EUGENIA Duran-Apostol, the Thomasian journalist who founded the Philippine Daily Inquirer and used her publications to challenge those in power and champion press freedom, died on Sept. 13. She was 100.
Apostol, known as “Eggie,” spent more than five decades in journalism and became a prominent figure in the alternative press during the Marcos dictatorship.
A former Varsitarian writer and columnist, Apostol graduated magna cum laude from UST in 1948 with a Bachelor of Literature in Journalism from the former Faculty of Philosophy and Letters.
She wrote stories and a column for the Varsitarian in 1946, working with contemporaries F. Sionil Jose, Felix Bautista Jr., Maria Luisa Zumel, and Cenon Rivera.
After graduation, Apostol pursued a career in lifestyle journalism, editing sections of the Manila Chronicle and the women’s magazine Woman’s Home Companion.
During the Marcos dictatorship, she used her publications to report openly on issues restricted in the mainstream press.
Following the assassination of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. in 1983, she published Mr. & Ms. Special Edition, which documented Aquino’s assassination and funeral and the growing opposition to the Marcos administration.
In December 1985, Apostol, Betty Go-Belmonte, and Max Soliven founded the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which became the country’s leading newspaper and played a significant role in covering the 1986 People Power Revolution.
She later founded Pinoy Times, a tabloid that reported on corruption allegations against President Joseph Estrada amid the events leading to his ouster during the 2001 EDSA II uprising.
UST honored Apostol in 1999 with the Outstanding Thomasian Alumni Award for Media for her contributions to press freedom.
In 2006, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award and was named one of Time magazine’s “Heroes of Asia.”
During a 2008 lecture, Apostol urged campus writers and media practitioners to practice “fearless journalism,” emphasizing the press’s role in holding those in power accountable.
“The main job of the newspaper is to be a watchdog, not to be anybody’s puppy dog or tuta,” Apostol said.
(The main job of the newspaper is to be a watchdog, not to be anybody’s puppy dog.)
Apostol credited her UST education with helping shape her career as a journalist.
“You can see the evidence of how UST can train a journalist, and my training came from it,” she told the Varsitarian in 2004.
