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Jose Concepcion Jr. helped found and headed NAMFREL (National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections), the election watchdog that guarded votes and kept careful tally during the 1986 snap elections. He led millions of NAMFREL volunteers nationwide in an effort to provide fair and true election results. NAMFREL’s parallel count exposed the election fraud and helped set off the chain of events that eventually led to the EDSA People Power of 1986.

As a wealthy industrialist, Concepcion also represented the activism of the business community and its role in bringing about political reforms. It had been claimed that without NAMFREL, Marcos would have gotten away with his declaration that he had won.

Concepcion is still the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Swift Foods Inc. He has been the Chairman of RFM Corporation since 1997. He remains active in NAMFREL, despite the controversy about the organization’s alleged bias in favor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the 2004 elections.

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