THE GROWTH AND development of the print and the broadcast media in the Philippines is perhaps unique in Asia because political development was established before economic advancement (Camagay 7; Doronilla 201, 209). This sequence of developments characterized the print and the broadcast media in their impartiality in politics and in their position in shaping the destiny of the nation (Doronilla 201).
When the United States of America began its civil government in 1901 and its Philippine Assembly in 1907, its primary task was to prepare the country for absolute independence (Camagay 7-10, Doronilla 201). The rigorous preparation involved the establishment of the judicial, educational, political party, and local government systems; the commencement of civil service, social justice, public health, and infrastructure programs; and the encouragement of agrarian reform and agricultural development, diversification, and industrialization (Camagay 8-10, 16-17; Doronilla 201-202).
After US President Woodrow Wilson signed the Philippine Autonomy Act, Governor General Francis Burton Harrison inaugurated the Philippine Legislature, a bicameral body composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives (“History of the Senate” 1-5; Totanes 183, 255). The Philippine Legislature served as the legislative body of the Philippines from October 1916 to November 1935. It was succeeded by the National Assembly upon the inauguration of the Commonwealth of the Philippines provided by the 1935 Philippine Constitution. By virtue of a constitutional amendment in 1940, the two-chamber Congress was restored. On April 23, 1946, the legislature was called the First Congress of the Third Republic of the Philippines that shared governmental powers with the executive and the judiciary (“History of the Senate” 1, 7).
On July 4, 1946, the Philippines regained its independence from the United States, but it was only in the 1950s when industrialization began (Doronilla 202). Consistent with the government framework for economic development, the liberal political party system approved that the print and the broadcast media must be owned and controlled by private entrepreneurs. The power of the print and the broadcast media commenced when magazine and newspaper owners were allowed to control and to operate radio and television stations (Doronilla 205).
Such power nurtured the adversarial and confrontational tradition of the print and the broadcast media that proposed a healthy formation of public opinion and democratic society through public debates and discussions. Thus, the print and the broadcast media were not merely instruments to provide social, cultural, political, and economic information. They are important players in politics who maintain equilibrium in the government (Doronilla 205).
EARLY CROSSOVERS
The history of print journalism in the Philippines is defined by the influences of the Nineteenth Century European press when newspapers were carriers of liberal ideas and were centers of political activities. Over the next century, newspapers proliferated during periods of wars, revolutions, and upheavals. Successive wave of colonizers—the Spaniards, the Americans, and the Japanese—used the press to promote colonial agenda and to impose severe censorship (“Philippine Journalism” 1).
Interestingly, in the history of the Philippine Senate, a number of journalists used their fame to crossover from print journalism to Philippine politics in the early Twentieth Century. Earlier, there was Isabelo de los Reyes who wrote articles for La Opinion, Oceania Española, La Revista Popular, and El Diario de Manila. De los Reyes founded and edited El Ilocano and founded, edited, and published Ante Europa and El Defensor de Filipina in 1899. He edited La Lectura Popular in 1890 and founded El Resumen and El Municipio Filipino in 1890 and in 1894, respectively. He was elected senator of the Ilocos Region from 1912 to 1928 (“Isabelo de los Reyes” 4, 6, 13).
Rafael Palma, who joined the libertarian movement as a reporter of La Independencia, assumed the newspapers editorship after Gen Antonio Luna died in 1899. Palma, with Sergio Osmeña and Jaime de Veyra, founded El Nuevo Dia in 1900 and El Renacimiento in 1901. He was elected senator in 1933, representing the Fourth Senatorial District of Rizal, Biñan, Manila, and Laguna (“Rafael Palma” 3, 4, 6).
Osmeña, who edited El Nuevo Dia in 1900, was elected senator in 1922, reelected in 1928, and reelected again in 1934 (“Sergio Osmeña” 2, 7, 9, 12). Jose Alejandrino, on the other hand, joined La Solidaridad and later represented the Twelfth Senatorial District of Sulu, Lanao, Baguio, Agusan, Cotabato, Bukidnon, Zamboanga, Nueva Vizcaya, and Mountain Province in the Seventh Legislature (“Jose Alejandrino” 3).
Once a member of the editorial staff of La Vanguardia (“Jose Avelino” 2), Jose Avelino represented the Ninth Senatorial District of Leyte and Samar and served the Eight Legislature, 1928-1931; Ninth Legislature, 1931-1934; 10th Legislature, 1934-1935; First Congress, 1946-1949; and the Second Congress, 1950-1953 (“List of Senators”).
Manuel Briones, one of the seven Filipinos that composed the Committee of Wise Men who drafted the 1935 Philippine Constitution, started as a reporter of La Revolucion and became the editor of La Tribuna and El Espectador in Cebu (“Manuel Briones” 1, 3). Briones served the Ninth and the 10th Legislature, 1931-1934 and 1934-1935; and the Second and the Third Congress, 1950-1953 and 1954-1957 (“List of Senators”).
Mariano Cuenco edited El Precursor of Cebu for many years. In 1926, Cuenco became a member of the Academia Filipina Correspondiente de la Real Española de la Lengua (“Mariano Cuenco” 5). He was elected senator in 1941 and reelected in 1946. He served as Senate President from 1949 to 1951 and continued serving the Senate from 1953 to 1965 (“Mariano Cuenco” 4).
While still a law student, Claro M Recto joined the editorial staff of El Ideal and later became a columnist of La Vanguardia. Recto was elected as senator in 1941, garnering the highest number of votes among the 24 senators, and was reelected in 1949 (Zaide 275, 278-279).
At the age of 17, according to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, Benigno Aquino Jr. was the youngest correspondent to cover the Korean War for the Manila Times. Because of his journalistic feats, Aquino received a Philippine Legion of Honor Award from President Elpidio Quirino. He even interrupted his law studies to pursue a career in journalism. In 1967, he made a mark by becoming the youngest elected senator in the country’s history.
Francisco Tatad served as a correspondent for the Agence France-Presse and as a reporter and columnist of the Manila Bulletin before being tapped by President Ferdinand Marcos as Minister of Public Information from 1969 to 1980. He also wrote for the Mr and Ms, Business Day, Washington Quarterly, Philippine Daily Globe, Asian Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He was elected senator from 1992 to 1995 and reelected from 1995 to 2001.
Starting as a journalist, Blas Ople wrote columns for the Manila Bulletin and its weekly magazine—Philippine Panorama. For quite sometime, Ople edited the Manila Times and wrote columns for the Daily Mirror, Filipino Magazine, and the Philippine Daily Globe (“Blas Fajardo Ople”). He was elected senator in 1992 and was reelected in 1998 (“List of Senators”).
Like Ople, Ramon Magsaysay Jr. was also a print journalist. Magsaysay wrote business columns for the Philippine Daily Inquirer from 1988 to 1990 (“Ramon Magsaysay Jr.”). He was first elected senator for the 10th Congress, 1995-1998; was reelected for the 11th Congress, 1998-2001 (“List of Senators”); and was reelected again for the 12th Congress, 2001-2007 (Philippine Panorama 10).
Even Miriam Defensor-Santiago is, at one time, a crossover. Defensor-Santiago made a history when she became the first female editor in chief of the Philippine Collegian. She wrote editorial columns for the Philippine Daily Express, 1972-1975; Philippine Panorama, 1976-1978; and Today, 1994. She was elected senator for the 11th Congress, 1995-2001 (“Miriam Defensor-Santiago 1”) and was reelected for the 12th Congress, 2004-2007 (Philippine Panorama 7).
SECOND WAVE CROSSOVERS
“It terrifies me,” said Walter Cronkite, the US broadcast media icon, “that anyone should suggest that a person, just because he anchors an evening broadcast, might be qualified to run for public office” (qtd. in “Loren Legarda: Television’s Child” 93).
What worried Cronkite, Luz Rimban said, was the over-glorification and excessive promotion of broadcast journalists whose jobs are to look and to sound good on television, though in reality, they are nothing more than news presenters who read what other people write and who voice what other people think (“Loren Legarda: Television’s Child” 93).
According to Rimban, broadcast journalists could easily crossover from broadcast media to Philippine politics because radio and television are the domains of the brilliant, the eloquent, and the quick thinker. And through the wizardry of radio and television promotion and broadcasting, with ABS-CBN in the forefront, broadcast journalists are transformed as crusaders and superheroes (“Loren Legarda: Television’s Child” 94).
Rimban also said that through glitzy plugs, publicity blitzes, and constant exposures, ABS-CBN has not only sold news but also created a cult of broadcast journalists. Before ABS-CBN, Noli de Castro was a field reporter of Johnny de Leon and later radio announcer in RPN 9 and DZWW from 1976 to 1986. Loren Legarda was a reporter and later news anchor of Newswatch in RPN 9 from 1981 to 1985 (“Loren Bautista Legarda-Leviste” 1, “Loren Legarda: Television’s Child” 94).
Before the campaign periods, ABS-CBN produced 30-second television political advertisements for Legarda and Renato Cayetano. The advertisements were aired free during primetime while other candidates spent millions producing their plugs and millions getting them broadcast. At that time, ABS-CBN charged PhP95 000 per 30 seconds of television political advertisement (“Loren Legarda: Television’s Child” 96).
Consequently, Legarda topped the 1998 Senatorial Election and became the youngest woman elected to the Philippine Senate and the first woman Senate Majority Floor Leader in the history of the Philippine Congress. Legarda gained prominence as host, anchor, and producer of ABS-CBN’s Earthlink, PEP Talk, The Inside Story, and The World Tonight (“Loren Bautista Legarda-Leviste” 1, “Loren Legarda Leviste” 1-2, “The Media as Kingmaker” 91).
Following Legarda, Cayetano also won a seat in the Philippine Senate in the 1998 Senatorial Election. Cayetano was not the brightest star in the legal profession, but his sustained exposure in the print and the broadcast media made him a legal luminary in ABS-CBN’s Compañero y Compañera, a public service program that offers free legal advice to radio listeners and television viewers (Balgos 101, “Renato ‘Compañero’ Cayetano” 2, “The Media as Kingmaker” 91).
After three years, history repeats itself. In the 2001 Senatorial Election, ABS-CBN produced two more broadcast media personalities-turned-politicians in the persons of De Castro and Francis Pangilinan. De Castro, like Legarda, topped the senatorial election. He worked as segment host of Good Morning, Philippines; as host of Magandang Umaga, Kabayan and Magandang Gabi, Bayan; and as news anchor of Kabayan and TV Patrol. He served as the over-all head of TV Patrol Production Team and as company vice president of ABS-CBN and DZMM (“Noli ‘Kabayan’ de Castro” 1, “Noli Leuterio de Castro” 1).
Elected in the Philippine Senate, Pangilinan was the co-anchor and segment host of ABS-CBN’s Hoy Gising! where he gave free legal assistance on-air. Pangilinan also anchored DZMM’s Batas and Relos Report with Attorney Kiko, public service programs dedicated to make the legal court system understood by the masses through increased understanding of their rights and duties under the law (“Francis Pangilinan” 1, 3).
Pangilinan also hosted and conceptualized ABS-CBN’s Barangay Dos, a public service program that established him as an intelligent lawyer and articulate broadcast media personality who hastened the delivery of justice in the barangay level. He also served as head of ABS-CBN’s legal desk and as legal analyst of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs Department (“Francis Nepomuceno Pangilinan” 1).
Before Legarda, Cayetano, De Castro, and Pangilinan, Orlando Mercado worked as radio and television announcer at the Republic Broadcasting System. Later, Mercado worked as a police reporter and as anchor of ABS-CBN’s Radio Patrol. He also hosted and produced Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko, the country’s longest running public service program (“Orlando Mercado” 4-5). He was elected senator for three terms, 1987-1992, 1992-1995, and 1995-1998 (“Orlando Mercado” 13).
N. B. This feature article was written using the Modern Language Association documentation format. List of works cited are available upon request.
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