Remembering Luis
This eulogy was shared by CMFR Executive Director Melinda Quintos De Jesus as she remembered CMFR Trustee Luis V. Teodoro (LVT) on March 16, 2023, at the memorial program organized by AlterMidya Network for media members and journalists who had worked with or were mentored by LVT.
EVERYONE HAS expressed shock over Luis’ death as indeed it came so suddenly. Everyone knows how careful he was about his diet; how religiously he walked in the early morning; how he lived his life on clear cycles of work and rest – welcoming the occasions to see long-time friends, both young and old. He was faithful to the text of lessons on longevity. And so we all thought he would still be around, someone to share the blessings of life post-pandemic.
We at the Center for Media & Responsibility (CMFR) with whom he met on Zoom and F2F in recent weeks were not spared the painful suddenness of his departure. In this interim, he was most loquacious, quick to express his opinion, more fully transmitting the simmering outrage over the state of national affairs, including the plight of the media.
At our age, death becomes a constant notion in both mind and heart and the pandemic had driven its ever constant threat even closer to home. His dying was not how I thought we would part ways. I guess I presumed we would find a younger team to take over the work in CMFR, and hoped for a rite of farewell and a long-ish goodbye.
Tonight I am here to recall how Luis Teodoro joined the work of CMFR, which was launched at the end of 1989 with programs running in 1990. Another formidable gray eminence at the State University, Professor Lawyer Perfector Fernandez at the Center of Law, could not believe that Luis and I had never met and said to me “Well, you must. Both of you are going to speak. . . ” at a forum he had organized. And thus began a friendship, the gift that was sparked by an immediate sense of solidarity. We found that we both wanted to do what needed to be done so the Philippine press could serve public interest, so that news would not be just a commodity but a force for citizenship, to empower people to voice their views about policy, participate in public affairs, realize and exercise their sovereignty over the people they elect. The insight borne of the experience after the liberation of the press in 1986: Freedom itself will not lead journalists to do the right thing. CMFR flips the coin of democracy to stress media responsibility.
He had paid his dues with his activism. I did not suffer quite as much, but he knew the work I had done in the alternative press that provided the news absent from the Marcos crony press – news and commentary which galvanized political will to call an end to the dictatorship.
I invited him to be editor of the Philippine Journalism Review, the first and so far, the only sustained media monitoring service in Asia.
In 1995, as I prepared to go on leave for a six-month sabbatical for a fellowship abroad, I asked him to be deputy executive director in my absence and this was a responsibility he readily accepted and continued to do after I returned. He became the sounding board for ideas for the programs, activities to hold, partnerships joined. He opened up our line of resource persons to his colleagues at the UPCMC and other civil society leaders in his circle.
He shared in the tasks of founding the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) and after this was disbanded, for the Freedom for Media Freedom for ALL (FMFA) which was launched to address the threats and attacks on the institution and on the community, under the Duterte administration.
Yesterday, the sharing at the UPCMC gathering described him as “masungit” – as a teacher who truly cares has to be at times, as they shared all the wonderful ways he was the best mentor or Best Friend Forever one could have. Luis possessed this wealth, the many wonderful friends he made for life.
In CMFR, I was the “masungit,” he, the gentle, patient editor who did not cut down the copy of Cheers and Jeers, of In Context or For the Record — to pieces and the writer to tears. He was the senior presence everyone who worked there could turn to for conversation, for bantering, for whatever was needed for the moment.
A friendship made in one’s mid-years is almost always a more comfortable one. Whatever misunderstandings there were could not last at length as the obvious logic re-directed parties toward renewal and a stronger relationship. And that was how it was at CMFR – the goal was greater than any of our differences. Perhaps, there are others too who can point to our success in carving a niche for the notions of responsibility and ethics in the practice of journalism.
His being an academic boosted the credentials of CMFR’s programs, which were transmitted abroad through the regional platforms of member organizations of the Southeast Asian Press Alliance. The work of SEAPA also provided venues of travel which revealed his pleasure from new taste thrills and shopping.
Apart from work, home-based concerns occupied both of us. I turned to the housekeeper in Luis when I needed a trustworthy carpenter or construction team for home repairs. I readily shared cooking tips, and later Lara would share with him suppliers of Vegan delights. Our exchange would refer to appliances breaking down and other odd and trivial matters.
Losing Luis as a friend and colleague puts me on reset. I must now work even harder so that we can do more. As Vergel Santos, our colleague and co-trustee in CMFR had written or shared in his memorial: You do not bury a man like Luis. You take him with you to battle for the cause he lived his life fighting for – truth, freedom, justice.
And this is exactly how you (Luis) will continue to live in CMFR. Our pledge: We will check the powers which now dominate the media message. We will draw the line, we will resist, persist, we will work as best we can for our country, our media, our democracy.
Our deepest condolences, Sybil, Ato, Irene and the brothers of Luis.
Leave a Reply