By Ted Alcuitas
Publisher and Editor
philippinecanadiannews.com
Vancouver, B. C. – As we celebrate the first anniversary of Ruben Cusipag’s death (July 9, 2013), it is fitting that the Filipino community in Canada remember and pay tribute to a crusading newsman who blazed a trail for today’s crop of Filipino newspapers.
I was a neophyte in the journalism business back in 1976 when I founded and published Silangan in Winnipeg. Having no journalism background having been trained as an Architect, I sort of looked up to Ruben as a mentor of sorts, marveling at his writing style and his courageous struggle against the Marcos dictatorship.
Ruben and I did not know each other then (he from Manila and I from Cebu) but our shared passion for community journalism bound us together as kindred spirits.
I first met him when I traveled to Toronto to discuss the possibility of forging a merger of the three pioneer papers (Silangan of Winnipeg, Atin Ito of Toronto and The Filipino Forum of Montreal). We had lofty goals to establish a national paper in Canada. Ruben was still working for Atin Ito before eventually leaving and founded Balita. The plan failed when we could not agree to a name of the publication, each publisher insisting to have its name retained. If I remember right, I was the only one willing to give up the name of Silangan for a common name acceptable to all.
I next met Ruben in Ottawa when we attended the Ethnic Media Conference in April 1978 for the launch of the new Immigration Act.
Our association continued over the years with him trying to sway me over to the struggle against the dictatorship. Unlike him, I was not an ‘activist’ when I left the Philippines in 1968, four years before martial law was declared in 1972.
It was not until the assassination of Senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino on August 21, 1983 that I made a ‘leapt of faith’ as Ruben wrote at the time to side with the struggle.
And it was a struggle for those of us who choose the path of justice for the Philippines during those years.
I organized and headed the August Twenty One Movement (ATOM) in Winnipeg right after the assassination in 1983 while Ruben was already immersed in the anti-Marcos group CAMDI (Coalition Against the Marcos Dictatorship) formed in the early 1970s in Toronto. I did not know at the time that ATOM already existed in the Philippines headed by Ninoy’s brother Butz Aquino whom I had the privilege of hosting and billeting at my house when our group invited him to visit Winnipeg.
Both Ruben and I suffered through those years – we were vilified and harassed by the Marcos minions even to the extent of receiving death threats. Our papers were boycotted by most Filipino businesses that were cowed by the tentacles of the dictator not to advertise with us but we persisted and survived.
The formation of ATOM put Winnipeg in the Marcos opposition map where only Toronto and Vancouver had active anti-Marcos groups going.
Our group invited Ruben to speak at a forum we organized in Winnipeg and he was one of the keynote speakers together with Heherson Alvarez who was then head of the New York-based Ninoy Aquino Movement (NAM).
Both Ruben and Alvarez stayed at my house and I was fascinated as the two recounted their ‘escape’ from the Philippines using different ‘routes’ – Ruben ended up in Toronto and Alvarez in New York to join Ninoy Aquino.
Our friendship deepened and Silangan used materials supplied by Ruben to bolster our fight against the dictatorship. I also begun to understand the roots of the Philippine situation through Ruben’s painstaking efforts to ‘educate’ me and for that I am deeply grateful.
He came to my rescue when I was left ‘paperless’ after giving up Silangan in 1981, selling it to Rod and the late Linda Cantiveros who continues to publish it in Winnipeg under another name – The Filipino Journal.
He gave me space in Balita to continue my struggle for justice and encouraged me to forged on despite the frustrations and difficulties.
Over the years after the fall of the dictatorship I continued to follow Balita whose consistent espousal of community issues mirrored my own.
His tragic car accident in 1996, which left him an invalid, cut short his crusading years.
But his legacy continues and will live on as an emerging crop of young Filipino journalists pick up the torch.
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