It is a country that Soliven loved so dearly he never joined the rush to leave for greener pastures overseas, even in the worst of times. In World War II he was a young guerrilla who fought the Japanese. After liberation he used his pen to encourage the nation to rise from the ravages of war, exposing social and political ills. Even when he was assigned overseas as a journalist and developed a global perspective, Soliven wrote for his compatriots. In later years he battled threats to democracy and the looming storm clouds of dictatorship.
In Soliven’s hands the pen proved truly mightier than the sword. His prose was so effective that when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law, Soliven was among the first to be whisked off to prison, detained without charges together with opposition leader Benigno S. Aquino Jr.
Upon his release Soliven became a social pariah in the martial law society. Still he chose to remain with his family in his own country, gearing up for more battles ahead against authoritarian rule. Like most Filipinos, the assassination of Aquino in 1983 fired up Soliven’s fighting spirit. In 1985 he teamed up with Betty Go-Belmonte and Eugenia Apostol and started the Philippine Daily Inquirer, battling the desperate forces of the dictatorship with the power of the printed word.
Victory in the battle against a despot did not make Soliven rest easy. There was a fragile democracy to nurture, and a national morale that needed boosting as high expectations following the end of authoritarian rule were not met. In The Philippine STAR, the paper that he founded in 1986 with Betty Go-Belmonte and Arturo Borjal, Soliven’s constant message to his fellow Filipinos was to soldier on and never lose hope. God, he often reminded his readers, helps only those who help themselves. In his death, Soliven’s message of faith in the Filipino endures. The STAR deeply mourns his passing.