Remembering Betty
One can hardly believe it’s been 21 years since Betty Go-Belmonte passed away. She was born on Dec. 31, 1933, and went away on Jan. 28, 1994. There are many reminders of her influence and power as founding chair of the Philippine STAR. To begin with, the STAR logo — “Truth Shall Prevail” – was her idea, an idea that the paper’s staff continues to follow through in its reports and interpretations of events. At the lobby of the STAR building at the Port Area is her sculpture; on the walls are framed front pages of issues she had so gingerly chosen to be displayed. In a part of the city, a light railway station is named after her. Her most important imprint is in the hearts of friends and admirers who remember her kindness and generosity, firmness of will, and utter devotion to the Lord. Her column in the STAR, titled “Pebbles,” revealed these traits in her simple, down-to-earth style.
Leafing through my memory files, I see pictures of her and myself. There was one lunch at her home in Quezon City. She only had two guests — Winnie Monsod and me — our conversation ranging from trivia to simple truths. She spoke of her admiration for the then president Cory Aquino, her best friend. Before Winnie arrived, she told me that slivers of ginger added exquisite flavor to dishes.
I recall the afternoon she and I were invited by UP MassCom students to talk about the state of the Philippine press. This was when the clamor of activists was for Marcos to pack and go: “Tama na, sobra na.” A self-righteous magazine editor, I said there was no such thing as press freedom in the country; the students seemed to agree with me. Betty spoke of the nation’s problems as solvable only through God’s grace. She was like that, always trusting in the Lord’s plans. And yet, she was a fighter for press freedom. Just before the EDSA Revolution broke out, she was part of a group of committed journalists who founded a paper that presented the truth, and nothing but. The STAR today carries on that commitment: “Truth Shall Prevail.”
I could not figure out why she entrusted to me a thick volume of documents pertaining to the victims of a passenger vessel that had sunk one Christmas. One day she would tell me why, she said. So I kept the documents under lock and key. Up to the time she died, she never told me why, but her asking me to keep them was, I thought, a real sign of how well she considered me as a younger sister. This trust, I believe, was manifested in her asking me to join the STAR as a columnist after EDSA.
There is yet another thing I remember well. At one time, I had a passion for making dried flower arrangements. Betty ordered two of my creations and placed them in her office. At this time, she was no longer physically well. One Sunday, before going to the Church of the Risen Lord which we both attended, I dropped an arrangement at her home as a get-well present. While I was inside the church, Betty’s husband, Sonny, had me called outside, and told me that he was already in his car when Betty called him and insisted that he run after me to thank me for the dried crimson roses I had arranged for her. This touching incident I would carry all my life.
I see Betty’s sons, Miguel and Isaac in the office, and bump into Kevin and Joy from time to time. On the 21st year of her passing, I whisper, “You’ve raised your children well, Betty.”
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Reams of paper have been written about the pope’s pronouncement during a talk with reporters aboard the papal plane headed for Rome from Manila about responsible parenthood. The local media, including this columnist, reported that the pope had said Catholics should practice responsible parenthood, and not be “like rabbits.” Sen. Vicente Sotto III acted violently, saying the media could have taken the word “rabbits” out of context, and that it could have been an “invention.”
“It’s out of character for him to say that. It can only be said by someone who disliked what the pope said,” the senator told local reporters.
To set things right, i.e., the reporters did not invent the phrase, I quote the reference to rabbits in the transcription released by the Catholic News Agency through the internet. A German journalist, Christoph Schmidt, had asked the pope what he thought about the Catholic position concerning contraception being “one of the few questions on which a big number of people in the Philippines do not agree with the Church.”
Here’s the pope’s reply: “I think the number of three children per family that you mentioned – it makes me suffer – I think it is the number experts say is important to keep the population going. Three per couple. When this decreases, the other extreme happens, like what is happening in Italy. I have heard, I do not know if it is true, that in 2024 there will be no money to pay pensioners because of the fall in population.
“Therefore, the key word, to give you an answer, and the one the Church uses all the time, and I do too, is responsible parenthood. How do we do this? With dialogue.
“Each person with his pastor seeks how to carry out responsible parenthood.
“That example I mentioned shortly before about that woman who was expecting her eighth child and already had seven who were born with caesareans. That is an irresponsibility. That woman might say, “No, I trust in God.’ But look, God gives you means to be responsible. Some think that — excuse the language — that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits. No. Responsible parenthood. This is clear and that is why in the church there are marriage groups, there are experts in this matter, there are pastors, one can search, and I know so many ways that are licit and that have helped this. You did well to ask me this. Another curious thing in relation to this is that for the most poor people, a child is a treasure. It is true that you have to be prudent here too, but for them a child is a treasure. Some would say ‘God knows how to help me’ and perhaps some of them are not prudent, this is true. Responsible paternity, but let us also look at the generosity of that father and mother who see a treasure in every child.”
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