Lito Tacujan: the boss, the voice

Pinalad ang inyong lingkod na maging sportswriter sa kabutihang-loob ni Mr. Lito Tacujan, longtime sports editor ng The Philippine STAR—higante sa mundo ng sports journalism.

Pumanaw siya noong Miyerkules sa edad na 79, at nagbigay-pugay ang Philippine Sportswriters Association kagabi sa paghatid ng necrological service sa burol sa Biñan, Laguna.

Bilang isa sa kanyang na-mentor at napamanahan ng posisyon, ito ang ilang bahagi ng aking eulogy:

“Since Wednesday, tributes have poured in—love, gratitude, respect. Peers and friends wrote salutes, shared lessons, retold stories. They confirmed what we knew: Mr. Tacujan’s mastery, his wordcraft, his stature as a sports editor par excellence. I won’t repeat that litany tonight. That legend is carved in us.

“I’m here to bring you back to Port Area—his war room, his chamber, his pulpit, our classroom.

“At times, he acted grouchy, but in truth he was Mr. Congeniality. He was friendly but firm. He was the boss and the voice. His section was a family.

“Lady editors in the office teased him as ‘Grumpy Tacujan.’ But it was just a tease.

“When most editors keep to themselves, iba si Mr. Tacujan—lahat kaibigan, from the bosses down to the copy boys and janitors. He could greet Ms. Doreen Yu with ‘I miss you, Miss Yu,’ tease our janitor Pedring during Typhoon Pedring—‘Aba, Pedring, bigatin ka na—dati janitor ka, ngayon bagyo ka na’—and in the same breath hold a hard line when work slipped.

“He didn’t need a lecture; he made you feel the standard. He showed you where the line was, and why it mattered.

“He ran the section like a coach and an editor in one body. He loved the page and he loved the people who made it. He watched our back. He corrected us, and he covered us.

“The voice carried beyond our corner. In the press box, in the tribune, in the press center, when he spoke, people listened—not because of volume, but because of weight. He earned it over decades, story by story, page by page, deadline by deadline.

“That is the presence and voice we will miss: the steady one that steadied us. The boss who was also our compass. And that is the standard we will keep—because he taught us that a page is not just a page, and a section is not just a section. It’s a responsibility.

“As our editor, it wasn’t just his editing; it was mentoring. Not just polishing copies; polishing us to be better men. Not just checking facts; checking our lives.

“We will miss you, and we will keep telling the stories the way you taught us to.”