gamble out of coconut products markets, where they were paying market prices to farmers, and enforced a monopoly run by his friend Eduardo Cojuangco who paid half the world market price. Also, when one Zobel branch fought with their Soriano cousins for control of the venerable San Miguel Corporation, Cojuangco stepped in and grabbed Enzo Zobel’s sizeable bloc of shares bringing him closer to being majority shareholder.
Danding’s sister-in-law is Imelda Ongsiako-Cojuangco, one of Imelda’s Bluest Ladies. Danding’s wife is the beauteous Gretchen Oppen, whom Marcos in his early presidential years, had his eye on very closely. This made for a sticky situation because Danding was a favored crony but tried to keep his wife away from the Boss. Nonetheless, in their flight from power in 1986, they were one big family when Danding, Gretchen, and retainers accompanied the Marcoses in the escape to Hawaii. And when he returned home, his cousin Cory sat in Malacañang. At the expiration of her term in 1992, Danding had the nerve to run for president. He came in third and bested his old patroness, Imelda Marcos, who came in fifth.
As of late October 28, 2015, with some twenty-eight years in litigation, the anti-graft court, the Sandiganbayan ordered UCPB, to turn over 72.2% of its shares to the government. Plus, there are the persistent rumors that it was Danding who was behind the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, his cousin Cory’s husband—but which Cory refused to believe. Finally, there is the coconut levy, amassed to PhP150 billion, but is still a pending matter, among others, with the Philippine Supreme Court, as of early 2016.
Rodolfo Cuenca
One of the most obscene and shameless cases of overnight wealth hemorrhaging through presidential connections was that of Rudolfo Cuenca and his CDCP (Construction Development Corporation of the Philippines). A college dropout, Cuenca was a golfing buddy of Marcos and an early supporter from Marcos’ 1965 run. That long loyalty got more than amply rewarded in the twenty-year run of the Marcos kleptocracy.
Much of the illegal wealth that Cuenca made in government contracts was overpricing a lot of heavy machinery that was used very little or was not even appropriate for certain jobs, but as long as the government was going to pay and if not too many questions were asked, then why not?
At the height of the Marcos’ power, Cuenca headed a conglomerate that had a net worth of at least $750 million. Cuenca's son, Bobby, married Chingbee Kalaw Manotoc, daughter of a one-time Opposition senator, Eva Estrada Kalaw, and ex-wife of a brother of Tommy Manotoc who would become the first husband of Imee Marcos, Ferdinand’s oldest daughter.
Juan Ponce-Enrile
One of Marcos’ most agile henchmen, Ponce-Enrile was, like his mentor, once a brilliant corporate lawyer. Like Imelda, Ponce-Enrile was the bastard child of the daughter of a poor fisherman and a prominent local politician and lawyer, Alfonso Ponce-Enrile, but through sheer diligence and drive, ended up being one of the richest and most powerful men in the land, after Marcos, including marrying a prized trophy wife of Manila society, Cristina Castañer, of pure Spanish parentage.
(Little known fact: when Mrs. Enrile had a falling out with Imelda in the early Marcos years, and receded from Imelda’s circle, the Enriles named their mutt dog, Adlemi—wink, wink. Reverse the spelling. It’s not known how long Adlemi lived.)
When Enrile worked for his father’s law firm, he was assigned to handle the personal legal affairs of Ferdinand Marcos, who was senate president at the time. When Marcos was elected president in 1965, Ponce-Enrile became part of the inner ruling circle, and held a whole series of crucial and strategic positions—starting out as Undersecretary of Finance, then Acting Secretary. 1968-70, Secretary of Justice. Then as Secretary of Defense in 1970, he helped engineer the imposition of martial law by contrived justification. And then broke off from the Marcos power clique when he led a rebel group which helped oust Marcos in 1986. He then swore allegiance to the new Aquino government.
Enrile enjoyed a parallel success track as his mentor, Ferdinand Marcos. Assets-wise, he’s right up there with top cronies Benedicto, Cuenca, D. Cojuangco and Floriendo, sticking his hand in major industries, particularly logging and like Cojuangco, the coconut levy. Ricardo Manapat devoted 42 pages (pp. 163-205) on the extent of Enrile’s empire in Some Are Smarter than Others, which I cannot detail here due to space limitations.
Ironically, all the power and material success didn’t seem enough for Enrile. When he sat as senate president in 2014, he was charged and convicted with plunder, stemming from the pork barrel scandal. He was kept under “hospital arrest” at the Philippine National Police General Hospital at Camp Crame—the very scene of his last stand against Marcos at the People Power’s revolt in 1986.
In August, 2015, owing to his advanced age of 91, the Philippine Supreme Court granted Enrile bail of PhP1 million, which “released” the senator. Next thing you knew there he was onstage with Bongbong Marcos, Imelda/ Adlemi Marcos, and fellow-accused plunderer, ex-president Joseph Estrada, arms upraised in full campaign mode—making for a very venal picture of hypocrisy and all looking like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse reborn. The event was the launch of Junior’s vice-presidential candidacy for 2016.
Jose Yao-Campos
Like some of the other taipans, Yao-Campos originally came from Canton (now Guangzhou), China. After surviving the war as buy-and-sell trader in 1945, Campos started a small pharmacy called United Drug with partners on Sto. Cristo Street in Manila’s Chinatown district. He also Filipinized his surname to “Campos” along the way.
Yao-Campos became one of the most trusted cronies of Marcos. Tracing a relationship starting in the 1950s, Yao served as a close financial advisor, a dependable front man, and a loyal business partner until the very end. The relationship started when Marcos was first elected congressman. Campos later became one of Marcos’ financiers in the 1965 campaign. One of Campos’ first fronting roles was as Mr. Z in the stock scam of the late 1960s called the Benguet-Bahamas Deal, each of Marcos’ fronts acquiring the code names of Mr. X, Y, and Z.
In exchange for his loyalty, Marcos showered government support upon Campos’ companies. United Laboratories, Campos' premier asset, grew to be one of Asia’s largest pharmaceutical firms largely through this help. Campos ultimately became a very rich man, building a multimillion dollar real estate empire in Hawaii, Texas, Seattle, and Canada.
Finally died in May, 2006. His widow, Betty, ranks #24 in Forbes’ 2015 List of the 40 Richest Filipinos.
Alfonso D. Lim, Sr.
One of the lesser known cronies was logger Alfonso D. Lim, Sr. Lim, a close friend of Marcos, owned Fuga Island, a 10,000-hectare island in Aparri, Cagayan. Due to his special relationship with the dictator, Lim managed to increase his timber holdings to over 630,000 hectares which the Marcos government granted under seven separate timber concessions. The only problem was the maximum allowable concession area for a timber license was 100,000 hectares. It’s not hard to figure out how that special arrangement was made and how it stayed in place—considering all the special, lucrative “deals” meted out to those close to the ruling couple.
The Lim/Marcos case has almost come to a resolution with the indictment from the Sandiganbayan court in January 4, 2016 that found the Lims (father and son, although Senior died in 2002), the Marcoses (with the three children now named as “substitutes/heirs” to Ferdinand)