JUAN Pocholo “Cholo” Goitia, a journalism alumnus and former managing editor of the Official Gazette of the Philippines, died of acute coronary syndrome on July 25. He was 43.
His passing was confirmed by his brother, Paolo Buencamino Goitia, to the Varsitarian.
“He was very passionate [about] the things he’d occupy himself with—be it politics, music, art, family, and people. I believe him to be a good man, I hope I can still be good, like him,” Paolo said.
In UST, Pocholo was president of the Thomasian Writers’ Guild and the editor in chief of The Flame, the student publication of the Faculty of Arts and Letters.
He also won in the poetry and fiction categories of the Ustetika, the University-wide literary competition organized by the Varsitarian.
Former colleagues described him as a kind friend and brother.
“Isang kaibigan na laging available si Cholo. Kung kailangan ng kausap, kakuwentuhan, kainuman, kabatuhan ng ideas,” writer and friend Joseph de Luna Saguid said.
“Bilang isang manunulat, masasabi kong matindi pa rin ang tiwala niya sa panitikan at lagi’t laging bumabalik siya sa pagsulat upang bunuin isulat ang mga nais niyang makitang bago sa mundo,” he added.
Mural artist and painter Roderick Macutay, who was a colleague in the Malacañang communications office, said he admired Pocholo’s work ethic.
“Cholo was a very kind person; he doesn’t hold hate or anger if one makes a mistake. He talks to the person calmly,” Macutay told the Varsitarian.
Palanca award-winning poet Mikael de Lara Co described Pocholo as someone who radiated depth and raised his peers’ spirits.
“He gave people the space to be themselves, to stumble sometimes, and he was always there to pull them up,” Co shared.
From 2009 to 2010, Pocholo worked as a communications specialist for the successful presidential campaign of Sen. Benigno Aquino III. He became a Palace communications consultant in the Aquino administration.
Pocholo ended his stint at the Palace in 2016 to pursue his passion for writing.
A freelance writer and novelist at heart, Pocholo served as one of the screenwriters in the film “Cameroon Love Letter (For Solo Piano),” directed by Filipino filmmaker Khavn and released in 2010.
Other works include the science fiction story “An Introduction to the Luminescent” and speculative fiction “The Dues to the Unbound.”
Memorial services will be held from July 28 to 31 at Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina. Elizabeth Joy C. Castro
