16 August 2005
FEATURE: The Star, Through the Years
AUGUST 17, 1985.
IT actually started out on that date as the Pioneer Herald, the product of a journalistic “itch” of the late colorful newsman Herminio A. Manantan teaming up with the late Dominador P. Navarro, former editor of The Weekly Reporter, the first offset-printed newspaper in Pangasinan in the 70s. The duo contracted then banker-printer Delfin Tandoc for the printing of a forgettable number of copies at the latter’s Mayombo printing press. When Manantan died, Navarro and Tandoc took in Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr., who in turn scouted for a financier and found it in his former University of Pangasinan pal and newly-passed lawyer Rodrigo V. Coquia. The editorial office was located, on Coquia’s voluntary offer, at the lawyer-trader’s feeds supply store along Burgos St., this city..By this time, the newspaper had been renamed The Pangasinan Examine with Tandoc still the printer.
The partnership was short-lived though and Coquia, after a few issues of the newspaper, went out.
Left with nothing but their editorial zeal and a few pesos for printing payment, Navarro and Hortaleza accepted Tandoc’s proffer to be part of the newspaper. Years of smooth operation followed until a parting of ways ensued between Tandoc on one hand, and Navarro and Hortaleza, on the other after the former took in more and more staff members whose idea of newspapering did not exactly jibe with Navarro and Hortaleza’s own. Hortaleza was first to leave when the situation became really uncomfortable for him; Navarro stayed on for a few months more only to decide to quit the “team” too.
The two struck out on their own carrying their Pangasinan Examiner banner even as Tandoc insisted on using the same masthead, By that time, the late writer Armando R. Ravanzo, advertising lady Evangeline S. Estrada and budding reporter-columnist Danny O. Sagun had joined the Navarro-Hortaleza group, boosting both its editorial and business wheels.
A messy court battle followed that led all the way to the Court of Appeals where the wise magistrates, recognizing that the name Examiner was “generic,” ruled that Navarro and Hortaleza’s paper can retain use of the brand name “Pangasinan” and Tandoc’s, the name “Regional”, complete with distinct color code for each: green masthead for the first and blue for the latter.
Thus did the Pangasinan Examiner and Regional Examiner came into peaceful co-existence.
The emergence of more newspapers in the province and region using the generic name “Examiner” prompted an editorial reexamination of options, considering that a number of these “Examiners” were giving journalism a bad name. After a careful weighing of the pros and cons, the Pangasinan Examiner was rechristened The Pangasinan Star by Hortaleza, then already wielding much of the blue pencil job in the paper as Navarro became too busy as general manager of the Lingayen Water District, managing to submit only an occasional column when the inspiration hits him. The paper’s new name was registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and re-entered as such at the Postal Office on May, 1992.
Thus began the saga of The Pangasinan Star, getting the right mix of editorial and advertising people on a trial-and- error basis until it achieved a steady keel by 2000, or a little after that year.
TODAY, AUGUST 17, 2005, minus the cheerful company of Navarro who has written 30 and had joined other newspaper buddies like Armando Ravanzo in the Great Beyond, the Pangasinan Star runs a weekly regular course with both old hands like Hortaleza, Estrada and Sagun, old but new hire Gabriel “Ging” Cardinoza, and newbloods like Venus May H. Sarmiento, Sheila H. Aquino, Christopher “Butch” Uka, Ilet Breguera, Esther H. Rivera, Miriam R. Abulencia, Raul M. Hortaleza, Roland Naoe, Jerald Chuson and Rod Saingan pooling talents and resources together to keep the Star shining.
Twenty long years of independent publishing, beholden to no political figure, owing allegiance to no civic or business entity and existing purely on its own creative juices and business acumen, The Pangasinan Star will probably celebrate its Golden Anniversary yet.
After all, come to think of it, that’s just some 30 short years away. Peanuts!
IT actually started out on that date as the Pioneer Herald, the product of a journalistic “itch” of the late colorful newsman Herminio A. Manantan teaming up with the late Dominador P. Navarro, former editor of The Weekly Reporter, the first offset-printed newspaper in Pangasinan in the 70s. The duo contracted then banker-printer Delfin Tandoc for the printing of a forgettable number of copies at the latter’s Mayombo printing press. When Manantan died, Navarro and Tandoc took in Behn Fer. Hortaleza, Jr., who in turn scouted for a financier and found it in his former University of Pangasinan pal and newly-passed lawyer Rodrigo V. Coquia. The editorial office was located, on Coquia’s voluntary offer, at the lawyer-trader’s feeds supply store along Burgos St., this city..By this time, the newspaper had been renamed The Pangasinan Examine with Tandoc still the printer.
The partnership was short-lived though and Coquia, after a few issues of the newspaper, went out.
Left with nothing but their editorial zeal and a few pesos for printing payment, Navarro and Hortaleza accepted Tandoc’s proffer to be part of the newspaper. Years of smooth operation followed until a parting of ways ensued between Tandoc on one hand, and Navarro and Hortaleza, on the other after the former took in more and more staff members whose idea of newspapering did not exactly jibe with Navarro and Hortaleza’s own. Hortaleza was first to leave when the situation became really uncomfortable for him; Navarro stayed on for a few months more only to decide to quit the “team” too.
The two struck out on their own carrying their Pangasinan Examiner banner even as Tandoc insisted on using the same masthead, By that time, the late writer Armando R. Ravanzo, advertising lady Evangeline S. Estrada and budding reporter-columnist Danny O. Sagun had joined the Navarro-Hortaleza group, boosting both its editorial and business wheels.
A messy court battle followed that led all the way to the Court of Appeals where the wise magistrates, recognizing that the name Examiner was “generic,” ruled that Navarro and Hortaleza’s paper can retain use of the brand name “Pangasinan” and Tandoc’s, the name “Regional”, complete with distinct color code for each: green masthead for the first and blue for the latter.
Thus did the Pangasinan Examiner and Regional Examiner came into peaceful co-existence.
The emergence of more newspapers in the province and region using the generic name “Examiner” prompted an editorial reexamination of options, considering that a number of these “Examiners” were giving journalism a bad name. After a careful weighing of the pros and cons, the Pangasinan Examiner was rechristened The Pangasinan Star by Hortaleza, then already wielding much of the blue pencil job in the paper as Navarro became too busy as general manager of the Lingayen Water District, managing to submit only an occasional column when the inspiration hits him. The paper’s new name was registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and re-entered as such at the Postal Office on May, 1992.
Thus began the saga of The Pangasinan Star, getting the right mix of editorial and advertising people on a trial-and- error basis until it achieved a steady keel by 2000, or a little after that year.
TODAY, AUGUST 17, 2005, minus the cheerful company of Navarro who has written 30 and had joined other newspaper buddies like Armando Ravanzo in the Great Beyond, the Pangasinan Star runs a weekly regular course with both old hands like Hortaleza, Estrada and Sagun, old but new hire Gabriel “Ging” Cardinoza, and newbloods like Venus May H. Sarmiento, Sheila H. Aquino, Christopher “Butch” Uka, Ilet Breguera, Esther H. Rivera, Miriam R. Abulencia, Raul M. Hortaleza, Roland Naoe, Jerald Chuson and Rod Saingan pooling talents and resources together to keep the Star shining.
Twenty long years of independent publishing, beholden to no political figure, owing allegiance to no civic or business entity and existing purely on its own creative juices and business acumen, The Pangasinan Star will probably celebrate its Golden Anniversary yet.
After all, come to think of it, that’s just some 30 short years away. Peanuts!
