Conrado de Quiros, 72
LONGTIME PHILIPPINE Daily Inquirer columnist Conrado de Quiros passed away on November 6, his brother Paul de Quiros announced in a Facebook post late on Monday. He was 72.
“He will be greatly missed by our family and friends… Rock on in heaven, Choy,” Paul said.
The columnist was born on May 27, 1951, in Manila, though he traces his routes to Naga City in Camarines Sur. He started his column “There’s the Rub” in November 1987 in the now-defunct Philippine Daily Globe. He brought the column over to the Philippine Daily Inquirer in July 1991. His daily column, which the paper published until he went on medical leave in 2014, is known for its biting wit.
In one column and after the state of the nation address of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, he filled the space with “Hello Garci…” as the “true state of the nation.” In another one, titled “List of the things the country may look forward to under President Fernando Poe Jr. and Vice President Noli de Castro,” he left the entire space blank.
These were remembered by writers and journalists, posting pictures of the said columns, with some saying that the de Quiros column was why they started reading the Inquirer in the first place. Journalists Mike Navallo and Jaemark Tordecilla said in their X accounts that they grew up reading de Quiros.
Human rights advocates Ruben Carranza and Robert Francis Garcia also went on Facebook to express their admiration. “Conrad was the influencer who deepened the thinking of everyone who read him, long before most influencers emerged and made influencing shallow,” Carranza wrote in a post. Garcia said “a generation grew up on Conrado de Quiros.”
De Quiros also published collections of his essays, such as “Flowers from the Rubble: Essays on Life, Death and Remembering” (1990), “Dance of the Dunces” (1991), and “Tongues on Fire” (2007). His book, “Dead Aim: How Marcos Ambushed Philippine Democracy,” was published in 1997, He also dabbled in television, hosting TV5’s news program TEN: The Evening News.