Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of San Miguel Corp., Southeast Asia’s largest food and beverage corporation¸ has died on the 16th June 2020 at the age of 85. His death was reported to the Philippines Stock Exchange without stating any cause.
Cojuangco, also known as Danding Cojuangco, was born on June 10, 1935. He attended De La Salle College and UP Los Baños in the Philippines before heading overseas to complete his education at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
From 1969-72 he represented the province of Tarlac in the Philippines House of Representatives and his close association with then president Ferdinand Marcos saw him rise to a prominent position as one of Marcos’ closest advisers during which time he built much of his fortune. Never far from controversy during the Marcos era the local media nicknamed him “Pac-Man” for taking over San Miguel, the country’s coconut industry and many other companies.
Cojuangco acted as Chairman and CEO of San Miguel Corp. twice, once in the 1980’s and then again from 1998 – he was forced to relinquish his position in 1986 when he was forced into exile following the ousting of President Marcos. Most of his exile years he spent in Australia breeding and racing horses.
Shortly after his return to the Philippines he ran unsuccessfully for President (1992). Later he was to back the successful bit of film star Joseph Estrada.
Using his political influence Cojuangco was instrumental in building the company into the dominant food and beverage corporation in the Philippines while also diversifying its operations into infrastructure, power and oil.
San Miguel Corporation, founded in 1890, today has over 24,000 employees and an annual turnover of PHP1.02 trillion (US$ 20.67 billion) in 2019. The corporation’s total beer output for 2019 was 301.6 million cases, contributing revenue of PHP142.3 billion.
