PLAUDITS AT PDI’S PEARL

The invitation was stark, simple and straightforward: “Philippine Daily Inquirer. 30th Anniversary. 6 PM. Manila Ballroom, The Marriott Hotel.” The drab, blue-colored card was certainly not indicative of the allurement one would expect from the nation’s leading English broadsheet which has enjoyed a colorful reputation of having “Balanced News, Fearless Views.”
And – despite the atrociously disreputable Metro South traffic that evening (even as guests and Inquirer employees endured record commute times; some at least two hours, others close to four, to reach the venue) – the people came. Solons and barons; justices and journalists; captains and consuls. After all, this is the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI), one of the most influential dailies in the country today.
Accepting the invitation to represent the Anvil Business Club at such short notice – thanks to the Yeoman efforts of fellow Anvil member and good friend, Inquirer’s most-talked-about legal luminary, Atty. Oscar Franklin Tan – yours truly paid witness to a grandiosely august celebration of an institution’s key milestone. With the theme, “Courage Beyond Words,” the Filipinana-inspired ceremony celebrated its lead in the media industry and aroused a general sense of pride in what the country’s Number One daily has achieved over the course of three decades. “Thirty years may be short for companies who have already celebrated their hundredth year,” quipped PDI Chairperson Ms. Marixi Rufino-Prieto. “But believe me, thirty years of the Inquirer is like celebrating three hundred years.”
As if seeking some justification to their current celebration, the eminent Inquirer Chairperson voiced out the paper's raison d'être: “It gives poignant meaning to the very important role and responsibility that is expected from the men and women of the Inquirer,” she emotionally disclosed. “For 30 years, we mastered the courage to express the ills of society – courage to be the voice of the powerless; courage to stand our ground, no matter how unpopular it is. With our loyal readers, we have courage to endure pressure, and courage to ride the tides of change.”
The beloved newspaper owner then thanked the millions of Inquirer readers, advertisers, dealers, forwarders, school partners, advocacy believers (and even their detractors) who helped the paper grow into the unstoppable media behemoth that it is today. “Your unwavering support and encouragement became our pillar of strength,” she said. “Every constructive criticism that we received from you became our guiding light to serve you better. Your belief in us fueled that fire in our belly to continue our passion and commitment to journalistic integrity and responsibility. It is our gratitude that we marveled at how the Inquirer has grown: from one platform to ten, from one million readers to 18 million viewers.”
Featuring performances from the Philippines’ top artists, including the Manila Symphony Orchestra, black light dance group Zilent Overload, Joey Ayala, Gloc 9, Mitoy Yonting, Cookie Chua, Bayang Barrios, Jonalyn Viray, acapella group Pinopela, and Charice Pempengco, the momentous affair was also graced by some of the country’s most illustrious luminaries in government and business. Apart from Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, officials at the event included Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senator Grace Poe, and former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban. Top businessmen, longtime supporters of the Inquirer, also made it, despite the night’s unbelievably horrible traffic. They included San Miguel Corp. president Ramon Ang, business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, Robina Gokongwei-Pe of the Gokongwei group of companies, Teresita Sy-Coson of the SM Group and Metrobank Foundation president Aniceto Sobrepeña.
But the highlight of the evening’s affair was the official launch of its first coffee-table book, “The Inquirer Story: 30 Years of Shaping History.” The 312 page-anthology of the newspaper’s front pages, editorials and most riveting pieces from historical turning points which marked the history of the paper and the nation was a shining testament to the hard work of thirty-four people from the Inquirer’s different departments – editors, writers, researchers, designers, photographers and editorial production assistants – who labored from September till December in time for the occasion. “This is the biggest thing we’ve done so far. And we have a timeline that runs from 1985 to 2015 that can show you the Inquirer history,” said Ruel de Vera, publisher and editor of the new book.
The first copy of the book was formally received by University of the Philippines president Alfredo Pascual from Inquirer president and CEO Sandy Prieto-Romualdez. To everyone’s surprise, every guest was given a complementary copy of the said tome.
The evening also saw the state-run Philippine Postal Corp. launch the Inquirer’s 30th anniversary commemorative postage stamp, the country’s first of such kind printed with a holographic design. “It’s the first of this kind in the country. It has a hologram. We had to print it abroad because our printers here in the Philippines cannot do it. It was printed in Bangkok,” said Postmaster-General Josefina dela Cruz. "The holographic feature is similar to security features on credit cards," she said. The stamp, available for Php30 and may be used to send mail within the country or regionally in Asia, carries the Inquirer’s anniversary mantra, “Courage Beyond Words.”
Indeed, the Inquirer has come a long way from December 1985 when it started on a Php1 million budget and enjoyed an initial circulation of 30,000; with a daily average circulation of 250,000 and a Sunday circulation of 270,000, it is now the Number One newspaper in the country in terms of circulation and readership.
“We have witnessed the swift passing of time,” PDI Chairperson Rufino-Prieto concluded, filled with a sense of mission. “And many times we learned and have evolved; and times we are made aware that there’s still a lot more to do.”