Negros Press Club

Rommel Ynion, president of the Iloilo Press Club urges his media colleagues Bacolod City to be responsible and fair, but spare no one who is corrupt, grafter and who oppress the law-abiding and just. He was guest speaker last night during the induction program of the Council of Pass Presidents of the Negros Press Club (CPP-NPC) at Business Inn.*(NDB photo by Henry James Toga)

Businessman Rommel S. Ynion, a no-nonsense Ilonggo native who rose from the ranks of the media industry, yesterday recalled his humble beginnings to defy the odds that prompted him to build a network of newspapers and magazines right in the region of his birth.

Despite the media power that apparently belongs to him through dent of hard work and vision in his craft, Ynion appealed to his Bacolod and Negros Occ. colleagues to utilize these media powers with extreme care and discretion by being responsible in unleasing such prerogatives through straight-forward and dependable medium of information. He said a courageous and crusading media should never compromise with graft and corruption, for such mission is a priority target of uncompromising media entities.

Ynion’s inspiring story, in his own words, was a product of hard work, a positive outlook in life and lots of sacrifice. He was born in Iloilo but also spent many years in Bacolod City where he studied in a local university and where he had among his classmates, Bacoleños and Negrenses, among them Alfredo Marañon III, son of Gov. Freddie G. Marañon, and Dr. Anthony Rolando Golez, Bacolod City lone district congressman.

CPP-NPC Vice Chairman Pert G. Toga delivers Welcome-Opening Remarks at Business Inn Hotel last night.*(NDB photo)

Although a college dropout, Ynion was a self-confessed bookworm, making a career of reading and writing. One day, he walked into the office of a newspaper in Intramuros and applied for a job, saying he always wanted to be a journalist.

A lady in the paper’s HR department refused to accept his application as he lacked a college diploma. So he went to the Editor-in-Chief and told him of his dream to become a journalist one day. He was willing to work as a janitor even without pay as long as it was inside a newspaper office. He was hired as proofreader of the obituary section.

A hostile witness in the killing of the late daughter of mediamen Loreto Lapuos, Erol Alota, was purposely released by Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), for still undisclosed reasons, his wife Genevie Alota said, in a handwritten statement furnished by the late victim’s father yesterday in an interview with several journalists at the Negros Press Club (NPC) office.

The late victim, Lorena Lapuos Ablang, was going home late in the evening near Heaven’s Gate, a funeral parlor in Talisay City, when Danilo Aimores, Edmund Pacina and the third companion who later agreed to be a hostile witness, announced a holdup and told the victim to hand over her bag. She, however, panicked and while the tricycle she was riding in was speeding very fast, she jumped intending to escape from her tormentors. Her head hit a rock in the ground and Lapuos died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Hinobaan town Mayor Ma. Teresa Bilbao, and those who allegedly caused the closure of Radyo Natin-Hinobaan, an affiliate of the Manila Broadcasting Company (MBC), has tagged them as "modern-day oppressors of the Fourth Estate," in a statement which accompanied a press conference called by franchise owner, Segundino Taladico, yesterday at the Negros Press Club (NPC) building.

Radio Natin _ Hinoba-an owner/manager Segundino Taladico told members of the media that the closure of their station is a form of press freedom repression.* (Owen S. Bayog/NDB photo)　

Taladico and Radyo Natin anchorman, Vicente Paolo Pampliega, presided over the press conference yesterday.

Negros Occidental Gov. Al-fredo Marañon, Jr. reiterated his advocacy for a platform-based political campaigning as he called on his rivals and party-mates alike to stick to issues and facts.

“Verbal assault, black propaganda and championing confusion do not merit a space in a democracy. The Negrense voters are matured enough to make responsible choices,” Atty. Jose Ma. Valencia, Marañon’s spokesman and concurrent chief of staff, yesterday said, echoing the governor’s desire to bring the political exercise to a higher level.

With the 45-day campaign period for local positions taking off at the end of March 2013, Valencia said Mara-ñon’s campaign tact is to only highlight his accomplishments against half-truths and answer all issues and even non-issues versus “outright lies currently being peddled” by the spokespeople from the camp of his rival, Vice Gov. Genaro Alvarez.

Valencia also called as foul the statement of SP Member Patrick Lacson, who referred to Capitol employees as “baits” of the Capitol chief executive.

Lacson said the 2,335 Capitol employees are “baits” of the governor in the midst of debates to get the 2013 budget passed by the Sanggunian. He told the employees to stop from being used as “baits” for many weeks now, while the SP continues to delay the passage of the budget.