Eugenio Moreno López Jr., popularly known as Geny López, was the chairman emeritus of ABS-CBN Corporation from 1997 to 1999. He was known within the López Group of Companies as "Kapitán". His great-grandfather Eugenio J. López was known as "Kapitán Eugenio" during his time.
Geny, as Lopez was fondly called, being the eldest child in the family was groomed by his father Don Eñing to be his successor for his business empire, including ABS-CBN. In doing so, Don Eñing was very hard on him and he worked harder to live up to his father's expectations. At that point, Don Eñing also owned the Manila Electric Company, the biggest power distributor in the country and the Manila Chronicle, a newspaper publishing company. Don Eñing also owned vast haciendas of sugar lands in Western Visayas and a recognized chieftain of businessmen involved in sugar industry. On 1972, President Ferdinand Marcos imposed Martial Law in the country. Soon after that, the Lopezes themselves became victims of Martial Law. In November of that year, two military officers visited Lopez at his Meralco office in Pasig City and invited him to Malacanang Palace, the President's official residence and office. Unknown to him, he was brought instead to the headquarters of the Presidential Security Command within Malacanang compounds. There, he was accused of conspiring with Sergio Osmeña III of attempting to assassinate Marcos. Osmeña, fondly called Serge, was the son of then Senator Sergio Osmeña Jr., a political rival of Marcos in 1969 elections and a grandson of former President Sergio Osmeña. During their incarceration, Serge and Geny became close friends and were soon transferred in the Maximum Security Unit in Fort Bonifacio, the headquarters of the Philippine Army in Makati City. In 1973, with a promise by Marcos to release Lopez on the condition that Don Eñing give up some of his big businesses and turn over such to him, his family and his cronies. Thus, Don Eñing relinquished ownership of these businesses to Marcos. However, Lopez was not released and Don Eñing was double-crossed. Don Eñing died in exile in the United States in 1975. In November 1974, Lopez embarked on a hunger strike along with Osmeña to protest the unjust detention of thousands of innocent Filipinos. This resulted in the release of 1,022 political prisoners in December 1974. Defiant to the very end, Osmeña and Lopez escaped from their maximum security prison cell in Fort Bonifacio on October 1, 1977. They immediately went into exile in the United States. In exile, they became the directors of the Movement for a Free Philippines, an organization of anti-Marcos Filipinos in the United States that seeks for peaceful restoration of democracy in the Philippines. After the People Power Revolution, he re-acquired ABS-CBN and re-established it to become a prominent media conglomerate in the Philippines. In 1995, the Gawad Geny Lopez Jr. Bayaning Pilipino Awards was formed by Lopez and his friend Fr. Nilo E. Tanalega, S.J. of UGAT Foundation, Inc., and named after him. The awards was given to the heroes and achievers in the society. In 1996, after grooming his eldest child, Eugenio "Gabby" Lopez III to be his successor in ABS-CBN, just like his late father did to him before, Geny retired from corporate business life and let Gabby be the chairman/CEO. His second brother, Oscar, took over the leadership of the Lopez Group, which has supervision over the Lopez-owned companies from him and his third brother, Manuel became the chairman and CEO of Meralco, which he previously held.
