We want leaders who doubt – MVP

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June 4, 2026 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — As the country and the world face unprecedented uncertainties, business titan Manuel V. Pangilinan has issued a reminder: effective leaders must embrace doubt.

“I hope and pray that we are able to develop leaders who doubt. That I doubt freely – and even proudly – has made me a better person. It has made me a better leader,” Pangilinan said as he spoke at First Pacific’s 45th anniversary celebration on May 23.

Pangilinan, chairman of the MVP Group of Companies, said variety and doubt in life go hand in hand. He described views, beliefs, approaches and doubts as all part of life’s rich tapestry.

Given the sheer presence of variety and doubt, Pangilinan  said leadership requires the ability to manage the increasingly challenging complexities encountered daily.

“We all know business abhors uncertainty and the unknown. But if all things were certain in our world, there is no need for projections or forecasts. There would be no need for CFOs or even CEOs, because there is really nothing for them to do when all forecasts become predictable,” Pangilinan said.

“We shouldn’t dislike the mystery brought by the unknown in our lives. I know it makes life more complicated for us, but it’s also what makes living so dynamic, so alive, so interesting,” he said.

Pangilinan is hoping that such tradition of leadership continues on for the Hong Kong-based First Pacific, an investment holding company in which he currently serves as managing director and chief executive officer.

First Pacific, originally named Overseas Union Finance Ltd., was founded in Hong Kong in 1981. It began as a financial services provider with start-up capital of HK$7 million. The company had six staff in a 50-square-meter office.

Pangilinan recalled the company’s humble beginnings. He said that, at the start, he did not know much beyond deal-making.

“We did know our future was just the vast unknown – pretty much like the recent knee surgery I just had – a major procedure whose broader health implications I failed to assess beforehand,” he admitted.

“If I could go back – and stand again in that small 50-square-foot room and speak to my 35-year-old self – I would tell myself: Look around. There is something sacred about small beginnings that you cannot feel until they are behind you,” Pangilinan said.

He continued: “There was freedom in being young. We risked freely. We didn’t have much in experience and money, but we made up for it in sheer energy, in daring, in taking risks, and almost being promiscuous with it.”

Pangilinan said what started as a pure investment company – investing in banks and trading companies – has evolved in 1988 to become an investment and management firm.

“Eventually, First Pacific’s investments began to connect the dots into something none of us had ever conjured, much less memorialized, into a coherent road map. God, after all, does not write in straight lines,” he said.

“What accumulated, over 45 years of being completely honest with ourselves and our governance, was a group that found itself woven into the fabric of daily Filipino life. The water people drink in the morning. The power that lights their homes at night. The roads that take them to work. The connections that keep them close to the people they love,” the tycoon said.

First Pacific’s investments currently include Indofood in Indonesia, PacificLight in Singapore, as well as Metro Pacific Investments Corp., PLDT Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. in the Philippines.

Pangilinan acknowledged that while it takes ambition and power to build an empire, it equally requires passion for work, as well as   love and care for people, to create a lasting legacy.

“The 45 years  we celebrate today (represent) the First Pacific of the past. We must now put our face forward, and look toward the First Pacific of the future,” he said.