Salvador Zamora II’s quiet attempt to turn a distressed telco and a digital-media beachhead into a new platform of influence In the Philippine business sector, tycoons tend to prefer hard assets: mines, ports, power plants, property, and pipelines. Salvador “Buddy” Zamora II , long associated with mining, energy, and industrial ventures, now appears to be edging into a more intangible but potentially more powerful domain: connectivity, cybersecurity, and media distribution . Through his seat at PT&T Corp. , and through the broader Menlo Capital orbit associated with Salvador Zamora and Benjamin Bitanga , he has become linked to two assets that sit close to the nerve center of the modern economy: PT&T , a rehabilitating telecommunications company, and Rappler , a digital-media company in which Menlo-linked interests have been reported to hold exposure. The temptation is to call this a comeback story. It is better understood as an option. PT&T is not yet a challen...