President Aquino prays silently before the urn of Magsanoc. (INQUIRER PHOTO)
PDI chair Marixi Prieto says Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc’s legacy is paper’s strength
President Benigno Aquino III yesterday attended the vigil wake of the late Inquirer editor in chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc at the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig, Metro Manila.
He arrived at 4:30 p.m. and gave a silent prayer before an urn containing the editor’s ashes. He was set to give a eulogy later in the evening.
In a statement on Christmas Day after LJM’s death, Aquino said the editor in chief had always spoken to him frankly and was an icon for a country that is free to express its mind.
Philippine Daily Inquirer chairperson Marixi Rufino-Prieto yesterday said Magsanoc’s legacy is the newspaper’s strength in continuing its tradition of fearlessness and independence.
She said LJM’s training of the current Inquirer editors and staff was her legacy before her death – to pass on while leaving the Inquirer in good hands.
Prieto said the Inquirer has a bench of young people trained well by LJM to take her stead.
Nevertheless, the passing of the 74-year-old editor in chief, who suffered a heart attack, left her staff in shock and grief.
“It was so sudden. It’s as if we were not really prepared for it. For Letty, it was a blessing because she didn’t go through much pain,” Prieto said.
Magsanoc was appointed editor in chief by the Inquirer founding chair Eggy Apostol in 1991.
Magsanoc, one of the founders of the Inquirer, passed away last Thursday, Christmas Eve, at St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City due to cardiac arrest.
With the Inquirer’s pivotal role in toppling the Marcos dictatorship, Magsanoc would tell her staff the Inquirer is the “keeper of the Edsa flame.”
President Aquino in his statement, said “She was, to me, and all Filipinos of goodwill who love freedom, democracy and good governance, a source of strength. One always knew that with her, the truth was the benchmark of a journalist’s efforts; and that in all that she did, there was no higher cause than the country’s welfare and that of our people.
“She always spoke to me frankly, and yet with deep understanding. To her loved ones and colleagues, you are not alone: we are all called to living up to her courageous example, one that will continue to inspire all of us to fight for freedom by ensuring we have a discerning and informed public. May she rest in peace and her example lend us strength in continuing to ensure we have a nation that is always free to speak its mind,” Aquino said.
Before her death, Magsanoc served at the Inquirer for 30 years.
She was editor of the Mr. & Ms Special Edition from 1983 to 1986 and editor in chief of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine from 1986 to 1987. She was appointed editor in chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 1991, becoming the first woman and longest-serving chief in a male-dominated newsroom.