'By the Way' - There is only one Max

Manila Mayor Fred Lim will lead the unveiling tomorrow afternoon of the statue of Max Soliven at the Baywalk along Roxas Boulevard, in the area fronting Aristocrat Restaurant, with a number of friends and colleagues to witness the occasion which falls on the second death anniversary of Max. Some ignoramuses were asking why he is being given such an honor. The answer is very simple: There is only one Max — a freedom fighter, using his pen relentlessly without fear to right a wrong and take erring officials to task. I’m not saying this because he was a close personal friend, but many people agree that he deserves to be honored and remembered by a country that he truly loved.

A prolific writer, poet, romantic, history expert, military buff, avid traveler — Max was all these things, and more. He was the kind of man who would go to great lengths to protect a friend — but vicious to anyone who gets on his bad side.

 Up to this day, people still miss his column, wondering what he would have said about Barack Obama becoming president of the US; the excesses of Wall Street executives and the resulting global financial meltdown; the political merry-go-round that’s happening in the country today; or who would be the best next president of the Philippines. Among all the journalists in this country, he was the only one who could evoke such passion with his skillful use of words.

He was a voracious reader, able to pick out a quotation from any book he had read. He had 5,000 books in his study. He had a peculiar way of arranging his books and he knew exactly where each one was located. It was even said that when Precious tried to organize his room and catalogue his collection, he could not find anything.

He would write straight from his mind to his old Olympus typewriter, which went with him wherever he went. I remember when we were in Washington D.C., shortly before attending the state dinner at the White House given by George Bush for GMA in 2003, Max had to rush a whole column about the GMA visit, the background of the presidential visit, Washington, George Bush, the whole thing — and it was amazing how he was able to put everything together in one brilliant column. It was a photo finish, with him having to be escorted into the White House by the Secret Service.

Max loved to travel, and he used to say there are 1,000 places in this world that one must see, and he had only completed 400 with 600 more to go. Maybe by now he had completed visiting the 1,000 destinations twice over because his spirit is free to roam anywhere in the world.

There is really no one quite like him. He was a fun person to be with, inviting Arthur Lopez and myself to walk with him around the mall regularly. It was his unique way to stimulate his mind and process his thoughts before going home to write his daily column. 

A journalist through and through, Max was not cowed by the threat of incarceration and continued to wield his pen fearlessly, believing that the press was “our last best hope” in fighting any kind of tyranny.

Together with Mrs. Betty Go-Belmonte, he founded the Philippine STAR. Both of them understood what the newspaper business was all about. They made such a perfect combination and together, they built the STAR into the kind of newspaper that it has become today.

There is only one Max, and we his friends, can only say of him, with such great fondness — “What a character!”

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With all the controversies that are happening in this country like the JocJoc Bolante issue, the PNP “Euro Generals” and other concerns about corruption and the economy, we don’t know if the move to bring Charter change into the picture once again is a strategy of the administration to divert the attention of the public.

I remember Max used to write about Charter change and he was vehemently against it if it will be used as a vehicle for term extension. He went against FVR because he suspected that moves to amend the Constitution were being used to perpetuate FVR’s term, and he would probably say the same thing again if he were alive today.

While many people agree about the necessity of changing the Constitution, the bottom line is that its proponents should remember what many people have said so many times before: they will not allow any Charter change if it will be used to extend the term of an incumbent president.

Jess Dureza’s “prayer” still lingers in the mind of many. It just killed whatever assurances GMA had given us when she said she is ready to step down when her term ends in 2010. That one, careless comment made people suspicious once again. And let’s not forget, even if GMA is leaving in a year and a half, the anger of people could get filled to the brim, and there is a possibility that they may resort to rash actions and decisions that would make everyone suffer in the end. There’s a limit to how much people can take, so the administration must be very careful on how they handle a sensitive issue like Charter change.

The Nationalist People’s Coalition had already indicated they will only support Charter change as far as the economic provisions are concerned. It has to be very clear that people will only accept any constitutional amendment if it is done or initiated after 2010.

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