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VOL.5 ISSUE 11 • MARCH 18 -19, 2012
FOCUS ON GOVERNANCE
Mediamen in governance T
EDGEDAVAO
HE history of Davao, particularly of its former capital City which turns 75 years old last March 16, is replete with incidents of journalists and broadcasters being catapulted to significant positions in the local government.
“Torpe” Leading them was lawyer Gregorio “Loloy” Caneda, father of Dr. Pilar “Lalay” C. Braga, outstanding veteran city councilor. Loloy was known as a controversial editor-publisher and hardhitting radio commentator. He was appointed governor of the undivided Davao province and could have been the first member of the media given the opportunity to serve in government. Loloy’s favorite expression was “torpe,” the loose latin equivalent of the vernacular term “tongue-tied.” But Loloy used the word virtually as an exclamation point every time he expressed surprise, admiration, anger and other feelings for his fellowmen or about an action that somehow agitated him. But he also used the word to call any Tom, Dick and Harry
toto affidavits of complainants of rape cases. Torpe also briefly served as assistant press secretary for Mindanao sometime during the second term of President Marcos. “Bonjong” Unbeknownst to many of us younger colleges, Loloy serve during the war as a major in the intelligence unit. The Davao City-based media practitioner who bcame the first and only elected governor was Verulo “Bert” Boiser of the old ABS CBN radio station DXAW. Bert was a so-so announcer when he was merely emceeing amateur singing contests of the Tawag ng Tanghalan genre and doing newscasting (news-anchoring was unknown then), but became very famous when he started an afternoon public affairs program. Us-
Alejandre
Acosta
that caught his pancy.. As a media practitioner, he would call anybody high and mighty also “torpe” in radio program and majority would not take offense because they understood he meant no harm by using the term. That is why aside from “Loloy,” he was also called “Torpe.” His newspaper, The Fiscalizer, was known or notorious for printing in
ing the funny-sounding “Bonjong” as another nickname and announcing in his native Boholano accent, Bert popularized what was known to be public service announcements and called it “Bonjong-gram.” This refers to the portion of the program wherein people would be allowed to call their relatives and announce their messages on the air. It was an improve-
Dureza
Banzon
Cañeda ment of the telegram then in vogue. Aside from being allowed to send their messages to relatives and loved ones for free, the people like the idea of being given an opportunity to be heard on the air, a privilege enjoyed then only by regular announcers and pubic officials and a few news personalities they interview on the air. In time, Bonjonggram became extremely popular that people would just go to DXAW and announce their messages to relatives who did not exist just so they could be heard on radio. Bonjong knew this but tolerated this because it was making the listenership rating of the station shoot up. When he would allow people to sing on the air in his program in lieu of a public service announcement. Meanwhile, he was so popular, some people who would buy a radio set for the first time
Avila would ask the store to be sure that the radio set had “Bonjong” in it. So the first time Bonjong entered politics as candidate for provincial board member he topped it. When Davao was divided into three, he chose to serve in Davao del Norte and became its first elected governor. He was reelected once and was overtaken by the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972. “Mr. Solon” Before Bonjong Boiser ruled the airlanes, there was Mr. Zacarias “Zac” Solon, a migrant from Cebu, whose stentorian voice could be picked up by the microphone three to four meters away. It was said that “Mr. Solon,” as he was popularly called, had served as mayor of Asuncion town, before he joined the Mindanao Colleges Broadcasting Company, particularly DXMC,
Laviña
forerunner of what is now called “Radyo Ukay” of the University of Mindanao Broadcasting Network. He also became very popular as announcer and had the chance to being appointed provincial board member and later member of the Davao City Council. The other media personalities who had a taste of politics were Artemio “Dodong” Loyola and Jesus G. Dureza, both editor of the Mindanao Times, who were elected congressmen of Davao City. The third Mindanao Times editor who became a lawmaker was Rey Magno Teves, who was appointed urban poor sectoral representative by President Cory Aquino in the early nineties. There were two other members of the Davao print media elected to the city council –Jose A. Jison who now lives in the US and recently, Peter Lavina who had served three
Vergara
terms. Most of the media members who won elective positions in Davao City belong to the broadcast industry. “Tenny-gram” The broadcast phenomenon in the mold of Bonjong Boiser was the late Valentino “Tenny” Banzon who popularized “Tenny-gram”, a public service program similar to “Bonjong-gram.” He died two years ago, after serving more than 20 years in the city council. Retired anchorman Flor Colina served briefly as appointed city councilor. The other broadcasters elected to lawmaking bodies were the Vergara brothers – “Freddie” and “Tony,” the late Juan Pala Jr., Leonardo “Happy LA” Avila III and Ma. Belen “Mabel” Sunga-Acosta. The broadcaster currently serving in the city council is Al Ryan Alejandre.