The Freeman at 90: Cebu's oldest newspaper!

Today, Cebu celebrates a milestone in press freedom as it is the 90th anniversary of The Freeman, Cebu’s leading newspaper publication and a partner of The STAR Group of Publications. The Freeman was founded by Don Paulino Arandia Gullas and its maiden issue came out on May 10, 1919. So as not to confuse our readers, we are celebrating the 90th anniversary at this time because it was then that Sir Jose “Dodong” Gullas revived The Freeman in the mid-60s, when he asked the permission of the widow of Don Paulino Gullas to revive the newspaper which had been shuttered since World War II.

In the past four days, The Freeman has reprinted a four-part series on the newspaper’s early years which was compiled by my good friend Dionisio Sy, a former columnist, during the newspaper’s 60th anniversary in 1979. His article helps immortalize the story of The Freeman.

In that article, Sy wrote that Don Paulino Gullas was later elected congressman for the second district of Cebu in 1928 and re-elected in 1934. He was one of the 14 delegates to the 1935 Constitutional Convention. So in a way, journalists and politicians are closely related to one another, that is why perhaps Sir Dodong Gullas was once elected as congressman for the first district of Cebu, while his brother Rep. Eddie Gullas is still the current congressman of the first district. No doubt this family tradition of public service has remained in the Gullas family. Despite the ugliness of politics, especially today, the two brothers have never been tainted with any wrongdoing while in public service.

While history has almost forgotten Don Paulino Gullas, let me reprint what he once said about newspapers in his time, which I would like to believe is still relevant in today’s modern era. Don Paulino said: “In the hands of the unscrupulous and unprincipled journalists, the press is the ugliest weapon of destruction forged in the furnace of Satan. But committed to the hands of men who are true to the ethics of their profession, it is the greatest empire builder, the greatest educator, the greatest molder of public opinion, the best preserver of law and order, and the most faithful handmaid of private and public morals.”

Let me remind you that Don Paulino wrote this at a time when the newspaper technology was through the linotype machine, when editors, reporters and columnists used typewriters. The only other high technology available then was the AM radio. Yet in the midst of today’s satellite, television and Internet technology and the use of computers by the newspaper industry, the statement of Don Paulino Gullas still holds true today… that the media industry can make or break a political candidate and can make life a living hell for people who may be targeted by media personalities.

Last Wednesday, Sir Dodong Gullas hosted a luncheon at the Marriott Hotel to celebrate The Freeman’s 90th anniversary and Sir Miguel Belmonte spoke before us to tell us that perhaps only the Manila Bulletin can claim to be older than The Freeman. Indeed, The Freeman is the only newspaper in Cebu that can claim so much history and prestige.

So if you’re in Cebu and you read The Freeman’s advertisement that is placed in conspicuous places that declares, “Nobody Knows Cebu Better than The Freeman!” you can say that this is a statement of fact and truth. Indeed, The Freeman has been around for so long that if you get to read its earliest publications, you are in reality, reading Cebu history.

In one of the earliest copies of The Freeman is an account of how the legendary Leon Kilat a.k.a. Pantaleon Villegas was murdered by his own friends in the Katipunan movement, most of whom came from Carcar, taken from a confession from one of his killers. It may have been a report on current events at the time, but you are actually reading the history of Cebu!

In his speech last Wednesday before the staff and management of The Freeman, our president Sir Miguel Belmonte told us how he truly loved The Freeman because he had to get up early in the morning to take a flight to Cebu to be with us… something that he doesn’t do for The Philippine STAR. Kidding aside, Sir Miguel was the main catalyst behind The STAR Group of Publications in bringing The Freeman as a member of The STAR Group.

Perhaps it is because running a community paper in Cebu has different challenges than running The Philippine STAR, which was already established by his mother, the saintly Betty Go-Belmonte, and the late Sir Max Soliven. But when The STAR partnered with The Freeman, it has become the newspaper to reckon with. It is a fact that the tabloid Banat, The Freeman’s sister publication, is now dubbed as the newspaper with the largest circulation in the entire Visayas, which is no mean feat! Kudos and more power to the staff and management of The Freeman and The STAR Group of Publications!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. Avila’s columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.