A welcome reunion
of ‘has-beens’

The reason why I was unable to write my Sunday column was a sudden decision to come to Manila and attend the election of the National Press Club post the call by Neal Cruz, an Inquirer columnist, for NPC old guards to rally to save the press club.

I was surprised myself by the heavy turnout of what we derisively called the “old guards.” These were the officers and members who have been granted life membership. Meaning, they have already been members beyond their allotted time and could not be stripped of their right.

Well, I have been absent for more than 20 years from the NPC polls. The reason – I had always thought our term as officers had expired a long time ago and the time has come for the younger hands to take over.

But the problem is that the younger ones turned out worse than had originally been anticipated. Thus, the loss of the Manansala painting, purportedly sold for P10 million to a philanthropist stirred a lot of controversy. And a call to save the club from “robbers.”

But what had been an idealistic trip turned out to be a reunion among peers. There was Alice Valladolid, former Philippine Press Institute chairman, under whom I served for quite a while. There was also Denni Navarro, now Philippine News Agency manager who remains a hulking fellow who admits to have abandoned his daily jogging. There were a lot of other media bigwigs. Lito Malinoa, now of a Manila university; Roly Estabillo of the Philippine Airlines; Ma Baker Andolong, wife of the late NPC president Nero Andolong, who suddenly stood up in the middle of the plenary assembly and kissed me hard “because I have missed you for a long time, my best friend.”

One thing most of us noticed – the members of the Menopause Club were no longer around. Mrs. Andolong pointed out that this was because they (widow of dead mediamen) had boycotted the NPC after they found it frequented by pseudo journalists and a lot of hustlers.

Well, we told Mrs. Andolong to call them back and tell them that we were going to retrieve it for them.*

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