There is never a day in my life when I do not pray to thank the Lord for all his blessings on me and my family here and in the Philippines.
As Editor and Publisher of Balita, I was lucky to be associated with people that are knowledgeable, experienced and very generous in sharing their newspapering expertise, for which I am grateful as it makes my job much easier.
From the Almighty, in addition to the usual personal supplications, and so that I may be made worthy and judicious in dealing with the task at hand, I continually pray for his enlightenment and guidance. Press work is tough enough, not to mention the delicate balancing act between our duty to report and the controversies that we provoke, that yes I must implore and entrust my judgments to the Lord.
My late husband, Ruben Cusipag was premier advocacy journalist for Filipinos in Canada, reporting on the strengths and ills of our community, writing on both kababayan celebrities and shady personalities, without fear or favor.
While the disgraced and dishonored figures became his enemies as expected, Balita earned unprecedented approval ratings and trust levels from Kababayans from here and well beyond our borders that are unmatched up to this day.
Ruben’s brand of provocative and courageous journalism has not waned a bit, Balita was all about that, it still is under his commanding presence and his watchful eye from beyond. Time and time again, we have been educating our community that in Canada responsible freedom of the press is what rules.
Guided by truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality and public accountability it is our sworn duty to investigate events of public concern and inform our readership as best we can. No more, no less.
Our record is something we are immensely proud about, most especially the pioneering work of our investigative journalists. To the dissenters and detractors – we respect your views that is why we give you equal space on our pages.
It’s a constant effort to fine tune and improves our paper, so we keep checking where we could do better. The door is always open if people want to discuss issues with us. We apologize when it is deserved. Our public accountability has remained solid ever since.
Over the years, we have delivered such satisfaction and value to our advertisers that our relationships have become business partnerships. They understand that we progress and succeed together, and in fact, have given us encouragement and their approval. That is how we know we are doing the right thing.
This is Canada, it’s a whole new milieu of journalism that we face. Freedom of the press is not just a byword but a mandate that we have to live by. It is our duty to investigate and inform. If it is wrongdoing, we will expose it and no threats or intimidation can stop us.
Let me be clear on a personal level that I do not derive the least bit of satisfaction in exposing shady characters. The opposite is in fact what happens. As a good Christian, I too agonize about how a person can take advantage over another for personal profit. My heart bleeds when vulnerable victims tell me their stories in confidence.
From where I am tasked with managing a community newspaper, then the perspective varies. I feel the victim’s pain, then I see more people in the community that could be future victims, and I feel a community in pain. I get to view that as public interest that we have to deal with.
Most times, I am just simple, a best friend, a Tita Tess or Ate Tess to everyone, accepting each person as a good neighbor.
It is an awesome responsibility to manage Balita, given the institutional reputations built on it by Ruben over four decades now. Since the early years of the Filipino community here, Balita was there advocating for unity so that our public interest would be advanced and protected.
That role and our passion as not changed, although the players and their antics in bilking on our community have varied. So many social events are done in the name of public causes. In general, we applaud and support them and have been media partners in some. With it we assume there is automatic public accountability, Not only is it expected common sense, it is the common practice for organizations in Ontario, if not the law in Canada
Proper accounting is the only way to ensure that the funds go to where they were intended and not end up for another purpose and someone’s bread and butter.
Let’s hope that our community prosper. As always, Balita will be your partner in that progress. We are just a phone call, email away if there is anything we can help you with. Together in love and caring let us move our community forward and forget the crooks, the thieves, the grandstanders. Somehow Karma is bound to get them. You will see.****
Padayon Tess!