Eugenia Duran Apostol
Encyclopedia
Eugenia Duran Apostol or 'Eggie Apostol' (born 1925 in Sorsogon
) is a Filipino publisher who played pivotal roles in the peaceful overthrow of two Philippine presidents: Ferdinand Marcos
in 1986 and Joseph Estrada
in 2001. She was awarded the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award
for Journalism, Literature & Creative Communication Arts.
In 1936, when her father was re-elected to the National Assembly, the family moved to Manila where Apostol attended Holy Ghost College (now College of the Holy Spirit
), where she finished elementary school as valedictorian in 1938. With the Japanese occupation of Manila in 1944, the family returned to Sorsogon. While poking through the ruins of their home after the battle for liberation, 18 year old Apostol was injured by shrapnel when an unspent bazooka shell exploded.
Apostol graduated magna cum laude at the University of Santo Tomas
with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Letters in 1949. She wrote a column for Commonweal, a national Catholic weekly and copy for Philippine Manufacturing Company (now Procter & Gamble).
She married Jose 'Peping' Apostol on February 18, 1950.
The ultraconservative Archbishop of Manila became unhappy over liberal views expressed in the Sentinel, at a time when the Church was defensive over
criticism from some social sectors about the complicity of the Church in the unjust power structures of Philippine society. The church authorities were not too pleased as well when the employees of the Sentinel organized a union with Apostol as the union’s vice-president.
Apostol criticized the archbishop’s ban on ballet classes and performances in Catholic schools as well as a controversy triggered by the presence of Russian ballet teachers at St Scholastica's, a convent school. This was the era of the “Red Scare”. Apostol resigned.
She found light work in handling, as editor and writer, the traditional women’s beat of home, fashion, food, and human-interest features, and had a knack for infusing something lively, fresh, and innovative into what would
otherwise be “canned” and conventional.
Woman and Home was phased out in 1969 but Apostol stayed on with the Chronicle as editor of its expanded Better Living section.
was closing down many publications, allowing only pro-government titles to operate. The magazine's publishers, former executives of the Manila Chronicle, sought Apostol's aid in gaining the intercession of Defence Secretary Juan Ponce Entrile for the approval of their application to publish. Apostol became editor of the Woman's Home Companion, the first Martial Law women's magazine in the Philippines.
. The magazine struggled for some years before it broke even due, Apostol says, to a crowded women’s magazine market.
- re-tellings of Philippine legends and mythology which were later bound as Pop Stories for Groovy Kids, recognized as an important contribution to the history of children's fiction in the Philippines.
, Apostol used the variety magazine as a platform to air anti-government views, publishing articles that would otherwise be banned in less independent media.
In December 1982, the National Intelligence Bureau summoned eight women journalists including Apostol or interrogation at an army camp - described by outright "intimidation" by Ceres Doyo, one of the women interrogated.
When opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. was assassinated, Apostol launched a weekly supplement to Mr & Ms devoted entirely to anti-Marcos politics, Mr & Ms Special Edition
.
These examples were contained in the National Press Club publication The Philippine Press Under Siege Volume II
was assassinated upon his arrival from exile in the United States. Though the funeral drew over two million people, it was ignored by the media. In a recorded interview, Apostol described her reaction: "Next day, I said: “What’s this? Not a single photo of the funeral in the papers, as if nothing happened. What really got me was the Times Journal - owned by Benjamin Romualdez, brother of Mrs. Imelda Marcos
. What they printed was the photo of the spectator who was hit by lightning — that was their top news!"
A Time magazine article that hailed Apostol as an Asian hero, described what she did next: "Apostol fumed. Within days she was printing a tabloid version of her glossy Mr. & Ms. called Mr & Ms Special Edition. It had 16 pages of photographs showing Aquino's body, the multitudes that came to view it, and the massive funeral parade that wound through the streets of Manila for almost 12 hours. The first run was some half a million copies, yet it could not satisfy demand. In the coming months, as momentum built for the People Power revolution that would topple Marcos three years later, Apostol turned the tabloid into a weekly endeavor, putting it out from a raggedy office that, for security reasons, did not even have the publication's name on the door."
Apostol had instructed her staff to put out a special report on Aquino in the September 2, 1983 issue of Mr. & Ms. as well as a "special edition" sixteen-page supplement about the funeral. The supplement sold 750,000 copies and had a significant impact in arousing public anger at the dictatorship.
She launched the weekly Mr. & Ms. Special Edition, with journalist Letty Jimenez Magsanoc
as editor. The special edition’s masthead declared its commitment to “justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Aquino assassination.”
The public response to the forty-page, black-and-white weekly was described as "phenomenal". Sales rose from two hundred thousand to half-a-million copies, numbers unprecedented in the country. The appearance of the publication was a high moment in the campaign against the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos
was toppled by a popular uprising known as the People Power Revolution in 1986.
Initially focused on the trial, it slowly acquired all the elements of a regular paper. Its final issue came out on December 2, 1985 after the Sandiganbayan handed down its controversial decision acquitting the accused.
announced in November 1985 that a snap presidential election would be held in February 1986, Apostol saw it as an apportunity for a "concerted anti-dictatorship campaign". Apostol invited some of the country’s biggest mass-media publishers to breakfast in her home. The group included:
Apostol's goal was to persuade the group to launch a single daily newspaper in time for the election but the group was largely unenthusiastic. Undeterred, Apostol pushed ahead with a seed capital of a million pesos from the profits of Mr & Ms, using the printworks of Betty Go-Belmonte’s family. Apostol's originally envisioned a cooperative-owned newspaper but the pressure of events led to the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) being registered as a corporation, with the stipulation that only permanent employees could own stocks in the paper.
Apostol headed the PDI as chair of the board of management with Betty Go-Belmonte as vice-chair.
Marcos dismissed the Inquirer and other opposition papers as the “mosquito press.” Military plans to arrest opposition figures after a Marcos victory were leaked to the press. Apostol’s name was at the top of the list. Later, Apostol dismissed the threat, saying, “It was alphabetical.”
called for an advertising boycott of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and sued Manila Times over a corruption story, Apostol set up the Pinoy Times. Apostol designed it as a popular tabloid for the masses, written in everyday Filipino it attempted to deliver "quality journalism with the price, size and liveliness of a tabloid". From an initial run of 30,000 copies, its regular five-days-a-week edition rose to a circulation of 170,000 in just eighteen months. Its weekend Special Edition sold as many as half-a-million copies. The paper was met with bomb threats, hate mail, libel suits from Estrada supporter, who at one point publishing an imitation tabloid in an attempt to undermine the Pinoy Times. A popular uprising - known as People Power II - forced Estrada out of power in 2001. Estrada's departure sent the sales of Pinoy Times into a slump. The paper closed on December 21, 2001 after two years in circulation.
were cited thus: "Apostol, now 81, and Magsanoc, in her mid-60s, were not firebrands in their younger days. Both were veterans of the lipstick beat, writing for the lifestyle sections of newspapers. But the assassination of Aquino, which sparked [ the People Power Revolution], galvanized Apostol and Magsanoc to break the local media's complicit silence surrounding Marcos' oppressive rule. In late 1985 they phased out Mr. & Ms. Special Edition and launched the Philippine Daily Inquirer
, trailblazing a brand of hard-hitting, mischievous, in-your-face reporting that tested the limits of a dictator's tolerance and helped Filipinos win their freedom. 'In three months,' says Apostol, 'the Inquirer had not only helped to oust Marcos, it was also making money.' Today, the Inquirer is the country's largest newspaper and, while sometimes criticized for sensationalism, it has been unflinching in its coverage of government and the Philippines' uneasy transition to democracy."
for Journalism, Literature & Creative Communication Arts in 2006 in recognition of "her courageous example in placing the truth-telling press at the center of the struggle for democratic rights and better government in the Philippines".
Sorsogon
Sorsogon is a province of the Philippines located in the Bicol Region; it is the southernmost province in Luzon and is subdivided into fourteen municipalities and one city. Its capital is Sorsogon City and borders the province of Albay to the north...
) is a Filipino publisher who played pivotal roles in the peaceful overthrow of two Philippine presidents: Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
in 1986 and Joseph Estrada
Joseph Estrada
Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada was the 13th President of the Philippines, serving from 1998 until 2001. Estrada was the first person in the Post-EDSA era to be elected both to the presidency and vice-presidency.Estrada gained popularity as a film actor, playing the lead role in over 100 films in...
in 2001. She was awarded the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award
Ramon Magsaysay Award
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel...
for Journalism, Literature & Creative Communication Arts.
Early life
Apostol was born on September 29, 1925, the second child and second daughter among eight children of Fernando Ballesteros Duran, a doctor and member of the National Assembly, and Vicenta Obsum.In 1936, when her father was re-elected to the National Assembly, the family moved to Manila where Apostol attended Holy Ghost College (now College of the Holy Spirit
College of the Holy Spirit
The College of the Holy Spirit Manila, or simply CHSM, is a Catholic women's college in Manila, Philippines. It is one of the oldest women's colleges in the country.-History:...
), where she finished elementary school as valedictorian in 1938. With the Japanese occupation of Manila in 1944, the family returned to Sorsogon. While poking through the ruins of their home after the battle for liberation, 18 year old Apostol was injured by shrapnel when an unspent bazooka shell exploded.
Apostol graduated magna cum laude at the University of Santo Tomas
University of Santo Tomas
The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines , is a private Roman Catholic university run by the Order of Preachers in Manila. Founded on April 28, 1611 by archbishop of Manila Miguel de Benavides, it has the oldest extant university charter in the...
with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Letters in 1949. She wrote a column for Commonweal, a national Catholic weekly and copy for Philippine Manufacturing Company (now Procter & Gamble).
She married Jose 'Peping' Apostol on February 18, 1950.
The Sentinel
In 1950, Apostol became women's section editor of the Sentinel, a national news weekly, which succeeded Commonweal in 1949 as a publication of the Archdiocese of Manila.The ultraconservative Archbishop of Manila became unhappy over liberal views expressed in the Sentinel, at a time when the Church was defensive over
criticism from some social sectors about the complicity of the Church in the unjust power structures of Philippine society. The church authorities were not too pleased as well when the employees of the Sentinel organized a union with Apostol as the union’s vice-president.
Apostol criticized the archbishop’s ban on ballet classes and performances in Catholic schools as well as a controversy triggered by the presence of Russian ballet teachers at St Scholastica's, a convent school. This was the era of the “Red Scare”. Apostol resigned.
Sunday Times Magazine
In 1954, Apostol became women’s section editor and associate editor of Sunday Times Magazine, the supplement of the country’s leading daily, The Manila Times. She stayed with the Times for ten years (1954–64), working with both the magazine and the newspaper.She found light work in handling, as editor and writer, the traditional women’s beat of home, fashion, food, and human-interest features, and had a knack for infusing something lively, fresh, and innovative into what would
otherwise be “canned” and conventional.
Manila Chronicle
In 1964, Apostol moved to the Manila Chronicle as editor of its new Sunday supplement Woman and Home.Woman and Home was phased out in 1969 but Apostol stayed on with the Chronicle as editor of its expanded Better Living section.
Woman's Home Companion
Apostol claims that it was because her husband was the defence secretary's favourite engineer that she was allowed to launch a woman's magazine at a time when Ferdinand MarcosFerdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
was closing down many publications, allowing only pro-government titles to operate. The magazine's publishers, former executives of the Manila Chronicle, sought Apostol's aid in gaining the intercession of Defence Secretary Juan Ponce Entrile for the approval of their application to publish. Apostol became editor of the Woman's Home Companion, the first Martial Law women's magazine in the Philippines.
Mr & Ms Magazine
Apostol quit Woman's Home Companion in 1975 to launch Mr & Ms Magazine, amongst her shareholders was Christina Ponce Enrile wife of the Defence Secretary Juan Ponce EnrileJuan Ponce Enrile
Juan Ponce Enrile is a Filipino politician. As a protege of President Ferdinand Marcos, he served as Justice Secretary and then Defense Secretary under the Marcos regime. He later became one of the leaders of the 1986 People Power Movement that drove Marcos from power...
. The magazine struggled for some years before it broke even due, Apostol says, to a crowded women’s magazine market.
Pop Stories for Groovy Kids
Apostol published a series of Mr & Ms supplements authored by Nick JoaquinNick Joaquín
Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín was a Filipino writer, historian and journalist, best known for his short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila...
- re-tellings of Philippine legends and mythology which were later bound as Pop Stories for Groovy Kids, recognized as an important contribution to the history of children's fiction in the Philippines.
Politicalization
During the dictatorship of Ferdinand MarcosFerdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
, Apostol used the variety magazine as a platform to air anti-government views, publishing articles that would otherwise be banned in less independent media.
In December 1982, the National Intelligence Bureau summoned eight women journalists including Apostol or interrogation at an army camp - described by outright "intimidation" by Ceres Doyo, one of the women interrogated.
When opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. was assassinated, Apostol launched a weekly supplement to Mr & Ms devoted entirely to anti-Marcos politics, Mr & Ms Special Edition
Mr & Ms Special Edition
Mr & Ms Special Edition was a weekly opposition tabloid magazine published from 1983 to 1986 that played a pivotal role in bringing about the downfall of the regime of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos-Background:...
.
Examples of articles published in Mr & Ms viewed as anti-Marcos
These examples were contained in the National Press Club publication The Philippine Press Under Siege Volume II
- The Silencing of Letty Magsanoc (by Salvador P. LopezSalvador P. LópezSalvador Ponce Lopez, born in Currimao, Ilocos Norte, was an Ilokano writer, journalist, educator, diplomat, and statesman....
,from 'Freedom of the Press', Mr & Ms, 28 July 1981) - The Letty Magsanoc Story (by Leonor J. Aureus, originally submitted to Celebrity Magazine but subsequently pulled by the author because of censorship. Mr & Ms, 25 August 1981)
- Freedom of the Press series, Mr & Ms, August to October 1981)
- Transcript: President Marcos responds to Eugenia Apostol's questions about the Magsanoc case, Mr & Ms 1981)
- Why is Tony Nieva in Jail? (by Leonor J. Aureus, published 10 May 1983)
- Too Late the Memo (of General Ver) (by Eugenia D. Apostol, published 15 February 1983)
- Jose Rizal Lecture (by Jose W. Diokno, delivered at the P.E.N. conference on The Writer in a Climate of Fear 2 July 1983, published by Mr & Ms, 26 July 1983)
Mr & Ms Special Edition
On August 21, 1983, opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr.Benigno Aquino, Jr.
Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. was a Filipino Senator and a former Governor of Tarlac. Aquino, together with Gerry Roxas and Jovito Salonga, formed the leadership of the opposition to the Marcos regime in the years leading to the imposition of martial law in the Philippines...
was assassinated upon his arrival from exile in the United States. Though the funeral drew over two million people, it was ignored by the media. In a recorded interview, Apostol described her reaction: "Next day, I said: “What’s this? Not a single photo of the funeral in the papers, as if nothing happened. What really got me was the Times Journal - owned by Benjamin Romualdez, brother of Mrs. Imelda Marcos
Imelda Marcos
Imelda R. Marcos is a Filipino politician and widow of 10th Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. Upon the ascension of her husband to political power, she held various positions to the government until 1986...
. What they printed was the photo of the spectator who was hit by lightning — that was their top news!"
A Time magazine article that hailed Apostol as an Asian hero, described what she did next: "Apostol fumed. Within days she was printing a tabloid version of her glossy Mr. & Ms. called Mr & Ms Special Edition. It had 16 pages of photographs showing Aquino's body, the multitudes that came to view it, and the massive funeral parade that wound through the streets of Manila for almost 12 hours. The first run was some half a million copies, yet it could not satisfy demand. In the coming months, as momentum built for the People Power revolution that would topple Marcos three years later, Apostol turned the tabloid into a weekly endeavor, putting it out from a raggedy office that, for security reasons, did not even have the publication's name on the door."
Apostol had instructed her staff to put out a special report on Aquino in the September 2, 1983 issue of Mr. & Ms. as well as a "special edition" sixteen-page supplement about the funeral. The supplement sold 750,000 copies and had a significant impact in arousing public anger at the dictatorship.
She launched the weekly Mr. & Ms. Special Edition, with journalist Letty Jimenez Magsanoc
Letty Jimenez Magsanoc
Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc is a Filipino journalist and editor, notable for her role in overthrowing the dictatorship] of Ferdinand Marcos. Magsanoc was editor of the crusading weekly opposition tabloid Mr & Ms Special Edition...
as editor. The special edition’s masthead declared its commitment to “justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Aquino assassination.”
The public response to the forty-page, black-and-white weekly was described as "phenomenal". Sales rose from two hundred thousand to half-a-million copies, numbers unprecedented in the country. The appearance of the publication was a high moment in the campaign against the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
was toppled by a popular uprising known as the People Power Revolution in 1986.
Philippine Inquirer (weekly)
IN February 1985, the trial of the military personnel accused in the Aquino murder commenced, conducted by the Sandiganbayan, a special court for officers of the state. Apostol launched the Philippine Inquirer, a tabloid-size weekly, on February 4, 1985 with herself as publisher and editor-in-chief and a staff of only two writers - JP Fenix and Candy Quimpo (now Candy Gourlay).Initially focused on the trial, it slowly acquired all the elements of a regular paper. Its final issue came out on December 2, 1985 after the Sandiganbayan handed down its controversial decision acquitting the accused.
Inception
When President Ferdinand MarcosFerdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos, Sr. was a Filipino leader and an authoritarian President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives and a member of the Philippine Senate...
announced in November 1985 that a snap presidential election would be held in February 1986, Apostol saw it as an apportunity for a "concerted anti-dictatorship campaign". Apostol invited some of the country’s biggest mass-media publishers to breakfast in her home. The group included:
- Joaquin “Chino” Roces of the Manila TimesManila TimesThe Manila Times is the oldest existing English language newspaper in the Philippines. It is published daily by The Manila Times Publishing Corp. with editorial and administrative offices at 371 A...
- Teodoro Locsin, Sr. and Teodoro Locsin, Jr.Teodoro Locsin, Jr.Teodoro "Teddyboy" Locsin, Jr. is a Philippine politician, lawyer, and journalist who served as congressman for the 1st district of Makati from 2001 to 2010.-Early life:Locsin was born in Manila on November 15, 1948...
of the Philippines Free Press - Raul Locsin of Business DayBusiness DayBusiness Day can refer to:*Business day, a period of time*Business Day *Business Day *Business Day...
- Jose BurgosJosé BurgosJosé Apolonio Burgos y García was a Filipino mestizo secular priest, accused of mutiny by the Spanish colonial authorities in the Philippines in the 19th century...
of Malaya - Betty Go-Belmonte of the Fookien Times.
Apostol's goal was to persuade the group to launch a single daily newspaper in time for the election but the group was largely unenthusiastic. Undeterred, Apostol pushed ahead with a seed capital of a million pesos from the profits of Mr & Ms, using the printworks of Betty Go-Belmonte’s family. Apostol's originally envisioned a cooperative-owned newspaper but the pressure of events led to the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) being registered as a corporation, with the stipulation that only permanent employees could own stocks in the paper.
Apostol headed the PDI as chair of the board of management with Betty Go-Belmonte as vice-chair.
Rapid rise
The newspaper started with a staff of forty in a hundredsquare-meter office and a circulation of thirty thousand copies limited largely to Metro Manila. Aided by the high excitement surrounding the election campaign, PDI’s growth was dramatic. Its circulation quickly ballooned to a peak of half-a-million copies daily. In just three months after its appearance, it became the leading Philippine broadsheet, accounting for 22.3 percent of the Metro Manila market, making it the country’s number one daily in terms of circulation. Demand was so great that production had to be done by five different printers in separate locations in the city.Marcos dismissed the Inquirer and other opposition papers as the “mosquito press.” Military plans to arrest opposition figures after a Marcos victory were leaked to the press. Apostol’s name was at the top of the list. Later, Apostol dismissed the threat, saying, “It was alphabetical.”
Enrile lawsuit
Juan Ponce Enrile filed suit against Apostol, alleging that she had diverted funds from Mr. & Ms. to establish the Inquirer. The suit referred to the use of Mr. & Ms. money to capitalize PDI. Apostol contended that the loan had been paid back. The case was dismissed in 1994 but continued until the Supreme Court finally ruled in Apostol's favor in 1998.Struggle for control of Philippine Daily Inquirer
In the 1990s the Philippine Daily Inquirer underwent a struggle for power - between Apostol and her managers. Apostol severed all corporate and editorial ties with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on January 26, 1994, resigning from the board and retiring from the paper. She is said to have seen the battle for corporate control to be detrimental to the paper's growth.Hu! Ha!
During the presidency of Fidel Ramos, moves were made to revise the Philippine Constitution to extend the presidential term of office. Apostol published a sixteen-page, tabloid-size satirical weekly called Hu! Ha!, to oppose charter change and expose regressive political practices. The weekly covered the 1998 elections and ran from September 20, 1997 to May 16, 1998.Pinoy Times
When President Joseph EstradaJoseph Estrada
Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada was the 13th President of the Philippines, serving from 1998 until 2001. Estrada was the first person in the Post-EDSA era to be elected both to the presidency and vice-presidency.Estrada gained popularity as a film actor, playing the lead role in over 100 films in...
called for an advertising boycott of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and sued Manila Times over a corruption story, Apostol set up the Pinoy Times. Apostol designed it as a popular tabloid for the masses, written in everyday Filipino it attempted to deliver "quality journalism with the price, size and liveliness of a tabloid". From an initial run of 30,000 copies, its regular five-days-a-week edition rose to a circulation of 170,000 in just eighteen months. Its weekend Special Edition sold as many as half-a-million copies. The paper was met with bomb threats, hate mail, libel suits from Estrada supporter, who at one point publishing an imitation tabloid in an attempt to undermine the Pinoy Times. A popular uprising - known as People Power II - forced Estrada out of power in 2001. Estrada's departure sent the sales of Pinoy Times into a slump. The paper closed on December 21, 2001 after two years in circulation.
Foundation for Worldwide People Power
On January 9, 1996 Apostol founded the Foundation for Worldwide People Power, with the aim to improve facilities and teaching in Philippine public schools.Time Magazine Sixty Years of Asian Heroes
In the November 2006 issue of Time Magazine (International edition), Apostol and Letty Jimenez MagsanocLetty Jimenez Magsanoc
Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc is a Filipino journalist and editor, notable for her role in overthrowing the dictatorship] of Ferdinand Marcos. Magsanoc was editor of the crusading weekly opposition tabloid Mr & Ms Special Edition...
were cited thus: "Apostol, now 81, and Magsanoc, in her mid-60s, were not firebrands in their younger days. Both were veterans of the lipstick beat, writing for the lifestyle sections of newspapers. But the assassination of Aquino, which sparked [ the People Power Revolution], galvanized Apostol and Magsanoc to break the local media's complicit silence surrounding Marcos' oppressive rule. In late 1985 they phased out Mr. & Ms. Special Edition and launched the Philippine Daily Inquirer
Philippine Daily Inquirer
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, popularly known as the Inquirer, is the most widely read broadsheet newspaper in the Philippines, with a daily circulation of 260,000 copies. It is one of the Philippines' newspapers of record...
, trailblazing a brand of hard-hitting, mischievous, in-your-face reporting that tested the limits of a dictator's tolerance and helped Filipinos win their freedom. 'In three months,' says Apostol, 'the Inquirer had not only helped to oust Marcos, it was also making money.' Today, the Inquirer is the country's largest newspaper and, while sometimes criticized for sensationalism, it has been unflinching in its coverage of government and the Philippines' uneasy transition to democracy."
Ramon Magsaysay Award
Eugenia Apostol was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay AwardRamon Magsaysay Award
The Ramon Magsaysay Award is an annual award established to perpetuate former Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay's example of integrity in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic society. The Ramon Magsaysay Award is often considered Asia's Nobel...
for Journalism, Literature & Creative Communication Arts in 2006 in recognition of "her courageous example in placing the truth-telling press at the center of the struggle for democratic rights and better government in the Philippines".