Oldest yet finest

Letter

LAST Saturday’s event  marked the 66^th year of Cagayan de Oro Press Club, the oldest yet finest press club this country ever had.

COPC is a year older than the National Press Club (NPC) based in Manila. The latter was founded on Oct. 29, 1952 while COPC was born on Nov. 11, 1951.

COPC is the only press club outside of  Metro Manila which has its own building, a three-story edifice that still proudly stands today as the hallmark of press freedom in this part  of the country.

The late editor and publisher Noli F. Olarte who once served as president of the club has penned this valuable piece of COPC history: “It was in the evening of November 11, 1951 when the Club was organized in Cagayan de Oro City in Northern Mindanao.

“It was actually an informal gathering of pioneer Cagayan de Oro media practitioners, mostly from two local weekly newspapers—the Mindanao Star, the Ang Katarungan, and Henry Canoy who was then struggling hard to build a radio station out of discarded US Army surplus broadcast equipment.

“They were assembled at the residence of Virginia Paraiso who used to write a society column for The Mindanao Star, an old unpainted two-story colonial house on Corrales Avenue.

“Mrs. Paraiso’s husband, Engr. Juan Paraiso, was later handpicked by the late Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay to serve as secretary of public works during his term. Johnny, a migrant from Northern Luzon with his wife who was also an Ilocana, was appointed in a most unceremonious but colorful manner.

“In fact, he was sworn in first in an unscheduled ceremony at the Lumbia airport as President Magsaysay was returning to Manila from a visit to the volcano-devastated island of Camiguin.

“The gathering of newsmen and budding writers was there, not actually to get organized as a press club but to help eat the lechon and other sumptuous preparations of Mrs. Paraiso who was celebrating her birthday.

“The scene was a small unfenced front lawn in the Paraiso home lighted by five or six 50-watt electric bulbs strung over makeshift posts because there was very little garden vegetation to hang them to.

“It had rained in the early afternoon, and the grassy earth was still wet and soft, but a full moon began to peek out of thick clouds in the sky.

“There were some 30 or 40 straight-backed chairs arranged classroom style in the middle of the garden, and long narrow tables up front containing the buffet of goodies.

“There was no blaring music as modern-day parties have, but there was animated conversation among the guests frolicking in rum lubricated elan.

“Not that it was a complete gathering of local newsmen and writers, the late Rodrigo Lim, publisher and editor of bomba-style news pamphlet called Ang Sidlak, was notably not in the group.

“There was a “war” between him and Joe Burgos, publisher-editor of The Mindanao Star, which broke out of political involvement by both of them and they squirted literary venom at each other through their respective newspapers.

“As the evening wore on, someone developed the idea of getting organized.

“I think it was Bein Cruz, then publisher of the Pioneer Press newspaper in Cebu, which was just terrorized to death by the Cuenco political ‘bongotons’ at that time driving Bein and his brother, Fred, to leave Cebu in a hurry.

“They came south. Fred Cruz, who later continued his law studies here and became a lawyer, also became editor of The Mindanao Star and president of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club (COPC) in 1959.

“He was not in the Paraiso party but he was then trying to organize the Cagayan de Oro Rotary Club as Bein was organizing the all-male Cagayan de Oro Jaycees.

“Perhaps carried away by their successes in forming two every enthusiastic civic organizations here, Bein  suggested  the formation of a Cagayan de Oro Press Club, and the reaction from Ginny Paraiso and Joe Burgos was an excitement and chorused: ‘Why not?’

“Thereupon, Bein stood up front and behind the skeletal remains of the lechon to call a meeting to order. Beside Henry, Joe, and Ginny were Manuel V. Quisumbing, editor of Ang Katarungan; Eustaquio Gonzales, representing Don Vicente Neri San Jose, publisher of the Ang Katarungan. (The name Ang Bag-ong Katarungan was coined during martial law [1972] by Augusto “Totoy” Neri, who inherited it from his father.)

“Jose EF Reyes, father of Edmund Reyes of the Philippine Movement for Press Freedom, Cesario Gaane, associate editor of The Mindanao Star, Carmelito Cataylo, editorial writer of The Mindanao Star, and this writer who was a cub reporter for Joe Burgos.

“Right then and there, after unanimous decision to declare ourselves a Club, we nominated and elected the first set of officers: Ginny Paraiso, president; Bein Cruz, vice president; Joe Burgos, secretary; Ciling Gaane, treasurer and so on and so fort.

“The charter members of the Oro Press Club include Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Reuben Canoy, whose fight for freedom went beyond press freedom to include the fight for human rights and justice, catapulting them to the heights of national platforms and reputations.”

Thank you, Noli, for  recording this piece of COPC story. We owe it you and the rest of the pioneers where we are now today.

To the new breed of Cagayan de Oro media, carry on in upholding press freedom in this part of the country! –Ruffy Magbanua, ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com