(Photo: REUTERS/Cheryl Ravelo/File Photo)
Philippine billionaire Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr., a top ally of the late president Ferdinand Marcos and a low-profile businessman who established a food-and-beverage institution that gave rise to San Miguel Beer, has passed away at the age of 85.
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) disclosed that Cojuangco, who was the group's chief executive officer and chairman for decades, died Tuesday night, without giving out any further information. Philippine Presidential Legal Adviser Salvador Panelo stated that Cojuangco died in a hospital in Manila due to heart failure and complications with pneumonia.
"ECJ" as he is known to his staff and executives in his business empire, Cojuanco was last seen on June 2 heading an annual shareholders' meeting of SMC oil subsidiary Petron Corporation.
Popularly referred to as "Boss Danding" to most of the Philippines' top political personalities, Cojuanco founded the political bloc Nationalist People's Coalition in 1992, and ran in the presidential election against Fidel V. Ramos in the same year.
Before gunning for president, Cojuangco served as Governor of Tarlac City from 1967-1969, and became the city's 1st District Representative from 1969 to 1972.
Cojuangco was seen as a person who had knowledge of business and the economy like no other, characteristics that were deemed as essential as the Philippine economy collapsed from Marcos' corruption. Despite not winning the presidency, Cojuangco remained one of the most influential names in Philippine politics.
When Marcos was ousted in 1986 after the Edsa Revolution, Cojuangco and other cronies fled the country with him. Cojuangco returned to the Philippines three years later, during the presidency of his cousin, Corazon Aquino.
In a statement, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said Cojuangco had an "immense contribution to the socioeconomic development of the Philippines through his company's operations in food, drinks, energy, power, oil refining and infrastructure," Catherine Valente of The Manila Times, reported.
Aside from SMC -- one of Southeast Asia's biggest conglomerates with a workforce of over 28,000 -- Cojuanco was also the top boss of several publicly-listed firms, among them Northern Cement Corporation, Ginebra San Miguel Inc, Petron Corporation, and ECJ & Sons Agricultural Enterprises, Inc.
Cojuangco was ranked as the 15th wealthiest man in the Philippines and placed 2,048th in the world, based on a listing by Forbes, with a net value of around $1.1 billion (around ₱55 billion).
Cojuangco, who battled different types of cancer for many years, succumbed to heart failure at the St. Luke's Medical Center at Bonifacio Global City, a source with knowledge of his health condition, revealed.
