By Edwin C. Mercurio
Ruben Cusipag, a veteran journalist who was detained as a political prisoner during in the early days of Martial Law in the Philippines in 1972 passed away yesterday. Cusipag migrated to Canada by late 1974.
Cusipag was the co-founder of Atin Ito in early1976. Atin Ito (This is Ours) was one of the first Filipino-Canadian newspapers wherein he wrote political editorials condemning the repressive Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines.
In 1978, he put up his own publication, Balita where he promised to provide “frank, sincere, and honest-to-goodness discussion of the Philippine problems.”
“He made a distinct effort for an equitable and balanced perspective on the issues. Balita played a key role in exposing abuses of the Marcos regime back home. Then it concentrated on reporting local news, focusing on issues that concerned Filipino-Canadians,” an editorial by the Philippine Inquirer stated.
He was also active in helping many new immigrants settle in Canada. Among the many Filipinos he helped was this author. “Ruben was actively involved in the issues confronting the Filipino-Canadian community. We became close friends as practicing journalists. I was his volunteer driver and had the chance to know him personally. I find him very sincere and honest in his desire to help other people, especially new immigrants like myself.”
His exemplary work as a journalist and active involvement in the growing Filipino-Canadian community earned him many awards, one of them includes the “Most Outstanding Filipino-Canadian” award.
Ruben would be the first to help and offer his services to any journalist coming from the Philippines. Thus, “Balita had become the vehicle of transplanted journalists and writers from the home country, as well as training ground and start for most younger journalists, editors and others in the now numerous Filipino community publications in Toronto, Canada,” an editorial from the Philippine Inquirer noted.
The first person to be sought by Canadian mainstream media for his comments and political views on major breaking news in the Philippines, Cusipag and Balita had become a byword in many homes for Philippine news in the Filipino-Canadian Community.
To pay homage to his hardworking compatriots he dealt with in his early immigrant days in Canada, he wrote the book “Portrait of Filipino Canadians in Ontario.”
I recall a Canadian lawyer who took my passport while I was processing my political asylum application and who charged me a hefty fee of $5,000.00 without doing anything. That lawyer was scolded by Cusipag in a terse editorial in Balita. The lawyer promptly returned my passport and refunded 90% of the money my sister paid him.
In 1996, Cusipag was seriously injured in a car accident and had to stay in the hospital for therapy while his wife Tess took over supervision of the newspaper. Ruben’s work for the Filipino-Canadian community and his legacy earned him the support of advertisers even when he was wheel-chair bound and lost his public speaking ability. Today, Balita is considered as the number one and largest newspaper in circulation in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and suburbs. Its writers includes many veteran journalists from the Philippines, the USA and correspondents from other parts of the world.
His wife Tess Cusipag, a teacher by profession resigned as executive assistant for a Canadian firm to take personal care of Ruben and continue her husband’s mission.
It is an honour to be one of his close friends and fellow practicing journalist. Ruben Cusipag may no longer be with us but his legacy and that of his newspaper Balita will live on to serve the Filipino-Canadian community in its struggle and campaigns for truth, accountability, justice, human rights and environmental concerns.