When the wave of Filipino professionals landing on North American soil started in the 1960s and 70s, a small number of them included journalists who had already made their mark in Manila. Finding the urge to write and publish irresistible, these scribes itched to start their own publications.
On the west coast, the likes of Alex Esclamado and Nick Benoza founded what would become the largest Fil-Am newspaper in the United States (and possibly in all of North America), Philippine News, out of San Francisco.
During the dark years of martial rule in the Philippines, writers and activists vented their anger and dissent through tracts in this newspaper (including this observer writing a column for many years under the pseudonym Jose Antonio II).
On the US east coast, Libertito Pelayo started the Filipino Reporter (although the paper’s political orientation differed from the prevailing ferment of the time).
Later on, the more independent Manila Express was founded by travel mogul Lito Gajilan, with veteran journalist Levi Marcelo as editor-in-chief. (This observer also wrote a column, now under one’s real name, in the Express for several years.)
And still later, Manila Mail in Washington, DC was started by a Manila veteran journalist, the perceptive Bert Alfaro.
North of the American border, Ruben Cusipag blazed the trail with Balita, easily the largest newspaper in Canada. Ruben and Balita soon became well-known in Fil-Am journalism. To this day Balita has no viable rival in Fil-Canadian newspapering.
Why was this significant? Because it’s no picnic to start a newspaper, especially in a foreign land where investment money didn’t come by easily. Several intrepid journalists have attempted over the years to publish a newspaper but had to fold up because of a lack of financing or revenues to sustain the paper. So, that alone was the main stumbling block and often in survivable challenge.
Second, not too many people could write well enough to back up the editor (who usually is the only experienced guy in the operation; the rest were enthusiastic contributors who didn’t have much experience in writing). It was therefore hard to sustain the quality of a struggling newspaper.
And, since potential advertisers usually choose to wait and see if the newspaper can slog through the long haul, ad revenues didn’t come gushing in from their office budgets.
What that meant was that the publishers had to have enough funds to keep the paper running for long stretches of time before it could generate enough money to pay for printing and other costs.
Cusipag and his US counterparts had to go through birthing and growing pains in order to establish their publications. Often frustrating and thankless, founding and running a newspaper took courage, perseverance and determination in the face of almost impossible odds.
But the pioneers plodded on, sometimes with only their courage and determination sustaining them through the difficult times. Cusipag and the others south of the border had the guts and grit to take on the odds.
The success today of Balita is owed primarily to the vigor and vision of Ruben.
Balita is probably the most successful of all Fil-Am newspapers. In its best days during the reign of Dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, the aforementioned Philippine News out of San Francisco, California, was on top of the heap, probably the most influential of all, because it circulated all over the United States, and probably to some extent in Canada. The others were successful in their respective markets, whether it was New York or the Washington, DC area.
But Balita has survived them all and continues to be robust to this day. And that owes to Ruben Cusipag and his immediate family, especially his wife, Tess, the current publisher and editor-in-chief. It’s no mean feat.
The Cusipag name is synonymous to Fil-Am journalism in all of North America. The name Ruben Cusipag is known not only in the Fil-Canadian communities but also in high levels of both provincial and federal governments. He was a pioneer and that is an achievement that cannot be duplicated in North America.
I don’t write this because I am associated with Balita. I’ve only been writing a column for Balita for less than two years, but I’ve known of Ruben for all of the 28 years that I had lived in the United States until the late 1990s. His name had been a byword in Fil-Am journalism for all that time.
So what I’m saying here is not meant as flattery to please the Cusipag family. There’s no need for flattery because their name speaks for itself.
Rather, this is a tribute to a fallen colleague in the journalism trade. It’s a tribute to a man who, with guts, vision and sheer determination, built a journalistic house that stands proud and strong. Ruben Cusipag is gone, but his name and the newspaper he founded and nursed to what it is today will be around for a long time still.****
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