The man who makes sure GMA stays afloat

Switching networks. The local broadcast industry is rife with it. One can spend an entire day thinking of everyone in television that have gone from Kapamilya to Kapuso, and vise versa. The recent entry of Manuel V. Pangilinan’s TV5 also adds the third dimension to the Philippines’ formerly 2D television picture.

Switching networks—if someone made an argument that this defines the television industry, would you blame him?

But what most people do not know is that the most important person to ever switch networks neither stands in front of a camera to act nor sits behind it to direct.

His name is Felipe S. Yalong. He doesn’t memorize scripts or, as far as we can tell, he can’t cry on cue. But day in and day out, GMA Network Inc.’s chief financial officer (CFO) is the guy that makes sure the company stays afloat, and that everyone gets paid.

Yalong is the third leg of the tripod that keeps GMA standing. The two others, of course, are chair Felipe L. Gozon and president Gilberto R. Duavit Jr.

Like many of the Philippines’ movers and shakers, Yalong was a “graduate” of SGV & Co., the country’s top accounting firm. One of his closest friends there was Jaime J. Bautista, the current president and chief operating officer (COO) of flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL).

From the rival

He has been with the company since 2002 and aside from being in charge of finances, he also sits on the company’s board of directors. In 2010, GMA 7 posted a net profit of about P3 billion, so Yalong and the rest of the management team must be doing something right.

But before helping steer GMA into the behemoth that it is today, Yalong, like many in the industry, started out with the rival company, ABS-CBN.

“I got an invitation from Geny Lopez to join ABS-CBN. I started out as comptroller, and my boss at the time was Gaby Lopez, who was finance director,” Yalong says in a recent interview with the Inquirer.

“I saw how ABS-CBN grew. I was there when they became number 1,” he says. His apprentice at the time was, not surprisingly, Rolando Valdehueza, ABS-CBN’s current CFO.

He recounts how ABS-CBN reaped the benefits of the end of Martial Law in more ways than most people at the time.

When leading networks’ IBC 13 and RPN 9 were sequestered, the leading TV programs at the time had but one place to move to: ABS-CBN.

This, together with a sparkling initial public offering (IPO), gave ABS-CBN the content and resources it needed to climb to the top of the country’s television industry.

“For some time, ABS-CBN monopolized the industry. They controlled close to 70 percent of the market,” Yalong says.

Like all good things though, his stint with ABS-CBN had to end. He left the company after a decade and, as a courtesy to his boss the late Geny Lopez, Yalong refused to take a job at other broadcast companies, despite several requests.

“I started a trading company with my      brother and we did that for a while,” he says.

Then, Geny Lopez passed away, shaking the foundations of the country’s television industry. Some would even say that Geny Lopez was the industry’s foundation.

His passing marked the end of an era for the country’s broadcast scene, but this also opened the door for Yalong to return to the industry.

Joining GMA

It was 1999, and with his former boss now gone—replaced by son Gabby Lopez—that Yalong joined GMA Network Inc. on the invitation of the Jimenez family.

“When Geny died, I got a call from the Jimenez family, and they offered me a job. I was initially hired as a consultant,” Yalong says.

“My job was to prepare the company for an IPO,” he says.

It may have been the new millennium, but Yalong says when he first joined GMA, the company might as well have been in the Stone Age.

“They were still using ledger manuals. Computers were only there for writing reports,” Yalong says. “Our first major expense was to buy computers. That was our first major capital expense.”

He says the Jimenez family, which owned a substantial stake in GMA, wanted to cash in on their investment at the time by selling out. “There were already talks with Manny Pangilinan when I joined the company,” he says.

Instead of a Pangilinan investment, GMA’s management team eventually set its sights on IPO cash. But getting the company’s books in order by buying a bunch of computers would not be enough to bring GMA to its full potential.

Now supported with financial soundness, Yalong says GMA’s next step at the time was to expand its network reach, especially in provinces, while at the same time building up its content portfolio.

“Up until last year, a big chunk of our earnings were earmarked for the expansion of the network,” Yalong says. The company did this while aggressively developing its talent pool by getting stars from ABS-CBN and developing its own.

Unseating ABS

All of this finally paid off at the start of this year when, for the first time since Martial Law, ABS-CBN was unseated as the country’s television king. Based on data from AGB Nielsen, GMA now has more viewers nationwide. Up until the end of last year, GMA’s lead was isolated only to the viewer-rich Metro Manila area.

“Now that we have the nationwide lead, advertisers no longer have any argument against us,” he says. He notes that in the past, advertisers have always cited ABS-CBN’s lead in nationwide ratings when negotiating with GMA for ad minute rates.

He says aside from investing heavily in its content and network, GMA’s success over the last decade can also be traced to ABS-CBN.

“ABS-CBN never really considered us a threat,” Yalong says, noting that for a time, their rival was complacent with its position at the top of the industry. “But if that’s the way your executives view your competitors, maybe there’s something wrong with your company,” he says of his former employer.

He says this was one mistake that GMA is doing everything it can to avoid, especially with the entry of TV5. “We’re looking carefully at each of their moves. All rivals are threats to our existence,” he says.

He says the company is not only watching its back for its competitors, but also looking towards the future to ensure the growth of GMA—a traditional television network competing in an ever-changing market.

“We’re looking at other investments like online publishing, promotions and partnerships with foreign groups,” Yalong says.  All of its ventures, of course, will be supported by GMA’s reach of news and entertainment content.

And at the end of the day, he says the goal for all this is simple: for everyone in the country to see the light and switch networks too.