Hot off the press: STAR publisher Soliven as ‘cover boy’

The weekly business newsmagazine BizNews Asia in its latest issue (April 12-26) has put Philippine STAR publisher and columnist Maximo V. Soliven on its cover, calling him the "best of the best" of journalists and an authentic hero.

The magazine came out with the story to mark this summer’s celebration of Press Week and Soliven’s return to television after 32 years of absence. His "Impact 2004" weekly television program on ABS-CBN News Channel 21 has risen to No. 1 in cable TV share and ratings after barely a month last February, the magazine’s editors revealed.

"Not many people realize it but Max is an authentic hero," said the magazine’s main article written by senior journalist and BizNews Asia editor Antonio S. Lopez.

"Soliven suffered mightily during the strongman’s rule and he had more to lose" than other journalists at the time.

Lopez had four long interview sessions with Soliven, rummaged through his photo albums, and checked the Soliven family history. The saga of the Soliven family, he wrote, "is one of hardship, scholarship and stewardship of a nation’s values of freedom, justice and decency in public service."

When Marcos declared martial law, Soliven had his highly rated "Impact" TV program and was the second best-read columnist of The Manila Times, after Doroy Valencia.

As far back as 1956, Soliven was already a noted journalist having won the "Journalist of the Year" award for an 11-part front page series on American advisers in the Philippines. In the 1960s, he won the TOYM for journalism. (Editor’s Note: MVS won "Journalist of the Year" three times).

Soliven was jailed for three months and released on probation but under military supervision just before Christmas 1972.

BizNews Asia cities two reasons why Soliven has been so successful in his TV hosting comeback. It is election season and people want to know more about their candidates. And "he has what 95 percent of TV hosts don’t have – broad knowledge of many things, experience, and best of all, connections."

Knowledge, says the magazine, "enables a host to think on his feet, without the benefit of a script and to engage in repartee with a smart guest. Experience tells him the difference between a fake and the real persona. And connections will draw him the guest he wants... At his age and stature, Max is on first-name basis with most leaders, from senators to the lowliest provincial governor and town mayor."

The article quotes columnist Hilarion Henares, who once remarked that "Max has walked with more heroes than Romulo and more heels than Adidas." (The magazine mistakenly said, however, that Soliven had fired Henares from the Inquirer because he began his column after MVS left the paper.)

The magazine said Soliven’s familiarity with the powers-that-be enables him "to assess politicians and dish out advice. When Estrada was running for president in 1998, he told the actor not to bring his bad vices to Malacañang. Erap didn’t listen and he was soon ousted from the palace. In the first month of her presidency, Max told Arroyo not to seek election, because being the president and the daughter of a president were tremendous enough bonus."

When Ninoy Aquino wanted to return to Manila in 1983 to seek a deal with strongman Ferdinand Marcos, to return the Philippines to democracy, Max advised against it. "You will be killed," he said. Ninoy didn’t listen and was shot dead upon landing at the tarmac.

According to BizNews Asia, Soliven has an MA in communication arts from Fordham University, doctorate studies (not completed) at Johns Hopkins University, and studies in international relations at Harvard. It says Soliven is the dean of Filipino columnists and the country’s most influential journalist. He combines a humanist background and a classical education with reportorial experience of more than 50 years to dish out the kind of analysis only he can produce – with wit, depth, substance, anecdotes and travel experiences."

"No Filipino journalist covered the Vietnam war more thoroughly and more exhaustively than did Max Soliven," the magazine said. He went to Vietnam four times during the war. BizNews even reprinted in toto Soliven’s exclusive interview with Vietnam’s military genius and hero of Dien Bien Phu, 92-year old General Vo Nguyen Giap in Hanoi in March last year.

The magazine’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Tony Lopez, was Asiaweek Magazine bureau chief in Manila and is currently president of the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC).