Daven Tamayo

Article (news)

Boardroom Tea: Farewell to Four Giants

Salve Ibaňez

<p>Philippine business lost four towering figures within days of each other, leaving boardrooms quieter and legacies louder than ever.</p><p>Maria Elena &quot;Marilen&quot; Tantoco passed away on September 30 at the age of 67. Atty. Alberto Quimpo, the labor relations commissioner who built bridges between management and workers, departed on October 2 at 88. Oscar Reyes, who spent decades &quot;sweating the assets&quot; from Shell to Meralco, died on October 3 at 79. Xavier &quot;XP&quot; Loinaz—the man who refused to touch subprime mortgages when Wall Street was screaming triple-A ratings—passed away on October 4 at 82, just a week before his birthday.</p><p>These weren&#x27;t just executives. They were architects of institutional memory, mentors who shaped generations, and leaders whose principles outlasted their tenures.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>XP&#x27;s Unflinching Integrity</strong></div><p>When Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, taking $386 million in Philippine bank exposure with it, seven banks were affected, but BPI emerged unscathed. The reason? As told to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Xavier Loinaz had killed a lucrative subprime proposal years earlier with two short sentences: &quot;I don&#x27;t care if it&#x27;s triple-A rated. If we don&#x27;t understand it, we&#x27;re not buying it.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/10/5/banking-industry-pioneer-xavier-loinaz-passes-away-2005" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Banking industry pioneer Xavier Loinaz passes away</a></div><p>Monetary Board member Romeo Bernardo, who watched Loinaz work for two decades as a BPI director, still marvels at that decision. The man understood what the global financial system missed—if you don&#x27;t understand it, don&#x27;t buy it.</p><p>In the late 90s, journalist Lala Rimando recounted how Loinaz&#x27;s refusal to offer dollar loans to peso-earning clients before the 1997 crisis initially frustrated her team. When the exchange rate exploded to P35 and beyond, his wisdom became crystal clear. BPI remained largely protected while other banks drowned in dollar exposure.</p><p>These tidbits got me whistling. This next one made me believe his due diligence could surpass any well-trained large language model. Whispering to me at a wake last weekend, my source revealed that one of the country&#x27;s top five billionaires tried securing a loan from BPI in the early days of his company&#x27;s establishment—but Loinaz wouldn&#x27;t budge.</p><p>Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala called this “strong credit culture.” Loinaz helmed BPI from 1982 to 2004, navigating the debt crisis, two EDSA revolutions, coup attempts, and the Asian Financial Crisis. He introduced ATMs to the Philippines in the early 1980s, pioneered internet banking in 1999, and orchestrated landmark acquisitions—Family Bank, Citytrust, Far East Bank—that transformed BPI into a banking powerhouse. He also mentored JAZA in his early days as CEO. </p><p>Loinaz’s impact, however, transcended balance sheets. Current BPI President TG Limcaoco called him a mentor who taught discipline, integrity, and service, adding that Loinaz&#x27;s innovations continue carrying his legacy forward.</p><p>Social media tributes revealed something deeper than professional respect. Retired BPI executive Randy Maranan shared a touching 2021 message from Loinaz who, while recovering from serious illness, congratulated Maranan on his record-breaking jackfruit harvest with genuine warmth.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Marilen&#x27;s Love Letter to Morocco</strong></div><p>The fifth daughter of Rustan&#x27;s founders Bienvenido and Gliceria Tantoco is remembered not just for her role as VP for merchandising in the home division, but for the warmth she brought to every conversation about life, love, family, and the places that captured her heart.</p><p>Millet Martinez Mananquil captured it perfectly on Instagram: &quot;Marilen and I would talk about life, love, family, work, vanities and things that made us both laugh, every time we met at Rustan&#x27;s events. Marilen, I wish we had laughed longer—for she never showed sadness when talking about her dialysis and consultations with her doctor who advised her: Wear makeup everyday, do things that make you happy. That&#x27;s the Marilen I knew—always smiling, kindhearted, funny. And brave.&quot;</p><p>Marilen lived in Morocco as a young mother with her sons MJ and Chris when her parents were invited by the late King Hassan II to establish duty-free shops. She returned in the late 1980s to early 1990s for another stint, her children growing up in Rabat before returning to the Philippines. &quot;When they came home, they realized malaki pala ang pamilya namin,&quot; she once told a local newspaper &quot;They thought it was just us. They even had to go back to school because they couldn&#x27;t really understand English—but they could write in Arabic.&quot;</p><p>Her Moroccan festivals at Rustan&#x27;s became legendary—curated experiences featuring mosaic tile fountains, embellished lamps, handwoven textiles, and those dinnerware sets she hoarded even when her older sister Nedy scolded her to sell them. &quot;Ayoko nga, they don&#x27;t make them like this anymore,&quot; she&#x27;d protest.</p><p>In May 2024, she stepped down from SSI Group&#x27;s board after 16 years, making way for her son MJ. The succession was graceful, natural—exactly how she approached everything.</p><p>Journalist Thelma Sioson San Juan posted a beautiful tribute on Facebook and Instagram: &quot;We will miss Marilen Tantoco, her unassuming but fun and friendly presence in her family&#x27;s Rustan&#x27;s special occasions. She and sister Nedy, her soulmate, the late president of Rustan&#x27;s &amp; SSI, made Rustan&#x27;s Christmas Shop always special.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Oscar&#x27;s Philosophy of Service</strong></div><p>Oscar Reyes embodied a different brand of excellence—five decades spanning petroleum, energy, telecommunications, and power distribution, always with the same philosophy: sweat the assets, maximize value, never stop serving.</p><p>As Meralco&#x27;s president and CEO from 2012 to 2019, Reyes modernized operations while expanding electricity access beyond franchise areas. His mantra of &quot;sweating the assets&quot; wasn&#x27;t about extraction—it was about making every resource work harder for customers and stakeholders.</p><p>Before Meralco, Reyes served as country chairman of Shell Companies in the Philippines, concurrently leading Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation and Shell Philippines Exploration. He is remembered for his generosity and legacy of service, kindness, and compassion shared with Shell retirees.</p><p>At his passing, Reyes was serving as independent director of PXP Energy and D.M. Wenceslao &amp; Associates, chairman of Pepsi Cola Products Philippines, and holding senior roles across multiple corporations. The breadth of his board positions speaks of trust earned over decades.</p><p>Meralco&#x27;s Joe Zaldarriaga, who worked closely with &quot;OSR&quot; for nearly a decade, said his leadership shaped how teams approached challenges and opportunities. The tribute felt personal, not corporate—exactly how Reyes led.</p><p>Earl Martin Valencia, whose aunt Patricia Oliva-Valencia is part of the famed Reyes clan, remembered &quot;Tito Os&quot; from board meetings and lunch table conversations over tempura and pancit.</p><p>&quot;Every time &#x27;Tito Os&#x27; (Uncle Os) shared wisdom unconditionally and always challenged your thinking to help push you further,&quot; Valencia wrote. That spirit of mentorship—challenging others to grow—defined Reyes&#x27;s approach to leadership across every industry he touched.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>Atty. Albert&#x27;s Labor of Love</strong></div><p>Alberto Quimpo&#x27;s passing received less media fanfare, but the Employers Confederation of the Philippines mourned the loss of a true bridge-builder. Quimpo served as employer representative on the NCR Wage Board from 2006 to 2022 and as commissioner of the National Labor Relations Commission.</p><p>The People Management Association of the Philippines and the Bankers Council for Personnel Management remembered him as a mentor, colleague, and friend. Ten PMAP presidents attended his wake last Saturday—something that&#x27;s never happened even at the group&#x27;s biggest general membership meetings. He supported each of them through three decades, and for that earned the title “the wizard of the elders.” He never desired to be president himself. Labor Secretary Benny Laguesma came last Sunday and stayed to chat about everybody’s Tito Bert.</p><p>At ECOP, where he served as corporate secretary and general counsel, Quimpo advanced sound people management practices while championing labor-management cooperation. He was also the life of every party, lighting up every room with his “distinct laughter”, dancing the cha-cha with young and old alike. Weeks before he passed, he was still on his feet dancing with a favorite hat. I don’t know if it was the same hat that sat with him all the way to his final resting place.</p><p>His work transcended adversarial relationships. Quimpo understood that sustainable business requires treating workers as partners, not adversaries—a philosophy that guided his decades in labor relations. But the most beautiful relationship he had was with Isabel, his wife of 62 years, who passed away in December 2024. Their relationship transcended life itself.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>What Giants Leave Behind</strong></div><p>These four leaders shared uncommon traits: they built institutions stronger than themselves, had an uncanny sense of choosing talents-in-the-rough, mentored without ego, and led through crisis without panic.</p><p>Marilen&#x27;s ability to find joy and beauty everywhere she looked. Oscar&#x27;s commitment to communities beyond franchise areas. XP&#x27;s handwritten notes encouraging former colleagues. Atty. Quimpo&#x27;s dedication to fairness in labor relations. These weren&#x27;t PR gestures—they were character made visible.</p><p>In boardrooms across Metro Manila this week, executives are sharing stories about working with, learning from, or simply watching these leaders operate. The common thread? They made you want to raise your standards.</p><p>Philippine business needs this reminder now. As family conglomerates navigate succession and professional managers assume greater control, the lessons from Tantoco, Reyes, Loinaz, and Quimpo matter more than ever:</p><p>Find what you love and let it transform how you work. Sweat your assets but serve your stakeholders. Don&#x27;t chase returns you don&#x27;t understand. Build bridges, not walls. Lead with discipline, not just charisma. Do things that make you happy. And remember that your legacy isn&#x27;t what you accumulated—it&#x27;s whom you mentored and what you stood for when shortcuts beckoned.</p><p>Rest well. Philippine business stands taller because you walked among us.</p><p>Until next week, keep your ears open and your principles intact.</p><div><em>Boardroom Tea comes out every Wednesday.</em></div>

<p>They were architects of institutional memory, mentors who shaped generations, and leaders whose principles outlasted their tenures.</p>

They were architects of institutional memory, mentors who shaped generations, and leaders whose principles outlasted their tenures.