AN OVERVIEW OF CEBU’S CONTEMPORARY MASS MEDIA

Editor of the six years old Sun Star Daily, Cheking Seares was editor of the The Freeman before he led a splinter group away from the paper to organize the Sun Star Daily. Until the advent of SSD, The Freeman and the Visayan Tribune were the two competing dailies in Cebu. There were other newspapers, but they hardly survive the harsh economic environment of the city. Many of them were politically-oriented and funded publications.

Only a couple of years earlier, some of Cebu's media community members were imprisoned by the military for what they had written and believed in, during the months immediately before the proclamation of martial rule.

Pres. Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in July, 1972, and he simultaneously had Cebu journalists who were gravely critical of his administration arrested and imprisoned, like their counterparts in Manila.

Fortunately, they were soon released after spending a week or so in detention in the Philippine Constabulary stockade in Camp Sergio Osmena, Sr. along Jones Av., they were set free. They were largely detained on suspicion that they belonged to the island's radical left, and hence, could possibly lead a movement against the government. Or the PC felt it has asserted enough of its martial powers to cow the local media community.

But the unbridled activism for truth of some members of the island's media could not be contained with mere threats of incarceration. They went on their merry way with but very little leeway for caution, in so far as adherence to policies of the martial law government is concerned or of their news treatment of the Marcos administration. I know this to be true for at that time, I was the regional director of the Ministry of Public Information.

Today, the media community of Cebu is as vibrant and dynamic as ever. Many of the old guards are gone. The media practitioners who had covered then both the city and provincial governments, are almost all gone now. Only a few have remained. And it is the few who are is at the moment witnessing and guiding the progress of Cebu's new generation of journalists on the straight and sturdy path to professional performance. The state of Cebu media in the 1950s is a far cry from the current Cebu media today. Many years back, when the University of the Philippines conducted a nationwide survey on the "Communications Problems at the Barrio Level" with funds provided by the United States economic assistance program through Prof. John de Young, an exchange professor in sociology, there were hardly three out of ten families with radio sets.

There was only one radio station that was listened to by the people at the outbreak of the Second World War and resumed operation when the Americans liberated Cebu City. Its popularity among the people picked up where it left off in late 1941, but only because its program format also resumed its popular amateur singing contest early in the evening. But in that period of Cebu City's history, that was all the broadcast medium it had.

It is no longer so today. As of this moment in April, 2005, Cebu City has possibly the highest concentration of tri-media infrastructure in the country, next only to Manila. In the print media sector, Cebu City has three English community dailies with claimed circulation of more than 30 thousand each, and three vernacular dailies also with quite extensive circulation, the least among which is the Bandera, being the "youngest."

And finally, the audio visual broadcast sector, the television which is probably the hottest medium in the country at the moment, in so far as the comparable mass attraction of the tri-media is concern. The reality of the reach of electric power up into the hinterland, is attested to by the power lines crossing from mountain to mountain, lighting up distant city barangays and beyond, points to the wide reach of the broadcast media.

The keen and heated competition for the mass audience between the two giant television networks of the country, is easily felt by the viewers through the programming of each, especially for the non-tagalog audience. The two networks also have their respective radio stations that cater to radio dramas or soap operas, in the same manner that the TV stations promote quite intensely tele-novelas which are imported.

At any rate, there are ten television stations in the city, with one cable TV, the Sky Cable. But the more significant ones, outside of the two big networks, the ABS-CBN and GMA 7, include RPN 9, PTV 11, IBC 13, ABC 21, CCTN 47, Channel 23, Channel 27 and SBN 6. The CCTN or Cebu Catholic Television Network is relatively new, less than three years old, but it is reaching out to audiences in Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao.

In terms of media infrastructure, Cebu City appears to be up-to-date in quality, although it may be behind in quantity. But the latter could be largely due to audience density, being an island, unlike Manila that is contiguous to the provinces of Luzon.

go top

Starting a Media Tradition

IT IS not quite clear really, when the initial publishing effort was first undertaken in Cebu. While Philippine history states that Cebu was the last island Magellan landed on before he died in the hands of Lapulapu, it is obvious that Cebu did not get to print a newspaper until more than 300 years later. Perhaps, the story would have been different if Spain had not decided to make Manila the base for its colonial government in the islands. In a paper called "A Short History of Cebu 1500 - 1897" by Dioniso A.Sy, a historical researcher, it was pointed out that the first recorded printing press in Cebu "which was also the first outside Luzon," was the Imprenta de Escondrillas y Compania owned by Domingo de Escondrillas. It started operation in 1873, but lasted only three years. Its owner, Escondrillas was also a writer and publisher. It was managed by Felimon Roa.

In any case, historical records point to 1886 as the year when a Cebu news weekly first appeared. Called El Boletin de Cebu, it carried news and discussions of current issues that concerned not only the developing urban community, but also the whole country as well. EL Boletin, a four page, four column weekly that measured 12 inches wide and 17.5 inches long was published and edited by Don Eduardo Jimenez Frades and printed in Cebu.

Printed in the press that it owned-the second one in Cebu--the weekly's content was generally pro-Spanish, especially in matters of political issues. It was, of course expected, considering the social and political environment of the period. That it was printed in its own printing press bought from Chofre y Compania, indicated that the publication had the capability to survive longer than it did.

That it shied away from advocacies of liberal ideas, in some way, assured its survival. But the El Boletin ceased publication in early 1898. Management of the paper fell into the hands of Alfredo Velasco when Jimenez died in 1888. But the start of revolutionary hostilities in Cebu 1898 forced Velasco to stop its publication. Velasco had written a "monograph entitled "La Isla de Cebu" which came out in 1892.

There was still a third printing plant in Cebu that emerged early in the last decade of the 19th century. This one started operation in 1891, the year before Velasco came out with his monograph that probably opened the way for him to occupy positions of influence in the developing city's ayutamiento. The third printing press was owned by the Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos, which mainly produced then religious literature.

Among its publications were guides to religious worships, such as Tulomanon sa mga Celadores ug Celadorassa Corazon de Jesus ug sa Spostolado de la Oracion, 1893, and Devocionario para el Alma Devota, by Fr. Tomas Concepcion in 1897.

go top

The Turn of the Century Media

THE advent of the Americans late in the final decade of the 19th century, elicited an onrush of nationalism and determined pursuit of independence, particularly among those who were in the thick of the earlier revolution against Spain. Frustration level was high among Cebuano members of the illustrados who must have been deeply disappointed to realize the ouster of the Spanish colonials merely allowed the entry of the Americans.

Thus, the Spanish-language weekly newspaper, El Boletin de Cebu, came out during the penultimate decade of the 19th century. It was considered as the only commercial paper in the island. When it folded up in 1898, under pressure most probably by the developing events, there was a flurry among Cebuano nationalists to fill up the journalistic void. Men of strong nationalist sentiments came up to put out the turn-of-the-century weeklies.

The influx of liberal ideas during the revolution against Spain and the American entry into the country as the new colonials during the last years of the 19th century, generated strong nationalistic sentiments among the young educated men. There were the brothers Vicente and Filemon Sotto, both irrepressible nationalists, who must have noted the need for a media outlet and so, came out almost simultaneously with their separate weeklies.

All these papers regularly published fiction and verse in their pages. With these outlets, there was much literacy activity. In the August 8, 1914 issue of La Revolution, editor Amando Osorio reported, in an item entitled "100 ka balak Hingtuk-an kami" that he had on his desk a hunded poems by a hundred different writers. Photo: Sun.Star Cebu

The first newspaper that came out in 1899 was the La Justicia of Vicente Sotto and a partner, Matias de Arrieta. At the time of its birth, Cebu was experiencing a fast changing environment. The Americans had already started a measure of censorship. De Arrieta was not quite well known in the Cebu community, so that it is possible he came in as partner-investor in such a high-risk venture that was made even riskier with Sotto's nationalism The Spanish weekly was "born" at a time when the Filipinos were caught in a cross current of international politics. It was not known then that the United States' military strategists had coveted a place in the Orient that would give the US a tactical advantage in the sea lanes of Asia. And the Philippines fitted the bill of particulars. The "purchase" of the Philippines from Spain was said to be actually a fulfillment of such strategic need. It was thus understandable why at the outset of US occupation of the Philippines, the Americans immediately set out to tighten its hold of the archipelago. The La Justicia was styled by the publishers as the first Filipino newspaper published in Cebu, which indeed, it was. Its immediate predecessor, the El Boletin, was Spanish-owned and was "like all Spanish periodicals of the time, devoted to the promotion of Spanish colonial aims…" It was said the Spanish weekly was accepted for printing in the Vincentians' Imprenta de S. Carlos, but only after Sotto agreed that he would never attack the church in its pages. Sotto, it seems, was already well known for his anti-church stance as well as his abrasive ways as a journalist and as a politician. It was probably for this reason, too, that the La Justicia was short-lived. The American military authorities suspended it forthwith.

But Don Vicente Sotto, irrepressible a person that he was, did not wait long to come up with another Spanish weekly, the El Nacional. But like the La Justicia, it was also soon suspended after its first appearance. Then on top of being identified as a nationalist, he was suspected of being an intelligence agent of the revolutionary committee in Manila, and that earned him a two-month incarceration at Fort San Pedro.

If anyone wonders why later on he was using the pen name Taga-Kotta, that 60-day incarceration at the fort was the most appropriate answer. The following year, the last one of the 19th century, El Pueblo appeared also as a Spanish weekly, and was soon enough earning for its publisher/editor a reported 54 cases for libel and sedition. Finally, his political enemies succeeded in "exiling" him to Hongkong for an abduction case.

However, what could be considered then as most significant in the mass media history of Cebu was the appearance in 1901 of the Ang Suga, the first newspaper published in vernacular Cebuano. "A tri-weekly, sold at five centavos a copy, it carried a Spanish section and, as early as 1907, started printing English reports." It was in this tri-weekly's pages that the early Cebuano creative writers saw their work in print.

On the other hand, Don Vicente's less volatile brother, Don Filemon founded in 1899 the El Imparcial which was reportedly a sober and more stable publication. But Don Filemon who was looked up to as a "journalist and a statesman…is better known in publishing as the founder of one of the most important of Cebuano periodicals, the La

Revolucion." First published in Spanish in 1910, the periodical survived until 1941, just before WW II.

There were other publications in Cebu at the turn of the century, the most prominent of these was the El Nuevo Dia of then Don Sergio Osmena , Sr. Jointly edited by Rafael Palma and Jaime C. de Veyra, it was the first daily in the developing city of the Visayas. The El Nuevo Dia was in four-page Spanish, and initially sold at P0.05, then at P0.10, with a circulation of more than a thousand. Unfortunately, it lasted only up to 1903.

In 1902, following the appearance of Don Vicente's Ang Suga, Don Filemon came out with his own Cebuano language periodical called Ang Kaluwasan which was short-lived and gave way to La Revolucion. Another vernacular periodical appeared at about the same time called Ang Camatuoran which was considered as "semi-official organ of the Church." Two Cebu Church groups, PP Paules and Hermanas de la Caridad managed it.

To be sure, there were still a good number of publications that came out in Cebu during the first years of the 20th century. Reading of various observations about the mass media of Cebu at this time, one cannot help likening it to a rambunctious frontier town of mass media where publishing was a fair game, as long as one had money enough to invest and to risk losing. Publishing was like a hobby among Cebuano "activists" in the early 1900s.

The other publications include El Pais that appeared in 1903, the La Opinion and Tingog sa Lungsod in 1904, the Ang Bandila in 1906, and the Kauswagan and the El Precursor both in 1907. The latter was the most important of this particular group of papers according to Dr.Resil B. Mojares, writing about Cebuano literature, "which lasted until the eve of World War II." It was bilingual founded by Mariano Alba Cuenco.

But the turn-of-the-century publications in Cebu were not really a monopoly of the island's capital town. There were also publications from some progressive municipalities, spurred as they must have been with the blooming nationalist sentiments of the period. There were the La Voz de Argao in 1906 and the La Solidaridad in 1907. In 1909, the town of Barili came out with two, the Bagong Dila and Atong Catungod.

go top

Cebu's American Colonial Media

THE heat of Cebuano nationalists' fervor was undeniably behind the publications that emerged in the first three decades of the 20th century. Even when the Americans granted the Filipinos some measure of self-determination, and participation in governance, the heat continued to swelter in the journalistic output of the younger Cebuano writers who did not cultivate any distinction between creative writing and journalism.

Given the fiery output of the Sottos, and with the new democratic idealism of the younger ones like Vicente Ranudo who also wrote poetry, Uldarico Alviola , Juan Villagonzalo, Elpidio Rama who was an essayist, novelist, poet, and short story writer, among a host of others, contemporary cultural observers cannot fail to note a deep sense of nation among the young turn-of-the-century Cebuano journalists and creative writers.

The fact that they were all attempting and seriously trying to write in their native tongue was indication that they were seriously shedding off vestiges of Spanish political and cultural influences, and yet, they were not quite ready to embrace unhesitatingly the American import of the same commodity. While they were writing in Cebuano, trying to standardize its spelling to distinguish it from Spanish orthography, they shunned English.

But what distinguishes the initial period of American "occupation" of the country, was the extension of a rather "friendly" colonial hand-even if it was obviously an imperialist one-to the natives. After 300 years of Spanish rule which confined "education" to the cartilla and the Doctrina Cristiana, the Americans offered a "free market of ideas and of values" that were freely demonstrated through the serious efforts to educate the people.

Whereas the Spaniards came with the intent to convert the natives to Christianity, the Americans wanted to "educate" the Filipinos to become economic consumers of "mass produced American goods". The Spanish goal was spiritual "subjection" while that of the Americans, was economic domination. And all that the developing Filipino intellectuals and nationalists could do was resist, react, and make a lot of noise orally and in writing.

In Professor Mojares' observation, the years between "1910-1940 constituted a high watermark in vernacular publishing in Cebu. The surge of literature and journalism in Cebuano can be explained by a number of factors. It was a time of rising expectations: independence, nationalism, increasing commercial activity, the rise of the middle class, comparatively liberal polices, popular education." It was a celebration of "liberation."

Under such circumstance, the liberation from Spain's conservatism that confined native thought within the parameters of colonial goals, was a big thing to the Cebuano writers and journalists. The 1857 censorship law "barred the propagation of principles and doctrine contrary to the rights of the Spanish throne, or to the religion of the State. Thus, the censorship all but stifled the Filipino creative thought and intellectual discourse.

In a paper titled "Mass Media and the Filipino Family", Ramon A. Tagle, Jr. wrote: "Whereas Spain used the pulpit, America used the classroom, textbooks, newspapers and other printed materials to 'educate' the Filipinos. The American teachers called 'Thomasites' came with their textbooks and began what historian Renato Constantino rightly calls the 'The Misdeducation of the Filipino."

In Cebu, Cebuano writers in the early years of American colonization tried to tone down the American acculturation efforts through the development of what they considered as the indigenous ways of life of the Filipino before they were unexpectedly discovered by Spain, and rescued from their nomadic ways. In those days, according to Tagle, the Philippines was nothing but a group of "warring barangays" or families.

And yet, they were not without a culture of their own. "Before the Spaniards came, the Filipino had already discovered the art of writing. Unfortunately, the Spaniards destroyed most, if not all, of these-in the name of Christianity…The Spaniards brought the sword and the cross, and with these two combined forces, introduced new ways of working." The new ideas and ways of living soon became the norm of life of colonial Cebuanos.

But the select few who were conscious of their heritage as Orientals, with a deep sense of being "not white" but brown, and certainly different from either Spaniards or Americans, turned to the emotional search for cultural identity, and hence went strongly to come up with an outlet of their sentiments. The result was a deluge of publications of all sorts, initially in Spanish, then in bi-lingual Spanish-Cebuano, and then in Cebuano-English.

In 1905, the Ang Camatuoran or The Truth of Padre Pedro Julia saw its first light of day as the third vernacular paper to come out since 1901 when two Cebuano publications were founded that year. The Ang Suga (The Lamp) of Vicente Sotto came out as a tri-weekly, while the Ang Magbabaol (TheFarmer) of Bonifacio Minoza, was a weekly. It signaled the deluge later on of publications in the vernacular.

From 1905 to 1935, some 38 publications saw print in Cebu City, majority of which were weeklies. Only nine were in Spanish five of which were weeklies. Among the four dailies was the El Paez, founded in 1906, and edited by Joaquin Pellicina Y Lopez. The three other dailies in Spanish were the La Boletin Catolico of Mariano Jesus Cuenco, El Espectador of Manuel Briones, and La Opinion of Isidro Vamenta, all founded in 1915.

The two bilingual periodicals that won considerable readership, were the Spanish-Cebuano La Revolucion of 1910, founded by Don Filemon Sotto and El Precursor of Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco founded in 1911. It is interesting to note that in the 10-year period between 1905 and 1915, of 15 periodicals published, there were six dailies and nine weeklies. Of the medium used, nine were in Spanish, four in Cebuano, and two bilingual. This period may be considered the peak of the Spanish language era in the province.

From then on, Spanish as medium of mass communication in Cebu steadily declined. The Cebuano newspapers during the three decades up to 1935, saw the rising patronage of the vernacular publications, with the younger writers deeply immersed in nationalist sentiments and the pursuit of independence, writing not only political features but also poetry, short stories, and novels with the zeal of the newly liberated creative psyche.

The more serious and highly regarded publication during this time were Don Filemon Sotto's La Revolucion in 1910, the Spanish-Cebuano daily which got a competitor on the following year from the El Precursor of Don Mariano Jesus Cuenco. During this period, there were only four Cebuano dailies, but were said to have a field day with the enthusiastic response the publications got from the developing potential Cebuano readers.

One of them was the Ang Kaluwasan of Don Filemon Sotto. Founded in 1907, it went on for three years, but in 1910 was superseded by the La Revolucion, considered to be one of "the most important of Cebuano Periodicals. The La Revolucion lasted until the outbreak of World War II in 1941. El Precursor was not to be outdone. Like a duel to the death, the two bilingual dailies "fought" each other to the bitter end 'till WW II.

The other Cebuano weeklies that saw birth in 1907 was Francisco Labrador's Ang Kauswagan, Ang Pilipinhon of Nicolas Rafols, and the Bag-ong Kusog of Vicente Rama.
The other Spanish weeklies during the 1905-1935 period were generally short-lived, and did not really make a dent in the minds of the Cebuano reading public. Many of them were of course publications that had politics as the central motives in the founders' mind.

It is needless to say though that Don Filemon Sotto was accepted as journalist statesman of Cebu; brother Vicente was a maverick politician who became a senator; and so did Mariano Jesus Cuenco, Vicente Rama and Manuel Briones.. Publishers as they were of Cebuano dailies, it could quite be positively asserted that the tradition of publishing newspapers for political purposes started with them. Until 1972, it was still so.

go top

The Commonwealth Period

IT was a period of nationalist triumph, and the pursuit of independence acquired a touch of reality with the provision in the Tydings-Mcduffie law that said the Philippines will be granted its sovereignty in July, 1946. The day in November 1935 when the Philippines was granted the first step towards its independence and eventual freedom, was a most significant one to the nationalist/politicians who were also journalists in their own right.

From being a Spanish colony for 300 years, and more than a third of the century under American tutelage, the Philippines mass media flourished in a matter of just four decades. The years between 1916 to the start of the Commonwealth in November, 1935, marked the steady decline of Spanish as medium of communication in Cebu. In 1916, Fr. Jose Ma. Cuenco came out with a Cebuano biweekly called Atong Kabilin.

A hiatus of three years ensued, before journalist/poet Vicente Padriga came out with another Cebuano weekly Ang Iwag in 1919. The same year marked the first appearance of an English-Cebuano weekly, The Freeman founded by the Paulino Gullas. This periodical has existed up to now, but recently bought by the Philippine Star. But at that time, it took off with zest, and ceased publication only at the outbreak of the Pacific war.

Photo: Sun.Star Cebu

Again, in 1922 an English-Cebuano daily, The Advertiser, founded by Jose Avila, made its first appearance. This was followed the following year with another English-Cebuano daily, Cebu Daily News of Mariano J. Cuenco. Once more, there was a gap of four years before the bilingual weekly of the Falek family, Star, came out in 1927. Then the first purely English weekly of Vicente Rama called Progress came out in 1928. It was followed with a Spanish-Cebuano weekly El Democrata of politician Nicolas Rafols. But this appeared to be the dying gasp of the Spanish periodical in Cebu.

From that moment in 1928 up to 1935, there was a deluge of 13 Cebuano publications, the most significant of which were Nasud of Pedro Lopez in 1930, Babaye in 1931 of Napoleon Dejoras, Lungsoranon of the Catholic Church which still circulates in Catholic parishes up to now; And Banagbanag of Maximo D. Bas which appeared in 1935.

Encouraged perhaps by the sense of freedom the vernacular writers felt at the onset of the Commonwealth, some 20 more Cebuano publications made their appearance over the next five years. Looking back on this period, what a raucous mass media environment the Cebuanos may have had, with all those vernacular periodicals fighting for their attention and patronage vying to get their P0.05 to P0.10 from their respective pockets.

But what should be most significant in this five-year period, is the appearance of six English periodicals, two dailies, two weeklies, one monthly and one bi-monthly. Only one Spanish daily of the Escano family contested the mass media market in 1940. The two English dailies, The Cebu Herald in 1938 of Cesar Mercader and The Challenger of Cornelio Faigao in 1940, no doubt served as reading fare of the first Cebuano generation educated in English, and schooled in the public schools of the Thomasites.

The outbreak of World War II in December 1941 stopped the mass media fad in Cebu, and abruptly arrested any plans of more publications or expanding of existing ones. In a word, everything stopped with finality as everyone involved in publishing apparently took to the hills. Of course, it did not stop Pete Calomarde-in whose honor a Cebu City street has been named -from putting out Morning Times, a daily in the hills.

Taken in as the Cebu guerrilla daily, it was initially published in 1943 as a mimeographed set. Later it came out printed in letter press. The paper went on through 1944 and 1945 when it became Cebu's first daily during the liberation. It was later joined in the same year by The Pioneer Press, the daily founded by Alfredo Cruz, a non-Cebuano, together with another non-Cebuano, Angel Anden.

It can be said here that the two founders of The Pioneer Press truly pioneered Cebu's real professional commercial newspaper tradition, in the sense that it was without political orientation, and its goal was to attain profit as purely a commercial daily.

go top

Cebu Media in the Post War Decade

The return to normalcy in Cebu, also brought back the operation of the city's only radio station. Opened in 1939 as station KZRC, it was the first radio station in Cebu and outside of Manila. It became most popular when it started a program in amateur singing contest. Managed by Harry Fenton, an American, it became a major source of information that was handicapped only by the dearth of radio units in public hands. Indeed, when a study was undertaken in 1952 by the University of the Philippines under the auspices of the United States' Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) through the US exchange profession Dr. John de Young, called "Communications Problems at the Barrio Level", it was noted of every 100 families in Cebu, there were only an average of three radio units.

Golden boys, 1950s                                Photo: Sun.Star Cebu

It was probably for this reason that Pete Calomarde's Morning Times daily thrived in the rugged mountains. There was no way a radio station could be operated in the Cebu hills. This situation could have been the reason why Harry Fenton , the station head man, decided to join the guerrillas instead. Being an American caught in Cebu by the war, he decided to stay and help organize the resistance movement in the Cebu hinterlands.

Some of the resistance movement leaders were Cebuano survivors of the Bataan war, while others were from Mindanao. But they were able to form a cohesive group with Fenton as the top man. Later, however, perhaps because Fenton did not have a military background, he became somewhat paranoid, and caused senseless executions of soldiers he suspected of betraying the cause. In the end, he was himself tried and executed.

During the Japanese occupation, there appeared a couple of publications, one was called Kadaugan of Cipriano Barba in 1942, but it was said to have lasted only less than a year. An anonymous mimeographed sheet appeared, called the Visayan Press with a pro-Japanese orientation. But it disappeared as fast as it appeared. A third one, the Visayan Shinbun also came out in 1942, edited by Napoleon Dejoras.

However, it was the Morning Times, a guerilla paper edited by Pete Calomarde that lasted up to the end of the war. It was the only source of reliable information about the war, except for the lucky ones who were able to keep their radio units from being confiscated by the Japanese. According to Calomarde, he was publishing his paper with only himself doing the writing, editing and printing in decrepit Chandler.

But at the end of the war, when The Pioneer Press started circulating in mid-1945, other periodicals soon followed. Cebuano vernacular writer Florentino Suico was the first who came out with a weekly, Ang Panahon in early 1946.

A Spanish language journalist, Jose Ma. Del Mar, father of incumbent Rep Raul del Mar of Cebu City's North District, founded the La Prensa , a Spanish bi-weekly.

There were two other newspapers that came out in 1947. One was an English daily, The Republic News, with Dioscoro Lazaro as editor and publisher. But most everyone in Cebu believed that the real owner of the daily was the Cuenco family. The other periodical was a Cebuano weekly called the Katipunan by Manuel Enriquez. In 1950, one more Cebuano weekly, Vicente Suico's Kahayag joined the media melee. Thus Cebu at this point, not only had three English dailies and three Cebuano weeklies, but it also had one Spanish biweekly, making the score of seven periodicals in the mass media market.

Photo: Sun.Star Cebu

It's true though, that while there's a list of the "birth" of Cebu's various print media, none kept tab of how they survived the economic pressures of the time. Hence, while there's a record of their "live birth", there's none about their "death."

We know, though, that two of the three English dailies were able to live through the '50s. These were the veteran Morning Times and the Republic News. Sadly, The Pioneer Press became the first victim of political terrorism that emanated from the 1949 presidential elections. It was an encounter of the Nacionalista Party and the newly organized Liberal Party, a heated one that eventually resulted in cheating and terrorism during the elections.

When the Philippines became independent on July 4, 1946 in fulfillment of the Tydings-Mcduffie Law, the first president was Manuel A.Roxas who won the elections in May, just two months away from July. Roxas took the honor of being the first president of the Republic. Unfortunately, he died of heart attack on 1948 during a visit to Clark Field, the American airbase in Central Luzon. His Vice President Elpidio Quirino, took over.

It was during the incumbency of Quirino that Philippine elections deteriorated. There was rampant fraud and terrorism all over the country. In Cebu, the critical press became the target of the bungotons, the bearded armed followers of political warlords who were hired to make their candidates win. The Pioneer Press became the first media victim in the1951 midterm elections when the editors life were threatened, and they had to stop publication.

go top

Cebu Media at Mid-Century

THERE is no doubting the fact that the Filipino equally profited from the Americans than they ever did from the Spaniards. While at the turn of the century they were almost able to gain a measure of self-determination from Spain with the bravado of a group of Filipino illustrados in Spain who organized to publish a newspaper, and to sway influence in the Spanish Cortes, still the fact remains that it was only under the American regime that journalism and creative writing among the Filipinos grandly blossomed.

This is a reality that should support the notion that free expression did really flourish more under the Americans than it did under Spain. Indeed, the mere fact that about eighty publications saw print in Cebu alone from the close of the 19th century up to 1940, just before the outbreak of World War II, indicate the veracity of such a situation. As mentioned earlier, when the war broke out there were seven new publications in Cebu. Among the seven, one was an English daily, The Challenger, of Cornelio Faigao, one a Spanish daily of the Escano family, one English bi-monthly of the Escano family, and the rest Cebuano weeklies, one monthly and one bi-monthly.

But when the war was over, all these publications closed shop, and none resurfaced in 1945 at the end of the war. In 1950, there were two English dailies, the Pioneer Press that begun publication in 1945 and the guerrilla daily, Morning Times of Pete Calomarde that continued come out in the post-war years. Both showed editorial independence, showing a stance of detachment from the heating up of political competition between the Liberal Party of President Roxas, and later of President Quirino, with the Cuencos as the Cebuano champions, and the Nacionalista Party, the latter being championed by the Osmenas. The Osmenista was led by Serging Osmena, Jr. who became its local head.

At the start of the decade of the '50s, there were of course, the Spanish bi-weekly La Prenza of Jose del Mar and the daily Republic News of Dioscoro Lazaro, both of which begun publication in 1947. But the decade of the '50s saw a resurgence of publications in the city when the political environment began to heat up as it had never been before as political fiefdoms and "warlordism" started to develop and take roots.

Taking the cue from the national picture, where the national media became the political battleground of the politicians seeking national exposure or were aspiring for national positions, their local allies and counterparts likewise sought the help of the local media to promote their political interests. Journalists' professionalism in Cebu at this point could not be guaranteed due to difficulties in ascertaining their political independence.

The coming in of more radio stations and the entry of television only heightened the people's consciousness of the importance of media. And this situation farther opened the eyes of local politicians and political aspirants to the importance of media as a tool of reaching out to the people. That is the reason why the decade of the '50s saw the "birth" of at least nine publications, and six of them dailies, not counting the Pioneer Press and the Republic News which were able to survive in spite of intense competition.

The Pioneer Press was the most "respected" among the dailies in Cebu because of its perceived independence. It was managed and edited by two journalists who were not Cebuanos, Alfredo Cruz and Angel Anden being journalists from Luzon who pioneered a truly independent daily in the province. People patronized it since the handling of the news and the reporting indicated objectivity, and without political slants that the other dailies that had hidden political interests could not help showing on their pages.

One such daily was the Republic News. Although its editor tried to show journalistic objectivity and independence, almost everybody in Cebu knew that the Cuenco family had a majority interest in the daily. And at that time, Sen. Mariano Jesus Cuenco was the opposition's titular head, and Liberal Party was his political organization. With the LP in power, the Republic News enjoyed unusual circulation opportunities.

Opposing the Republic News were the dailies identified with the Osmenistas, Napoleon Dejoras' Courier-Press which came out in 1951, and was later superseded in the same year by the The Daily News. Then there were the The Cebu Advocate of Cesar Aleonar which had an independent ownership, but was barely surviving for the more than two decades of its existence since 1959. The years 1950 to 1970 actually produced a total of 20 publications. But only about four of them had their presence really felt by the Cebuano audience. The right may be termed as fly by night, many of them political papers.

The more significant among them include the Republic News, The Freeman, The Cebu Advocate The Cebu Star. There was the monthly magazine called the Police Files which survive through the personal man-to-man approach for advertising. The magazine made it a point not come out unless the ads it is able to raise covered the cost of printing, and the livelihood of the editorial staff. Then there was weekly La Prenza, that survive d=for years because there was still the Spanish-speaking community that supported it. They were so-called the habla-espanol crowd in Cebu City society.

The vernacular publications within this period included two dailies, four weeklies, and two quarterlies. The problem was that they were competing with the more popular Cebuano magazine Bisaya, which is published by the Liwayway Publications in Manila since 1930, and circulated throughout the Visayas and Mindanao, and even among the Cebuano community in Manila. The Bisaya was the most popular vernacular publication in Cebuano up to the years before Martial Rule. Unfortunately, while it continues to circulate in the Visayas and Mindanao to this day, its circulation has stagnated because it failed to catch up with the changing times in both format and content.

Among the dailies, thee was the Demokrasya of Andres Camasura, but it failed to take off simply because its publisher did not invite public trust. He was involved in certain cases that put to question some of his business dealings, and hence affected the credibility of his publication. But the Bag-ong Adlaw of Ramon Abellanosa attracted initial attention in the sense that the publisher was himself a recognized Cebuano writer. The only drawback to the paper is the publisher's political involvement at the time.

During this period in Cebu's media history, it is estimated that at least 80 percent of all the publications had political bias. With the unwarranted closure of the Pioneer Press due to political threat and pressure after the 1951 elections, a kind of hiatus occurred, where professionalism in journalism was concerned. While the Morning Times and the Republic News continued to circulate, in the public mind was the shadow of doubt regarding the true ownership of the two dailies.

While it was the general belief that the Morning Times publisher in essence directly and independently owned the daily, there was however, a strong feeling that it was secretly being supported by the Osmenas as a political counter balance to the Republic News which was generally known, although not publicly acknowledged, that the Cuencos owned it. Given the circumstance, the NPs perforce had to secure its media outlet. The two other dailies which could have assumed real independence were The Freeman of the Gullases who owns and operate the University of the Visayas, and the Cebu Advocate of the Aleonars, but not only was it under-staffed but the fact that it was cash-strapped showed in the machine it was printed in and the news print it was using.

In this sense, considering that these were the only four publications that have gained a measure of circulation reach and readership, having managed to exist for more than five years since the liberation, the Cebuano print media may not be considered as wholly independent in the true sense of the word. And the people had no choice but to patronize them for lack of any alternative. It took many years before the hiatus could essentially be broken and a genuine effort to professionalize journalism in Cebu was undertaken.

There were, of course, still many other publications in Cebu. There were the Cebuano weeklies like the Silungan, the Bag-ong Suga of the political warlord Ramon Durano, the
Southern Outlook, a weekly newsmagazine which this writer edited for about six months, owned by Julian Yap, a Cebuano businessman who decided to invest his excess capital on a weekly, and the daily The Cebu Bulletin of Joseph Goyangco.

The radio broadcast media in the early 1950s were somehow a monopoly with the return of the pre-war KZRC, which had swayed unchallenged dominance when the war broke out in December 1941. In 1950, a new station was put up, the KZBU. With only the two stations alone competing in some way, the broadcasting field appeared wide open for more players to come in. Thus, by the time President Marcos proclaimed martial rule in 1972, there were already nine AM stations competing for the Cebuano ear.

And with politics becoming stringently competitive and even violent, the politicians were looking at the media with covetous eyes. And here, somehow, lies the problem of the Cebuano journalists at this point. With the media industry still unable to support the practitioners with enough financial rewards for their efforts, they were easy prey to the political temptations of the political overlords in Cebu at this time.

A good number, if not most, of the media practitioners in Cebu had to play footsie with the politicians. Not only were many of them receiving monthly retainers, but they were also being paid on a case to case basis for the political press releases they were able to publish in the dailies, but they were also extended financial assistance when they travel to Manila or elsewhere in the country. In fact, traveling to Manila which many did often, were usual excuses for "fund raising" among incumbent politicians.

In a way, the local media then was a bane not only to the local businessmen but also to the politicians who were in an influential position, particularly those in Congress. Media men who go to Manila invariably visit the offices of their Congressmen "friends" to ask for pocket money, and spending allowances while in Manila. This was the period when the practice of buying personal radio time emerged. Radio commentaries on personal radio time became political tools to attack or defend political friends who pay for the radio time.

go top

BEGINNINGS OF CEBU MEDIA PROFESSIONALISM

AT this writing, the Public Information Agency has listed 16 AM stations in operation in Cebu City, and 23 FM stations. Some of the FM stations tried to balance their serious and popular music programs with news and public affairs items, specially significant breaking news, that they broadcast in between programs. Hence, while FMs' program emphasis is on serious and popular music, they try to compromise with the taste of some of their listeners for current events and public affairs through the insertion of newsbreaks.

The broadcast industry in Cebu has practically ballooned to phenomenal proportions since the day radio first came to Cebu City in 1939. The first station to operate then was the KzRC, which later became the DyRC. Its first manager was Harry Fenton who initiated the first ever most popular "amateur hour" program. Being the only radio station outside Manila then, it was called "The Voice of Cebu". Fenton became a household byword as amateur hour anchor when the war broke out, projecting a jolly person, which did a 360-degree change when he became leader of the Cebu guerrilla movement.

Unfortunately, Fenton got embroiled in a power struggle with another group headed by another American, a Colonel Cushing. The conflict came to a head when Fenton ordered the execution of some original guerrilla leaders. In the ensuing power struggle, Fenton lost control of his group. I cannot quite recall now what really happened, but it resulted in the execution of Harry Fenton himself, and the ascent of Cushing to the joint top leadership of the guerrilla movement with Cebuano officials until the end of the war.

In August 1947, the KzRC was revived under the management of the Cebu Broadcasting Company, actually becoming the first postwar commercial station outside of the national capital. When the government required in 1949 that the radio stations in the country should carry henceforth the "Dy" in its name, it became DyRC. The following year, in 1950, the Philippine Broadcasting Corporation opened DyBU as a competitor to DyRC.

The friendly competition went on until September, 1972 when DyRC came to an abrupt end. It was ordered to cease operation at the onset of martial rule. When it reopened in January, 1975, the two pioneering Cebu radio stations had fallen under one ownership: the Elizaldes. And it remained so until August, 1999 when DyRC permanently stopped operation after 60 years in the air due reportedly to heavy losses.

The Cebu dailies, on the other hand, fought their way to survival through sheer courage and determination. And because the staff members in the meantime agreed to work with only the assurance that they could get cash advances when ad payment could be collected. Professionalism in the print media did not begin until the decade of the '80s. In a sense, until Sun Star Daily's entry in the print media industry, it was largely a touch-and-go affair where the paper's next issue would depend on the goodwill of the printer.

It would be fair to say that the entry of SSD on November 25, 1982 in the Cebu media industry, was also the effective date when professionalism among media practitioners received a real push and moved forward in earnest. For it was then when the friendly competition among the four Cebu dailies blossomed into a strong demand for truly good and effective photo journalists, reporters, copy editors, proof readers and feature writers. To attract them to join the staff, the editor must have a package of enticement.

Competing for better and talented staff, the management of the publication was forced either to increase salary levels, generate a truly wholesome work place environment, and create a respectable public image for the publication. To do this, the management had to put in more investment. Up to that point, the Cebu media was used to operating on a shoestring budget. But with the entry of SSD in the game field, the other publications were forced to improve themselves, agitate the owners/investors to close their eyes and go for additional investment to make the whole organization feasible.

The post martial law publications did retain, more or less, the format and content that they got used to during those years. While they gave priority to public and private news events in the front and back pages of the paper, they maintained sections designed to draw public interest, such as classified ads that give information on job openings, cars and real estate marketing opportunities, information on miscellaneous services. In addition the dailies also had the opinion page that featured freewheeling columns, and the entertainment and lifestyle that used to be the society page of pre-martial law dailies.

The dailies appear to have generated a good mix with their content since they are able to get a growing number of readers. The entertainment and lifestyle section cater to the community's social elite and the crowd of young professionals and college and high school age youth. The content mix may have proven successful for the print medium appear to be at home with the kind of content balance the publications achieved.

At this point of the post-martial rule period, the Cebu dailies numbered four, a carry over from the pre-martial law years of the '60s. The dailies that proved tenacious in the effort to survive amidst the harsh economic realities of the environment were the The Republic News, the Morning Times, The Cebu Advocate, and the Freeman. A fifth one joined the group towards the latter part of martial rule. The Sun star Daily began publication on November 25, 1982. Its emergence in Cebu that time, on hindsight, seemed providential.

The Sun Star begun with the "migration" of some key editorial personnel from The Freeman, including its editor, lawyer Pacheco Seares, to form the new daily's initial staff.

The Sun Star had an auspicious beginning then, but in the same breath, it left the Freeman editorially crippled for a while until the remnant of its staff was able to undertake immediate fire control, and continued publication without interruption. The coup undertaken by the Sun Star succeeded because the new publication offered better pay to its workers, as well as benefits. It also initiated the practice of "pirating" the better workers from other publications through offers of better salaries and benefits. It also opened a friendly competition among the media workers for better performance.

The entry of Sun Star in Cebu City's media game field set the stage for a new phase in the industry's growth. It stirred public interest in the local media, inducing a resurgent sense of trust and confidence in a resulting mix of old experienced and new crop of practitioners. The latter not only infusing public assurance of learned competence from the city's mass communications schools, but also generating a sense of dependability and professionalism. The new media environment gained for the practitioner the people's trust.

The return to so-called democratic normalcy did not in anyway alter the pattern of life in the city, much more so in the media community where life among many of the practitioners practically continued to be a touch-and-go affair. The end of martial rule did not in any way change their lives either for the better or for worse. The economy of the city remained as it was with the rest of the country. Yet, it could be taken as a truism in the media industry that whatever is the state of the economy in the environment of a publication so could be the possible financial health of the media enterprise.

It was thus rather awkward to admit that at this stage in its history, the Cebu City business community, while long showing a robust economic health, was just starting to flex its economic muscle in support of the community press. As if suddenly realizing the importance of print media in its life, the local business community begun to advertise, many of them no longer needing ad solicitors to urge or entice them to do so. Many just went on their own to the publications' advertising offices to place an ad as walk-ins.

And so, growth came to the print media industry in Cebu. It began, not only to survive on its own steam, but also to be more profitable. As a consequence, a healthy business competition ensued among them. With profitability came salary standardization, human resource development, and increased fringe benefits. Until then, for instance, allowances for transportation and per diem while on assignment in the field, was unheard of.

While columnists in Manila dailies were regularly paid, it was a "labor of love" in Cebu, or on cash advance basis for certain columnists. But things started to change in the mid-'80s. The city's civic community developed a new respect for the media practitioners. And the Catholic Church initiated the Cebu Archdiocese Mass Media Awards (CAMMA)
in 1990, giving the imprint of professionalism on the journalism practice in Cebu. It was a propitious beginning for the Cebu media in the decade of the '90s.

go top

EMERGING ‘DYNAMISM’ OF CEBU MEDIA

IT is said that for every advancement or growth in whatever aspect of human activity, there is always a commensurate loss in what the people had been used to having or possessing. Thus, at the fall of the Marcos regime through the so-called People Power, the era of disciplined or cautious society also ended, as an atmosphere of freedom took over the guarded thought and movement of the citizenry. Similarly, the media in Cebu also felt the same atmosphere of unbridled dynamism and free expression as the local practitioners went back in pursuit of their pre-martial rule roles in local society.

People Power that toppled the Marcos regime became a symbol of new life in the nation, although the same was not as deeply felt in the Visayas and Mindanao as it was in Metro Manila, and probably in the northern provinces as well.

However, while it was not as deeply felt in Cebu, and elsewhere in the Visayas and Mindanao, it did have, though, a spin-off effect in the circumstances of the community media. After having gone through a period of “psychological” curtailment, the restored freedom from the shadow of military controllers endowed the Cebu media practitioners with unusual opportunities for growth.

Thus, the dailies in Cebu that sought permission and were granted permits to publish and gained a degree of growth and momentum during the martial rule years continued to circulate for a while under the Cory Aquino regime. These were the Republic News, the The Freeman, the Morning Times, the Visayan Herald and the Cebu Advocate. The dailies, some of which were suspended during the initial weeks of martial law, sought permission to resume publication a few months after these were shut down.

Since there was no tacit authority issued to the regional offices of the Department /Ministry of Public Information, then entrusted with the information dissemination activities of the government, the DPI issued such permits to those who applied for it, to individuals and corporations, to publish newspapers or magazines. The DPI issued permits that took a safe tact, starting with the phrase “We interpose no objection to ___, to publish daily/weekly/monthly newspaper/pamphlet/magazine…”

The dailies that were extended permission by the region’s Public Information office to resume publication in 1973, continued to circulate until the end of the Marcos regime and beyond. But eventually the Cebu Advocate ceased publication with the death of its publisher, Cesar Aleonar in the late ‘80s. Not long after, the Morning Times followed when publisher/editor Pete Calomarde suffered a stroke, and later died, too. The Visayan Herald closed down due to management problem as I earlier pointed out, leaving Cebu’s print media field in the early the late ‘80s to the Sun Star Daily, The Freeman, and the Republic News. But soon, in the early ‘90s Republic News followed, with the retirement of publisher Dioscoro Lazaro, and the death of its editor, Jose Logarta.

With the start of the Aquino regime, the Cebu media assumed a new dynamism as the five year-old Sun Star Daily led the way into the open celebration of press freedom as a gesture of assumption of responsibility regarding the professionalism and the ethical practice of journalism in Cebu. It may be said at this point that Cebu has become the print media “role model” in the Visayas and Mindanao. For where professionalism and ethical practice of journalism in Cebu was at in the decade of the ‘90s, the rest of the Visayas and Mindanao, particularly in such cities as Tagbilaran, Dumaguete, Iloilo, Bacolod, Tacloban, Catbalogan, Cagayan de Oro, Butuan, Davao, Zamboanga, and Ozamiz, the level of professionalism and ethical practice was where Cebu was at in the 1970s. It may be too sweeping a conclusion to make, but sadly it is based on personal knowledge.

(In the 1992 and 1998 presidential elections, I went on leave as columnist of Sun Star Daily to handle the media side of Lito Osmena’s presidential then vice presidential campaign with FVR in 1992, Serge Osmena III’s senatorial campaign in 1995, and then Lito Osmena’s presidential campaign in 1998. Consequently, I traveled and developed media contacts from the far north of Luzon to the whole of Visayas and Mindanao. In September ‘97, I invited radio people from Luzon to Mindanao for a weekend to Cebu. As a result, I gained deeper insight into the workings of countryside media during those years, enabling me to develop an approach to the ethics involved in the political media campaign that more or less assuaged in some way the moral issue of what I was doing.)

At any rate, during the period from the mid 1980s to the decade of the ‘90s, there emerged in Cebu an unusually strong interest in the area of communication. Suddenly, the local universities, which never showed interest in mass communications during the ‘70s, started opening mass communication courses. The University of the Philippines’ Cebu College opened courses in journalism with some local media men as instructors. Then the St. Theresa’s College followed suit, with the University of San Jose-Recolletos coming in during the mid-1980s. With the mass communications graduates joining the staff of the local dailies, young blood was infused into the journalism profession.

The young ones, with fresh idealism and healthier outlook on the dynamics of domestic and global social, political, and economic development, infused more vigor to the Cebu media, not only in the print medium, but also in the broadcast sector. Radio and television were mutually ganging up on print, especially since the mass audience was drawn more and more to the radio soap opera which was just starting to peak in [public interest with such radio play as Flor de Luna, among others.

As of the beginning of 2005, Cebu finds itself with more FM radio stations than the AM ones. The FMs number 23, while the AMs are only 16. Of the ten television stations operating in Cebu, the most prominent are the ABS-CBN 3, GMA-7, RPN 9, ABC 21, RPN 9, PTV 11, and CCTN 47. Only one cable TV, the Skycable, is prominently serving the Cebu public at the moment. But in the battle for the mass television audience right now, the two most aggressive protagonists are the television giants ABS-CBN and GMA-7. They are in more3 waysw than one, practically at each other’s throat in trying to win the Cebuano mass audience. In a province where radio and television have already gone up to the hills, penetrating the highlands where the power lines have practically criss-crossed the in-land villages, it is not difficult to understand the reason why.

The mountain villages of Cebu have become open market for detergents, cosmetics, and everything that women use to fulfill not only their fantasies about themselves, but also their attractiveness to the men. The battle of the female market for shampoos, conditioners, lotions, and body wash, not to mention the soap, the deodorants, etc., has opened an entirely new battlefield for the radio and television. The two have become far more superior tools for marketing than the dailies with their limited reach. The print media is thus left as a poor third in the media advertising war.

Against the backdrop of this advertising tussle among the manufacturers of commodities for mass consumption, the media in Cebu has achieved a definite level of economic ascendancy that assures its survival over the long haul in the new century. Only a return of, or the suddenly emergence, of another “dictatorship” could arrest its current momentum of development and progress.

go top

THE INFOTECH REVOLUTION

WHILE Cebu has exerted much effort to keep with the media development with Metro Manila, and even with the great United States, in one area it has continuously failed. This is in the area of film. The province’s film enthusiasts had tried twice to initiate the growth of a film industry, perhaps not as good as the entertainment sector at the National Capital, but at least with enough vigor to invite investors to put in some aggressive challenge to Metro Manila. Unfortunately, this effort did not produce any worthwhile results. And so, to this day, Cebu has not had a single film produced in the past decade and a half.

Thus, in a sense, it would be safe to say that this city does not have any sort of hands-on knowledge or idea of what new technology has recently been introduced in the area of film. Of course, there are a few film enthusiasts who are doing documentaries, but not quite numerous enough to merit being called an industry. In the past, Cebuhad produced a number of Cebuano language films that were marketed in the Cebuano-speaking provinces of the Visayas and Mindanao. Popular among these films was the one called Ang Mutya sa Saging Tindok which was produced and directed by the late Natalio Bacalso, a writer in the venacular, as well as one of the local postwar political leaders.

But Cebu has kept in step with the other wonders of the information revolution. In addition to its half a dozen or so TV stations, and a cable television, internet cafes have sprouted in various parts of the city, as well as in some of the 47 municipalities. The computer with its wondrous information services capability, and the cell phone with its ever increasing the number of attractive features with its new model, does present varied information and communication services that has Cebuanos, like the rest of the people in the country, gone gaga over it. It has become a sort of status symbol of the masses.

It is difficult to say for sure how many cell phones are loose in this island province, more so in Cebu City where even a jeepney conductor, clinging on to the vehicle, calling for passengers to ride, sports a cell phone hooked to his belt. Or where young girls riding in jeepneys or buses just invariably dig into their purses to fish out a cell phone to make a call while the vehicle is moving. Communications technology has indeed revolutionized the information profile onf the countryside where mountain folks can now be reached at the touch of a cell , and receive instructions on the movement of fresh vegetables.

Today, the focus of local media interests is the development of Cebu as center for the Information and Communication Technology in the southern part of the country. During a recent Sun Star Daily sponsored Economic Forum 2005, the thrust of the panel speakers on ICT is to develop Cebu not only provider of human resource for call centers, but also for IT undertakings. One speaker envisioned Cebu as “market and investment destination” which should then need quality communications facilities.

Call centers are also sprouting in Cebu. What seems to be slowing down its growth is the absence of human resource that could m