Atty. Augusto “Jake” Almeda Lopez. fphc.com photo 

Lawyer Augusto “Jake” Almeda Lopez, a war veteran and former ABS-CBN vice chairman, has passed away.

He was 95.

Almeda Lopez joined the Lopez Group as head of ABS-CBN’s personnel division in 1961. He spearheaded the company’s name change from Bolinao Electronics to ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation in 1967 and built the ABS-CBN Broadcast Center in 1967-68. 

He also served on the board of several Lopez Group companies.

Almeda Lopez was the son of Domingo B. Lopez, a former governor of Tayabas, Quezon. His mother, Natividad Almeda Lopez, took the bar in 1914 and went on to become the Philippines’ first female judge.

He got his law degree from the University of the Philippines in 1952, placing fourth in the bar exams. He joined ABS-CBN in 1961 and became the media giant's general manager in 1966.

As general manager, Almeda Lopez saw ABS-CBN become the country’s biggest broadcast company.

At 91, Atty. Jake Almeda-Lopez is still fighting for ABS-CBN, the media company he helped shape

He formally retired from the Lopez Group in 2008. He received a lifetime achievement award during the 2016 Lopez Achievement Awards, where Lopez Group chairman Manuel M. Lopez (MML) acknowledged him as a mentor.

“Kapamilya talaga yan, tried and tested,” MML said. Eugenio Lopez III, then chairman of ABS-CBN, added: “Nobody else can talk about ‘In the Service of the Filipino People’ in such an intimate and selfless way the way Atty. Jake could.”

In June 2023, Almeda Lopez was among the 41 war veterans who received the US Congressional Gold Medal, a prestigious distinction given to civilians who exhibited valor and loyalty during World War 2. 

Prior to his years in the Kapamilya network, Lopez served as a staff sergeant and rifleman in Anderson's Guerrillas in Tayabas, Quezon from September 1944 to August 1945.

War veteran Jake Almeda Lopez receives US Congressional Gold Medal