Obituaries

Yuyitung, 84
RIZAL YUYITUNG, esteemed editor of the Chinese Commercial News, died on April 19 after a five-year battle with cancer. He was 84.
The oldest existing Chinese newspaper in the Philippines, Chinese Commercial News was founded by Yuyitung’s father, Yu Yi Tung, in 1919. It started out as a monthly and became a daily in 1922.
Born in Tondo, Manila and named after the country’s national hero, Rizal Yuyitung was well remembered for being ahead of his time. Together with his brother Quintin, they were harassed by both the Macapagal and Marcos administrations for their alleged pro-communist views.
They were deported to Taiwan in 1970, released after three years and went into exile in Canada. With the downfall of Marcos in 1986, Rizal and his brother returned to the Philippines and resumed publication of the Chinese Commercial News on June 12 of that year.

Tiangco, 68
RENATO BERNARDO Tiangco, publisher-editor-manager of the weekly Batangan, died on May 10 of suspected myocardial infraction in Batangas City. He was 68.
Tiangco was senior editor of the Philippines Herald when it was closed down by martial law in 1972.
He believed it was a good idea “to sensationalize the good news without sweeping the dirt under the rug.” With that, he joined the government in 1972 and organized the state-run Philippine News Agency   with Herald colleague Jose Pavia.
From 1979 to 1985, he worked as a senior editor for newspapers in Hong Kong and Singapore such as the Hong Kong Standard, the South China Morning Post, Petromin Asia, and the Singapore Monitor.
Tiangco put up the Batangan in 1990 after being inspired by the success of the weekly news magazine Veritas, where he was a columnist and editorial committee member.

Halberstam, 73
PULITZER PRIZE-winning author and journalist David Halberstam died in a car crash last April 23. He was 73.
After graduating from Harvard University, Halberstam started his career as a journalist in the Daily Times Leader in 1955 in Mississippi.
At the age of 30, he won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the Vietnam War for The New York Times. While on his journalism career, Halberstam was also gathering materials for the book that he was writing, The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam during the Kennedy Era.
Halberstam’s 2002 best-seller, War in a Time of Peace, also became a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction. Shortly before his death, he finished writing yet another book, titled “The Coldest Winter,” which will be released this year.

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