Sonny Coloma

Publisher

SONNY COLOMA served as Communications Secretary under President Benigno S. Aquino III; Head of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) under President Corazon C. Aquino; and Transportation and Communications Undersecretary under President Joseph Ejercito Estrada. He was the Don Jose Cojuangco Professor of Business Management at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) where he also served as Dean of Executive Education. He was President of the University of Makati. In the private sector, he was a senior executive of a commercial bank. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Southeast Asian Inter-Disciplinary Development Institute’s School of Organization Development, an MBA (With Distinction) from AIM and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Philippines. He is the author of DIWA: Spirit-Led Organization in the Philippines and Pillars of Good Governance; and co-author of The Moving Train: Strategy, Organization and People; and KAPWA: Toward a Filipino Management Ethos.

‘Papa Francisco, we love you’

April 23, 2025 4:10 pm

In January 2015, I met Pope Francis and received his blessings when he came to the Philippines. Ten months later, in November 2015, I met him anew when I joined President Benigno S. Aquino III in a personal call at Domus Sanctae Marthae (Casa Santa Marta) in the Vatican where the Holy Father had been residing since his election on March 13, 2013.  I write this memoir as my modest effort at honoring his memory. 

Worthy candidates deserve broad public support

April 16, 2025 9:40 pm

After all these years, it’s only while writing this column last week that I came upon an interesting discovery.  Ceferino Paz Arroyo, Jr. is the real name of the late former Senator Joker Arroyo whom I admired greatly as one of the non-traditional politicians to have emerged from the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. That watershed event is, of course, what led to my career in government service, an event I did not dream nor plan for, but one I was only too happy to have experienced, alongside my career in the academe as a teacher, and in business as a corporate executive.

SM Investments: A powerhouse of growth and stability

April 09, 2025 4:16 pm

At an early age, I became aware of Shoemart Carriedo or SM. On my birthday, my mother would bring me to Quiapo church to hear mass, after which we walked over to the Brown photo studio on Dasmariñas street for my solo portrait. Then we would go to SM Carriedo, one of the first shoe stores to be establised in the late 1950’s after the first one was opened on Avenida Rizal. 

Alex Eala: Pride of the Filipino nation

April 02, 2025 4:01 pm

For more than a week last month, Filipinos savored with pride the brilliant performance of 19-year-old Alex Eala on the tennis courts of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. Entering the World Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 event with a world ranking of no. 140 among women professionals, she went all the way to the semifinals before bowing out and earning the no. 75 rank.

Principled unity: Lessons from history

March 26, 2025 11:07 pm

The recent arrest and extradition of former President Rodrigo Duterte to face trial for alleged crimes against humanity has reignited deep divisions in Philippine society.