Requiem for a champion

Our country just lost one of its long-time vanguards of freedom and democracy. Maximo V. Soliven, Philippine STAR publisher and chairman, died last November 24 doing what he loved the most. He was in Japan at the time of his death, having just finished his usual lengthy discourse about this country’s changing of the guards. Although his physical strength was slowly fading during the past years, he still drove himself relentlessly, constantly traveling and continuing to churn out kilometric reports in his popular column in the Philippine STAR By The Way. Needles to say, his passing caught many of us by surprise.

Max – as he was fondly called by many – began his journalistic career at the age of 20 as associate editor of the Catholic newspaper The Sentinel. He then served as police and political reporter for the Manila Chronicle at 25, then business editor of The Manila Times from 1957 to 1960. In 1960, at the age of 27, Max became the publisher and editor of the now-defunct The Evening News, which rose from sixth to second highest in daily circulation. Because of his work, Max was bestowed the honor of Chevalier (knight) of the National Order of Merit of the French Republic which was presented to him in 1991 by no less than the French President Francois Miterrand. Nine years later, Max was awarded one of Spain’s most coveted decorations, the rank of Encomendero de la Orden Isabel la Catolica, from King Juan Carlos. He has also been named Journalist of the Year by the National Press Club, the award presented by his former teacher, Henry Kissinger. Max also spent more than 12 years as a foreign correspondent, traveling to many of the notable global hotspots in the 1960’s like the Vietnam War and the Tet Offensive; the 1965 Gestapu Coup in Indonesia, where half a million people were massacred. Max also got an exclusive when he watched the detonation of the first atomic bomb in the People’s Republic in China, where he also interviewed Premier Zhou Enlai.

By 1972, Max has become one of the two most influential columnists at the Manila Times. During the Marcos Martial Law era, Max’s intense literary prose stirred the senses of the Filipino people to fight for democracy and freedom. Because of this, he was one of the first journalists to be arrested by Marcos’ military forces and held in a maximum security cell together with Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. Although he was banned from leaving the country and from writing for the next seven years, Max continued combating a tyrannical government, co-founding the Philippine Daily Inquirer during the fading years of the Marcos rule. Max fervently believes that the press is the "last best hope" of the country. Until the time of his death, Max has remained steadfast in his resolve to be one of our country’s beacons of freedom and democracy.

Looking at Max’s biography, I cannot help but draw some parallelisms between his life and mine. Both of us enlisted as guerrillas and saw action during the Japanese occupation when we were in our early teens. Max enrolled and studied at the Ateneo de Manila University, where I was also an alumni. Both of us also eventually became journalists and wrote for the same publication, The Philippine STAR.

In a country bereft of real heroes, Max’s imposing presence will surely be missed. Rest easy my friend. You are home now.