Heritage Memorial Park, Taguig City
29 December 2015
 

President Benigno S. Aquino III remembers the legacy of Inquirer’s Editor-in-Chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc in a eulogy at the Heritage Memorial Park in Taguig City.

Attended by personalities in the media industry and members of the family, President Aquino reminisced the few moments he shared with his Tita Letty and the unique relationship he had with her.

“If you would ask me to describe her, the image of the famed German nuns from St. Scholastica or the Irish priests from Ateneo always come to mind… Tita Letty could give you the kind of look that would turn the blood in your veins to ice: at once direct, intimidating, and soul-searching. Tita Letty’s truest and deepest nature was of a nurturer with a heart of gold—a nurturer who was still tough precisely because she expected you to meet the challenge of her very high expectations,” he said.

Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, fondly referred to as Tita Letty, was a known icon of the “mosquito press” who challenged the Marcos regime under the weekly magazine Mr. & Ms. Special Edition. Together with Eugenia “Eggie” Apostol, both women played pivotal roles in criticizing the Marcos regime. It was under the Mr. & Ms. that Magsanoc wrote the 16-page special issue on Ninoy Aquino’s funeral that provided the public a critical account to what had been silenced and ignored by government-controlled media. Soon after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos, Magsanoc then became the first editor-in-chief of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine from 1986 to 1987. She later on became the longest-serving editor-in-chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer since 1991 until her untimely demise, after she suffered cardiac arrest at the age of 74, on 24 December.

“Can we really ask for more from those who have given so much already? From here on out, our prayer should be one of thanks for her life, secure in the knowledge that she was true to our people and to our God, enjoying her just rewards,” the President said in closing.