Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) is among the most-read broadsheets in the Philippines.

It was founded by journalists Eugenia Apostol, Betty Go-Belmonte, Max Soliven, Luis Beltran, and Arturo Borjal in December 1985, a month after ailing strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos, under pressure from the United States, called for a snap presidential election. Beltran served as editor-in-chief.

For running reports critical of Marcos, PDI was among the few publications referred to as “alternative media,” that played a major role in the ouster of Marcos through the February 1986 People Power Revolution.

Belmonte, who was Inquirer’s co-chairman and treasurer, resigned from her post in May 1986. Her son Miguel Belmonte, now Philippine Star president and chief executive officer, said this was after then president Corazon Aquino named his father GSIS president. Belmonte was concerned this might affect the paper’s credibility.

Borjal, Soliven, and Beltran later broke away from Apostol and founded the Philippine Star with Belmonte. Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, who was editing the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, took over as editor-in-chief and held that position until her death on December 24, 2015.

In 1989 Nora Bitong, formerly the president and chief executive officer of Jaka Investments Corporation of Sen. Juan Ponce-Enrile, filed a suit before the Securities and Exchange Commission claiming that the money invested by Jaka in Mr. & Ms was used for PDI and was mismanaged by Apostol. SEC dismissed the suit saying Bitong was not a party of interest.

In September 1987, two veteran newspaper managers from another broadsheet, Manila Bulletin, joined Inquirer: Mariano B. Quimson Jr. as president and Ben M. Pangilinan as vice president for marketing. It was also at that time the Inquirer received an urgently needed capital infusion from Quimson's group.

Apostol lost the chairmanship of PDI after her rivals within the newspaper, led by Quimson, found out that she did not own a single PDI "qualifying share" in her name as mandated by the Corporation Code. She was ousted as chair in a board meeting on April 30, 1990. Other Inquirer board members replaced her with Bienvenido Pangilinan, one of the paper’s directors.

Apostol's ouster came shortly after she filed a suit before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Quimson's group. Apostol found out that Quimson gained a 58 percent upper hand in the Inquirer board when it decided to invalidate some shares belonging to Apostol's group. Prior to the invalidation of the disputed shares, both Apostol and Quimson's groups held identical and pre-agreed 46.6 percent holdings.

Meanwhile, a group headed by Marixi Rufino Prieto had bought into the PDI. The Rufino-Prieto family-owned Bataan 2020, formerly known as Bataan Pulp and Paper Mills Inc. (BPPMI), supplier of paper to all newspapers including PDI.

On January 26, 1994, Apostol retired and Marixi Prieto took over as PDI chair. A group led by Eduardo Espiritu, former PNB president, bought Apostol's shares in the company.

On April 29, 1998, Ben Pangilinan retired as PDI president and was succeeded by Marixi’s daughter, Alexandra, popularly known as Sandy.

In a published article, Sandy said she joined PDI in 1995 when her brother, Louie, who was originally the one groomed to head the newspaper, died in a motorcycle crash.

Sandy started as executive assistant to the President, and later became the president and chief executive officer herself. She held the position for 25 years before stepping down to focus on her role as CEO of Inquirer Group of Companies.

Sandy is married to mining executive Benjamin Philip G. Romualdez, brother of House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. The Romualdezes are also media owners. Philip chairs the newspaper, Manila Standard. Martin, meanwhile, has his own media empire, the Philippine Collective Media Corporation (PCMC), operating radio stations in Eastern Visayas, and Prime Media Holdings, Inc., which entered into a joint venture with ABS-CBN Corporation to operate and manage DWPM Radyo 630.

Philip and Martin are cousins of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

PDI is part of the Inquirer Group, which also publishes the tabloids Bandera and Inquirer Libre. It has an online platform, inquirer.net.

Marilex Realty Development Corporation, a real estate company owned by the Prietos holds 46% of ownership of PDI. Sandy owns 7.13%, while Excel Pacific Holding Corporation, a company wholly-owned by the Prietos and affiliated with Manny Pangilinan's MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., owns 6.36%.