Nonoy Espina, journalist and press freedom champion, writes 30

MANILA, Philippines — Jose Jaime “Nonoy” Espina,  a journalist and champion for press freedom and media welfare, has passed away. He was 59.

His sister and fellow journalist Inday Espina-Varona said Espina passed on at 9:20 p.m. on July 7. He was surrounded by his family, including his wife and children.

“We are grateful that Nonoy survived a severe infection of COVID-19 and was able to return to the bosom of the family. His death was due to liver cancer,” Varona added.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, where Espina was chairperson for three years, thanked him for “his long years of service to the union and the profession and promises to honor him by protecting that prestige.”

A champion for his colleagues, for democracy

Espina was among the founding members of the union and had, for multiple terms, sat as a member of its directorate, steering the group of Filipino journalists through “waves of attacks and harassment by the government.”

“He was a press freedom hero worthy of admiration and emulation. From the Marcos dictatorship until the Duterte administration, he consistently served the Filipino people by upholding the truth,” the NUJP said.

Espina had just turned over the reins of leadership of the union he helped found to a new set of officers earlier in 2021.

The NUJP recalled Espina as one of the first responders at the Ampatuan Massacre in Maguindanao town in 2009, and he had, since then, stood at the forefront of the campaign for justice for the victims, which included 32 media workers.

Even as families scored a victory with a conviction in 2019, Espina had not forgotten photojournalist Reynaldo Momay, the 58th victim whose killing was not included in the verdict, and pushed for his recognition in the case.

When media network ABS-CBN was shut in 2020, Espina again stood at the forefront of rallies. In a now-iconic photo taken by photojournalist Basilio Sepe, Espina was seen staring into the camera, holding the tarpaulin “I Stand for Press Freedom” with fellow journalists to slam the denial of the franchise of the media giant.

A video feature from Film Weekly showed Espina at a rally in front of the ABS-CBN compound, where he learned that his joining a rally in Cagayan de Oro in support of the network had led to him, his sister and other community journalists being red-tagged.

He was chuckling at the start of the clip, seemingly unfazed at the baseless accusations.

Espina at the time admitted that red-tagging is not new to the union but that there have been “overt offensives” to red-tag journalists and slander legal organizations during the Duterte administration.

He went on to address the crowd and stressed that the shutdown of ABS-CBN means that it would be easier to go after smaller newsrooms. Even worse, he said, “it will be likely that fear, not only among our ranks, will prevail, even to owners, managers of other media outfits.”

“And when that happens, the free flow of information, idea and opinion will be cut. And when that happens, that will be the start of the death of our nation’s democracy,” he added in Filipino.

‘What a wonderful world’

Varona said her brother had many talents and wore many hats: “[H]e drew, he danced, he composed, played the piano and sang, mostly jazz and blues, in a distinct gravelly voice.”

But he was a journalist foremost.

The NUJP said Espina was a newsman since high school and later went on to become a part of community media group Correspondents, Broadcasters and Reporters Association-Action News Service, which was part of the “mosquito press” during the Marcos dictatorship. He also became editor of Inquirer.net and Interkasyon.

Espina’s colleagues knew that the veteran journalist would not have wanted “drama” in remembering the life he led.

In an online jam and fundraiser for Espina on June 13, former NUJP secretary-general Dabet Panelo and former deputy secretary-general Raymund Villanueva shared that their former chair would always see to it that he would always have jamming sessions at night whenever he visited Manila.

And when he sang his favorite, Louis Armstrong’s "What a Wonderful World", he would always draw a crowd.

Varona shared that before his passing, Espina was able to sit in front of the organ and hear music, which he had always looked forward to, played by his family. She said: “To his last breath, he waved that banner. Patriot, journalist, loving husband, father and brother, you will not be forgotten.”

Espina’s colleagues at the NUJP, meanwhile, vowed to uphold what he had championed: “Nonoy leaves us with lessons and fond memories, as well as the words he often used in statements: That the press is not free because it is allowed to be. It is free because it insists on being free.”