After high school, Trinidad
worked at the Far Eastern Broadcasting Company
as announcer and program arranger. He was promoted
to chief of program arrangers and later appointed
as production coordinator. He became production
manager after sometime. During World War II, he
became a director of stage presentations at the
Avenue, Lyric, and Strand Theatres. After the
war, he served his country as producer- announcer
for the U.S. Office of War Information and Program
Director for the U.S. Information Service from
1945-47. He then entered the government service
from 1947-1970, where he retired in 1970 as general
manager of the Philippine Broadcast Service.
In April 1986, he became Secretary-General
of UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines
(UNACOM), from which he retired in 1990. Between
1970 and 1980, Trinidad taught at the former UP
Institute of Mass Communication. While fulfilling
his duties as a UP professor and his work as a
UNACOM secretary general, he also became program
director of Radio Veritas Asia (International
Service).
As UNESCO commissioner and member of the UNACOM
Executive Committee, Koko was concerned with the
training of future communication practitioners.
He helped in the establishment of the UP College
of Mass Communication. Because of his persistence
and dedication to the college, the College gave
Trinidad a Testimonial Plaque of Recognition Award.
It later gave him a Certificate of Appreciation
during the Silver Jubilee of the College of Mass
Communication.
Under the Colombo Plan, Trinidad
was a pioneer of the distance learning method,
or the use of radio broadcasts for educational
purposes. He promoted the method that was adopted
in 1959 by the Department of Education and the
Philippine Broadcasting Service (PBS). It was
unfortunately put to an end by the Marcos government
after years of successful implementation.
In 1986, the Philippine Union
of Broadcasters presented Koko Trinidad the Hall
of Fame Award for his pioneering projects in radio
and television. He was also an awardee of the
Parangal Sentenyal ng Sining Cultura, a project
of the Centennial Awards.
Francisco “Koko”
Trinidad passed away in January 21, 2001 at the
age of 85. |
