Strengthening the press

The National Press Club held its annual election last Sunday. Rollie Espina, a life-time member of NPC flew to Manila to vote.

He went there on the request of Inquirer Columnist Neal Cruz who has long waged a fight against what is said to be the deterioration of NPC when its building was foreclosed by GSIS for non-payment, the Manansala mural was sold for P10 million by its formers leaders and even the piano was lost.

The lament was this was due to the entry of journalists, many of them public relations people or spokesmen of politicians.

But these “journalists” came and dominated the Club because the more professional ones also took no active part in the Club. Except now.

The result was the oldies were clobbered. They were no match to the younger ones.

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This came to mind and we are happy. Our own NPC, the Negros Press Club is stronger. Our former Club presidents have formed a group called the Past Presidents Council to help the Club.

We also encountered problems. But we solved them. We have an advantage of a president serving only for one year. He cannot be re-elected. So, nobody perpetuates himself in power.

I have the honor of having served for the unprecedented four terms, the last three was on the consensus that I came back to “put the Club in order”.

And since 1982 until last year, I was the self-appointed chairman of the NPC Past Presidents Council. No one wanted to take over. But last year I was able to convince Modi Sa-onoy to take over. After 25 years, it is time to rest.

The presence of past presidents is crucial. We are there but never did we intervene in the running of the Club. We only help if the incumbent wants to be helped.

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This noon, the Council is supposed to sit down with NPC president Cyrus Garde and immediate past president Jun Julita. We will be happy if some board members join us.

We want to find out how we can help strengthen the Club. I got some feedback of some problems, like the attendance of few members in the last induction and the recent Media Night at Pana-ad. We want to help president Cyrus Garde.

NPC has been an effective tool in uniting local media. We hope to keep it that way. And, unlike the Manila NPC, we are strict in the membership. Not just anyone can be a member.

Chairman of this membership committee now is past president Amado Villacarlos. I recall many years ago Ms Ninfa Leonardia was chairman of the committee and she was very strict. She made plenty of enemies but she stood her ground.

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We were able to trim down the membership from nearly 300 to something like only 80 now. And do you know the annual membership dues? It is P120 a year or ten pesos a month. That’s a little over the cost of a jeepney ride.

But NPC supports itself from the rental of a store on the ground floor and some fees paid by groups who hold their press conferences there.

The whole sala is fully airconditioned, donation of the Sunshine Boys. The Sunshine Boys also donated air-conditioning units to the salas of judges and the post office at the Hall of Justice.

Many people want to help media. They want it strengthened. The courts are the last bulwark of democracy. A friend called up. He said, no. The press is the real bulwark.

I cannot disagree. And we don’t have complaints with our public officials who have been supportive of our media.

And private businesses, too. Without their advertisements, no media can survive. Advertisements finance media operation.

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The controversy on business permits of media outlets is very interesting. I believe this controversy is good for all. Let it be discussed publicly.

It shows the right of the city through its legal office to grant or not to grant business permits. It also shows the right of a media man to raise a big howl in what he perceives to be a harassment.

The other day, my friend Edmund Aspero texted me. DAILY STAR and Sunshine Channel were questioned on our business permits. Aspero said, as chairman of both, what do you say?

I texted him back, it is everybody’s right to question. I am even inviting the city legal office and the city treasurer if they want to examine our books, they are open to them. DAILY STAR, now 26 years old, paid the city a very substantial amount of taxes and Sunshine, even if only two years old, paid the city of more than P25,000 for 2007.*

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