Vic Tirol, hard-hitting journalist with integrity, publisher of Pinoy Times, mentor to many, writes 30
Vic Tirol, hard-hitting journalist with integrity, publisher of Pinoy Times, mentor to many, writes 30
The Asian Center for Journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University mourns the death of Vicente G. Tirol, veteran journalist, editor and publisher. He was 75.
Tirol taught Advanced Reporting at the then newly launched Master of Arts in Journalism program in the mid-2000s and was one of the lecturers who pioneered online teaching. He also taught undergraduate journalism subjects under the Department of Communication.
Born in Ibajay, Aklan, Tirol graduated AB Journalism from the University of the Philippines in 1967. He began his career as a correspondent for the Philippine News Service, a cooperative set up by the country’s major newspapers to cover the provinces, before joining the Manila Times in 1969. In 1971, he left for Hongkong where the worked for the regional newspaper The Asian and its sister company The Asian News Service.
He returned to Manila and the Times in August 1972 and was among the journalists who saw press freedom die the night Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law.
“I was working at the news desk the night the paper was shut down,” he told an interviewer years later and narrated what the Manila Times staff saw. “The military came, they ordered the presses shut down, they hung all the phones, they padlocked the premises.”
“At that time, if you wanted to return to work in a newspaper, you had to fill up a form requesting for clearance to work as a journalist. They’ll see whether you’re subversive or critical about Marcos. In my case they didn’t even acknowledge my request for clearance,” Tirol said.
“And then I heard about how censors were working in the newspapers. There were military men seated around the news desk to look at all the stories and say this can’t be used, this should go in, this should be scrapped…. so everyday someone from Malacañang press office would ask, what is in your headline? Who’s on the front page? Whose picture is on the front page? Hindi pwede yan (Not allowed).
Ilagay si Imelda, yung First Lady. You have a story about demonstration? Hindi pwede yan. Or you have a story about an encounter between the military and the NPA or military casualties? Di pwede yan. I couldn’t work under these conditions so I chose not to go back to the newspapers.”
Tirol worked for a nongovernment organization during the martial law years and returned to journalism in 1986 via the Press Foundation of Asia where he conducted media seminars.
In 2000, two years into the presidency of former movie actor and San Juan mayor Joseph Estrada, former Philippine Daily Inquirer publisher Eugenia Apostol asked Tirol to be publisher of Pinoy Times, a hard-hitting tabloid that exposed Estrada’s shenanigans through investigative reports written in Pilipino.
In an interview Tirol gave while he was Pinoy Times publisher, he quoted a line from C. Wright Mills that was hanging from a decor given to him by Apostol. It said: “I have tried to be objective; I cannot claim to be detached.”
Tirol leaves behind his wife, Lorna, also a veteran journalist and editor, and sons Jo-Ed and Paulo.
(Post at the Facebook page of Asian Centre for Journalism at Ateneo)
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