Recollection Day

If the production of your DAILY STAR staff seems to be rather distracted today, please bear with them. Today is our birthday, the day when your STAR turns 30. Would you believe? The first daily newspaper to survive this long in this city and province, and maybe in the region, has chalked up 30 uninterrupted years of continuous publication, and has hurdled a lot of seemingly unsurmountable problems. Don’t you think we have reason to go a little daft today?

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Indeed, we are all full of reminiscences today. We think of the times when typhoons and floods hit our workplace and we had to run from one printing press to another in the dead of the night, pleading for help to print the next day’s issue. We recalled how, after floods soaked our printing machine and it refused to work, we aimed four hair dryers on it for hours until it dried up and began running again.

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We also remembered how we intruded into rebel territories, trying to get the news, and braving suspicious looks and gruffness. Were we really unmindful when we got telephoned threats that the DAILY STAR office was going to be bombed? And we told the caller, why tell us before doing it? Oh, how rash and reckless we were, poor and decrepit as we were. And how we had tried to balance our relationships with the military and the rebels, both of which doubted us.

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Even the way we decided to put up the DAILY STAR was rather crazy, now that we look back. After some days of mulling the idea, the day came when it was announced that the planets orbiting around the earth had come together in a quadrant, a rare occurrence. Believe it or not, we believed it was a sign that we must go on. That was on March 10, 1982. About 33 days later, on April 12, 1982, the first issue of the DAILY STAR hit the streets of Bacolod City.

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Ah, it was no walk in the park, believe us. We went through purgatory virtually begging for help from every source, just to keep the STAR going. We were sued for not paying our rent, but survived that. We transferred about seven times within two years, until, with the blessings of God Almighty, drawn by the fervent prayers of two beloved supportive friends, the late Bacolod Bishop Msgr. Antonio Y. Fortich and Msgr. John B. Liu, the STAR continued to come out, with the number of pages depending on what we could afford for the day. Have you ever seen or known a DAILY newspaper like that?

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We were poor but proud. Once, the editor of well-known Manila Daily asked me about the qualifications of our staff. I think I put his nose out of joint by telling him that, small as we are, ALL our members are journalism or communication graduates, and two hold masters degrees in journalism, and from U.S. universities pa. Stateside yata! It was close to our tenth years when the awards started coming, most of them from national entities. How thrilled we were to receive our trophies at Manila Hotel ceremonies!

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But let’s stop blowing our horn now, and think of the people who were instrumental in the survival of the STAR. First, of course are the business and civic leaders of the community who did their best to prop us up with their ads regularly. Then the residents of our province and our island, Negros, who happily accepted us and continued to subscribe or buy copies everyday. Truly, the STAR is as much a project of the community as of the people who work on it.

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On my part, I also have to acknowledge the love and one-hundred percent support of my family. Until now several of the desks and chairs we are using were “loaned” by my brother, Cesar, who has probably forgotten about them, and we do not remind him. My brother Nene was our “transporter”, everytime we transferred or had to haul equipment, supplies, or people from the staff, his vehicles were always available. My sister Perla, a Master’s degree holder and Math major took over our printing press operations and has been the wind beneath the wings that fly the STAR. Another brother Andy, worked with Modi Sa-onoy to put up STAR Printing, and brother Pros an architect, runs around in the dead of the night to look for repairmen or electricians when something breaks down. Ours is truly an example of how helpful it is and how much easier things could be if you are supported by a big (nine siblings) and loving family!*

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