By Joel B. Belinan
becoming extinct. “
On May 3, the whole world observed World Press Freedom Day. Unfortunately in our locality, Sunstar Baguio after a quarter of a century operation folded up. Sunstar of course was the only daily community paper in Northern Luzon, although I doubt it if it had been making money. Its closing though still came as a big surprise. And this also proves that such terms as Press Freedom cannot really be enjoyed until and unless such media outfits could attain economic independence or financial stability that it won’t easily succumb to economic difficulties caused by either a natural disaster or a man-made one.
On the other hand, my mind immediately focused on the remaining community papers being published weekly, of course, like ZigZag Weekly. How these papers have endured all these years is really a puzzle and cannot be easily explained by any mathematician in business. ZigZag Weekly for one was actually started by our Boss Atty. Antonio Pekas and Atty. Odemar Cabalda and its maiden issue came out on the first Sunday of January 1996. Of course, there was Ms. Dorothy Pucay who sacrificed several years editing the paper before going back to the States.
Since then it never ceased to come out every week, month after month, and year after year. And without noticing the years, it has now reached 25 years of bringing the “News as it should be, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. All throughout those 25 years, I witnessed almost how these two lawyers shouldered the cost of producing copies of ZigZag Weekly every week. Later on Atty. Cabalda moved to the United States leaving Boss Tony or Pacol to single-handedly continue operating this paper. I was also aware that in most issues of this paper, the revenue was not even been enough to cover the cost of the next issue but, alas, due to the so-called stubborn idealism (as our former news editor Sam Bautista put it) and innate missionary mentality of our Boss Tony, ZigZag Weekly is still here with us.
What I am driving at here is the struggles of small community newspapers or publications which make them always dangerously under threat of becoming extinct. Unfortunately, most of the people only look at the dark side of the media industry while their contributions, especially the community papers, are seldom appreciated. For example, how many would-be acts of corruption were prevented due to the presence of the ever-vigilant local press people, or how many crimes were exposed?
And the local press people have been the ones with the local people during hard times (and sometimes also during good times), unlike those so-called media giants who just come and go and never really immersed themselves in their subject communities. The result was they always came out with sensational news reports that lacked substance, or were just misleading.
In sum, press freedom has still a long way to go in this country, what with the present Internet and social media developments which are now killing the print media. I would not really be surprised if in the coming days, another local paper would announce its closure, or that Boss Tony would decide to cease the publication of ZigZag Weekly.
*** ***
Being health-conscious nowadays is really important especially when you have arrived at middle age. I was again reminded of this when Sir Joel (my tokayo) Art Tibaldo came by our corner at Burnham Park recently to ask for some information on where he could take vegetarian meals during lunchtime. Manong Art as we in the media call him is a veteran media practitioner starting with the Philippine Information Agency then moved on to the Department of Trade and Industry where he is now the Public Information Officer. He is also the husband of PIA Reg’l Director Helen Tibaldo who happens to be one of our principal sponsors during my wedding. It turns out that Manong Art suffered a mild stroke last March and after which he has adopted a clean lifestyle particularly shifting to a healthy diet— vegetarian. Of course, I told him about the presence of the Vegetarian House at Abanao Square and its branches in General Luna and at PFVR, and the As Wes Vegetarian Restaurant in Nevada Square. Of course, he was already aware of the Health 100 and its several branches. He said that he wants to enjoy life and so wants to regain much of his life’s vitality through a healthy lifestyle including a vegetarian diet, exercise, and a positive outlook in life. And while I still saw him to be quite healthy after recovering, he said that he will be retiring towards the end of the year upon reaching 60.
I am aware of several friends and relatives who were actually still at middle age, while some were younger, when they suffered health problems, some serious ones. These guys often looked healthy or still young. However, a closer look at their circumstances, revealed some common factors. Too much indulgence on bad vices like alcoholism and cigarette smoking, being too carnivorous, involvement in very hazardous professions such as those requiring work at night and the presene of stressful circumstances.
I am not saying that a vegetarian is insulated from such problems but being one has a big advantage.
I also learned that almost 50% of police retirees do not live long enough to enjoy their retirement benefits and to think that police and military officers’ mandatory retirement age is 56.
Health is wealth, so they say, and if we value it we should take care of it in order to live a meaningful and happy life for ourselves and our loved-ones.**
