Some observers said Duterte was just being opportunistic, trying to contain what he knew would be a backlash against ABS-CBN being forced off the air, and choosing not to alienate the businessmen who committed much-needed financial resources to the Covid-19 response.

But while tycoons who now seem to be in his good books have publicly accepted the president’s apology, influential businessmen like Rafael Ongpin do not believe this signals a change in Duterte’s views.

“I don’t think [Duterte] was sincere in his apology,” said Rafael Ongpin, son of the late Jaime Ongpin, former president Corazon Aquino’s first finance secretary.

“I think he was told to do it because there is nothing to be gained obviously in alienating the biggest businessmen in this country [who] have put billions into testing, masks, protective gowns.”

The tycoons responded to the crisis without being asked. Ayala group CEO Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala announced the conglomerate had allotted 2.4 billion pesos (US$47.5 million) to pay workers, waived 1.4 billion pesos in rentals at malls, postponed credit and loan payments for bank clients, and had built coronavirus testing booths.

The Metro Pacific Group under Pangilinan donated 190 million pesos’ worth of goods to the government, including protective gowns and masks, virus specimen collection tubes, vitamins, water and relief goods, aside from providing for its employees.

In addition, its Smart Telecom provided free internet in various quarantine facilities across the country.

ABS-CBN took on its traditional role during disasters by providing information through its broadcast channels, raising funds and handing out relief packages to the needy.

Philippine broadcaster ABS-CBN granted reprieve after being forced off air

“Duterte’s whole [presidential] platform was about disruption … he was going to bring down oligarchy,” recalled Ongpin, whose uncle Roberto became Duterte’s first target of disaffection.

In August 2016, a month into his presidency, Duterte declared that apart from fighting drugs and crime, “the real plan is [to] destroy the oligarchs that are embedded in government”. He then announced he would make an example of Roberto Ongpin.

Duterte repeated his plan weeks later, ranting against “oligarchs who get privileges, concessions, franchise with their saliva only as their capital”.

“This has to stop. This has to stop. This is no longer their time,” he warned.

The tirades prompted Ongpin to sell his profitable company Philweb at a loss a month later.

The following year, Duterte trained his sights on the owners of the country’s two leading mass media companies: the Prieto family of the broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Lopez family who own the ABS-CBN broadcast network.

Duterte, a former prosecutor of Davao City, threatened to slap them with criminal lawsuits and advised them to sell off their businesses.

Late last year, Pangilinan and the Zobel brothers became the new targets of presidential wrath as their water concession companies won a total of 10 billion pesos’ worth of damages in an arbitration suit filed against the government after it blocked water rate hikes. Duterte lumped them together with the other oligarchs he wished to destroy.

Ongpin said he did not see any philosophical or ideological motive underpinning the president’s actions.

“He’s just doing it to show he’s boss. He’s in power. It’s his stupid ego,” Ongpin said.

“He’s vindictive. Leadership and governance for me is doing the greatest good for the greatest number. Shutting down ABS does no good to anyone.”

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Ongpin said he did not really know why Duterte targeted his uncle, but it could be in response to his uncle backing another presidential contender, then vice-president Jejomar Binay.

Likewise, the Lopez family had supported Mar Roxas for the presidency, which the Duterte camp used as an example to accuse ABS-CBN of being politically biased.

Duterte’s loyal ally, Senator Christopher Go, recently explained Duterte’s motivations: “If you are bad towards the president, he will be far worse towards you. If you are good to him, he will be even better to you.”

The saga of rich and powerful families going head-to-head with politicians in power was first documented by American historian Alfred McCoy, who saw democracy in the Philippines as “an anarchy of families”.

In a collection of studies by eminent scholars on the country’s politics, McCoy noted that “family-based oligarchies are … a significant factor in Philippine history” and that “relations among these elite ‘families’ have a discernible influence on the course of Philippine politics”.

Among the “families” they studied was the Lopez clan and perhaps knowing the importance of families in the political setting, the Lopezes have branded their radio and TV channels as the “Kapamilya” or family network.

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Duterte portrayed himself to his political base as “a disrupter who was going to bring down oligarchy”, Ongpin said. “He brought down my uncle but my uncle is still on the Forbes ‘rich list’. He’s doing very well, thank you very much.”

In 2015, before Duterte came to power, Forbes Magazine estimated that the elder Ongpin had a net worth of US$900 million and was the 20th richest Filipino. This year, Forbes listed the 83-year-old businessman in 15th position in the country, with an estimated net worth of US$1.75 billion.

By that simple yardstick, Duterte’s plan to bring down the oligarchs does not seem to be working.

There is grumbling in the local business community, though, that Duterte has favoured certain businessmen who backed his presidential bid.

A retired investment banker, who preferred not to be named, said this was not cronyism on the same level as strongman Ferdinand Marcos, who “gave away industries in bulk”.

“In the Philippines, business and politics are always intertwined so you cannot avoid [the giving of political favours],” he said.

A senior executive in the Metro Pacific Group said Duterte’s use of harsh language and threats against businessmen was simply the style the president had become used to as the long-time mayor of Davao City. “It’s worked for him in the past, he’s sticking to it.”

The executive, however, noted that harshness in political discourse was seen “all over the world”.

When asked whether his boss, Pangilinan, was still wary of what Duterte would do despite his apology, the executive replied that “if you are in a highly regulated industry, you have to pay attention to what the government does. After all, the Maynilad Water issue is still unresolved”, referring to the water concessions.

Duterte’s apology has intrigued Conchita Lopez Taylor, matriarch of the Lopez family which owns ABS-CBN. She pointed out that Duterte “went out of his way to really make amends to the Ayalas and Pangilinan. He even said sorry”. But he did not apologise to her family, which has also helped in the pandemic.

Earlier, she said she suspected Duterte “has a lot of mischief going on. There’s more going on there than we are aware of”.

A stock market analyst also thought the public apology and the ABS-CBN closure were connected, and the move was “to inoculate [Duterte] from the negative reaction to shutting down ABS-CBN. His apology was meant to make it appear that he’s a changed man but, really, it was a charade”.

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Like Filipino presidents before him, Duterte has taken on some of the country’s richest families, but he is the first to condemn them as a class.

While shares of the tycoons’ companies – including Ayala, the most actively traded stock on the Philippine stock market – rose on expectations that Duterte’s views towards them had softened, the justice department said it would still continue to review their water concession contracts with the government.

Duterte had earlier called the water concession contracts “onerous” and accused the three tycoons of “economic plunder” and “syndicated estafa [fraud]”, declaring: “I want billionaires in prison.” ■