Punchline
The trials and triumphs of The PUNCH
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
At the outset, I wish to thank our loyal readers and advertisers for keeping faith with us for the past 50 years! Indeed, how fast time flies.
We have been so engrossed managing and putting out the paper every week on a shoestring budget for the past four decades that we almost missed celebrating our milestone until we were gently reminded by our staff, that, yes, we are now observing our 50th year this issue. As I finally take time to ponder what the PUNCH has been through, I can’t even believe we have gone this far.
When my father was my murdered, the second journalist to be killed in the post-war era, in his office by Rodolfo Soriano, a Lingayen councilor, in 1966, many thought (and believed) the irreverent PUNCH finally wrote 30 with him. Wallowing deep in debt and left with a completely shocked editorial staff, the PUNCH was literally laid inside the ICU room of community journalism.
But there were believers and friends who refused to give up on the vision and idealism of my father. There was my uncle Gerry, who armed with his literary skills, filled in the editor’s slot; there was the staff led by Bayardo Estrada, Romulo Villamil, Agerico Rosario, Rod Toledo, Rod Rivera, Manny Cornel, Pons Decena, Proc Pena, Consuelo Liwanag, and Vicky Bauzon, who though temporarily fazed by the tragic event, quickly recovered to continue covering the beats and to maintain links with advertisers.
There was Ateneo de Manila that gave me a scholarship to make sure my last year in college would not be interrupted so I can return to Dagupan to run the paper. There was my mother who grudgingly agreed not to sell off the paper to allow me to take a crack at managing the paper after one more year in college. There was Don Rafael Gonzalez, then owner of Pantranco, who provided for our family’s monthly sustenance while I finished school.
After hurdling may last year in Ateneo, I already knew that everything else about out my life would revolve around The PUNCH, Dagupan City and the province.
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Merely armed with a degree in behavioral science, I returned to Dagupan without any formal training in business (and yes, in journalism), but there were friends and professionals who made sure I would be equipped to run The PUNCH. There was Mente Nava who taught me my ABC in business management and accounting, there were the members of the Dagupan Rotary Club who painstakingly showed me how they run their business and willingly became regular advertisers, my uncle Gerry and the editorial staff who labored on editing my news reports and columns.
These and other vital support from loyal readers, advertisers, friends and subsequent PUNCH editors and reporters enabled us to steer the PUNCH to where and what it is today. To them, I offer my sincerest gratitude for believing in The PUNCH and for what it stands for.
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The martial era was a very difficult period for The PUNCH. After being ordered closed for publishing a special issue about a suspected but “undeclared martial law”, on the very same day the media establishments were already under heavy guard to prevent them from continuing publication, we thought it was the end for The PUNCH.
But when a directive from Camp Crame arrived giving The PUNCH clearance to continue to publish, we were torn between closing the paper and deprive editorial staff a regular source of livelihood or keep it open to keep the information flowing and provide livelihood for the staff. I chose the latter but with one caveat – we lifted the Socratic motto “No Man is to be reverenced more than the Truth” from our masthead, substituted it with “In Service to the People of Pangasinan”, and suspended writing editorials.
It was a time when The PUNCH’s brand of journalism was continuously taunted by the military and there was nothing that I could do about it. It was a tortuous existence but in hindsight, I am glad I chose to make the PUNCH live through it because if it didn’t, The PUNCH would not be here, and what it is today, stronger and vibrant.
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The PUNCH lived down its humiliation in those times to be recognized later as one of the most successful community newspapers in Asia in a UNESCO study. It also became the first Filipino community newspaper to publish online in 1997 (in partnership with Bitstop Inc.).
The PUNCH was adjudged the “Provincial Newspaper of the Year” by the Federation of Provincial Press clubs. It has since been acknowledged by the Philippine Press Institute and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation as the most outstanding community newspaper in business and economic reporting, science technology and environmental issues reporting, and best in editorial page.
All these citations became our vindication knowing that two years before my father was killed in his editorial office, The PUNCH was recognized the Most Outstanding Provincial Newspaper in the Philippines.
Today, 50 years later, The PUNCH prides itself with a new team of editors, reporters, correspondents and columnists who are as committed to the same ideals of The PUNCH as articulated by my father in 1956.
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A PAINED ARCHBISHOP – If there is one person in Pangasinan who feels the sharpest pain caused by the ambiguity of the statement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines on the impeachment issue, that would be Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz.
He understood what his peers in the conference wanted to say but all these were muddled and effectively spun by Malacanang to serve the political interests of President Arroyo. Worse, he had witnessed how the Malacanang “operatives” deliberately moved to impugn the integrity of CBCP regardless of the outcome of the conference.
Lifting from the notes of our Eva Visperas, the Archbishop was initially disturbed when Malacañang was unduly active prior to the conference, inviting bishops to the Palace, even hosting them to lunches in restaurants by groups.
Then, he witnessed how the Palace tried to entice a good number of the bishops with offers for cheap rice, cheap medicines, cheap noodles for the poor ostensibly for the bishops’ programs in their archdioceses.
He also noted that during the bishops’ conference held Friday to Sunday, one particular man (identified as a man from the Palace) could be seen handing out envelopes to the bishops. He said many of the bishops felt offended and promptly returned the envelopes when they found that the envelopes contained cash ranging from P20,000 to P30,000.
By resorting to those familiar squid tactics, tempting the bishops with bribes, the way the congressmen, Comelec officials, teachers, military and police brass were eventually co-opted by the Arroyo administration, the bishops’ conference was dealt a deadly blow never seen in the past.
The CBCP as an institution was not spared by Mrs. Arroyo in her desperation to remain in power. This has pained the archbishop no end.
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