When Conrado de Quiros discussed “A culture of reading” 21 years ago, he further ignited the fire of simple but true service to the nation of authors, journalists, and critics of bad governance. They knew there were only a few people like him who were willing to take the risk of telling the truth (de Quiros did not reach the era of troll armies on social media but he also had detractors back in the day) and making people fully aware of abuses and selfishness of the powers that be.

The ordinary but increasing citizens would say, “This politician is OK with me because he has already helped a lot,” but de Quiros would make the reading public aware of what help is real and what should be appreciated as he would keep writing about the beauty of resistance to this kind of assistance.

Based on extensive experience as a pundit of politics, reading and writing it, De Quiros saw the kind of leaders who promised to be different from old pro-administration or pro-opposition politicians but blew their own trumpet when helping in the name of power. It would be good if what they exercise is the power to lift people out of suffering, instead of burying them as they keep asking for help. Not only would they thank the “helpful” politicians, but they would choose them as their leaders again and again until “power corrupts absolutely.” (de Quiros, 2011; ICTJ, 2021)

On his take on the opposition: “I attended the tribute to Jovito Salonga at Club Filipino last Saturday. It might as well have been the official celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Liberal Party, the unofficial, or fake one, being held a couple of days earlier at Plaza Miranda. That was so not merely because most of the pillars of the LP were at Club Filipino, it was so because the authentic voice of the LP was there. No one better embodies the soul of the Liberal Party – or as it should be – than Salonga.” (de Quiros, 2006)

He continued: Salonga “had been given a second life for a purpose, and he meant to serve that purpose… He has.”

According to de Quiros, Salonga “refused (to help make the dictatorship attractive) and spent these years, particularly after martial law, in quiet but fierce opposition to (Ferdinand Marcos Sr.). Salonga was “the Senate President (1987-1992) …and but a step away from the presidency.” (Instead of just one more step, his fellow columnist Professor Randy David held a different view in that Imelda had more votes than Salonga in the 1992 presidential election, so the opposition’s appeal for the people to adhere to the spirit of EDSA was not that strong.)

Not mind-numbing, De Quiros can quip like this: “I remember a joke told to me by an Indonesian friend. When Suharto was still in power, he said, he decided one day to decree that henceforth the media would be free to tell the truth. One newspaper took it to heart and ran a headline that said, “Suharto is an idiot!” The minister of justice promptly ordered the cops to arrest the editor in chief. They tried him, found him guilty, and sentenced him to 20 years and three months in jail. The three months were for sedition, and the 20 years were for revealing state secrets.” This was a hugot line to the then Secretary Gonzales of the DOJ. (de Quiros, 1998)

The writer says a group should have been called “movie ‘press’” with quotation marks because they do not expose the malevolence of actors, but the things that only sell them so that the audience would enjoy seeing them wherever they are. There is truth to this because they have done a lot of coverup for entertainers, enough for them to be elected in the highest positions of service that no one would think are suitable for the entertainers in the eyes of the unthinking voters.

After keynoting a congress of the Public Relations Society of the Philippines, de Quiros figured in an impassioned Q&A. Asked what his thoughts were on government officials having newspaper columns, he told the crowd of PR practitioners that these officials should not have been allowed to write columns because, he said, newspapers are supposed to take conflicts of interest so seriously that government officials’ views must be regulated from their newspaper space, a space they privately own. This is correct and ethically sound because, after all, there is space for letters to the editor. This is an important precept that has to do with who really deserves to be given gatekeeping functions. On social media, for example, anyone has become a gatekeeper. That is why the standards for influencers are getting lower and lower: When you have few followers, you are no longer credible, while nonsense content is not only followed but spread fast. Thousands of shares, millions of views! You would think that the content is well thought out and has a great contribution to lifting many Filipinos out of poverty.

CDQ writes 30. He was 72. The news arrived right on cue for the Filipinos, young and old, to care for a culture of reading.