Garbo sa Sugbu 2006 Valeriano 'Bobit' Avila

The Philippine Star Publisher Max Soliven once referred to Valeriano "Bobit" Avila as "The Cebu Bureau Chief" when the latter joined the paper two years after its conception in July 28, 1986. A year later, upon invitation of Publisher Juanito Jabat, Bobit's first column saw print in The Freeman on August 5, 1987.

Bobit's trail in the Cebu media can be traced back from the time he was asked to join the Cebu Newspaper Workers Foundation (CENEWOF) as director, a position reserved for Cebuano families who operate media outlets. His grandfather, Don Jose Avila, owned the English daily Cebu Advertiser that folded up during World War II.

Bobit believes his achievement as a media practitioner is having people from different levels of society read and react to his columns and to his television show "Straight From The Sky," which earned him the best talk show host award from the Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Awards in 2005.

He would say there is no real secret ingredient to his columns, except to write the truth in a language understood by many. On the other hand, even in the absence of commercial advertisements, his talk show continues to hold on to the principle of presenting not just bad news but also the good side of life. "I never asked for a TV talkshow…SkyCable invited me and seven years later even with (a) meager advertisement, we are still on the air giving you quality shows of events that do not make the headlines, but are even more important to life," Bobit says.

Bobit also made a creative shift in his column by "preaching" the Gospel of that particular Sunday that his column sees print, making him the only mainstream columnist in Cebu who tackles religious matters with contemporary issues.

"Shooting Straight" continues to be among the widely-read columns in The Freeman. In fact, it has been nominated in the CAMMA twice in a row. But Bobit, who does not hesitate to scribble the most hard-hitting commentaries when necessary, believes that accolades are meaningless unless the writer himself shows that he can be the living example of the principles he espouses.