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ON Sunday, May 4, the National Press Club (NPC) will hold its
regular election to choose a new set of officers, from president
down to directors. As a lifetime NPC member (earned for having spent
more than 20 years of active journalism), I will make a trip on that
day to the NPC building on Magallanes Drive in Manila to vote.
The atmosphere at the NPC grounds promises to be
festive but rowdy and garish as candidates jockey for the chance to
buttonhole members to woo their votes.
An NPC election is a microcosm of a national
political campaign in terms of vote-getting gimmickry and strategy.
Colorful streamers and posters, proclaiming the names of candidates,
dominate the scene. In exchange for their vote, members are given
free food and drinks.
If they are delinquent in their membership dues,
well-heeled candidates settle them to allow them to vote in their
favor.
The last time I voted about two years ago, I was
drawn out of my way to the third floor of the NPC building, where I
was supposed to cast my vote, to a polling booth at the ground
premises where I cast my ballot.
It turned out that there were two voting
centers—one upstairs and the other downstairs—representing the
camps of the two rival parties.
My interest in voting is my hope to see some
reforms in the management of the club. I have just one vote but I
thought it could help effect change in what is perceived to be the
NPC’s deteriorating image arising from the reported corruption of
its moral values and the desecration of its ideals.
I have been reading the columns of Inquirer
columnist Neal Cruz about the club and am appalled at how fast the
NPC has tobogganed in prestige since its great beginning in the
1950s, when the celebrated columnist Teodoro Valencia was its first
president.
Those were the days when the NPC was always
filled with members to enjoy its food and drinks following a hard
day’s grind in their beats and media offices. When the August 1968
earthquake shook the building, breaking its glass walls and windows
at about 4 a.m. of that fateful day, many of the club’s habitués
were caught still imbibing their drinks and enjoying some indoor
games at its social hall.
There used to be a weekly Celebrity Night,
featuring top showbiz personalities that never failed to draw
members and their families. The NPC’s gridiron shows, with the
president as guest, were superb.
Today, the club looks forlorn and lifeless. The
good food and the fine music during entertainment nights are gone.
Members have dropped the NPC as their favorite watering hole, having
found more exciting nightspots to spend their idle time.
There is hope, though, in restoring the NPC back
to its pristine glory. We find candidates in Sunday’s election who
possess not only the required moral and judgmental credentials but
also the vision and the will to attain their cherished goal.
There are two rival tickets vying for
victory—one headed by Roman Floresca as presidential standard
bearer, and the other by Benny Antiporda. Floresca is the assistant
business editor of Philippine Star while Antiporda is from a
tabloid.
Floresca holds the distinct honor of being the
candidate of the Samahang Plaridel, a respected organization of
active and retired members of media who are committed to the
perpetuation of Marcelo H. del Pilar’s memory and concerned over
the return of the press club’s good reputation.
Many supporters of Floresca see him as the
personal symbol of honor, moral responsibility and decency who could
wield a cleansing influence on the club’s leadership and
management during his term.
Floresca told me in a casual interview the other
day that if elected with his ticket, he will spearhead new reforms
in the NPC and look into the controversial sale of the NPC mural, a
masterpiece of national artist Vicente Manansala, for P10 million to
a private party allegedly by the outgoing set of NPC officers.
It is claimed that the mural is owned by the
GSIS by virtue of the foreclosure of the NPC building (together with
its properties, including the mural) by the city government of
Manila and its sale to the GSIS. (The outgoing NPC officers defended
the sale as regular with the approval of the club’s membership.)
Given Floresca’s meritorious cause, he
deserves to win his presidential bid with the full support of NPC
members . Here’s his call that is worth pondering on:
“It is about time that all good men and women
of the working media did something to save the NPC from further
ruin. There is no room for fence-sitters at this period in the
NPC’s existence, no reason for procrastinating and looking the
other way. This may be the last chance, nay the only chance, which
we may have to regain the club’s old glory, to restore the
respectability that it deserves, and bring it to newer heights and
greater repute.”
agro324@yahoo.com
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