NPC is strengthened

I would like to congratulate Angelino Julita Jr., the newly elected president of the Negros Press Club. He got 37 votes over the 25 votes of Celso Jimenez Jr. Julita, we call Jun, and Jimenez, we call Tootsie.

The other winners are all good media people. I would like to commend Tootsie for a good fight he put up. He could have won had he not made grievous mistakes. He paraded himself as a PR man, which media people are allergic to lead them. He did not know this but had he won, many would have resigned from the Club.

He put up a billboard where he listed politicians and big businesses, his clients as sponsors of his projects in the Club. Many didn't like that.

Then, he was repeating that the NPC is a "social club." Edgar Cadagat did not like this. A press club is a club for professional media people with its many advocacies, like press freedom, credibility, integrity and professionalism. And not just a drinking club going on travel and tours.

Cadagat did not want the NPC to deteriorate into a drinking club.

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Of course, this is understandable because Tootsie is very new to the NPC. He has never held a minor office. He did not have an immersion or deep involvement in the club. On the contrary Julita has been a member of the Press Club for many years, and was vice-president twice.

Tootsie wrote in the papers but all about his clients and he was lucky there were local papers who printed his contributions. He had a program on Sunshine Channel that was all about his clients, all advertisements.

His program was suspended recently because the bills were not paid. I already said, Tootsie was close to me. But I would not be honest to myself if I would not tell him what I thought. I talked to him earlier that if he only would seek a lower post and get deeper involvement first … He would not.

No PR man ever won the presidency of the NPC because the members opposed it. When the National Press Club started to be ruled by PR men disguised as newspapermen, that led to the fall of Manila NPC.

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Among our brothers and sisters in media handling PR work are Eli Tajanlangit, Laarni Aguilar, Marlin Sanogal … They never attempted to lead the Club, knowing it would be bad for both their work as PR people and president of NPC. They would fail in both.

When I told the past presidents of NPC that Tootsie would not heed my brotherly advice, Modi Sa-onoy said, probably he had already committed to his sponsors and cannot back out any more. And when you come to think of it, aside from his many clients here, this is also election year and candidates have plenty of money.

Had he won, I believe in the threat of some that they would resign from a club. This would have been a crisis.

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Tootsie, if he plans to stay with the NPC must define his priorities. He can go on with his PR work and we will help him. He can issue press releases for his clients and we will print them. He does not have to pay but he must just be sure it's news worthy.

If he earns something from his clients he does not have to share it with media people. That is his for his professional work.

If he brings in advertisements, he will be given a commission.

I ask all media outlets, let us help Tootsie Jimenez in his PR work. If he submits a news item, publish it if it deserves publication. If he writes a column for his clients, it's up to you to charge him or not. But just be professional and we ask Tootsie to also be professional.

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Our businessmen and politicians have also gotten into the bandwagon to make our media more professional

. When there are people who identify themselves as members of NPC and ask for contributions, call up NPC Tel. No. 434-8965 and ask our secretary Mae Marañon if they were a members.

I recall when Aufred Sa-onoy was president, he had two people, not members of NPC arrested in the north for claiming to be NPC members.

A person called up last week telling our secretary somebody was asking for a contribution of P2,000 for the NPC election. And the fellow while claiming to be a media man was not actually in media and not a member of NPC. We want professionalism. Our Saturday election was very orderly because out of some old record of nearly 300 members, 62 came and voted and were all really working media people.

The secret was making them pay their dues last November so that candidates would not buy their votes by paying their dues on election day.*

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