Remembering Sir Max Soliven

How time flies indeed… two years have gone by since the passing of our bosom friend and mentor, The Philippine STAR’s co-founder and publisher Maximo V. Soliven. There will always be special days in our lives that we would never forget like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (to those of us who were already born at that time) or the infamous Sept. 9, 2001 a.k.a. 9/11 and other important dates relevant to ourselves such as our birthdays or anniversaries. The passing of Sir Max is a day I would never forget.

I was on my motorcycle on my way to Carcar 40 kilometers south of Cebu City to attend the Kabkaban Festival of Carcar and a meeting of the Carcar Heritage and Conservation Society when my phone rang. Of course, I couldn’t answer since I was still riding to Carcar. When I got there, my phone was full of text messages from concerned friends asking me if it was true that something happened to Sir Max in Tokyo? How news travel fast these days due to cell phone technology.

Of course, I got my confirmation from Sir Max’s buddy, Sir Arthur Lopez, and from Sir Max’s loyal secretary, Tess Santos, and then it dawned on me that Sir Max had finally left us. 2006 would always be an unforgettable period in my life because in March that year, I also lost a good friend and kumpare, Josefino “Joey” Pineda, one of the pillars of the film industry. However, his case was different in the sense that he was in coma for about six years before he left for the other world. Three months before Sir Max passed away, I also lost my mother, Mrs. Ascension Segura Avila. So I lost three people who were very close to me in 2006.

There is no doubt that Sir Max left a void in the world of journalism. How many journalists today can claim that they covered eight Presidents in their time? I can just imagine the column Sir Max would have written about the latest coup that installed Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile into the Senate presidency. If you recall, Sir Max was incarcerated with the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. during the first hours of Martial Law based on a photocopy of an Arrest, Search and Seizure Order (ASSO) signed by then Defense Secretary Enrile.

I’m sure Sir Max would have loved to poke a few paragraphs, with his usual Sanamagan!, that what happened at the Senate last week was the only coup hatched by Sen. Gringo Honasan that ever succeeded. The two were together in Camp Crame when they turned against the conjugal Marcos Dictatorship and triggered what has been known as the EDSA People Power Revolt. But Sir Max would always tell me that while we had divine help in ousting the Marcoses from power, the rest was supposed to be up to us.

This is why 20 years later, Sir Max wrote about the reasons why the EDSA Revolt was a failure because the people in the opposition merely wanted to grab political power and when they were installed into the government, they conveniently forgot about the reforms that would have made this country a truly great nation.            

In commemoration of his second death anniversary, we’re invited to the formal unveiling today of the statue of Sir Max Soliven on Roxas Boulevard by Mrs. Preciosa Soliven in simple ceremonies from 4 to 6 p.m. in front of the Aristocrat. Mrs. Soliven chose that spot because this is where they used to go on dates before they got married. I have seen that statue and thanked Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim for being instrumental in remembering Sir Max by having his statue right there on Roxas Boulevard.

Unfortunately, I cannot attend this event because I will be in Japan until the end of the month… to attend another burial, that of Mrs. Sachiko Kono, mother-in-law of my sister, Adela A. Kono, and mother of my brother-in-law, Yuki Kono. Half of her ashes were buried in our family plot at the Cebu Memorial Park, while the other half will be joined at her husband’s grave in Narita. Since this place is quite close to where Sir Max died, I will offer my prayers for him in Narita.

While Sir Max is now in a better place than what we have, we still have to move forward because life has to go on. However, even at this time, some friends still tell me that they miss the columns of Sir Max. In fact, a few people would even dare question, “What would happen to The Philippine STAR now that Sir Max is gone?” The answer to that came a couple of months ago when The Philippine STAR bagged the most coveted title of being the number one newspaper in the country! We can only attribute this to the training that the Belmonte children - and The STAR staff, too - got from their mom, Mrs. Betty Go-Belmonte, and Sir Max who are now watching over us in heaven.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.