FORMER president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Friday paid tribute to veteran journalist, publisher, and The Manila Times Chairman Emeritus Dante Arevalo Ang, describing him as “a man who lived fully, fought hard for what he believed in and refused to live timidly.”
Ang, who passed away at 83, was laid to rest at the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Las Piñas City on Friday.
In her eulogy, Arroyo said Ang belonged to that tradition of Filipinos who built themselves through instinct, courage and relentless hard work.
“He did not come from privilege. He came from such an impoverished family that he and his six siblings were distributed among different homes, like the 1957 movie ‘All Mine to Give,’” she said.
Arroyo said Ang emerged from the rough and competitive world of business and media, where “survival depended on persistence, relationships and the ability to read the thoughts of ordinary people.”
“Through determination and entrepreneurial drive, he built institutions that became part of the national conversation. One of the institutions he so famously rebuilt was the iconic Manila Times, which he purchased in 2001,” she said.
Arroyo said many knew Ang as a publisher, a businessman, a political figure, but those who dealt with him personally knew another side of him, “deeply protective of the people he cared for and intensely committed to the causes and leaders he believed in.”
“Today, we do not speak mainly of the public figure. We speak of the man, a friend, a colleague,” she said.
Arroyo said she first met Ang in 1992. She was a senator, while Ang was helping the presidential campaign of former speaker Ramon Mitra.
“Soon after I won that election, my husband Mike and I asked Dante to handle my public relations. Mike asked him how much his fee was and paid him P25,000. Then almost immediately, Dante gave me a check for P25,000,” Arroyo said.
“He said that was his contribution for my political future, and he told me he believed that I had the makings of a president in 1992, that long ago. At that time, Dante’s media market focused very much on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and showbiz fans,” she said.
Arroyo also said that because of Ang’s earlier work with former Labor secretary Blas Ople during the great wave of labor migration in the 1970s, he understood overseas Filipinos very well.
As for showbiz, Arroyo recalled that one day while flipping through a magazine, Ang concluded that she and superstar Nora Aunor closely resembled each other.
“So he arranged a highly publicized meeting between Nora and me at the Manila Hotel and then from then on packaged me as that Nora Aunor of the Senate,” she said.
Arroyo said Ang also invited her to speak at his many OFW events here and abroad.
“Those efforts, his public relations ideas, have broadened my public connection nationwide and contributed to my becoming the number one senator in the 1995 elections,” she said.
“And then when I became number one senator, sure enough, based on Dante’s prediction in 1992, I became a presidential possibility. And the first dominant figure in my campaign who joined my train toward the presidency was therefore no other than Dante Ang,” she added.
Aside from handling her public relations, Ang introduced Arroyo to many of his businessmen friends, his clients, and encouraged them to support here political campaign as well.
When she became president, Arroyo said it was Ang who recommended Noel Cabrera as her first press secretary and who recruited Rigoberto “Bobby” Tiglao as her spokesman.
“Bobby said that Dante changed his life two times. The first time he recruited him to be my spokesman because prior to that, his world was just the world of journalism,” Arroyo said.
“And the second time that Dante caused a sea change in Bobby’s life was when he recruited him to become the star columnist of The Manila Times. So that’s how, just an example of how Dante touched people’s lives so tremendously,” she said.
In 2002, Ang officially became Arroyo’s senior consultant on public relations. “He was in distinguished company because my only other senior consultants were Bobby Romulo and Vicky Garchitorena.”
Arroyo said Ang “advised me to refer to OFWs as OFI, Overseas Filipino Investors, because the money that they sent back home was not just for sustenance but for human capital formation in the education of their families and even for financial capital for their families’ small businesses at home.”
In 2003, Ang helped her to persuade then-opposition senator Blas Ople, his old friend from the 1970s, to join her administration and become her secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
After the 2004 elections, she appointed Ang as chairman of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas “because that position obviously suited him perfectly due to his deep engagement with overseas Filipinos and may his son, Klink, continue that legacy in the same office.”
Before she left the presidency, Arroyo conferred on Ang the Order of Lakandula, one of the nation’s highest civilian honors, in recognition of his political and civic contributions.
“I was so touched when I went to Dante’s grave two days ago because I saw our picture together and that was the picture of me conferring on him the Order of Lakandula and next to that was the frame of the Order of Lakandula itself,” she said.
“And so I enjoyed looking at the picture and the frame and listening to the Christmas songs of Elvis Presley because Dante and I were both big fans of Elvis Presley. The Order of Lakandula is bestowed upon those who exemplify dedication to his writing, leadership and fortitude,” and Ang embodied those qualities, she added.
It was Ang, who led the CFO as its chairman from 2005 to 2010, who brought the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) to Philippine shores.
To labor experts and migrant advocates, the establishment of Manila in 2007 as an official NCLEX testing site was more than a policy win; it was a “structural victory” that humanized the migration process.
Before this breakthrough, the “brain drain” was preceded by a “wallet drain.”
Aspiring nurses faced a mountain of debt from airfare, hotels and visa fees just to sit for a test and the amount spent reviewing and preparing for the rigorous exam.
Ang saw this as a systemic barrier that punished talent.
Through negotiations with the United States National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Ang successfully advocated for Executive Order 550.
When Manila finally became a testing site, it didn’t just lower costs — it leveled the playing field for every Filipino nurse.
The mission to protect “kith and kin” was a hallmark of the Ang family.
Dante “Klink” Ang built on this foundation, shifting the CFO’s focus toward “diaspora engagement.” The goal was to ensure the government protected Filipinos from the very first step of their journey.
The elder Ang’s tenure was defined by what many consider a “fatherly” approach to governance. He was a leader who prioritized results over the spotlight, possessing a “quiet strength” that reshaped how the Philippines handles global mobility.
Under his watch, the CFO wasn’t just a bridge to the outside world; it was a shield. He expanded predeparture orientation programs, ensuring that the migration experience — symbolized by the NCLEX success — was backed by rigorous state protection.
Today, local NCLEX testing remains a cornerstone of the country’s migration infrastructure.
