Gerry Gil Writings

About Gerry Gil By Jimmy S. Ong 1996 + + + Generoso (Gerry) Gil, Jr. (1942-1995) was, at one time or another, a seminarian, a campus pamphleteer, doctoral fellow, population researcher, psychology professor, and journalist. He was associate editor and opinion editor of the Manila Standard from 1989 till his death- in 1995. He was also treasurer of the Philippine Press Institute and taught at the Ateneo de Manila University, the University of the Philippines, and the Asian Institute of Journalism. But what Gerry did most, and best, was opinion writing. Over a span of 25 years, he wrote (among other things, including scholarly articles and office memoranda) editorials, columns, features, and letters to the editor. He was a columnist at the Philippines Herald and Manila Standard, and wrote the vast majority of the Standard's editorials from 1989 to 1995. He was inclined to be self-deprecating about opinion writing, admitting that an editorial writer is generally regarded as a wordsmith . . who writes elegantly enough to package what his owners and editors want him to say . . the moral inferior of the columnist, who, at least in theory, is writing out of his own convictions." He poked fun too at his column writing: "I've been called everything from a great columnist to a little boy with a slingshot." For all his modesty, his colleagues acknowledged his writing to be outstanding for its rigorous research, clarity, balance, and incisiveness. This book is an anthology of Gerry's best pieces from 1971 to 1995, selected for the aforementioned qualities, as well as for their erudition, compassion, humor, and wit. + + + + A Short Life & Some Notes By Danny Gil, 2014 + + + Gerry Gil died July 26, 1995 after entering to the hospital earlier that day. He had had "walking pneumonia" and hadn't heeded the tell-tale symptoms for a couple weeks before that, preferring to keep downing analgesics during his busy schedule. The complications from the broken collar bone he sustained (when the taxi he was riding overturned a few weeks earlier) may have masked the problem. The x-ray plate of that accident had been misplaced and when read much later showed advanced bi-basal pneumonia. Obituary tributes by colleagues and friends in the media can be read at the end of this book.+ + + Notes + + + This archive is Gerry Gil's Writings taken from Magazines and News-papers where he worked as Reporter, Writer and Editor, from 1972 to 1994. It has been many years since the untimely demise of Gerry Gil. He started anonymously writing letters early in his career to the editor, mostly prior to unforgettable Edsa Revolution that toppled strongman Marcos of the Philipines and the chaotic months that followed. This period of letter writing preceeded his return to journalism, and taken together, can be viewed as Gerry's great contribution to Philippine editorial writing: how his journalistic forays and joustings in the political arena via the editorial page unmasked the absurdities and banalities of the politics and powers-that-be of that period, in a uniquely humorous and irreverent manner unmatched by any other writer. And Gerry was the creator of form when history, humor and journalism intersected. It is hoped that this book will amply serve the students of recent Philippine political history, editorial and communication writers, and humor-mongers like most of us. The 1997 book, Wordsmith With A Slingshot, The Gerry Gil Book, was published after his death by our Family Foundation. That book won the National Award for Journalism. This 2014 book, Gerry Gil Writngs (Editorials and Articles) includes majority of the contents of that 1997 book. Reprinting the original book is not viable so we reprinted under Print-On-Demand new system of publishing, with the help of Tatay Jobo Elizes, a self-publisher. We have included also other unpublished essays of Gerry