Former president of ABS-CBN Corporation Charo Santos-Concio shared the struggles on her path of being ABS-CBN’s first woman president.
Santos-Concio experienced discrimination first-hand as she was given words like: “What is she doing here? There’s no place for her here!” during her first meeting as a new hire in ABS-CBN.
In a room dominated by men, she also received words that judged her skills as a media executive with a remark that goes, “May alam ka ba sa TV? Pampelikula ka lang.”
It was reported that the ‘welcome’ that Santos-Concio received was from Freddie M. Garcia (FMG) who was also a former president of the network.
The ‘MMK’ host was previously an actress before she ventured into being a media executive. She became an award-winning actress back in 1977 for her performance in Mike De Leon’s Itim.
She revealed in a Youtube vlog by Toni Gonzaga that she considered FMG as both her mentor and tormentor. She explained that she did not let the harsh words drag her down, but she used them as her motivation to be better.
“Hindi ako namemersonal eh kasi nga siguro buo ‘yung loob ko. I know in my heart that I’m good — I should not be discouraged and I will show you. Instead of taking those statements as a personal insult, I take them as a challenge to my ability as a person to grow up and to level up,” Santos-Concio said.
Charo Santos-Concio hosts the longest-running television drama anthology in Asia which is ‘Maalaala Mo Kaya’ (MMK.) She served as the Chief Executive Officer of ABS-CBN Corporation from 2012-2016 after Eugenio Lopez III retired in December 2012.
She became the fifth president of ABS-CBN Corporation from March 2008 to December 2015. She was replaced by Carlo Katigbak who took over as the President and CEO of the company starting on January 1, 2016.
She also served as Chief Content Officer and President of ABS-CBN University.
