101 Years of the Free Press
A Hundred and One, the Free Press editorial.
On its 101st anniversary the Free Press pays tribute to President Corazon Aquino with reprints of classic pieces from the magazine including the late Teodoro M. Locsin’s editorial on Mrs. Aquino, Napoleon G. Rama’s essay on martial law, pre-martial law interviews with Senator Benigno Aquino Jr, political cartoons by E.Z. Izon, and Gregorio Brillantes’s profile of Rolando Galman, the other casualty of the Aquino assassination.
FP101 includes The Ruling Money—a business story by Nick Joaquin (writing as Quijano de Manila), Kerima Polotan’s critique of the thriving Sixties bourgeois scene The Woman of Fashion, and Jose F. Lacaba’s variation on Susan Sontag, Notes On Bakya. It’s a feast.
The Free Press was padlocked on the eve of martial law and its publisher-editor Teodoro Locsin Sr imprisoned. The magazine was revived in time for Cory Aquino’s historic presidential campaign.
Free Press 101 is available at National Bookstores and 7-11s. Call 844-2316, 844-2251, 844-2275, 0919-583-8487 for orders.
P.S. Just called National. This issue is expected Monday. Best to reserve your copies.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
August 22nd, 2009 at 13:57
The election on May 2010 gives us Filipinos an opportunity to reverse
the culture of corruption, unethical and immoral conduct, and
self-serving antics of our politics. With the death of President
Corazon Aquino, who embodied the true meaning of leadership through
her selfless love for our people, we are awaken with the crop of
politicians and officials running our government — futile,
incompetent, corrupt, and to an extent have already lost the moral
ascendancy to govern. Our government was created under her (Cory
Aquino’s) watch with the purpose of empowering Filipinos through
self-determination and democracy. In our current situation, the same
cannot be said of our government. Few people determine our fate as a
country; with their self-serving means and enriching themselves
leaving the rest of our people suffer from poverty, hunger,
unemployment and social injustices. This is not the vision of Ninoy
and Cory for our nation.
Through the incoming presidential elections, we are once again called
to unite and rally around the values of democracy, equality and
nationalism. But to whom shall we rally with? Who will be the leader
who will be our guide to realize the vision of Ninoy and Cory? With
the current slate of presidentiables, you cannot help but be dismayed
— we can only choose the lesser evil, just like the previous
elections. The Filipino people have the right to be presented with
candidates with character and strong values. The fight for the
incoming election will be the ideas of Ninoy and Cory against the
politics of cronyism, social injustice, corruption and total lack of
competence of our officials. It will be democracy versus its fake and
corrupted version which we have now.
Fellow Filipinos, I call upon you to petition and urge the son of Cory
and Ninoy to continue their unfinished work by being the leader of our
country come June 30, 2010. Just like his mother, Senator Benigno
Aquino III, popularly called Noynoy, is reluctant to take power.
Unlike the current aspirants who view the presidency as a prize and a
privilege, I believe that Noynoy, just like his parents, sees power as
a way to serve people, to alleviate their suffering, to bring them
opportunities so they may realize their full potential. With the
opposition so fractured, Noynoy being their candidate would unite them
and will lead us to stop the current administration from further
destroying our democracy. He will bring dignity back to the Presidency
through simplicity, humbleness and by providing inspiration to our
people.
I’m calling upon you, my countrymen, to urge Noynoy to run and fight
the status quo, and finally bring real change and reforms to our
country and society. Please pass this petition and ask your friends
and family to sign. Please include a short message to encourage Noynoy
to run for the presidency this election.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
LINK: http://www.petitiononline.com/Aquino/petition.html