The birth of The STAR

MANILA, Philippines - Publisher Max Soliven, during our last monthly board meeting, said, “Betty, you tell our story,” to which STAR president, Art Borjal, concurred.

I may be Chairman of the Board, but as you must have noted, I take orders like a good soldier. This is because it was not I who thought of publishing The Philippine STAR in the first place. I was invited by three men to join them and when my initial response was “Oh, no! Why would the Lord ask me to leave a very successful newspaper just to start another one from scratch?” One of the three retorted, “Hey, since when have you been talking for yourself? I thought you always pray and ask for guidance first?”

When I told Sonny about it, he sternly opposed the whole idea. In short, we –– husband and wife –– were in agreement. From our point of view, there was no logic in leaving a newspaper that reported a net of P5 million for the month of March 1986 with P30 million in receivables simply to start another newspaper from zero, this time, without a snap election and an EDSA revolution to propel it.

Many have asked me: “Why did you leave the Inquirer? More often than not, I would simply beg off from answering the question by saying “It’s a long story.” With people whom I feel would understand, I would say, “I had to follow God’s guidance. I became a co-founder upon guidance when it was dangerous to be publishing an opposition paper, likewise, I had to be obedient when the Lord said I had to leave even when the paper was a great success with 333,540 circulation at that time.” (I was co-chairperson in charge of logistics, production and circulation. My co-chairperson was in charge of editorial advertising, hiring and firing. In fact, Max, Art and Louie Beltran were also co-founders of the Inquirer, with Max as publisher and Louie as editor-in-chief.)

When I told Max of my guidance to leave, he said he would leave, too.

“I am doing it out of guidance,” I told him. “Furthermore, I won’t be missed by the readers. But they will miss you.”

Max said he would pray for guidance also. After a few days, he called to say: “Betty, I have green light to leave.”

When Louie heard that both Max and Art (whom Max fondly referred to as “my loyalist”) may leave the paper, he set a meeting with them. I joined them to dissuade them from leaving, reminding them that their powerful columns were what distinguished Inquirer from other papers at that time. Louie then remarked: “Kung sa bagay, someone said the three of us can put out our own paper.”

“You are together now. You also are co-owners of the paper. Why start anew?” I reminded them. They gave reasons, which I would rather not mention.

Then Louie looked at me and said, “Since you have resigned, we want you to join us when we put out our paper.”

“Oh, no!” I said. “Why would the Lord ask me to leave a very successful newspaper just to start another one from scratch?”

“Hey,” Louie said, “since when have you been talking for yourself? I thought you always pray and ask for guidance first?”

“Okay, okay, I’ll pray and ask for guidance,” I promised.

When I went home and told Sonny about it, he pointed at me and said, “Don’t you ever! Don’t you ever!” I said I understood how he felt, as I felt the same way. So, I asked that he pray with me this time.

My prayer went: “Dear Heavenly Father, the three –– Max, Louie and Art –– asked me to join them. Please give me a word to show them whether it is Your will or not. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

The Lord’s answer flabbergasted both Sonny and me. I did not realize until then that there was such a passage about three men in the Bible. It read: “Meanwhile, as Peter was puzzling over the vision, the Holy Spirit said to him, ‘Three men have come to see you. Go down and meet them and go with them. All is well, I have sent them.’” (Acts 10:19)

I heard Sonny exclaim, “Nakakagulat, ano!”

When I showed the passage to the three, how they laughed.

After my attempt at forging a reconciliation failed, I asked Louie if he had prayed and gotten any definite guidance about leaving. When he replied in the negative, I told him, “It’s your turn to pray.” He later told me he had no guidance to leave. I was happy, at least he was left to help man the fort.

At that time, Geny Lopez and Tito “Chino” Roces were preparing to publish The Manila Chronicle. Geny invited Max to join them. Max and Art said they would prefer putting out their own. So they invited me saying, “Tayo na!” to which I replied. “Anong tayo na? I go with three men, not two men.” At first, Max thought just because Louie did not join them, I was not interested. I explained that in my reading, it said “three men,” and they were only two.

So Max proceeded with his negotiation with Geny. When it reached what Max considered a conclusive stage, he thought of me and called me. “Why don’t you join us? You are close, too, to Chino and Geny.” I said I would pray about it. Even before I opened the Bible, a voice seemed to say to me: “Betty, where is your mathematics? Two men plus two men equals four, not three.”

I called Max to thank him for including me, but I said, “First, it was kulang, and now it is sobra.” This time, Max took it very well. He knew it very well. He knew what I meant because he knew I was merely following my guidance, which I showed them, and it said, “three men”.

After that, Sonny and I left for abroad, first to attend the graduation of our son; then to bring home my parents, who had been on self-exile throughout Martial Law.

When we returned, I was surprised not to find the columns of Max and Art in the Chronicle. When they heard I was back, they again said, “Tayo na!” and again I reminded them, “Kulang na naman.” At this point, I marvelled at how wonderful the Lord was, to teach me to say no in a gentle way, without hurting their feelings.

Then one day, three men came to see me – Max, Art and Tony Roces.

The first question I asked them was: “What are we for? To help in nation-building or to make a lot of money for ourselves?”

The answer of the three men was: “We are for helping nation-building.” Max added: “We are for giving everyone a good salary, we are for serving readers, we shall aim for a 700,000 circulation.”

I then asked what our policy would be regarding the scoops. Max said, “Between having a scoop just to sell the paper and checking our facts thoroughly, we would opt for the latter.”

I told them: “I am for projecting the positive. And in cases where the story is negative, we should present both sides and all sides.” They concurred.

I also asked, “I am pro-Cory, how about you?”

“For as long as she has not stolen one single centavo herself, our paper will be supportive of her. However, we as columnists are free to give our own comments,” Max said.

“I am for giving one day to the Lord, thus, no Sunday paper,” I said.

Max and Art looked at each other and said in unison: “No Sunday paper?!”

Tony, already publisher of Ang Pilipino Ngayon which did not have a Sunday issue and was doing well, said: “It’s okay.”

Our editor-in-chief was going to be Raul Gonzales. Thus, he and Tony, then our president, took charge of interviewing everyone with the help of Art and Max. I was relegated the position of Chairman of the Board.

I asked if I could write a little column called “Pebbles” as Cardinal Sin told me one day: “Why don’t you share your faith with others and write a column?”

“Sure,” they said.

Max’s guidance was for us to launch the newspaper on July 26, while Tony’s was July 27. So what really happened was we had the dry run and blessing on the 26th, started work on the 27th and hit the streets on the 28th.

Max liked the format of “USA Today” and so did Tony, Art and I. As for the name, they all like “STAR,” (in fact, had Max had his way, there would have been no Inquirer, it would have been STAR from the very beginning), but I liked “Philippines Today”. So, the newspaper was called “The Philippine Star”, and the company, Philippines Today, Inc.

Just before we came off the press, Raul said he could not assume the editor-in-chief position because of other commitments, but that he would write our editorials, which he did for a while. Thus, Max made Tony also editor-in-chief.

We invited President Cory Aquino, Vice President Salvador Laurel and Cardinal Sin to our launch and blessing on the 26th of July, 1986. There were no other guests invited. The affair was limited to “the STAR family” and relatives.

It was on our first anniversary that we invited all our friends and caused an unbelievable traffic jam in Makati, since we celebrated the affair at Hotel Intercontinental.

Even Makati Mayor Jojo Binay was late to the party and apologized, saying “I’m sorry to be late, there is a gigantic traffic jam outside!” (Reprinted)