“One of the members of our staff at that time was the late Nestor Mata, the lone survivor of the plane crash on March 17, 1957 that killed Ramon Magsaysay”
ON FEB. 11, the Manila Standard as a newspaper will celebrate its 39th year in existence, founded in 1987 by Manda Elizalde, born Manuel Elizalde Jr.
I am glad I was part of the founding of the newspaper as it is today and I have been with the Manila Standard since it was founded and I like the people I am working with, especially its staff.
Before Martial Law, declared by then President Ferdinand Marcos in Sept. 1972 – he lifted the emergency in Jan. 1981 – Manda Elizalde was a controversial figure, being head of PANAMIN (Presidential Assistance on National Minorities) during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. .
Elizalde was sued by his political enemies which forced him to go on self-exile in Costa Rica, where the president was his classmate at Harvard University.
Elizalde’s self-exile ended when his friend was already out of political power. After the fall of the Marcos regime, Elizalde called his friend Rod Reyes, a former journalist of the Manila Times, which was then published by the Roces family., asked Rod Reyes to call me to assist him.
When Elizalde returned to the country after Martial Law, Rod Reyes and I started working on the newspaper. Our workplace was at the 4th floor of the Elizalde & Co. and Tanduay Rum Building along Ayala Avenue. the home of the Elizalde businesses.
Rod Reyes and I started our skeleton staff with Reyes himself as Editor in Chief . I was Chairman of the Editorial Board.
Our idea then was to make the Manila Standard something different from the ordinary newspapers, so we decided to come out with a tabloid form.
On Feb. 10, 39 years ago we came out with the first tissue in tabloid form. We had overestimated our plan to have a tabloid because we found it very difficult to have advertisements because the advertisements that were accepted by the mainstream newspapers at that time followed the usual newspaper format of 6 columns.
It was difficult because the advertising agencies could not have advertisements in tabloid form. So we had to change format right away.
Santa Banana, the Manila Standard has its own story to tell because the readers at that time were not accustomed to a new newspaper being run by Elizalde.
So we had to make a lot of adjustments because aside from Elizalde financing the newspaper, we had other financiers.
Actually, the other financiers were the Soriamont, which included at that time, the Sorianos, Enrique Razon and Al Yuchengco.
Soon enough the members of Soriamont started separating, like the Yuchengco group which did not like to use the newspaper for personal purposes, and Razon family which was asserting its own business empire the ICTSI (International Container Terminal Services Inc.) which is now a business empire in itself operating in ports worldwide.
Soon enough Elizalde started complaining he was losing money at the rate of P5 million pesos a year.
So he started to think of selling out. Because the Sorianos decided to pull out their businesses from the Philippines, Ricky Razon was left as the sole owner of the paper.
Soon after, Razon sold the Manila Standard to the Romualdez brothers, Philip and Martin, who to this day are the present owners.
As I said earlier, the Manila Standard has its own story to tell.
One of the members of our staff at that time was the late Nestor Mata, the lone survivor of the plane crash on March 17, 1957 that killed Ramon Magsaysay.
In any case I am proud to say I have never thought of leaving the Manila Standard. I like its vision and the people around it like its Publisher, Rolando “Rollie” Estabillo who was formerly the vice president of Philippine Airlines and its Opinion Editor, Honor Blanco Cabie, a former international news agency and broadcast journalist.
I am now 98 years old and have been a journalist for the past 70 years. I must be the oldest journalist in existence in the Philippines and I am proud of it.
