A call for sustainability

On its 123rd anniversary, Manila Bulletin looks to the future

2023-02-05 - BY AA PATAWARAN

In celebrating Manila Bulletin’s 123rd anniversary, an immense leap since it first saw the light of print on Feb. 2, 1900, we realized that, more than a lookback, what we must focus on was a future made possible by endurance, persistence, responsibility, and staying power.

This year’s celebration is of particular importance, as it marks the return of life as we knew it before a series of events turned it upside down, first with the eruption of Taal Volcano in early 2020 and then the two-yearlong pandemic lockdowns, which followed shortly.

“Three years ago, in January 2020, we announced that we would postpone our 120th-anniversary celebration in deference to the calamity brought on by the violent eruption of Taal Volcano,” recounted Dr. Emil C. Yap III, Manila Bulletin president, in his welcome address at the 123rd anniversary celebration held at the Fiesta Pavilion of the Manila Hotel.

“Like all of you, we had no inkling of what was coming: the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

And yet, these catastrophic life changes are only two of many that the Manila Bulletin has survived in its 123 years of history, which included the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919, the two World Wars, the Cold War, and the rise of terrorism.

It was in this context that the Manila Bulletin decided to anchor the theme of celebrating such an important milestone on a hallmark of lastingness—sustainability, defined by the United Nations in 1987 as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Indeed, more than a celebration, which drew in crowds from many sectors of society, from government to big business, the diplomatic row, and the

One of important lessons all learned is that we need to stand together in —Dr. E il C. Yap III

non-government organizations, it was a coming together.

Among those who graced the event were the First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos, who joined the toast for the collective pledge to a more sustainable way of doing things with Manila Bulletin chairman Basilio C. Yap and members of its board of directors Benjamin Yap, Anthony Joseph Gaw, former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, former Secretary Alberto Romulo, and lawyer Juan de Zuñiga Jr., and Manila Bulletin publisher Sonny Coloma and editor in chief Loreto Cabañes.

Also present were Senators Cynthia Villar, Francis Tolentino, and Loren Legarda, Bulacan Rep. Salvador Pleyto, Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza, OFW party list Rep. Marissa Magsino, former House Speaker Jose de Venecia, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo, along with cabinet secretaries Alfredo Pascual of Trade and Industries, Amenah Pangandaman of Budget and Management, and Christina Garcia Frasco of Tourism.

Indeed, with climate change and diminishing vital resources confronting us today, our future is at stake and it is up to each one of us to save it. “One of the important lessons we all learned is that we need to stand together in times of crisis,” said Dr. Yap of the challenges of the last three years. And the task at hand compels us to level up from nationbuilding, though it remains a key task for every citizen of our country.

The other, more important task now, as highlighted by the theme of this 123rd anniversary celebration, is sustainability, now so essential an approach in our pursuit of development goals as a nation as well as a member of the global community. The task now does not end at nationbuilding, the task now includes making sure we can keep going onward and upward to what Dr. Yap described as a “more stable and robust future” for all.