Hastings Holdings, Inc.

Hastings Holdings, Incorporated, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in April 2001 and is one of the holding companies of that business mogul Manuel V. Pangilinan created using money from the PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund. Its immediate parent company is PLDT’s media arm, Mediaquest Holdings.

The company’s General Information Sheet lists five subsidiaries or affiliates involved in five different media organizations: Treasurekeeper Holdings, which has shares in broadsheet Philippine Daily Inquirer through Excel Pacific; BusinessWorld Publishing Corporation which runs broadsheet BusinessWorld; Philstar Daily, Incorporated which runs another broadsheet Philippine STAR; Pilipino Star Ngayon, Incorporated which handles STAR’s tabloid Pilipino Star Ngayon and Philstar Global, which is in charge of online publication www.philstar.com.

Hastings Holdings president Emmanuel Lorenzana is also a member of Smart Communications’ board of directors. He is also the president of TV 5 Network.

The chairman of the board of Hastings Holdings is Ray Espinosa, associate director and head of the communications bureau of  Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd. which is owned by Indonesian tycoon Anthoni Salim. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission in a Jan. 11 decision voided Rappler’s certificate of incorporation, saying the social media news network engaged in a “deceptive scheme” to skirt foreign equity restrictions in mass media. Rappler called the decision “a blow to press freedom in the Philippines.”