Lala Rimando

About that Lopez vs Lopez cousins' war... If you’re confused, and asking why you should care, you’re not alone. This isn’t just a rich‑family drama. It’s about what happens when a big Filipino clan runs media and power companies, loses ABS‑CBN, makes billion‑peso power deals – and never finishes its family constitution. I’ve written six long pieces to explain how we got here. Here’s the plain‑language version and why it matters to you.

7. THE BOTTOMLINE The legal maneuvering—the silence, the employment status debate, and the program's autonomy—is all about figuring out where the financial and legal buck stops. But in sports law, no waiver or corporate structure can excuse proven negligence.

6. WHY SPONSOR AUTONOMY MATTERS If the basketball program operates as its own heavily funded island, it complicates who is at fault. Supreme Court precedents show that if a sporting event has unsafe conditions, (aheeeem!) both the organizers (school/coaches) and the corporate sponsors can be held liable for damages.

Learned a ton and cleared up some nagging questions about the Rene B. and Divine drowning—and Ateneo’s callous, lawyered-up response—from this sports lawyer interview. It turns out the silence, the sudden resignations, and the paper trail aren't just bad PR. It’s a calculated legal strategy. youtube.com/live/lRGo1pvIj…

The most moving thing I watched today was not Ateneo’s press conference. It was Jessica Soho’s report from Agusan showing Rene Baterbonia’s home, his grandparents, and the makeshift basketball area where he practiced long before he became an Ateneo player. Seeing where Rene came from changes how you view today’s developments. Fr. Bobby Yap issued an unreserved apology. Ateneo accepted the resignations of Tab Baldwin and Epok Quimpo and pledged full cooperation with investigations. But the story is already moving beyond Baldwin. Once the coach and team manager are gone, attention shifts to the larger system that planned, approved, supervised, and assessed the risks of the Aurora activity. The next turning point will not be another apology. It will be a TIMELINE. youtu.be/oxdTPPlv28c?si…

Rest in peace and power, Rene “Bobby” Baterbonia. It was this video that made me cry a river, and prompted me to write about you and Ateneo. @edceltrazo/post/DZYZc-9koil?xmt=AQG0u1f7-6KGhmT4naPbja1tuu6-3ILWxOlABO9NIlbVjYtSKaZNoHC5fdd-_n-dwVjXz_xR&slof=1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">threads.com/@edceltrazo/po…

The Ateneo x Rene Baterbonia story is heartbreaking! It is also crisis comms 101 when people die, a playbook written by Cebu Pacific, Wowowee, Sulpicio, and AirAsia decades ago. Ateneo got to it, sort of, only at the end of Day 3. My breakdown: lalarimando.com/2026/06/11/ate…

Calling expert crisis managers and communicators! Please hold the hand of Ateneo University management in handling both the public and private grief of the family and friends of Rene Baterbonia who drowned during a school event in a resort in Aurora. It’s been 2 days already. The grief and anger of the player’s poor mom are heart wrenching. Please do something. There are best practices for situations like this. Ateneo, get help! facebook.com/share/v/1DZ2Ds…

The Lopez cousins said they wanted peace, but the ceasefire was never going to hold.  It wasn't a truce—it was an intermission. I’m digging into the 'clues' that were hiding in plain sight during those 26 days: the document standoffs, the structural deadlocks, and the reality that this fight is ultimately about who gets to write the history when the dust finally settles. Full analysis on @EsquirePH : esquiremag.ph/money/movers/l…

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit southern Mindanao this June 8, 2026 morning has caused tsunami warnings in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan. 15 casualties accounted for so far. The photos and videos here show the immense devastation in General Santos, Saranggani, and other affected Mindanao areas: bbc.com/news/live/c20y…

Philippine conglomerates “face large debt maturities of about 1.6 trillion pesos ($26 billion) over the next three years,” reports Bloomberg. “The maturities make up nearly a quarter of total debt by Philippine conglomerates and are scheduled to mature between 2027 and 2029,” according to 2025 Financial Stability Report. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

What fascinates me about the Senate crisis is not the politicians. It is the institution beneath them. The Gatchalian bloc says it has the numbers to run the chamber. The Cayetano bloc disputes that and continues to assert its authority. People naturally focus on the speeches, press conferences, and accusations. But once two groups claim authority over the same institution, the practical questions begin. For example: Whose instructions does the Secretary of the Senate follow? Which resolutions enter the official record? Whose orders does the Sergeant-at-Arms enforce? Which committee hearing is recognized as official? When a government agency receives a subpoena, whose subpoena does it honor? When a witness is invited to testify, whose invitation carries authority? These sound like administrative details. They are not. This is how institutions actually function day to day. Most organizations, whether a Senate, a corporation, a family business, or a nonprofit, run on something so basic that we hardly notice it when it is present: clarity about who has the authority to decide. When that clarity disappears, people who were hired to keep records, provide security, organize meetings, and implement decisions suddenly find themselves caught in the middle of a political contest they did not create. That is when a political dispute stops being just politics and starts becoming a governance problem.

I consume Marcoleta the way historians consume primary sources: in writing, at a safe distance.

There are political arguments. There are legal arguments. And then there are the arguments coming from the Cayetano bloc-slash-Dutertards these days.

The most endangered species in the ongoing Senate “hearing” is logic.

"The ones who succeed beyond the third generation are those who do what they love, but are also not in love with the business to the point that they hang on to a sinking ship." Corporate governance, family constitutions, and knowing when to seek outside counsel—these were our topics in a recent episode of Let’s Talk with @piahontiveros. We decoded the live case study of the Lopez family empire's current public rift. A must-watch for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and students of corporate strategy. Watch the full interview here: 🔗 youtu.be/olG0D6Ud9bE