Q: I’m Argeline Quiason from the De La Salle University and I’m here in an interview with Ms. Eggie Apostol, of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Mr. and Ms. So ma’m for the record, could you please state your name and your present employment?

A: Well I am Eggie Apostol, and ah, I am now at present I am President and editor-in-chief of Mr. & Ms. Publishing Company. I founded the Inquirer of course, twenty years ago, and they are celebrating the foundation on Friday.

Q: Friday?

A: Oo. Two days from now.

Q: December..

A: 9. 1985 when we founded Inquirer.

Q: Twenty years.

A: Oo twenty years exactly this coming Friday.

Q: Okay. So when did you become—ah when did you decide to become a journalist?

A: Ahm, it didn’t come in one day. I just thought that during high school, I was very fond of writing. It is about the best thing that I enjoyed during my high school days. We had a school paper, and I wrote for it and ah, I could see that I didn’t know how to cook, I didn’t know how to sew, I didn’t know anything. So I think ah, I decided the best thing for me just to be a reporter.

Q: Aaah. So, in college you took journalism as a course?

A: Yes. After. During the Japanese time, we were automatically graduated from high school. Kasi December 1, December.. When was that? 9? 11? When ah, when ah the bombing of ah—December 8 yun. Immaculate Conception. Binomba ang Pearl Harbor.

Q: Ah, Pearl Harbor, yeah.

A: So, our class which was fourth year high school, of course, we stopped going to school. And we were supposed to graduate from high school in March of the following year, 1942. Pero, there was no graduation. We were automatically graduated. So we did not go—December, January, February, March. We stopped going to school already. We’re just automatically graduated.

Q: So college na po kayo after nun agad?

A: After that, yeah we were qualified to go to college.

Q: Okay, so can you describe the circumstances that lead to your employment with Mr. and Ms.?

A: Well, as a graduate of journalism, from the University of Sto. Tomas, I was rather afraid to go into what was known as the “secular press”. I preferred to go to the religious press which was the Catholic press. And so I asked to be—to work in The Philippine Common Will, later the Sentinel and right away I was made editor of the Women’s Section. I was never reporter. I wish I had become reporter but no, they made me right away editor of the Women’s Section of the weekly, Sentinel, later, Philippine’s Common Will, owned by the Catholic Church.

Q: So, you said you were afraid of the secular press? Why is this so ma’m?

A: Well I don’t know. I guess when you grow up in a convent school and then in a Catholic university, ah, you get this impression that what is known as the “secular press”—that is, the non-religious press was hard to handle. I don’t know why. Medyo, you get all these prejudices.

Q: Ahh, ano po yung mga dyaryo na “secular press” po noon?

A: At that time, the Manila Times was number one, of course. And then there was The Chronicle, and there was The Evening News, and ah—four or five other daily newspapers run by non-religious groups.

Q: Aha, I see. So how were your years in the employment?

A: Four or five years I was doing a weekly column for the Catholic press. And then one day, you want to know why I quit Catholic press after all?

Q: Aha,

A: One day, the Archbishop of Manila stopped the ballet school in St. Scholastica because I don’t know, I think he suspected that the teachers at that time who were Russians, they were Russian couples, maybe indoctrinating the students for communism! And he stopped the ballet classes and in my column in the Sentinel, I said, why? The body is one of the most beautiful forms of art, and ballet is a very beautiful form of art. I was very fond of dancing and I thought, it was not fair. So after I came out with that column, naku! Tiningnan ako nung mga pari. Iba na ang tingin sa akin. So I said, oh well, that means I may have to quit this job in the Catholic press. And I looked around, luckily there was an opening in the Manila Times for the women’s section of the Sunday Times Magazine. Ah! I applied right away! Somehow, they got me right away also so I moved to the Manila Times as Women’s section editor of the Sunday Times Magazine.

Q: Ah, I see. So what were these years? 19—

A: 1954.

Q: 1954.

A: 1954 is when I moved.

Q: And then, you soon founded the Mr. and Ms.?

A: Oh not yet. It took me, oh, thirty more years before I did. Because ah, I was then with the Sunday Times Magazine and later on the daily Women’s section editor of the Manila Times, they gave that to me also. So for ten years, I was with the Manila Times, doing the women’s pages.

Q: For ten years.

A: Aha. And then after that, I thought that there wasn’t anymore an opening for me there further to further my career, and there was an opening to edit a woman’s magazine in the Chronicle and weekly magazines for women and all. And there was an opening so I applied there and they got me. So I went to the Chronicle in 1964.

Q: Ah, ten years after.

A: Ten years after.

Q: Manila Times. And then?

A: And going there, and that was the Woman and all. Later on, they moved ah, from you know what is known as the hard, what do you call that? Printing before was using..

Q: Rotary?

A: Ung ganun (refers to his pamangkin), hard what do you call that?

Q: Offset?

A: No no, not yet.

Q: Roto-gravure?

A: Roto-graveu—no! Not yet. Hindi pa, yung hard yung

Q: Plate..? Letterpress?

A: Letterpress! The Chronicle moved to the roto-gravure.

Q: Ah okay, rotogravure printing

A: Oo, their printing. And they stopped the letterpress and we were all integrated in the daily newspaper. So we’re the women’s section, we were doing the movies, and screen, and we were all kinds of—the women were all in one section. Uhm, for seven years I was doing that, in the Chronicle.

Q: Seven years?

A: Up to 1972.

Q: Up to 1972.

A: And then, uhmm, ano. I remember Amando Doronilla became the editor of the Chronicle and he knew..

Q: Doronilla?

Q: Amando Doronilla became editor of the Manila Chronicle. And he knew that ah, the section for women and lifestyle were being handled by five different girls. That they should go into one. Only one editor for everybody. And they decided on somebody else., I think Baby Orosa. And so, I didn’t like that—that I wasn’t anymore head of the womens’ section. You know. So I quit. And after I quit, two months later, it happened that Marcos declared martial Law.

Q: Okay..

A: Of course, that my quitting with the Chronicle had nothing to do with to raise the martial Law. It just happened. So, all the newspaper people lost their jobs except those in the Bulletin and in the Daily Express which Marcos kept as his own.

Q: Yeah,

A: He ran. He ran it himself.

Q: I see. So—

A: Then is when the only—publication allowed at that time were women’s magazines in Martial Law. So, right away the Chronicle people with their separation pay came to me and asked if I can edit a woman’s magazine for them. So we applied for ah, you know in ano, in Martial Law you have to apply for a permit, just to get permission to edit a magazine. And we applied for Woman’s Home Companion. We were the first magazine that came out after Martial Law, Woman’s Home Companion. So we had an advantage and it was a big success. But our money was very little, in two, three years, we needed more money and we could not because we were all, you know, just employees. What happened was we decided to sell Woman’s Home Companion to the printer who bought and gave us a good pay for our shares.

Q: What was this printer? Do you remember?

A: The Roces.

Q: Ah, the Roces. Yeah.

A: Yeah. They bought Woman’s Home Companion, and everybody left except me because I was left to edit the magazine. But while I was editing it later I found out that the owners—the Roceses wanted to, you know, do something about things. They did not agree with me in some of the things I was doing, so, what I did was that I quit.

Q: You quit—you quit again.

A: I quit the, Woman’s Home Companion. But, without consulting me or without anything, all the rest of the staff quit! So, here I was with all the old staff, all jobless, sila Chato Garcellano. And so we decided, maybe we can start our own magazine. So, we did! Crazy talaga. So we risked a little money, from my husband, and then some friends came in, and we started Mr. and Ms.

Q: That was in 19—

A: 75?

Q: Okay, three years after martial law. So could describe the physical location of Mr. and Ms. during that time? I mean in terms of—because newspapers were traditionally located in Intramuros diba, so how about di ba,

A: Alright, no. While we were I think in Quezon City,

Q: Ah Quezon City!

A: Yeah. Because the presses were also in Quezon City. Many of the presses for the newspapers were in Quezon City because land is cheaper there. And I think, who was printing us? Sino nga yung kaibigan mo yung sa press? Si.. The printing press that was doing Mr. and Ms. before?

Q: (pamangkin): Ah si, Hiyas press.

A: Uhuh, yes

Q: Ah yes?

A: Hiyas. Hiyas. Oo. Oo. Bustamante and Hiyas. So, that’s where we were. In Quezon City.

Q: Uhuh. So how about the physical facilities? Like—

A: It was a weekly, and, just a magazine. And then the style was different then, we had cameras to color separate our material and archives and all that. Wala pang computers non.

Q: Wala pang computers. So pano po yung editing? Talagang manual,

A: Uhuh, mostly. Of course and we were using typewriters.

Q: Typewriters. Yeah. So yung—the press that you used before, you used it up to now?

A: No, no more. After that, now, nobody uses

Q: Ah you have changed it

A: Oo, those manual things, anything and everything, its computerized now. And ah..

Q: Digital na.

A: Uhuh.

Q: So how about the people you were working with? Like the publisher, the editor, or colleagues?

A: Uhuh, well. I was of course the publisher and editor

Q: Of the Mr. and Ms.

A: Uhuh. And then, what else did we do? Basta weekly yon! Up to well, we were just 1975 yon noh? 19—72. Seven years later?

Q: 82. Seven years later.

A: Oo, seven years later. Uhm, Ninoy Aquino was shot.

Q: Ahh yeah.

A: So..my goodness. Ah before that, during those seven years, the people were living with Martial Law, and not doing anything about it. But when Ninoy was shot, they got angry. People got angry. You know, why would they do that just because he was opposition. They shot him. So, and then, the funeral of Ninoy was

Q: Overcrowded.

A: Two million people that lasted from eight in the morning to nine in the evening. And everybody was.. So, the next day, we read in the newspapers hardly, maybe one paragraph only was written about it, about Ninoy. And so I was surprised, I said, my goodness, it’s such a big event and it’s not covered by the Marcos. So I decided—I told the staff—tomorrow we’re going to have a funeral (Mr. & Ms. special edition) issue.

Q: Uhuh.

A: So we came out the very next day with a funeral issue about Ninoy. Sixteen pages. We got pictures from Associated Press. We had our own pictures. And, it’s so well, 150,000 had to be reprint because agents kept coming. 200,000 hanggang 750,000, they kept coming for copies! I could sense therefore that the people were really angry with what had happened. So I told myself, my goodness, we have to continue with ah, documenting the anger of the people. They would go to demonstrations everyday. All over (the country). So I went to Letty Magsanoc, and asked her to edit the weekly magazine, to document all the anti-Marcos activities of the people. And that’s how Mr. and Ms.’ Special Edition was started. So 1972 noh? 73? 74? 75?

Q: (pamangkin): Ma’m, its 86.

A: Sorry sorry. 83, 84, 85, 86.

Q: Yeah.

A: And then ah, until, of course, uhm 86.. ah..

Q: Edsa.

A: Marcos decided. Ah, before that, they—Marcos had a group uhh—General Ver and twenty six other military people, according to them, would be tried for the killing of Ninoy. And I said, my goodness, we have the weekly demonstrations. And then there’s going to be this trial, what about a weekly coverage of the trial?

Q: Kaya nga? Galing.

A: Then, Letty suggested Inquirer name. Philippine Inquirer. So became a weekly Inquirer, just to cover the trial of AFP Chief of Staff General Favian Ver, and twenty six accused. So yun. Weekly yun. Mamaya, tapos na yung trial. Of course, as we had suspected, there would be—it would be a whitewash. And so tuloy ang paglaya ni Favian Ver. I said well, that’s it. We will close the weekly Inquirer. But then, Marcos announced there would be a snap election. Ba! Snap election! Kawawa naman yung opposition, walang peryodiko! They only had Malaya at that time. So,

Q: You became the..

A: In the election, I think, a Daily newspaper is needed to cover the election! So, ano, sige. Why don’t we start the Philippine Inquirer become a daily? So on December 9, 1985, tama? Q (pamangkin): 85.

A: We started the Inquirer as a daily. But, 30,000 lang an gaming circulation everyday. January nagging 60,000. February, yun ang magkaka-Edsa na noh? Wow! 160, 180, thousand—hanggang tumaas ng tumaas ang circulation ng daily newspaper. So, we could see that there was the role a—non-Marcos paper was very important so tuloy ang aming pag-aano..

Q: So Marcos wasn’t aware that a kind of paper like this—

A: Well they just thought we were a mosquito press. He called us a mosquito press. I think he was sick already. He did not really know. He did not really sensed the entire situation already. Kasi akala niya tutuloy pa rin siya, and then dinaya niya yung election, he declared himself the winner. And of course it was really Cory who won. And he—those who were counting the votes walked out, because they knew that there was going to be a—

Q: Cheating.

A: Cheating. So they walked out. And then, Cory declared, uhmm, how do you call this? Q (pamangkin): Civil disobedience

A: Ano?

Q: Civil disobedience.

A: Disobedience. Civil Disobedience. Yun nga. So they, boycotted all the San Miguel products; they boycotted Rustan’s, noh? Very ano..

Q: Ang galing noh?

A: Oo, malakas. Q (pamangkin): The crony media

A: Oo, and then they held a big big a, rally in Luneta, until ah, I guessed the Americans also sensed that this will going to be an end to the Marcos’ rule, which they had before

Q: Supported.

A: Supported. They invited him to the States to join—leave the country, so that there would be less violence in our country. Of course he refused. He even declared himself the winner on television. But during his—the declaration of his speech, channel 4, or whatever that channel was, was taken over by the oppositionists, namatay ang kanyang ano—they stopped his declaration. And Cory, at the same time, in the same morning was declared President at the Club Filipino.

Q: Aaah

A: So sabay sila haha. For that very evening, Marcos was, I guess, convinced to leave the country. He thought was just going to Paoay (Ilocos Norte). He thought they was just going to bring him to Clark Field and then there. But the Americans had other plans. They decided to bring him to Hawaii not to Poway.

Q: Hahaha.

A: So and then, Cory took over. So, bidang-bida ang Inquirer , so tuluy-tuloy na kami.

Q: Fearless news talaga ever since noh.

A: Tuluy-tuloy na. So, meantime, and Mr. and Ms. of course,

Q: Remained a magazine.

A: Yes, we continued with the magazine. But you see, hindi Mr. and Ms., I had a—the Enriles were one—20% stockholders.

Q: Of the—

A: Uhuh. But Mr. & Ms--and the Inquirer, I’ve made all the employees and the board members, no politicians. It was a completely separate company. Later on, he sued me because he wanted to become a—also co-owner. There, I said, no cannot be. Politicians can never be part-owner of the—

Q: Newspaper.

A: This newspaper because it will be very..

Q: biased.

A: Very harmful. Q (pamangkin): Ma’m yung wedding ring niyo.

A: Hahaha. Ah nung ano, nung umpisa yung Inquirer, ay ung Mr. and Ms., syempre we were—when—we entered the magazine field, there were already many other weekly women’s magazine.

Q: So yung competition is hard then.

A: Oo. It took us some time to be able to break even in the circulation for Mr. and Ms. Ehh, ang pera siyempre nagastos na noh that one day, I had not enough money for our payroll, so I sold a ring given—

Q: your wedding ring..

A: No. It was a 25th wedding anniversary given to me by Mr. Apostol but sold it there. I had no other thing to look but to sell it and I sold it for our payroll. Haha. Later on of course, he heard about it and he knew about but much later he bought me something even bigger. Hahaha.

Q: Napalitan din po.

A: Napalitan din.

Q: Uhh. So how about the working conditions of that time? Like in terms of hours, or holidays, or salaries, deadlines.

A: Well, just like all other weekly newspapers, very easy. It’s the daily newspaper where you have to have really a lot of people working and really, your scheduling of work is very important because daily yun eh. The pressure is really high. In a weekly magazine, there’s no much pressure.

Q: Yung deadline talaga, has to be strict di ba.

A: Oo, yes. We started with thirty people in Inquirer. In one year, we have 200 people. Now they have 400.

Q: 400 na.

A: Oo, yes.

Q: How about during holidays? I mean,

A: Oo well they—change. Shifting. There. Of course its only legal that they should be given so much working hours.

Q: So ma’m, you were never a cub reporter right? You were straight editor?

A: Oo. Women’s section editor ako. Kaya nung daily newspaper na, sabi nila, akala ko naman mahirap ang daily newspaper. Actually, in one sense, the daily newspaper is like the women’s section editor din dahil ano din yun eh. Fashion, beauty, baby care and food.

Q: and health..

A: and health. Eh ang fashion naman, yung like you make the newspaper look good so that people will buy it. And then food is like you balance everything no so that you would have good food and you balance all your articles, you balance the coverage, so its like aah, woman’s magazine especially when you’re caring for the baby. The baby is the truth, its like the truth, you really have to be very careful with what you do with the baby. And that’s ah--that’s how I transferred from—weekly to daily. From women’s magazine to become a daily newspaper. It’s not so hard pala.

Q: Parang extension lang..

A: Extension lang talaga.

Q: So, how was your first assignment ma’m? During way back.

A: In where? In the magazine?

Q: Yeah, perhaps in the magazine.

A: Well, we were asked to do some feature articles. I’d like to be a little funny and one day I went to Congress and did a funny story about the Congress. And then the following week I went to the Senate and made fun of the Senators. Yung mga ganun, alam mo naman.

Q: Good thing they didn’t get you suspended.

A: Nooo. That was fun.

Q: Okay ahm, so were there any important lessons that you learned from this? Uhmm.. fearless news.

A: Actually, yeah. The closer you are to the truth, the more people respect you.

Q: Yeah.

A: So dapat hindi ka dapat aah—you should always stick to truth and they will always respect you. And there should be no—ahh—how do we say, favoritism in the newspaper people, or the senators, congressmen, politicians. Don’t show favoritism. If somebody does something wrong, right away report it. You have to earn the respect of the reader, and that’s the best way.

Q: That’s why up to now, PDI has gained so much credibility eh.

A: Uhuh.

Q: Yeah. So, were you with other people during this first assignment?

A: Oh yes. Which one? In ano? Ohh Aah very good people with us of course,

Q: You mentioned, Letty Magsanoc.

A: Letty Magsanoc was my first choice of editor but at that time, Max Soliven and Louie Beltran were with us, they were writing columns for us because they had been ahh—jailed by Marcos during the first days of Martial Law. It’s because they were you know—they were very free-willing writers and I guess Marcos did not the background. So, yun, They came to us and they wrote for us. Of course, magaling sila magsulat and people—

Q: loved them.

A: And the first editor was Louie Beltran. But—you know, I have always, I had always thought that as editor, you should not be a columnist. Kasi that is a conflict eh. Kung editor ka, and you have a column, there is always a conflict of interest because a column usually is free to say something or anything about anybody. But the editor, is different.

Q: Has to balance everything.

A: And so one day, uhh, Louie became very popular, became a radio columnist, a TV columnist, and a columnist for the Inquirer. The newspaper. So one day, ewan ko, nagalit ata siya kay Joker Arroyo, he attacked Joker in his radio column, in his TV column, in his ah, newspaper column. And then, when Joker wanted to answer, so he would not--he would print it! Which is also very unfair. So what we did, Letty Magsanoc and I, we were in the board of course, I was chairman. We sat down and told him—sat down in the news desk and made sure that the next day the answer of Joker Arroyo would be printed on front page. Which happened. And what did Beltran do? He became unhappy, he did not go—for three days, he did not go to the office. So our board met I said, well we have to put the line down on him. We have to tell him. He either became—retain ahh--remain as editor or no more column. So, of course, he didn’t like that. So he quit.

Q: Aaah.

A: And went to the Philippine Star. Later he left the Star also and went somewhere else, I don’t know where. So I had to get a new column and a new editor. And Letty recommended Federico Pascual.

Q: Federico Pascual.

A: Uhuh. He became editor for three-four years. He’s alright. Until one day, ay naku, may mga in-fighting na kami dun sa mga board members. I gave 49% to a group and I kept 49% of the shares for myself, my 2% na naiwan. Yung 2% na yon, some newsp—aah, editor people, Louie Belco—este whats her name? Belle Cunanan, Vic Agustin, uhmm, Doris Nuyda. 2% was uhh—owned by these people. They were the swing vote.

Q: Ahhh.

A: Uhuh. One day, the 49%, accused me, which was true, of not having a single share in my name. Somebody forgot to put a single share in my name, so I cannot be a chairman if I don’t put a share in my name. Haha they threw me out. Okay! The next two—two, three weeks later was the stockholders’ meeting, I realized I still have 2% of the swing vote, I came back, as Chair, put in my name also. I came back and I got back my chairmanship.

Q: Ooh. So Letty Magsanoc was your faithful follower.

A: Oo naman, and then after that, after that nga. Because the Pascual was sided with the other group, I fired him. And I got Letty already.

Q: So how about Max Soliven? You mentioned Max Soliven.

A: Aaah. Si Max nga pala. Well, Letty Magsanoc, este, what’s his name noh? Ahhh---star. Si ano—Betty Belmonte, has always had a printing press and his her family were—they were all in newspaper business. So six months after we started the Inquirer, she left us and put up a daily newspaper owned by her family. Philippine Star. And—Max Soliven joined her.

Q: Aaaah.

A: Also Art Borjal joined her. And they started good. They started their own newspaper, Philippine Star

Q: So, you mentioned that you were the editor di ba, all these years, so what were

A: Publisher na ako ngayon.

Q: Publisher, yeah. So, what were your attitudes towards deadlines? I mean, talagang strict..

A: Oh well, hindi pwedeng wala—hindi pwedeng hindi strikto kung hindi—hindi lalabas ang peryodiko at kung lalabas ng late, it would be a big disadvantage. So you have to be very strict talaga.

Q: How about accuracy? Ethics?

A: Also, you have to be very strict. And now, that the Inquirer is the only newspaper that has an ombudsman—somebody who watches all the ano, stories, and makes sure that corrections are made. We’re the only ones. All newspaper people should have an ombusdsman, but only the Inquirer really has it, that’s why. And if there are corrections, right away they make the corrections the following day.

Q: Aaaah. How about ethics ma’m?

A: Also, and the ombudsman also follows, makes sure that all the employees follow the code of ethics. Now, when we get an employee, especially in the reporters, we make them sign a code of ethics. You have ah, 16 items there in code of ethics. So that they will realize that they have to stick to that. They sign it. And if they don’t, if they don’t follow the code of ethics

Q: They would be fired.

A: Yeah, grounds for firing.

Q: Ooooh I see. So how did you communicate to your reporters? Or to your editors?

A: Well, I think we also have seminars inside. Yeah, we have seminars. Same time, when we hired them naman we see that they are all graduates mga ganun. And they are asked to sign the code of ethics.

Q: So is there any difference between the editors before and the editors now?

A: Mmmm..

Q: Or no drastic change?

A: Well, you know, actually, it’s the ownership that really makes you know—the ownership of the newspaper that dictates what kind of editors they should have. If the owners will let the uhmm the editorial people alone and let their do their work without any—any bias, with anybody or maybe favoring anyone, that’s the best. And lucky for the Inquirer, the owners know this, and they really don’t meddle with the editorial people. And if their friends get hurt in a story, they just tell their friends to write a letter to the Inquirer and the Inquirer would print it or do something about it. If there has been a mistake, they will of course say there was a mistake. Ganun, so.. everything is.. yun.

Q: So uhm, were there any memorable collegues that you came across with? Or memorable editors? And why?

A: Well I told you already about our problem with Beltran..

Q: And Soliven, and Magsanoc..

A: Oo, oo. Letty has always been.. her own family is very..

Q: close to you?

A: Uhh, is is—doesn’t have any kind of political affiliation and her children are all doctors. Her husband is a doctor, so walang business connections at all. Although the owners now are all in business they ahh, they don’t meddle, as far as I know they don’t meddle with the editorial. Because they know that it is good business not to meddle. The editorial is kept in line by the ombudsman.

Q: I see. There. So aside from the EDSA I, II and III, uhmm were there any other significance—significant events that you covered? Like Abu Sayaff or NPA, or MNLF campaigns,

A: Well, there’s always coverage of the Abu Sayaff and Mindanao has always been a problem for us noh, from the long ago to now, talagang all problems in Mindanao stems from the fact that there is a group—interracial and interdominational and also religious conflict there noh. But they are part of the Philippines, so we should always do what can be done for all human, for the best.

Q: So.. I guess that’s all about it ma’m.

A: Okay..

Q: Thank you very much for the time!