Once a byline, now a name business leaders recognize

Loreto Cabañes

oreto “Lori” D. Cabañes, The Manila Bulletin business editor, is a local celebrity in the business beat. Reporters know him, so do leaders in the business community.

Having covered the business beat for almost half a century, 47 years to be exact, Sir Lori, as we call him in the MB Newsroom, has carved a name that speaks of what journalism is in the days when technology did not connect one so easily to Google and Facebook information.

When he was a reporter for 17 years, his was the byline that never left the front page of the Business Section. His advice to any reporter who asks is: “Develop contacts. Cultivate high level sources.”

“The secret of a good reporter is to cultivate your sources, high level sources. Once you have that network already, it will be easier for you to get documents. It will be easier for you to get their views on some matter that will make your story complete,” he noted.

What he considers as his biggest achievement was the result of that advice.

“I made a lot of scoops, enterprise stories, the biggest of which was when I wrote the banner headline of Bulletin Today, naming banker Jose “Jobo” Fernandez, Jr. as the next Central Bank (CB) governor to replace Jaime Laya,” he said.

As a reporter with an instinct to be curious, Cabañes immediately sought to find out who would be the next CB governor.

“My first story for the first edition dealt with who would be the possible replacements. Five names were mentioned. The banner story of the first edition was ‘Laya appointed education secretary.’ For the final edition that day, I continued wondering who would be the choice of President Marcos as the new CB governor,” he said.

“So I worked on the telephone all day, wondering who would replace Laya. Finally, I called Mr. Cesar Zalamea, then chairman of the Development Bank of the Philippines, undoubtedly a very high level source of mine in the banking community at that time.

“When I called him, he could not talk to me because there was a board meeting. I called the secretary, once the meeting is over, tell your boss to call me because I am writing a story appointing him, Mr. Zalamea, as the main central bank governor,” he added.