For years, the children of former Meralco chairman Manuel “Manolo” Lopez have helped run Rockwell Land. But they never owned enough shares to actually control it. That power belonged to First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH), the giant conglomerate led by their cousin, Federico “Piki” Lopez.

Now, rewind to April 2026. Four of Manolo’s children joined eight other Lopez cousins to publicly challenge Piki’s leadership of Lopez Inc., the family’s main holding company. They were fighting the cousin who chaired the company that controlled Rockwell, the very business they had continued running after the family gave up Meralco in 2009. (READ: The company the Lopezes gave up Meralco for: EDC, from oil crisis child to takeover target)

Seven months later, everything is about to change. On November 12, FPH announced that its board approved selling its controlling stake in Rockwell Land to Crème Investment Corporation, a firm tied to Piki’s cousin, Eugenio “Gabby” Lopez III and his siblings. The price tag: ₱15.92 billion.

Once the deal closes, Rockwell leaves Piki’s FPH group and moves under Gabby’s private firm. Gabby’s side of the family has backed Manolo’s children ever since the third-generation cousins’ feud broke out.

Here is the catch, though: Manolo’s children aren’t the ones buying Rockwell. Gabby is. Their direct ownership in Rockwell remains tiny. What does change is who holds the reins of the Rockwell.

inside track logo The family that runs Rockwell

Rockwell’s ties to Manolo’s family go back decades, to the days when the Lopezes still ran power distributor Meralco. Manolo spent much of his career there and was its chairman when the family gave up control in 2009. 

Rockwell, which was built on Meralco’s old power plant lot in Makati, stayed inside the wider Lopez conglomerate. Yet out of roughly 20 third-generation Lopez cousins, it is Manolo’s children who remain the true face of Rockwell.

RLC. Rockwell Land Corp. president and CEO Nestor Padilla (left) and Ambassador Manuel “Manolo” Lopez during Rockwell’s Listing Ceremony on May 15, 2012. Courtesy of Rockwell Land Corp.

Manolo chaired Rockwell until he passed away in January 2023. Longtime executive Nestor “Tong” Padilla took over and now serves as chairman and CEO. Meanwhile, Manolo’s sons still hold major roles at the company. Miguel Ernesto Lopez sits on Rockwell’s board and serves as its treasurer and senior vice president for office development. Manuel “Beaver” Lopez Jr. is vice president of Rockwell Land and president of Rockwell Leisure Club.

Rockwell Land board of directorsRLC BOARD. Rockwell Land Corp.’s board of directors, including (seated from left) Miguel Ernesto Lopez, Nestor Padilla, and Federico “Piki” Lopez; Miguel Ernesto Lopez (standing, extreme right) and Benjamin Ernesto Lopez (standing, third from left). Courtesy of Rockwell Land Corp.

In a recent group photo of Rockwell board of directors, taken before the third generation Lopez cousins’ feud became public in March, Piki and his brother Benjamin “Jay” Lopez appear right next to their cousins. Piki is Rockwell’s vice chairman, and Jay is a director. Those titles show how involved the family still is. But holding a job or a board seat is very different from owning the controlling shares.

A 0.53% reality check

These ownership numbers show how the Lopez family split up its businesses across its different branches. Originally, the four second-generation branches held equal shares in Lopez Inc., the private holding company at the very top. Each branch also held smaller slices of individual companies down the line.

Rockwell followed this arrangement. FPH owned nearly 87% of Rockwell’s common shares. Meanwhile, Mantes Corporation, the firm tied to Manolo’s branch, held just 0.53%. Piki and siblings’ Croslo Holdings owned 0.01%, while public stockholders held the remaining 13%. When you include voting preferred shares, FPH controlled 90.74% of the total votes.

Manolo’s branch also had an indirect slice of Rockwell through Lopez Inc., which controls Lopez Holdings, the parent company of FPH.

When the family was getting along under one roof, it was easy to ignore the gap between managing a company and owning it. Manolo’s heirs could run Rockwell and enjoy its success without having the votes to pick the board or decide if the company gets sold. Those big decisions belonged to FPH—and to Piki, who chaired FPH and served as Rockwell’s vice chairman.

The heirs who challenged Piki

That gap between running the company and owning it became a huge deal when the family feud exploded earlier this year.

On April 27, four of Manolo’s children—Beaver, Maria Margarita Lopez Lichauco, Miguel, and Martin—joined eight other cousins to sign a public statement called “A Matter of Trust and Governance.” They announced they had lost trust in Piki and wanted him removed as president of Lopez, Inc.

That April, the majority cousins released two sharp statements questioning Piki’s leadership and First Gen’s multibillion-peso deals with Enrique Razon Jr.’s Prime Infrastructure. “Who is Piki working for?” they asked in one statement. In another, they accused him of acting “like a king without accountability.” (READ: Who writes the Lopez story? How lawyers, headlines, and ABS-CBN shape a family war)

For Manolo’s children, the fight was extra awkward. They were openly challenging Piki while still working at Rockwell—a company controlled by Piki-led FPH.

By September, Piki had consolidated his leadership of Lopez Holdings and FPH. 

Then came the November 12 Rockwell announcement.

Screenshot from Rockwell’s November 13, 2026 disclosure. Trading one cousin-boss for another

Under the new deal, FPH will sell its controlling block of Rockwell common and preferred shares to Crème for about P15.92 billion. The sale still needs regulatory approval from the Philippine Competition Commission and must go through a mandatory buyout offer for remaining public shares.

Once it goes through, Crème replaces FPH as Rockwell’s controlling owner.

Keep one thing in mind: the buyer is Crème (from Geny and Gabby’s side of the family), not Mantes (from Manolo’s side). Whether Manolo’s children keep their management roles and influence will still depend on Rockwell’s board and its new boss.

Still, this is a massive shift for Manolo’s heirs. Rockwell will no longer answer to FPH, the company chaired by the cousin they publicly fought. Instead, it moves under the private firm of Gabby, the cousin who they fought with.

Selling Rockwell doesn’t mean the cousins have completely untangled their finances. Through Mantes, Manolo’s branch still owns about 29.17% of Lopez Inc. Presta Holdings—tied to Presentacion Lopez-Psinakis’s branch—owns another 15.98%. Both branches backed Gabby during the family dispute, and together they still own roughly 45% of Lopez, Inc. Piki’s Croslo holds another 29.17%, while Ramon Ang’s group holds the 25.68% stake it bought from Crème.

Must Read Ramon Ang buys his way into Lopez Inc., which owns what he already builds Ramon Ang buys his way into Lopez Inc., which owns what he already builds

Since Lopez Inc. controls Lopez Holdings—which in turn controls FPH—Manolo’s and Presentacion’s branches are still indirectly invested in First Gen and its power businesses, including Energy Development Corporation. Mantes also owns a small, direct slice of FPH.

This puts Manolo’s branch on both sides of the Rockwell deal. They are a minority owner of the property company being sold, and an investor in FPH, which gets the ₱15.92-billion payout. Because that money goes to FPH rather than straight into the cousins’ pockets, their financial upside depends on how the sale boosts FPH’s value and how FPH spends the cash.

Rockwell may be leaving Piki’s corporate umbrella, but Manolo’s heirs still have money riding on the energy empire he runs.

A new chapter, not a clean break

For Manolo’s family, Rockwell was the one business that stayed close to their hearts after the Lopezes gave up Meralco. They kept key leadership jobs at the property firm, even while FPH held the actual ownership power. (READ: The Lopezes, presidents, and the cost of dissent)

This sale flips that dynamic. Rockwell moves from Piki’s FPH to Gabby’s Crème. Manolo’s heirs will stay on as minority owners, with their future roles at the company yet to be decided. Their direct stake in Rockwell stays small, while their indirect money in Piki’s power businesses stays huge.

The cousins are splitting up the companies they run much faster than the investments they still own together. For Manolo’s heirs, the Rockwell deal changes who holds power over the company they helped build. What it doesn’t settle—at least not yet—is who will end up owning what across the rest of the Lopez empire. – Rappler.com

Part 2 on Sunday, November 15 | Why Gabby Lopez wants Rockwell as ABS-CBN struggles
Part 3 on Monday, November 16 | Why Piki Lopez is letting Rockwell go

Lala Rimando wrote about Philippine business, and managed newsrooms, including Newsbreak, ABS-CBN, Rappler, and Forbes, for over 25 years. She’s now based in La Union, taking care of her mom with dementia, and working on the multimedia biography of the late John Gokongwei.

ALSO ON RAPPLER