He who arranges his art and businesses

Whether realist or abstract, impressionist or expressionist, by a master or a newcomer, MVP views them one and the same: art is art.

MANILA, Philippines — At the topmost floor of the iconic and swanky office of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), Manuel V. Pangilinan or MVP would stare at a painting on the wall pondering if it should even be hanging there. He would look at it closely—the lines, the stroke, the texture — trying to get a vibe out of it. If it in any way feels out of place, it would find itself moved to another room.

In the room where I was about to interview MVP, paintings of mother and child lined up on the left side of the wall from the door. The first one to catch my attention was a charcoal piece of a mother, in a floral cloak, piggybacking her sleeping child. On the farthest end of the wall hung a sketch of a mother in traditional baro’t saya, piercing a stare at the viewer, as her child appears to be resting by her chest.

I turned to MVP’s executive assistant, a poet whom I have encountered in earlier literary functions. Why the preference for mother and child art? He gave me a nervous smile and a scratch to the head, suggesting he can only know so much about his boss. The closest I could piece together was that the world was celebrating International Women’s Month at the time.

After some time, the corporate tycoon entered the room all warmed up in a Kenzo hoodie jacket splattered with rare species of birds. I have covered MVP for about two years in the telco and transport beat, but that was the first and only time I saw him in casual wear. He scanned the room to discern our company, and once he finished he took his seat, skipping the usual pleasantries.

I jumped the gun immediately, amused by his seeming obsession over arranging art pieces. A tycoon as big as Pangilinan may find each minute of his day assigned to something, whether it’s closing a merger, drawing up a new product or service, or facing a crisis. And yet, here he is, clocking in an hour or two each week to move paintings around his office.

MVP’s simple answer was that he finds the work calming. He recalled that on one occasion, he stumbled upon a Manansala masterpiece that he almost forgot having a hold of. The painting probably spoke to him like a long lost brother that he had it brought to his office.

At times, he would go as far as move a painting from his office in PLDT Inc. in Ayala to Meralco in Ortigas. If only paintings could speak, they would be good sources of inside info on the man’s next moves in business, having stayed in hallways where he would walk and talk with potential investors and in rooms where he would convene his executives. Journalists would have to piece the details together one by one, however, as the paintings move around frequently like the owner himself.

I inquired who his preferred artists were, and he quickly named the masters, including Amorsolo, Buenaventura, Hidalgo and Luna.

Iris Gonzales, The STAR’s business editor and a fan of Elmer Borlongan was also there to join me in my interview. She asked MVP about his take on the artist, which got me leaning closer because Borlongan is also a personal favorite, and he mustered a smile, looking away. He cleared his throat, and said Borlongan has his cult, leaving the discussion at that.

Even though MVP admires the masters, he leaves space every now and then for up-and-coming artists. He sends Debbie Tan, his treasure hunter in auctions, to art galleries to scout the works of contemporary painters. Whether realist or abstract, impressionist or expressionist, by a master or a newcomer, MVP views them one and the same: art is art.

The industrialist

I may have followed PLDT and the Metro Pacific Group as religiously as possible, but I have yet to consider myself as someone who knows, more so understands, MVP. That interaction at Meralco, however, painted for me a picture of his values and morals as an industrialist. He looks at his business units the way he looks at his art collections: traditional to the roots, but changing, evolving over time.

Let me skip Meralco for this because in my six-year stint so far in business journalism, I have yet to cover energy. Take the case of PLDT, for instance, which is in the business of connectivity. Its core may be telephone, but nowadays PLDT specializes in broadband and wireless services.

Underneath it, PLDT has units exploring the areas of cloud services (ePLDT Inc.), data centers (VITRO Inc.), financial technology (Maya Bank Inc.), among others. The telco also has business in mass media through MediaQuest Holdings Inc. These offshoots are the branches, but the tree that holds them is connectivity.

Furthermore, MVP is passionate in rearranging paintings the way he is devoted to organizing his businesses. Easily, the budget mess that troubled PLDT in 2022 comes to mind, because that was a crisis that could have closed the doors had it struck another company. Yet, it took the telco only less than a year to pick up the pieces, more than doubling its profit to P26.61 billion last year.

Internally, MVP overhauled the system the way that PLDT does transactions, tightening its safeguards on purchase orders to avert a repeat of that particular incident. Complacency is dangerous. It is in this view perhaps that Pangilinan always reinvents his art placements and business strategy.

When we were done talking about art, I turned on the recorder of my phone and started throwing questions of interest. There was the regular “Are you buying this company?” or “How are things going for this proposed merger?” MVP would answer most of the questions, and leave some off the record pending whatever that deal is waiting for.

He slipped his hands inside the pockets of his hoodie as soon as he felt that Gonzales and I were wrapping up the interview. He asked whether The STAR has a few paintings in its new office in Sucat, Parañaque City. None that we can recall, we answered.

“Wala kayong paintings? Sige, magpapadala ako from Cid Reyes. Magaganda ang mga gano’ng painting,” MVP told us.

Before we left to face the Ortigas traffic, MVP joined us for a merienda of his go-to turon prepared by Florabel of Chef Florabel Co-Yatco. A few minutes went by, he was drawn to check on some of the mother and child paintings on the wall. He was probably figuring out their arrangements for the week to come.