We’re Number One, and you’d better believe it

The Philippine STAR has turned 21 years old. In America when you reach the age of 21 you are considered a legal adult. In fact, the American youth once they hit their 21st birthday, celebrate and go out to see if indeed their IDs (legal identification card) work. They proudly boast turning 21, as if a rite of passage. It’s really a big deal to reach 21.

The Philippine Star has reached this glorious age with our Founding Chairman Betty Go-Belmonte and Founding Publisher Maximo V. Soliven giving a thumbs up to all The Philippine STAR family. To Tita Betty and Papa Max – your dream lives on. You can never die in our hearts and in the hearts of men.

The first thing we do as taught to us by Tita Betty (which my dad has always seconded) is to thank the Lord for the twenty-one years of blessings He has heaped on us. The second thing is to thank our Beloved Readers and Advertisers who have stuck with us through thick and thin. The third is to congratulate the administration and staff from the editors and reporters down to the service personnel and security guards.

This was a message written by my dad about the culture of The Philippine Star – which I believe has become a guiding light to many:

We strive with might and main to live up to our motto, plagiarized from the Holy Bible, “Truth Shall Prevail.” Our readers, sometimes to our embarrassment, throw that challenge back at us whenever they disagree with our “truth” as reported.

We tell it like it is – as we see it. If we goof at times, sorry. We rush to correct, and clarify mistakes, which are inescapable. To err is human, as the old saying goes, and to forgive is divine. And so please be divine, gentle critics, and forgive us our trespasses and lapses.

We tell our readers that this is a newspaper which should be read “from cover to cover,” and that’s what most of them do. We consistently urge our friends (and our enemies) to read our newspapers daily.

Whenever our reporters are, on occasion, tempted to embellish the truth in order to tart up a report or sensationalize it, we throw at them a stern warning from the Talmud (the encyclopedia of Hebrew literature and religion, dating from the 2nd to 6th centuries). The Talmud cautions: “If you add to the truth, you subtract from it.”

The STAR has gone through “hard times,” and we’re grateful that it has won through adversity and struggle. It was the 23rd daily newspaper to begin publishing, post-Marcos and post-EDSA People Power era. Now, it is achieving great heights in covering the news (local, international, business and sports) while also providing features in lifestyle, funfare and entertainment. Achieving great heights is all about FAITH. To borrow my dad’s words, “If we have faith in ourselves, faith in each other, there is no obstacle that cannot be overcome.”

Media ethics is top priority for the Editors. We know when news should or should not be written. It is a rule for our reporters to write the truth without manipulating it. The mere act of sensationalizing is really not our style. It will continue to strive and thrive to bring you the truth. We will also work to keep on holding our leaders to the truth. Politicians, like journalists and media persons, are prone to similar temptations everywhere. We will continue to do our best as we look forward to bringing fresh and fair news to your door step.

Self-congratulations or glorification always gives one a terrific feeling although it may bore others – but what the heck we are celebrating 21 years and I think every member of the Star family deserves a path on the back and an applause to a job well done.

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Now on the SONA, don’t fret about the speech. It is whether this government is working that matters. All that critical comment will only exhaust us emotionally and physically.

A good SONA is, in the end, just a road-map of where a President intends to lead a nation – that having been noted, it’s time to stop analyzing and dissecting it, and move on to implementation.

Criticisms, from the press or the public, are a wake up call for a President – and should be regarded as such. We criticize our leader hoping that she will harken and respond. It is when we despair of being heard that we take to the gun.

The “speech” has been delivered. She must now resort to deeds, and hopefully her actions will prove better this time.