The Freeman, 89

Last July 18th, The FREEMAN celebrated its 89th anniversary. This paper was born in 1919, the brainchild of Paulino Gullas, uncle of the present generation of Gullases of the University of the Visayas.

It originally came about within the vibrant era of journalism and literature in Cebu. There were a number of publications around, in different languages—vernacular, Spanish, and English. One publication reportedly even used all three languages.

In those days, publishing a newspaper was not as much a commercial venture as purely a vehicle for self-expression and information dissemination. In all likelihood, the news reporters and writers then were just happy enough to see their names on the printed page. They were probably doing other things for a living.

Those local publications of old, having had no dependable income to sustain their operations, were fully subsidized by their owners. And when the cost of publication became so heavy to bear by personal pockets, the newspapers folded up, one after the other. There were other reasons, as well, for the closures, pressures other than financial or economic. Paulino Gullas, who was a notable lawyer, stopped The FREEMAN at the time when he was called for duty in the framing of the 1934 Constitutional Convention.

Atty. Gullas probably could not find anyone to continue running the publication for him, while he was busy helping to draft the 1st Philippine Constitution. He was said to be one of the so-called “7 Wise Men,” believed to be mainly responsible for the original version of the fundamental law of the land.

For many other reasons, Atty. Gullas’ The FREEMAN never got back in circulation. In fact, for quite a time, no one had heard or perhaps even remembered it. It took a nephew of Atty. Gullas, a young man who came too late to have had read an issue of his uncle’s newspaper, to take interest in it.

In 1965, Jose R. Gullas – yes, Dr. Jose R. Gullas, the one everybody calls Sir Dodong – was getting quite busy with the family-owned University of the Visayas when he thought about reviving The FREEMAN. For days and nights the thought occupied his mind.

The FREEMAN had been the leading community paper in Cebu in its time. Paulino Gullas no doubt became a prominent figure in the local community partly because of his newspaper. Sir Dodong was afraid that with the paper’s demise his dear uncle’s memory would also fade away.

Sir Dodong told some friends about the concern that hanged heavy in his heart. Balt Quinain, who was an on-call publicist of the university, mentioned that he knew someone who was vastly experienced in the news profession. The guy, he said, could help.

Balt was referring to Mr. Juanito Jabat, who was then doing news correspondence for some of the largest national publications and news agencies around. Sir Dodong himself would frequently come across Mr. Jabat’s byline in the leading national papers at the time. He doubted, at first, if someone as well-placed as Mr. Jabat would be interested in helping revive The FREEMAN. He wondered if the man had even heard of it.

His friends’ excitement about the whole idea all the more encouraged Sir Dodong to pursue it. He asked to meet with Mr. Jabat—immediately. Balt totally shared Sir Dodong’s eagerness to get things going that once he got to Mr. Jabat’s house he would not leave without him. Mr. Jabat begged that he would just see Sir Dodong first thing the following day, as he still had some urgent news reports to send out to his agencies. Balt didn’t budge.

Shortly, Mr. Jabat was in UV. The man didn’t exactly match the picture in Sir Dodong’s imagination. Not aggressive, never pompous; not quite the image of his impressive professional background. Sir Dodong liked Mr. Jabat on first meeting. The small man, he recalls, looked earnest; one that he thought could be depended on and trusted.

Actually, Sir Dodong didn’t have much choice. If not Mr. Jabat, who? His only worry was if the guy would say no. Fortunately, Mr. Jabat did not turn him down. At least not outright. 

Mr. Jabat promised that he’d see what he could do to help in the project. Soon, The FREEMAN’s inaugural comeback issue was in the works. Mr. Jabat and Balt Quinain combed the city for news to report. Their team was the paper’s entire news force. It was a weekly news magazine, which frequency allowed the skeletal work group enough time to prepare for each issue.

As soon as the stories were there, the J&Js Printers would take over. They would do the layout and actual printing of the copies. Sir Dodong’s family owned J&Js Printers. It had been operating for years before the idea of reviving The FREEMAN had hit him. So, the production side of the operation was taken care of.

It was the coming up with stories to fill the pages that was the difficult part. Nevertheless, they did it. They were able to make The FREEMAN come out regularly, every week.

By its second year, The FREEMAN was already established. More or less. At least the revived paper already had some mileage in the business, some name recall in the public’s mind. But strictly speaking: Business was not doing very well up until then. There were no dependable advertising revenues. The weekly sales remittance could still not fully support the operation.

Giving up was never an option, though. Sir Dodong had thought about the matter carefully beforehand. He knew that the other local papers around – The Advocate, The Morning Times, The Republic News – were all in dire straits. He supposedly fully understood what he was getting himself into; thoroughly considered that his decision to resuscitate his uncle’s brainchild might possibly jeopardize the wellbeing of the main family business, UV, and of his own family, but that it would never come to that.

The truth is, Sir Dodong did not set any limits as to how far he would go for The FREEMAN. Nor did he have an exact idea of what he wanted it to become. Of course he wanted it to succeed! But what’s “success”? That people read and trust the paper? That it becomes a force to reckon with in the Cebuano community? That it brings in big money to the company? What?

He had not thought much about that. All that Sir Dodong wanted was for The FREEMAN to be back. He must have probably gotten a bit scared after a while, to realize how much he was bleeding in personal funds for the undertaking. But he was determined to sustain his inherited pet project. Having survived two financially difficult years, it had become, to him, like next-to-impossible to stop.

Soon, The FREEMAN was coming out three times a week. Then, daily; as in seven days a week. The other local dailies at the time were coming out only six days a week, without a Sunday. The FREEMAN was the first to publish the results of the nightly Jai Alai games, played at the fronton in Mambaling. It was also the first among the local papers to devote a full page to sports news, with matching photos of the action.

During the turbulent Martial Law years, The FREEMAN never relented in giving the true picture of things in the Marcos government. The other papers, both local and national, had softened amid threats of closure or government takeover. The FREEMAN held on to its principle of “fair and truthful news reporting.” Sir Dodong was prepared to go to jail for this stand.

The FREEMAN had, through the years, acquired some precious survival skills. More and more people were now reading it, trusting it; more and more advertisers, too. More and more, the almost century-old newspaper had learned to be self-sustaining.

Furthermore, the recent tie-up with the Philippine Star group has given The FREEMAN an even more solid footing. Operations have now been transferred to a new, slick-looking building, just a short distance from its old address. Publishing procedures, technologies and equipment have been upgraded to keep up with the times.

And, as the familiar saying goes: “The rest is history.” In this case, a history still in progress. Among its many achievements, The FREEMAN today holds the distinction of being the oldest existing Cebu newspaper. And yet it is moving full-speed forward.

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