Negros mediamen grieve for Max

He was not only honored and respected by journalists in the capital. Max, too, was well-respected and his memories treasured by Negrenses, especially by Negros Occidental’s journalists.

That’s why news of his demise in Tokyo shocked many local fans as did most of local writers. Especially me, who used to be one of his contemporaries dating back to his youthful days until later, I joined The Philippine STAR with the late Louie Beltran that was when was transferred en masse from the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Also with us was George Juralbal.

I remember Max as a humble man who did not hesitate to acknowledge he had done wrong when he did. But he was also always jocular, his sense of humor relaxing the tensest moments.

To a certain extent, I was close to him. When we were together at a Philippine Press Institute Conference in Baguio City, Max approached me one morning to keep his wife, Ambassador Preciosa Soliven, company. This was the Camp John Hay resort.

A few hours later, he showed up again. And he quipped — "you managed to survive several hours with her dialog." Precious of course, simply smiled at it. And I was sort of discomfited because I found the conversation with Precious very interest and enlightening.

Well, that was Max for me. Always joking. But I had very high regard for his keen observations and analysis of world events. We often brushed shoulders in many countries where we had visited. Max was always where I had gone to. He was the peripatetic journalist who rubbed shoulders with the statesmen and political leaders of various nations, bantering with them but always disarming.

Fellow columnist Primo Eslyer of the Visayan Daily STAR considers Mas as having established his mark in a special era in column writing. . . ." Max Soliven stands out, out only because of his foremost achievement by outliving them all (former columnist) but because his writing, a class in itself, was marked by an elegant language, a prose that was poesy, a wit that stung and an accompanying humor that assuage the pain," Primo pointed out yesterday.

More, "reading Soliven one learned something new in literature, history, philosophy, government and general information because of his encyclopedic knowledge about everything," Primo added.

But Visayan Daily Star editor Ninfa Leonardia has one regret, Max had been scheduled to be the guest of the Bacolod daily’s anniversary celebration next month.

Ninfa just whispered to me this information when we were at the 75th birth anniversary of her uncle Toti Ramos at the L’Fisher Hotel last Friday.

Regarding Max return here tomorrow, his ashes to be brought back by Precious, Ninfa had this to day: "Well, I think Max can thumb his nose at Ferdinand Marcos in this, because the late president with his 27 medals alleged war heroism, still cannot be interred in that hallowed ground (the Libingan ng Mga Bayani).

"But Max, like Art Borjal, Raul Locsin, Louie Beltran, now-all gone… will surely be remembered for this impact on journalism in his land," Nimfa added.

That’s I think, is the best tribute to Max.

We’ll, I don’t think Max relishes the idea of us, columnists, spending too much time on his demise and mourning for him. He would have just said — "go on with what you are supposed to do."

And, so, back to the grind. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued last June Administrative Order No. 153 which tasked which tasked both the National Historical Institute and the education department to spearhead the nationwide observance of the 150th birth anniversary of Ilonggo national hero Graciano Lopez Jaena.

The national organizing committee had already drawn up a tentative schedule of activities that will focus the celebration on Jaro, Iloilo City. This will be climaxed with the groundbreaking of the museum an shrine of Lopez Jaena with GMA herself will be the guest of honor.

Prior to that, Manila Mayor Lito Atienza had informed Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez, also chair of the Western Visayas Historical and Cultural Council, inviting the officials of the Dr. Graciano Lopez Jaena Foundation, headed by Dr. Juan Acanto, to the installation of the P1.2 million statue of the national hero in Manila.

But more important, the Publishers Association of the Philippines (PAPI), headed by president Juan Dayang, will hold a colloquium to honor Lopez Jaena on December 16. This will be held at the Bohol Tropics Hotel in Tagbilaran.

This will usher in the three-day 11th National Press Congress scheduled from December 16 to 19.

This media congress will be attended by leading Filipino journalists including publishers, editors, columnists, radio and TV broadcasters and commentators. Also attending are writers, book authors and campus journalists, Dayang said.

Gov. Perez, meanwhile, disclosed that the education department will also hold special celebrations in towns of the country named after Lopez Jaena and in several schools named in his honor.

The countdown has started for the Dec. 18 150th anniversary of the Ilonggo national hero, the first of three members of the Propaganda Movement who had gone to Spain to fight for the Filipino. The two others are Dr. Jose P. Rizal and Marcelo H. del Pilar.

Lopez Jaena was the writer and, foremost of all, the orator of the Propaganda Movement whom Rizal paid tribute to.

Bais City ambush

Tuesday last week, armed men ambushed and killed five victims and wounded two others in Barangay Biñohon, Bais City.

What was interesting is that the victims had attended the preliminary investigation of the killing of SPO1 Richard Teves and his son, Junior, last month.

Some of the early reports point to members of the Bais police force behind the bloody shooting incident. The reason Teves was reportedly a long-time bodyguard of Bais City Mayor Hector Villanueva.

The mayor vehemently denied that he had masterminded the ambush-slay. He claimed that the accusations and rumors are politically-motivated.

Villanueva said he could have taken the law into his hands when he, himself, was ambushed in 1997 and barely escaped with his life. He said he was aware who the perpetrators of that attempt on his life were.

Instead, Thursday, Villanueva reportedly asked the city council to appropriate P100,000 as reward for anybody who could give information as to the identities of the ambushers.

Killed on the spot were Conrado delos Santos, Alice Cadiz, Le Durango, and Zuelo Bacay.

Durango, according to records, was among those identified as among those who held up an American national in Dumaguete a week before the ambush-slay. Durango is also a suspect in a rural bank robbery in Bais City eight years ago. He is also linked to a string of cases in Manjuyod and Mabinay towns of Oriental Negros.

That gave rise to the other angle of a vigilante killing. But vigilantes had hardly hit others than their intended targets.

Aime Lecciones, one of the wounded, succumbed to her wounds in the hospital. She was the fifth fatality.

Two others, Ramon Cadiz and Eve Bacay are still in the hospital.

That Bais incident highlights the fact that some killings in the provinces hardly merit the attention of national periodicals. But they are just as problematic as those which occur in the metropolis. And just as important that they get solved as soon as possible.