HENARES. My name. My name is Hilarion Daniel Guillermo Mateo Francisco Maramba Henares Jr. They were all in my baptismal certificate. All except the word Junior, which was substituted with the Spanish equivalent, which is hijo.

My credentials. I was never really a newspaperman or a journalist. I was, in my time, an industrialist. I was the president of the Philippine Chamber of Industries. I'm an economist. I served in the Cabinet of President Diosdado Macapagal as his economic czar. I'm not primarily a journalist. Now, it all came about because Ninoy and I, Ninoy Aquino, were very good friends and we ran together for the Senate. He was the only one who won in our party slate. So we discussed how we could be immortalized… He says, 'I'm going to write; I'm going to start writing at the beginning of my career' because it opens doors for me. I will meet the people who make history. That's why I became a foreign correspondent at the age of 17. I said, 'Well, that's well for you to say, Ninoy because you married a very rich woman and you know that writing is a starvation game'. So I said I am going to write but I'll do it at the end of my career. That is when I will have accumulated enough money so I will be independent. I will have at the same time accumulated a lot of experience, and knowledge, and wisdom, which I could impart to my fellow Filipinos. Now, of course we agreed that we will never be writers from the beginning to the end of our career like Max Soliven, because he repeats himself. So that's how I became one. So I'm not really one. I do this to be able to impart my knowledge to kids like you. Now, there are many kinds of writers. I'm in particular a column writer, a columnist, which means I'm not a reporter. A reporter reports. He reports facts. A columnist has to give his opinion. He could either take the position that he's a judge, that he must make a judgment on everything like God Almighty - like Soliven. Or he may be a witness to the age. He could impart knowledge in small doses, like Teodoro Valencia. He just makes tsismis, tsismis, tsismis one after the other. Now, me I don't sell information in tidbits. I write an essay. You know what an essay is? It's got a beginning, it's got a middle, and it's got an end. It's a complete thought. I am an antagonist. I am a protagonist. I represent a certain viewpoint. I write as a Filipino. I write as a nationalist. I'm proud to be one. I don't write as if I was an American like most people do. In other words, I hate people with colonial mentality. I hate people who love the Americans more than they love themselves. I represent the viewpoint that I'm a Filipino and I have certain things that I have to accomplish in this life for my nation to be good and great. Number one, I'm an economist so I said, 'I want to sell the idea that we have to be industrialized. And by industrialization and land reform, we are going to transfer the wealth from the non-productive center or the least productive center, from the landed aristocracy to the industrial worker and the industrialist. That's the kind of thing I'm trying to accomplish - to be industrialized and to love our country. That's all. And I challenge everybody else. That is my viewpoint. Some people are colonial, they are professional ones. They make their living of it. I don't… Most journalists become one because it's an occupation. They make their living of it. Well, I don't. That makes me different.

TAN & YABUT. How long have you been in the writing industry?
A. Well, I was always good in writing. I'm just one of those fortunate individuals where the right side of my brain is just as good as the left side of my brain. So that means that I'm equally good in Arts and Sciences. I'm good at Mathematics. As a matter of fact, in MIT, which is the best engineering school in the whole world - that's the foreign branch of Mapua in Boston. I got perfect grades in Mathematics and in English. Well the two are usually mutually exclusive. I come from Ateneo. I wrote in the Guidon. I wrote in the Free Press, the magazine of the time. When I was in the Cabinet, they invited me to write on a front page. I was a columnist on the front page during the 1960s.

Q. What was this newspaper?
A. The Manila Times. That's the biggest circulation. The column was called, "Ways and Means" and it was there because I wanted to sell my viewpoint. I was the chairman of the National Economic Council - now, that is a defunct cabinet position embodied in the constitution. It was changed by Marcos. That's when I started - a front-page column called 'Ways and Means'. Now, when the time came, I wrote several articles, which are cultural, economic, etc., mostly economic. Then, I wrote for the Mr. and Ms. because I wanted to do my bit to throw Marcos out. Ninoy was a very good friend of mine so we shared the same ideas. If I got elected with them, I would have died in the tarmac with him. So that's how I got into it. When the Inquirer was born out of Mr. and Ms - this was published by Eggie Apostol, she asked me to write. She says, 'Larry, column writing is different from writing thesis or writing a literary masterpiece. You are just a minute hand of the clock of time. You don't write for eternity. You only write for a moment'. She said that what I wrote before was as if I was throwing jovial thunderbolts from Mt. Olympus. I wrote like Recto, like Alejandro Lichauco - he was my cousin and my consultant when I was in the cabinet. She said, 'that will not do for column writing. You can't write like Renato Constantino, Claro M. Recto, and Alejandro Lichauco or any of these literary giants. You have to go down from Mt. Olympus to the marketplace. And you write primarily about people. You twit their noses; you tweak their ears; you tickle their funny bone; you kick him in the ass or you kick him in the balls, but you write about them. And only incidentally about great ideas; you have to write about people because they are the ones who make history.' So that's what I've been doing and she says, 'your workings must have a millennial component. You must include something and it's got to last forever.' PART 2: Dino: Sir, you mentioned earlier that you've worked with several newspapers and magazines. So, can we just go back to those years? Can you describe the newspaper, for example in terms of physical location? Where was it located? For example, the Manila Times, during the pre-Martial period?
A. Manila Times was somewhere there in the downtown…across the Santa Cruz Bridge.

Q. Was it near Intramuros?
A. No.

Q. Most of the newspaper presses before were located in Intramuros.
A. No. The only ones that were in Intramuros are the Bulletin and Philippines Herald. That was before the war.

Q. Sir, how about the physical facilities? How was it? How can you describe the physical facilities?
A. It was as good as today's. The Manila Times had a modern press and had more circulation than all of the newspapers combined, twice the circulation of all the rest of its competitors.

Q. How about the people? The publishers? Are they good working with?
A. There was Chino Roces. He's a very good publisher. The worst was that of the Bulletin then and now. It's not even a newspaper. It's an advertising rag. Nobody ever reads it. I don't know why it sells. Nobody ever quotes their columnists. That's the lousiest rag there is.

Q. But you worked with Bulletin? Right?
A. Yes. I used to write there until I was banned. I was banned by the Opus Dei. The Opus Dei…they try to control everything--the banks, the government and the press. The first time I wrote about the Opus Dei, they decided that I was an enemy and banned me forever. These people are really crazy. They can't debate. They can't engage you in a discussion. They talk to you but you can't talk back. They are fascists. Open, free, and unlimited debate that is part of this democratic process, is totally alien to them.

Q. Sir, how about working conditions? How many hours do you work?
A. I never worked. I write. I don't get a salary. I get paid for my articles, for my columns.

Q. How much?
A. About one or two thousand per article.

Q. For one article?
A. Yes. That was not bad before. That's about like being paid 20-30 thousand now.

Q. Do you still work during holidays?
A. When I was in Inquirer, I was the most read columnist in the whole Philippines. And I wrote everyday. Some columnists do it once a week, twice a week, three times a week… I do it everyday. Why? Because I'm a gusher. The best boon for me is the computer. When I was a business executive, we were the 300th largest corporation in the Philippines. I was a millionaire by the time I was 25. I was a dean of two colleges, dean of graduate schools, Lyceum and Feati. And the reason for that is when my friend, Anding Roces with whom I grew up…He's a columnist. He's the best Education Secretary I've ever had. When we got together, we decided to concentrate on where it really makes an impact - in the poorer colleges. He was dean in the Far Eastern University. I became dean of Lyceum and Feati. There's Salvador Araneta and Sen. Jose P. Laurel. They said, 'Larry, why don't you be our dean?' Dean? I'm only 25 years of age. I was already a dean of a graduate school. Most of the students are older than I was. I don't teach anymore because teaching is a starvation game too. Nothing worth doing in this world makes money. To make money, you have to be greedy; you have to be a piece of shit.

Q. Do they give you deadlines?
A. Yes, they do, usually about a day before for the columnist, or in the morning for printing in the afternoon. But I never thought of deadlines. When I write, I write many articles in one sitting. Sometimes, I am one month ahead. That's why I can afford to go abroad. As I said, I'm a gusher. I'm a man of a few million words. PART 3: Val: Sir, who are the famous newspapermen that you've worked with?
A. Well, I never really worked with those that I admired. One of the best, really is Teodoro Locsin Sr. One of the best columnists that I have ever known is a guy by the name of I.P. Solionco. Well, he was a very cultured man. He collected musical masterpieces. He was also a great nationalist. He's the best insulter in the whole world. He called Pelaez 'mestizo de intresuelo - those poor, bastards of priests who have to live in these cold water flats. Another one was Chitang Guerrero Nakpil… People don't write like them anymore. Columnists nowadays don't have a viewpoint; they just gossip. They pass judgment, 'this guy is right; this guy is wrong'. Well, I'm not a judge; I'm one of the litigators. So I said, 'it should be this way'. Today, the only one of that category are my dear friends, Teodoro Benigno and Teodoro Locsin Jr. They are the ones with a viewpoint, with a perspective. If you want to be a good writer, you have to be a reader. You have to read a lot. Most people don't. This is not a literary generation. This is the TV generation. That's different. The literary generation, they are usually more structured. There's a beginning and an end. They have to introduce the characters; they develop the plot… But the other guys, they just deliver bits of pieces. They don't know how to write essays, except those two. Who else? Me, of course, I'm the best of them all.

Q. What else?
A. Talking about the facilities, most of them are in the port area - most of their printing presses. They may have their editorial offices elsewhere, but most of their printing presses are there. I bet you don't know why.

Q. So that they can get the news faster?
A. No.

Q. Why?
A. So they can take delivery of the paper without having to negotiate all the small streets of Manila. They can ship it out. Usually nowadays, they don't ship it by ship. They ship it by plane. What they do is to print it early. The first edition comes out at 3 o'clock in the morning. That's what they ship to the provinces. That's the first run. The second run goes to the suburbs. The first run goes to airports for delivery. The second run goes around here in the suburbs of Manila, as far as Bulacan. They don't send airplanes there. They send trucks that go all around here in the Southern… And then the third edition is the one that you get in Manila.

Q. Sir, what was it like to be writer during those times, like the Martial Law?
A. Well, writing has never been hard for me, particularly, but a lot of the newspapermen are usually hounded by politicians because they have to take an adversarial position with respect to people in power. That's the reason for the freedom of the press - to see to it that the power of the government is counterbalanced by the power of the people. I want to educate my audience, to educate, to inspire, to amuse, to delight, and to imbue them with a sense of wonder. And so when I write, I have to inject a bit of humor always. My Jesuit professor used to say, 'first, you make them cry, or you make them laugh'. That will open their minds. Then, you plant in their minds the seed of thought. The emotions really are probably the most important part of our psychological make-up. Love and anger drives us to revolution, to creative efforts. PART 4: Dino: Sir, let's just talk about the articles you wrote a few years ago. Let's start from the Martial Law. What were those articles?
A. Martial Law? I talk about nationalism. I write about the National Anthem and its origins…

Q. What about the national anthem?
A. I said that the national anthem was made by a guy who was never been a composer. He was an organ player in Cavite. His composition had no words just like the anthem of the Spaniards. I said that the beginning of it is just like the opposite of La Marsailles, the French anthem. I also said that our anthem was written without words during the Spanish period. During the American occupation, it was written in Spanish by Rafael Palma. So during the American period, this was in Spanish. During the Filipino period, the Commonwealth, it was made into English. So during the Spanish occupation, it had no words. During the American occupation, it was in Spanish. During the Filipino Commonwealth period, it was in English. And when the Japanese period came, the anthem became Filipino because they can't stand English. And I said that it's a song of love, really. It's not like the American national anthem, which is a martial song that talks about war. Besides, the tune comes from a drunkard's song. It was too high and too low. The dynamic range is so high and low that you can't sing unless you are an opera star. I said, ours is the best because it's not a martial tune and it's a song of love.

Q. Sir, how about during the EDSA Revolution?
A. During EDSA, I talk about Marcos. I wrote about what was going on. I make fun of the government officials during Cory's time. I still do it - make fun of the government.

Q. Did you write articles about the coup attempts?
A. Yes, I did. Articles, not reports. I talk about the role of the Americans when they try to screw us.

Q. Can you just describe your present work? Briefly. For example, you write articles for…?
A. I was a daily columnist for Inquirer but I have to leave that, when I became consultant of the government. It was not compatible with the position so I quit. I retired when I was the most read. I had 12% of the entire… while Soliven had 5% and Louie Beltran had 3%. Now, I still write a daily column but the newspaper folded up - Philippine Post.

Q. What happened?
A. It ran out of money. It's a good paper enough. Well, only three newspapers really pay their way, the Star, Inquirer, and Bulletin. All the rest of them are being subsidized.

Q. We've heard that the Philippine Post was already No. 4?
A. It was. But you know; it ran out of money. It's not the circulation that makes financial success. It's the advertisement.

Q. So you have a radio program?
A. Yes, I'm on radio six times a day.

Q. Everyday?
A. 5 days a week. I'm also on television everyday at 11:30 in Channel 9. I get a wider reach, especially radio. It gets a wider reach than the newspaper. It's passive. If you're in the car, you just turn it on and you can hear it. You don't have to make an effort; you don't have to get an eye strain. Eggie Apostol also told me that I have to write briefly. She says, "It's got to be short enough to be read over one cup of coffee. Beyond that, it's no good. That is why, Max Soliven…you only read about the first two paragraphs. He is also from Ateneo. I said, 'Max, you are not a columnist, you don't write columns, you write a colonnade - a series of columns, continued to this page, continued to this page…

Q. Sir, that's basically it. Do you have anything to add? Just a few closing words?
A. Nothing, thank you.