Much brouhaha over history versus chismis. Is chismis oral history? Is history oral chismis? The debate over the issue stems from the Marcos’ again and the continuing claim of historical revisionism.
This is what happens when bias is the norm when it comes to the writing of history. To the victors belong the spoils also means the victors get to write the historical account of their victory. Is it only the Marcos’ who are guilty of historical revisionism or aren’t those in the opposition guilty of the same as well?
As Balzac said, “behind every great fortune is a crime.” The family’s who make up the list of de buena familias en las islas Filipinas aren’t so buena after all if one bothers to dig into the family’s history. This is why there are “skeletons in the closet” and those who are also “closet queens.”
Historian Ambeth Ocampo has come under intense criticism because of his retort to the statement of one of the actresses in the forthcoming film, Maid In Malacanang. If accuracy is the objective, it shoudn’t be Malacanang but Malacanan. Thing is, those in the opposition will never miss a beat when it comes to nitpicking. This just goes to show how low they can go despite their claimed intellectual prowess and provenance as miembros de las buenas familias.
The Marcos’ are looked upon as interlopers. The Marcos genealogy stops at Mariano Marcos. You have to wonder why their lineage can’t be traced back to beyond Mariano’s father, Fabian. The same is true with Josefa Edralin. No historian has bothered to do research on the Marcos-Edralin genealogy.
In contrast, the Cojuangco family genealogy can be traced back all the way to their ancestral village in Fujian. The opposition shouted “Marcos magnanakaw” again during the campaign for the 2022 election. But why is it that mainstream media ignores the less than honorable origin of the Cojuangco family fortune?
But what of Ninoy Aquino? He was no saint and he definitely isn’t a hero. Ninoy’s image was polished before he was assassinated in 1983. He was being packaged as a hero even before he left the US to fulfill his date with destiny. His father was also a Japanese collaborator. He dumped the Nacionalista Party when it became convenient to move over to Manuel Roxas, who was MacArthur’s anointed. That move came with a get-out-of-jail-free card.
Back in the day, journalists did their jobs with a matching passion. It wasn’t about whose side they were on, as they were allowed to take in a personal capacity, but about bringing out the truth so the public can judge for themselves what the truth was.
The same is true when it comes to the boudoir. Marcos’ common-law wife before Imelda was Carmen Ortega. There is his affair with Dovie Beams, which some say, is the reason why Imeldific went on a shopping spree in New York, which included buying buildings.
Both the Aquino’s and Cojuangco’s suffer from the same weakness. It could be said that Ninoy was more enamored with Imelda but he knew that Madame was not as moneyed as her more prominent cousins, which is why he settled for Cory.
Unfortunately, the Cojuangco family fortune wasn’t really built on hard work. They were landed but not that on the hacendero level of the Castilas as they were Parian.
Larry Henares writes about how the Cojuangco’s came into their fortune.
Part One: Seeking the Holy Grail on Good Friday It is not true as Maximo Soliven once remarked that Ricardo Manapat is my pen name. He is a real person, and is my driver… for the last two weeks anyway, till he went back to Spain, looking back to see if a gun is pointed to his head. Finally I met him, this wonderful writer-researcher-computer hack, with the mischief of Shakespeare’s Puck, the prankish antics of an Irish leprechaun, and physical size to match, whose book Some Are Smarter Than Others and pamphlet Coco-dile File played a crucial role in the election of Fidel V. Ramos as President, and whose latest Wrong Number provided the final coffin nail to the PLDT monopoly. Finally I met him after a year of the two of us searching for each other’s address and phone number, and missing each other like Evangeline’s ships in the night. I met him on Good Friday when he showed up in my house in Dasmariñas Village in the company of Ka Luis Taruc (former Huk Supremo), armed with three questions: Now that you stopped writing your columns, whom shall I quote in my future works (my articles infest his bibliographies!)? Was there ever any admission on the part of the Cojuangco family that the source of their original wealth is the hero Antonio Luna? Whatever happened to the alleged love-child born of Ysidra Cojuangco and Antonio Luna? The first question is answered by this series of articles which Ric Manapat helped research on and which he now calls The Story of the Century, all ready to be further elaborated on and researched by him as he did my past articles. The second and third questions are answered in the body of this series. Finally there is one credible witness who quotes Ysidra Cojuangco herself admitting that Antonio Luna used to bring her gold, not once but regularly during the Philippine American War and our First Republic, almost till the day he died. And incredibly, we have found ample evidence to conclude that the love child of Ysidra and Luna might have survived, adopted by her brother Melecio, and may be one of the four sons of Melecio: either Jose, father of ex-President Corazon Aquino; Juan, the twice-married, childless one; Antonio, the father of Ramon and the grandfather of PLDT’s president; or Eduardo, the father of presidential candidate Danding Cojuangco. Which one? Well, read the rest of this series to find out.
Holy Week in the past has always been the time of terrible accidents in my family, and I hesitated to join Ric Manapat when he suggested “tracing 30 pieces of silver on a Good Friday.” But the roads were clear of traffic, and Manapat is such a good driver that I even sat in the “death seat” near to the air conditioner without a seat belt, as he negotiated the distance to Kawit, Cavite, in 20 minutes instead of the usual two hours. Ric, Ka Luis and myself were joined by Dr. Steve Latorre, brilliant UP professor and ex-Opus Dei priest now working in Malacañang as my executive assistant, as we set out to find Ka Luis’ friend Ka Alfredo Saulo, ex-political detainee, historian and biographer, now curator of the Aguinaldo Museum in Kawit, who is the nephew of Eulalio Saulo. Eulalio with his brothers (under General Martin Tinio) supervised, in Ka Fred Saulo’s words, “the convoy of carts loaded with a huge amount of Spanish gold and silver coins seized from local treasuries in the Ilocos region, leading this convoy through forested areas up to the final destination in Paniqui, Tarlac, in the house of Ysidra Cojuangco, girlfriend of General Antonio Luna.” We were hoping for some old letters, some documentary evidence in the hands of Ka Fred Saulo. No such luck, but Ka Fred told us of a cousin, Encarnacion Saulo-Padilla, favorite daughter of Eulalio, almost 93 years of age, who as a young girl was a good friend and confidante of Ysidra Cojuangco herself (who died in the 1960). A little background here. There was an earlier account recounted by historian Carlos Quirino in an unpublished book commissioned by Danding Cojuangco, about a shipment of gold vessels commandeered by General Antonio Luna from churches in Pampanga, collected for him by Tiburcio Hilario, Pampanga governor, brought to Paniqui and entrusted to Ysidra for safekeeping before Luna left for Cabanatuan to meet Aguinaldo, only to be assassinated there. Aha, so gold was brought by Luna from both the Ilocos (through Saulo) and Central Luzon (through Hilario) to Ysidra! With the First Republic on the run and the Americans inquiring about the gold, Ysidra dumped the gold into a well, retrieved it later and used it to build the Cojuangco fortune. I jokingly suggested in the presence of Cory Aquino, in a birthday party of Joker Arroyo, that the Cojuangco fortune is subject to sequestration by the PCGG. It was also jokingly pointed out that in this case the statute of limitations defining a prescription period for the prosecution of past crimes, is in force. But apparently no one, not even Cory, read her own 1987 Constitution, Article 11, section 15, which stipulates: “The right of the State to recover properties unlawfully acquired by public officials or employees, from them or from their nominees or transferees, shall not be barred by prescriptions, laches or estoppel.” Our irreverent foursome, joined by Ka Fred Saulo, who would pursue their Holy Grail on Good Friday, drove to Heroes Hill, Quezon City, to see Encarnacion Saulo-Padilla. Bed-ridden but sound of mind, she was irrepressible, regaling us with stories of Doña Ysidra, her neighbor in Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija, whom she met when she was 10 years old, and who was going to be her godmother, ninang sa casal, were it not for the distance and difficulty of travel. We recorded her saying that Ysidra admitted that Luna was indeed her very close friend, and that Luna left her valuables, not once but regularly on many occasions. When asked how much value was involved, Encarnacion replied that while she is not sure of the exact value, it was certainly in huge quantities since several huge caskets were involved. Manapat asked her if she knew that there were more than one shipment. She emphatically said yes, the shipments were a regular thing!! Not only was Encarnacion a friend and confidant of Doña Ysidra, she is also the daughter of Eulalio Saulo who confirmed to her the story as one of the military escorts of the gold shipment to Ysidra. As far as we know this is the first direct evidence of a Cojuangco (and Ysidra at that) admitting what many Luna contemporaries long alleged, that the source of the Cojuangco fortune was the gold commandeered by Luna and regularly turned over to Ysidra. The combined assets controlled by the Cojuangcos total about P200 billion. To recover such wealth under Article 11, section 15 of the 1987 Constitution, one must go to court, and pay a filing fee of half a percent of the amount to be recovered, or P1 billion unrefundable win or lose. Who has that kind of money to risk? Ric Manapat suggests that the three wealthy branches be sued for P1 each. Once the case is won, then the rest of the P200 billion may be sued for. Or alternatively, Manapat suggests that the PCGG pursue the matter with funds appropriated by Congress, the funds merely transferred from one government pocket to another. Oh what the heck, he is probably joking, and this Good Friday caper may just be a mere exercise in the quest for historical truth. The last question of Ric Manapat as to whatever happened to the love-child of Ysidra Cojuangco and General Antonio Luna, is answered after a quest akin to that of Sir Galahad for the Holy Grail, taking us through interesting by-ways, dead-ends, winding trails, backtracking mazes, and finally to El Camino Real, the road of destiny of the Filipino people, of General Aguinaldo, of Ysidra and Luna, and of the four sons of Melecio Cojuangco.
Part Two: Which Cojuangco is the love-child of Luna? Luis Taruc recounts a joke that dates back to the last century, about a Spanish priest who was enraged to find his cows’ ears cut off, and ordered an investigation by the sacristan. The sacristan said, “No need to do that, Padre. Everyone knows that you can manufacture ears to replace the missing ones!” How is that? asked the priest. “Well,” answered the sacristan, “You have often been overheard telling the pregnant women in the parish, whose husbands are out of town, that they should regularly visit you at night, because their unborn baby may need ears which only the priest can provide in good order.” Catholic bishops when installed in office make a solemn oath to preserve the Baptismal Registers entrusted to them above all things, especially during fires and natural disasters. Many entries in these old records register the baptisms of children born with unnamed fathers. Whatever happened to the alleged love child of Ysidra Cojuangco and General Antonio Luna? We assure the reader that there is nothing to be ashamed of in being the only descendant of our national hero Antonio Luna who has an illustrious bloodline known for brilliance of intellect and genius. The love child of Ysidra and Luna is not illegitimate; he would be classified as “hijo natural,” natural son, because Ysidra and Luna were both single, eligible to be married, and their relationship was not adulterous. Moreover, such a child would still be a Cojuangco in addition to being a Luna. We all drove to the house of Carlos Quirino in Ayala Alabang, and found him in good health and willing to help at age 83. According to historian Carlos Quirino’s unpublished manuscript on the Cojuangco family, Ysidra Cojuangco, spinster in her thirties, gave birth to a son outside the bounds of matrimony, which the Cojuangco family claims was sired by an unnamed Chinese mestizo who died before he could marry her. The family claimed further that the love child also died in infancy. But there are others, specially those in family of Tecla Chichioco (wife of Melecio), and many other independent witnesses, who say that Ysidra was Luna’s sweetheart and that the child was sired by General Luna. There is absolutely no record we can find to prove that the child died and was buried. Assuming for the sake of argument that the love-child survived to manhood, it is only logical to assume that the baby would have been adopted by Ysidra’s brother Melecio and his wife, who were childless for two years after their wedding. Which of the four Cojuangco boys is the love child of General Antonio Luna? Is he Jose, the father of Cory Aquino and her siblings who now own Hacienda Luisita? Juan who married twice and was childless? Antonio, killed by the Japanese, father of Ramon and the grandfather of Tonyboy, the president of PLDT and former chairman of the Philippine Air Lines? Or Eduardo, the father of Danding Cojuangco, alleged Marcos crony, lately chairman of San Miguel Corporation and Cocobank, who almost made it to the presidency of the Republic? We can only deduce this if we know the birthdate and the time the baby was conceived, and whether or not Antonio Luna was in the Philippines to do the impregnation. Additionally there are certain characteristics of the Lunas that are admittedly not present in the Cojuangco clan, and may be matched with those of the alleged son of Luna. The first candidate for this distinction is Jose, the father of Cory, Pete and Peping Cojuangco. He was born according to Carlos Quirino on March 19, 1896. According to his tombstone in Manila Memorial Park, his birth date is July 3, 1896. And according to an entry in the Baptismal Registry of Barasoain Church (Malolos, Bulacan), dated July 8, 1896, he was baptized, “un niño de seis dias nacido,” a child six days old, which puts his birthdate at July 2, 1896. Whatever birthdate, Jose may have been conceived in the womb of Ysidra between July and October 1895. At the time Luna was in the Philippines, having affairs all over the place and earning a reputation as a ladies’ man and loverboy. In March 1896, according to Quirino, the Cojuangco family moved from its residence in Malolos, Bulacan, and resettled permanently far to the north, in Paniqui, Tarlac. Why travel several hundred kilometers away in a horse cart with a pregnant mother, or the newly born baby Jose, unless trying to escape from the effects of a family scandal??? The next candidate is the childless Juan. He was born on April 18, 1898 in Paniqui; if so, he was conceived August 1897. Six months before, February 1897, Luna left for Spain, and was in Barcelona at the time Juan was conceived, and did not come back till May 1898 via Hong Kong. So Antonio Luna could not be the father of Juan. The next is Antonio Cojuangco, father of Ramon and grandfather of Tonyboy, the president of the Philippine Long Distance Co, (PLDT). His birthdate was not available in the book of Carlos Quirino, so we will leave him awhile, and go to the next candidate, Eduardo Cojuangco, father of businessman and presidential candidate, Danding Cojuangco. Eduardo Cojuangco (the elder) was born on October 13, 1904, having been conceived in the womb in February 1904, long after Antonio Luna was assassinated on June 5, 1899. Therefore Eduardo could not have been the son of Luna. Ysidra’s brother, Melecio Cojuangco, aggrieved by an argument with two Americans claiming the seats of his sons, died of a heart attack on a train on the way to Paniqui on March 13, 1909. Of all his heirs only Jose and Antonio may be suspected of being the love child of Ysidra Cojuangco and Antonio Luna. The only missing link is the birthdate of Antonio C. Cojuangco. A check with the Tonyboy’s office at the PLDT, drew a blank; nobody there knew. Who would know? Carlos Quirino cannot explain how he missed this date. Even the birthdate of Martin, the original Cojuangco born in Amoy, is known and documented, so why not Antonio? We figured there will be a record in the man’s tomb, so we went to the family mausoleum (Plaza of Dignity, Lot 405-406) in the Manila Memorial Park. There was none; and even the tombs of his wife and his son Ramon were unmarked by any dates, even though their dates of birth and death are known. Only the names appeared. Was this a deliberate act to hide the fact that Antonio’s birthdate is secret? The tombs of his brother Jose and wife Demetria in the next lot were marked by dates in the usual way.
Another curious thing. Records at Manila Memorial show that the remains of Antonio Cojuangco, killed in 1945 in the Liberation of Manila, was originally buried in La Loma Cemetery in Quezon City. When it was transferred to Manila Memorial, the latter noted that there TWO bodies in the crypt – it was claimed that the other body was that of his Chinese amah (yaya). Really now, is it possible that Ysidra Cojuangco who survived to the 1960s, put the body of Antonio Luna there with Antonio Cojuangco? Where is the body of Antonio Luna? Ricardo Manapat, Steve Latorre and myself went to the Ateneo Archives in Loyola Heights, and looked over the appropriate Alumni Directory of Ateneo de Manila. All four siblings were listed on the same page. Jose graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1915; Juan in 1916; Antonio in 1918; Eduardo in 1920. There is an 8 year gap between the birth of the eldest Jose (1896) and the youngest Eduardo (1904), yet there is only a 5 year gap between the dates of their college graduation. Does that mean that Jose started his schooling late and Eduardo started early? Or does it mean that their stated birthdays, that of Antonio especially, are not accurate? Between the dates of birth of the second born Juan (1898) and the last born Eduardo (1904) is a gap of four years, as there is between their dates of graduation (Juan, 1916; and Eduardo, 1920) with Antonio graduating exactly halfway between (1918). Was the third son Antonio was born halfway between the second (1898) and fourth son (1904), that is, in the year 1900? No, the Ateneo Annual of 1918 listed Antonio’s birth year as 1899, the month undetermined. With this crucial data of Antonio’s birthdate, the way is now paved for our final conclusion as to which of the four Cojuangco boys is most likely to be the love child of Ysidra Cojuangco and General Antonio Luna.
Part Three: Is Tonyboy C. the great grandson of Luna? The first Jose Cojuangco, father of Melecio and Ysidra, according to historian Carlos Quirino, settled in Malolos, Bulacan, as a Chinese carpenter and artisan. He is remembered for having built a staircase leading from the church to the convent, so that girlfriends may pass unnoticed into the friar’s quarters. Steve Latorre, Ric Manapat and I checked this out, and found a walled-in space at the end of the front balcony, with a wall not aligned with the wall in the next room. And right underneath this wall, is a wooden ceiling lower than the adjoining cement ceiling, over an iron gate separating the church from the convent, right beside the choir loft, where the girls are expected to be. If there was such a staircase built by Cojuangco for priestly assignation, it would be located here. Steve Latorre, who used to run the Catholic seminary near Malolos, tells of the street named Sto. Niño, also known as Calle de las Mestizas, where the elite of the town used to live, full of mestizas whose origins can only be surmised. Here Jose Rizal, Antonio Luna and our other heroes are said to visit, to court the girls and carouse. Malolos must have been an exciting town then. A walking distance from the Barasoain Church in No. 540 Paseo del Congreso, the town’s main street, stands the old mansion of the Cojuangcos, still owned by the family and attended by the Tecla Chichioco (wife of Melecio) side of the family. A young 17-year-old UST student, Jennifer Bantigue, recounts the family gossip. The house was used during the Malolos Convention as an informal meeting place of important delegates. General Antonio Luna used to sleep there. Aha! Ric Manapat has long contended that Antonio Luna and Ysidra Cojuangco had long been lovers before their last tryst in Paniqui. And that if there was a love affair, it must have occurred in Malolos where the Cojuangcos continued to maintain their old house, far from the prying eyes of their townmates in Paniqui. Indeed, at the time of Jose’s conception, sometime between July and October 1895, the Cojuangcos were still permanently residing in Malolos, having moved to Paniqui in March the following year. The other candidate Antonio was born according to his Ateneo 1918 Annual in the year 1899. In that entire Annual all graduates listed only the year of their birth, not the month or the date. It is surprising to note that all previous and subsequent Annuals, especially those listing the other brothers, gave the exact date, month and year of the graduates’ birth. It is hard to believe that the entire 1918 Annual, like his tombstone in Manila Memorial, would be changed to accommodate the secrecy wanted by one single man.
As a matter of fact, if Antonio were born in Malolos instead of Paniqui, we will never know, because the Birth Registries in eight volumes, supposedly covering the period from October 1775 to 1904, stops at February 1899 before Antonio might have been born. What is most suspicious is that a tag that describes the missing volume was left inside the exhibit, suggesting that the missing volume actually exists but was stolen. Assume that Antonio was born in the year 1899. He would have been conceived between April 1, 1898 (nine months before January 1, 1899) and March 31, 1899 (nine months before December 31, 1899). His predecessor Juan was born on April 18, 1898 — which means that if Antonio were born of the same mother, he would not have been conceived anytime between April 1 and May 18, so soon before and after Juan’s birth. The Malolos Congress opened in September 15, 1898, and continued into the next year, well within the period of possibility. The love child of Luna and Ysidra was not probably conceived in the first week of June, 1899, a few days before the general was assassinated, as has always been assumed by those who read Quirino’s book. The love tryst must have occurred in Barasoain during the Malolos Congress. According to Vivencio R. Jose in his book, The Rise and Fall of Antonio Luna, “When the Republic formed the Red Cross Association, Luna requested that it `collect funds with which to give small gifts to the soldiers in the lines.’ Moreover he invited the Red Cross Ladies to bring these gifts to the soldiers themselves… Consequently he had the ladies carried by train from San Fernando, Pampanga, to the frontlines.” Could Ysidra have been one of those ladies, a virgin love-struck by an officer in uniform? Antonio Luna was known to be a romantic figure, who once published a book of poetry called Las Estrellas de Mi Cielo (Stars of my Sky), and who remembers: “The happy young women go running from the gardens because the dance is about to begin. On their bashful looks are sparkles of laughter; they gather their wide skirts of silk with the right hand, showing the small stockinged feet in climbing the stairs of the house to get to the hall.” A very erotic image at the turn of the century. If indeed it is true that Ysidra and Luna fell passionately in love in Barasoain during the Malolos Congress, then Ysidra must have been already pregnant, or have already given birth to a love child, when Luna brought her the gold from the Ilocos and Central Luzon separately a few days before he died. And he would have probably assured her that he would soon marry her and make a respectable woman out of her. The gold might have served as assurance and insurance. Moreover, while the Cojuangcos have been indifferent students, very few of them earning the highest scholastic honors in the schools they attended, the Lunas are a family of geniuses and achievers. Antonio’s brother Manuel was a violinist and conductor. Jose was a doctor of medicine. Juan was a painter famous in Spain and all Europe. And Antonio Luna himself had excellent grades and was a pharmacist with a medico-legal practice of analyzing blood samples, won a science-literary contest, and was an expert in the use of the gun and the saber. The love child of Ysidra and Luna would inherit the genius of Luna, and still remain a Cojuangco. We contend that the most likely candidate to be the love child of Luna is Antonio, the father of Ramon and grandfather of Tonyboy of the PLDT, for many compelling reasons. First is the name Antonio, common to both father and son, and passed on to grandson Antonio Cojuangco Jr. who was killed by the Japanese with his parents, and to the great grandson Antonio Cojuangco III, the president of PLDT.
Second is that Antonio Luna was a pharmacist and medical technician, and Antonio Cojuangco was a doctor of medicine, with a natural desire to be in the same field as his father. All the other Cojuangco brothers — Jose, Juan and Eduardo — either took up law or business. Third is the secret and almost conspiratorial way that his birthdate is being withheld from the public. Fourth is that the descendants of Antonio Cojuangco the elder, unlike his brothers and their families, are excellent scholastic achievers like the Lunas. Antonio’s son Ramon graduated from Fordham University with a business degree, cum laude; and Ramon’s son Tonyboy, PLDT president, graduated summa cum laude with an economics degree in Ateneo. The common physical features of Antonio Luna and Antonio Cojuangco, as shown by the photos above, cannot all happen in a million years, unless they have the same genes: Fifth, to continue our enumeration, the hairlines of Juan and Jose are neat and straight across the forehead, while those of two Antonios form a V at the parting of the hair at the “hati” — a sort of reverse widow’s peak. Sixth, the two Antonios have the same pout on the lower lip. Seventh, they have bushy eyebrows on their right side, and less pronounced pencil-thin eyebrows on their left side. Eighth, their right eyes are round and almond-shaped; and the left eyes are small, slant and located LOWER than those on the right. Ninth, whose is the OTHER body buried with Antonio Cojuangco? If as we will find later, Antonio Luna’s body has disappeared from the face of the earth, and is neither in Batac where he was born, or in Cabanatuan where he was assassinated, then is it possible that the other body buried with Antonio Cojuangco, is that of his father Antonio Luna?? Easy to tell. DNA samples are available from present live members of the Luna family, and the same is available from the descendants of Antonio Luna. Blood will tell, and if the DNA element in the bones of both Antonio Luna and Antonio Cojuangco be compared, the final proof of their common genes may be verified. Congratulations are in order for Tonyboy and his family. And we rest our case.
It begs the question, why hasn’t Ambeth Ocampo written about the Cojuangco’s in the matter of the origin of their family fortune?
Ramon and Eduardo Cojuangco are cousins and known Marcos allies while Cory and Peping were of course for Ninoy. It’s also chismis that Ysidra was biased against Eduardo Sr. or Endeng, because he defied her wishes and still married Josephine Murphy.
It’s interesting to note that cousins Monching and Danding did well in business even if their educational backgrounds were stark opposites. Ramon graduated from Fordham University with honors while Danding was a regular student at California Polytechnic State Collage.
Ramon would become a Stonehill boy; the group of men who worked for or closely associated with Harry Stonehill. This included Geronimo Velasco, Mel Meer, Alfonso Yuchengco and Luis Goduco.
What is obvious now is the tables have turned against the side of the Cojuangco’s allied with the opposition. Peping hasn’t been able to manage the family business to cope with the evolving business environment. In fact, the controlling interest in Hacienda Luisita has been sold to the Lorenzo family. This was the crown jewel in the family holding company, Jose Cojuangco and Sons Inc.
Both Danding and Monching have provided for the family’s well. Monching married into the Ongsiako family, which is about as old rich as they come. The same is true with Danding, who married Maria Soledad Cuyugan Oppen, who is heir to the largest undivided Lichauco family fortune.
History continues to be written and the debate about chismis, history, fact and fiction will continue for years to come or until it is lost in the future generations, which continue to have less an appreciation for how history is essential in understanding the present and charting the future.
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