Sandy Prieto-Romualdez
Recent stories and opinion pieces, including in this newspaper, have speculated on the relationship between businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan and the Philippine Daily Inquirer. We wish to state for the record that:
We invited him in. In 2009, when business partners of long standing decided to sell their shares as a bloc, the Rufino/Prieto families, the newspaper’s majority stockholders since 1993, invited Mr. Pangilinan to buy a stake equivalent to one board seat. The invitation was based on respect not only for his managerial acumen but also for his commitment to a free press. In other words, we saw him as someone who can help sustain the Inquirer’s editorial independence.
He respects our professionalism. The Inquirer has had minority shareholders since 1985. In each instance, we were fortunate to have partners who respected editorial policy. Mr. Pangilinan is in that same tradition. In fact, he has chosen not to sit on the board of directors of the Inquirer, or even name a nominee; any cooperation between TV5 and the Inquirer is left entirely to the discretion of the editors or news directors and the managers. We see this as a fuller expression of his belief in independent, professionally run media—an article of faith we share. Sandy Prieto-Romualdez