Philippine Star publisher dies in Japan
Arroyo pays tribute to ‘icon of freedom’
Inquirer, GMA7, INQ7.net, Agence France-Presse
Last updated 03:01pm (Mla time) 11/24/2006
(4TH UPDATE) PHILIPPINE Star Publisher Max Soliven died Friday at a hospital in Tokyo, Japan, according to reports culled by INQ7.net.
Soliven was officially pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. (Tokyo time) of cardiac arrest at the Narita Red Cross Hospital, consul Gina Jamoralin of the Philippine embassy in Tokyo told INQ7.net in a phone interview.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo paid tribute to Soliven, saying: “The nation is deeply saddened by the passage of an icon of freedom.”
"The post-war march of Philippine democracy under a free press could not have been as vibrant without Max Soliven, who fought beside the forces of enlightenment in the struggle against despotism and wrong," she said.
Soliven “was at the Narita airport when it [cardiac arrest] happened that's why he was rushed there,” Jamoralin said.
She said a Philippine embassy consul was at the hospital helping in the arrangements for the repatriation of his remains, which will be shipped back to the Philippines Friday where arrangements are being made for his funeral.
"He rang the paper last night to check on how we were [d]oing," Philippine Star executive editor Ana Marie Pamintuan told Agence France-Presse said.
Soliven, a communications major at Fordham in the United States, worked in various local newspapers and hosted several TV talk shows during his distinguished career. He also worked as a correspondent of foreign wires covering wars in Southeast Asia during the 1960s.
One of the last of his generation of Philippine journalists, Soliven interviewed many of the world's major political figures over the last 50 years.
He won numerous awards, both local and international, and in October was made an officer of the Legion d'Honneur by the French government and remained publisher of the Star until his death.
One of his proudest moments was being jailed with opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. when then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972.
Aquino was later assassinated by Marcos troops upon returning from the United States in 1983.
He became the publisher of the Philippine Star after the 1986 Edsa Revolution.
The Philippine Star, together with the Philippine Daily Inquirer (a parent company of INQ7.net) and the Manila Bulletin form the triumvirate of Philippine national newspapers that dominate the print media in the country.
Soliven's last column, datelined Tokyo, appeared in Friday's issue of the paper where he pondered the possible rise of a more-assertive Japan under its new prime minister, Shinzo Abe.
Soliven's colleague and fellow columnist Babes Romualdez described him as "a journalist to the end."
With reports from Veronica Uy and Joel Guinto, INQ7.net; Volt Contreras, Inquirer