“When I was hired by the Philippines Herald, that began my real-to-goodness career in journalism which I never left”
Last week, I got an e-mail from the Rotary Club of Manila that I’d be awarded on June 16, 2022 (Thursday) the LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AS OUTSTANDING JOURNALIST in the 2022 RCM Journalism Awards.
Honestly, I had mixed feelings on reading the RCM letter. I was not only surprised in my twilight years that a very prestigious organizaton like the RCM would remember and take notice of me as a journalist of over 70 years.
During its more than 100 years of existence, it has on its roster prominent personalities and leaders of the academe, business and government notably President Fidel V. Ramos and United Nations’ First Asian President Carlos P. Romulo.
In RCM’s letter to me, it cited Benjamin Franklin’s words: “What does it take for a journalist not to be forgotten. Either write things worth reading or do things worth the writing. Emil Jurado did both.
“His work — reporting, writing a column, teaching future journalists — all done in every exemplary way would not risk a reversal by posterity’s critical assessment with the benefit of hindsight. His genius lies in the freedom of thought with the guidance of conscience that characterize his life.”
The citation said “the corridors of power were his hunting ground, his presence a sword of Damocles to those with ill intentions. The opportunity allowed him to accumulate wisdom from those who thought along parallel lines with him and even those with the opposites.
“He mixed all these in one brew and imparted them to his students and younger journalists — the totality of his experiences his gift to them. His lifetime is his legacy to the world.”
Indeed as far as I am concerned, journalism is a “calling”.
The road never ends until I write “30.”
To the Rotary Club of Manila, my eternal gratitude for such an honor. I really treasure it especially at this time of my twilight years.
My thanks goes especially to RCM President Felix Francisco Zaldarriaga and to Amado Valdez, chairman of the RCM Journalism Awards and to all the directors and members of RCM. I hope and pray that I am really worth the award.
With this Life Achievement Award as Outstanding in Journalism, I cannot but reminisce how I became a journalist.
Frankly, my ambition in life was to be a lawyer and perhaps a jurist someday.
My eldest brother, Desi, was a lawyer and a justice of the Court of Appeals.
My other brother, Willie, was also a lawyer but became a businessman.
We all got it from our parents whose lifelong ambition was to have a doctor in the family and a lawyer.
It seemed every Ilocano family’s ambition in life is to have at least one doctor and one lawyer in the family. Well, our parents had three lawyers and one doctor, my eldest sister.
When I was finishing my Bachelor of Arts course at the old Ateneo de Manila at Padre Faura, I was also taking selective subjects in law.
During my third and fourth year in my AB course, I was also associate editor of the Guidon, the college organ which made me familiar with editing and closing the pages of the school organ.
Thus, after our graduation in 1950, an Oblate priest, Fr. Cuttbert Billman from Cotabato City, came to the Ateneo, seeking to find volunteers to handle the “Mindanao Cross,” a weekly paper of the OMI (Oblates of Mary Immaculate) that was circulated throughout Mindanao, but mostly the Notre Dame schools and colleges.
Santa Banana, I could not believe it, but “The Mindanao Cross” had a weekly circulation of 178,000, more than many of the mainstream newspapers in Manila.
Thus, it was only natural that Rudy Tupas, the Guidon’s editor-in-chief and I volunteered to go to Cotabato City. We had a two-year contract. That became my acid test as a journalist. But, at that time, I still wanted to become a lawyer.
After my two-year contract, I came back to Manila to continue my law studies, but at the same time was teaching at the old Ateneo High School at Loyola Heights.
After I passed the Bar, I was taken as junior partner at Salonga and Padilla Law Office, which I thought would be a permanent job.
But, it seemed God had other plans for me when an opportunity came for me to be hired at the defunct Philippine Herald in 1957 as Business Editor.
That began my real-to-goodness career in journalism which I never left.
I am still pounding on my old Olympia typewriter (I never learned to use the computer, which makes me jurassic in many ways.)
I also got into broadcasting when I was hired by the Kanlaon Broadcasting System.
Come to think of it, I never left journalism and I am now in my twilight years.
It is for this reason why I believe journalism is more than a profession. It is a “calling”. This is why I treasure the RCM award because it gives meaning to my calling as a journalist.
I co-founded the Manila Standard back in February 1987, with my good friend Rod Reyes. I have never left the Standard despite some openings in other publications.
I will stay on with The Manila Standard till I write “30.”
Truth, fairness, justice, honor and integrity are things a real journalist must live for, or even die for.
• • •
Events caught up with my column last Friday when I predicted that the oath-taking of president-elect Bongbong Marcos would probably be at the Rizal Park, as suggested by his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, for “sentimental reasons” because their father, President Ferdinand E. Marcos, took his oath of office at the Quirino Grandstand.
It was finally decided that President-elect Bongbong will take his oath-of-office at the National Museum at the old Legislative Building, where Manuel L. Quezon took his in 1935, where also Jose P. Laurel took his in 1943 during the Japanese Occupation, and where Manuel A. Roxas took his in 1948.
The venue is just as well for historical purposes, since the landslide victory of BBM in the May 9, 2022 national election carries with it some historical significance, being a first in many aspects.
Santa Banana, it was a first that an elected President won by a majority vote of over 50 percent. It was also the first time that the old criticism against Marcos like Martial Law and all the bad connotations that go with it did not make a dent at all on the conscience of the majority of the voters.
So, that’s it, at the old Legislative Building where the National Museum is.
• • •
It would do well for the incoming President to correct a very serious mistake that his Press Secretary, Trixie Cruz-Angeles did when she announced that vloggers like her, will be accredited to cover Bongbong’s press conferences and interviews.
It was a serious mistake because vloggers do not have accountability because they are not responsible to any company they represent or to any organization they are involved in and are not responsible for what they do in social media.
It would do well for Ms. Cruz-Angeles and the PCOO to think first on whatever they say because press people tend to interpret her statements as having the approval of the President-elect.
• • •
COVID-19 cases may be increasing nationwide, but the Department of Health says there is nothing to worry about.
Nothing to worry about? The DOH said that before in the past when COVID-19 cases surged/ People may not worry about it, but my wife and I are worried.
