NDB Ed Elected NPC President; Vows to Keep Media Vigilance

Negros Daily Bulletin (NDB) editor, Arman P. Toga, outgoing club director and treasurer who was also former vice president, posted an overwhelming victory last Saturday over his opponent for the presidency of the club, during its general assembly and annual election of officers for 2012-13 at the NPC Media Center in Bacolod City.

Arman Toga, eldest son of two-time former NPC president Pert Toga, bested Aladdin Salas, a local broadcaster, with a landslide win of 70 votes, out of the total 75 or so votes cast.
The NPC committee on elections, composed of former club presidents Atty. Rex Remitio, Modesto Saonoy, Edmund Aspero, Rolly Espina and Ed dela Fuente, proclaimed the winners, namely, Toga, president; Edgar Lucasan of Station DYRL, vice president; Clarence Locsin of Station DYWB-Bombo Radyo, secretary; Aquilino “Boy” Ciocon of Station DYRL, treasurer; and Chrysee Samillano of Visayan Daily Star, auditor. Ms. Samillano, Mr. Ciocon and Mr. Locsin were unopposed.

Elected new members of the board were Henceboy Cestina RPN-Radyo Ronda; Ranie Azue (Panay News) Adriano Nemes III (VDS), Merlinda Pedrosa and Butch Bacaoco, both of Sun Star Bacolod.

Outgoing president, Elmer John Ubaldo, automatically becomes ex-oficio member of the board of directors.

BACKGROUNDER. The incoming NPC president, 48-year-old Arman Toga, was a club MassCom scholar at USLS Bacolod during his college days. He started working as news reporter in some Bacolod and Iloilo-based community news-papers, including the Visayan Daily Star, Negros Daily Bulletin, Sun-Star Bacolod, Western Visayas Times and Yuhum Publications which circu-lated in Bacolod and Iloilo cities, and some areas in Western Visayas.

At one time, he was elected trustee for the Visayas of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI). He also served as Philippines News Agency (PNA) corres-pondent based in Iloilo, with coverage area reaching to the other provinces of Panay Island, under the leadership of his father, who at the time (1980-87) was regional bureau chief of the news agency covering Panay Island.

While in Bacolod City, Arman was elected a number of times as vice president, secretary and director treasurer in previous years until his election to the highest position as club president last Saturday.

According to club records, he is the third of the NPC’s second generation journalists whose fathers have also been elected earlier club presidents during their time.

The first father-and-son NPC members who eventually became club presidents were - the late Bacolod City Mayor Vicente T. Remitio who, before joining local politics, was elected NPC president, having been publisher of the post-war publication, The Bacolod Monitor. His lawyer-son Atty. Rinaldo “Rex” Remitio, also became NPC president later in his career as a distinguished lawyer-writer and colum-nist.

Following them later were journalist-historian Modesto P. Saonoy, whose stint as NPC president for two terms, marked the establishment of the Negros Press Club building on its present location on San Juan Street, Bacolod City, facing the public plaza. His only son, Aufred Paul Saonoy, a magazine and newspaper publisher like his father, also became NPC president to continue the legacies and good deeds of his father in the press club.

Third on the list is two-time NPC President Pert Toga whose first term marked the establishment of the NPC-Aurelio Locsin Memorial Foundation, Inc. which sponsored the series of 4-year scholarships on journalism and mass communications, consisting of study grants for deserving children of working journalists enrolled at the time in Silliman University, Dumaguete City, and later, those taking up Mass Communications at University of St. La Salle (USLS) and University of Negros Occidental-Reco-letos (UNO-R) in Bacolod City. The scholarship grants winded up years later when funds ran out but some 100 scholars have successfully completed their college education, most of them gainfully-employed here and abroad. Most prominent among the grantees is veteran movie actor Joel Torre, who graduated from Mass Communications at USLS-Bacolod, as an NPC scholar.

On his second term as president, Pert Toga during his induction night, received a pledge for the first substantial fund donation to the club, consisting of half a million pesos for the NPC from induction guest speaker, the late Senator Blas F. Ople.
The fund, although it was released only years later, were all allocated to the much-needed repairs for the existing NPC building as earlier intended.

Following in his footsteps, Arman Toga also became president and will now start serving the club on March 1, 2012, looking forward to a year of service to the club and its members, vowing to strengthen fellowship and media vigilance at all times.

As Pert’s eldest son, he is expected to follow the family tradition in the NPC that whatever good the elders have started, the children will follow to uphold the good deeds of their parents. It is expected that with his devotion to journalism and community service through the print media, Arman will keep it up for the best interest of his family and his media colleagues. His convincing win last Saturday, has become a glaring proof that in many instances, the writer’s blood runs deep in the heart and mind of talented youngsters, notably the younger sons of veteran journalists and past NPC presidents, considered among the stalwarts of the local media industry and its practitioners.

By the way, among the NPC past presidents who attended last Saturday’s general assembly and annual elections were Ruperto G. Toga, Rolando L. Espina, William Henry O. Streegan, Dolly S. Yasa, Elsie E. Jolingan, Eddie dela Fuente, Rinaldo G. Remitio, Cyrus M. Garde, Amado Villacarlos, Edgar A. Cadagat, Edmund “King” Aspero, Modesto P. Saonoy, Emerson “Bing” Trecho, Rhey Siason, Angelino “Jun” Julita and immediate past president Elmer John Ubaldo.

Three other past presidents who are now foreign-based who failed to come home for the NPC affair were Daniel S. Cajurao in Canada, Eddy La. Gonzales in New York and David C. Delfin, in Las Vegas, Nevada.Cajurao and Gonzales are both NDB writers-columnists for many years.*