The tributes keep coming for Letty Jimenez Magsanoc, editor in chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, who passed away on Christmas Eve.
Those who came of of age during the 1986 Edsa Revolution know the invaluable role of the paper, an outgrowth of the mosquito press, in channeling the momentum of public discontent and rage against the Marcos regime into acts of courage.
LJM knew the value of taking risks for a cause.
And she knew the value of the paper’s role as the conscience of a people, of the need to remind generations that 1986 Edsa was not a quick win, and that freedom is not protected by a single uprising.
The Inquirer’s part in history also telescoped with a mission for the future.
She told editors as much with clear emphasis. She said the Inquirer was the “keeper of the Edsa flame.”
Her passing on Christmas Eve, capping 30 years of service, with herself at the helm in 1991 as the first female editor in chief, left staff and executives in shock and deep grief.
At 74, any professional would have welcomed retirement years ago. But LJM was not cut out of ordinary cloth. She was still calling the shots, deciding front page choices and coverage angles, inspiring her army of journaists in Manila and regional bureaus.
The weight of her editorial judgment in the Inquirer as as a corporate enterprise was paramount. Her instinct for what readers have to know and what would keep them entertained in a world of increasing distractions was a gift.
For that, business executives learned to stand by the positions LJM said had to be taken for the good of the country, even if it meant weathering an advertising boycott launched by an irritated President.
Few editors had her stamina for finding the big stories, the ones that kept the nation’s leaders and decision makers checking the front page of the Inquirer as an agenda of its own merit.
Scoops on corruption, abuse in high places, satire, heart-tugging human interest features, windows of Philippine pride — she mastered all the forms, drawing out the fire from her unstoppable staff because she, too, was an almost unstoppable force.
When Cebu Daily News was set up almost 18 years ago, LJM welcomed the editors in her office and encouraged the young affiliate to keep up the Inquirer’s spirit of fearlessness and independence. Then she stood aside, to let the community paper define its own radar for issues and stories relevant for its readers. She respected professional growth.
A foreign editor, who had closely watched her work, said LJM’s passing was truly the passing of an era that linked from the excesses of Marcos.
She did more than serve a role in history.
She inspired other editors, newsroom managers, reporters, photographers, writers and columnists who will continue her vision of a media organization as a force of public good and radical change. Her legacy is the DNA of the Inquirer imprinted in its journalists.
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