By Cong B. Corrales
Editor-in-Chief
JOURNALISTS, and media groups from across the country and abroad have expressed grief over the death of Jose Jaime “Nonoy” Espina.
Espina’s younger sister, Inday Espina-Varona announced on her Facebook page on Wednesday night that her brother “passed on peacefully, quietly surrounded by family…at 9:20 pm.” Espina succumbed to liver cancer after surviving a severe infection of Covid-19, she added.
In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines celebrated the life of Espina calling him “a tireless champion for the freedom of the press and the welfare of media workers.”
“He was a press freedom hero worthy of admiration and emulation. From the Marcos dictatorship until the Duterte administration, he consistently served the Filipino people by upholding the truth,” the NUJP statement reads in part.
The NUJP recalled that Espina was among the loudest voices at rallies in support for the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise in March, last year.
“He was also among the first responders at the Ampatuan Massacre in Maguindanao in 2009. He was vocal in the campaign for justice for the victims, which included 32 media workers, and was present at commemorations and in activities leading up to the verdict in 2019,” the statement reads.
Espina turned over the chairmanship of the NUJP earlier this year.
The College Editors Guild of the Philippines honored Espina with the Marcelo H. Del Pilar Award, the highest honor that the organization gives its alumni.
In its citation, CEGP called Espina “without doubt, a leading force in the defense of press freedom and freedom of expression in the country today.”
“Whatever prestige that the NUJP enjoys as a media organization here and abroad, it is owed in great part to [his] leadership,” CEGP said then.
For its part, the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines also condoled with the Espina family.
“While he led rallies in the streets and raised press freedom advocacies everywhere, Nonoy did not loom large over many but was a media everyman, who had a laidback and friendly demeanor that fostered a life of activism in one of the most perilous countries in the world for journalists,” the Focap statement reads in part.
Espina-Varona said her brother preferred to practice his journalism in Negros Occidental. He was a member of the alternative media organization, COBRA-ANS, and an editor of the local Courier. He was also a correspondent of the defunct Today Newspaper and worked for a time in the Lifestyle magazine of The Manila Standard. He became an editor of the online news outfits Inquirer.net and Interaksyon.
“Nonoy also helped colleagues deal with the traumas of the profession. He fought hard for press freedom but always liked to stress its natural link to all freedoms for all citizens. To his last breath, he waved that banner. Patriot, journalist, loving husband, father, and brother, you will not be forgotten,” Espina-Varona said.
