While Bibsy was midwife to my career, and Joe Luna inspired me to take baby steps, it was Vergel Santos who helped me mature. Vergel is the iconoclast, take-no-prisoners word-mon- ger who would, if he could, singlehandedly zap out mediocrity in the profession. As he let one foot rest on the typewriter, later computer, table, while he lectured away on writing and the story, he made Don Quixote seem lethargic. Such was his conviction and passion for his craft and the profession. He taught me how to distinguish craft from crap. Never overwrite—that was the mantra. Weed out the affectations and pretensions. “If it’s needless to say, why say it?” he’d strike out that phrase from my copy. I cemented my career as a lifestyle editor when the late Eugenio “Geny” Lopez Jr. came into my life. From him I learned how to manage an organization. He made me understand that writing—like layouting—must be an exercise in clarity, order and logic. Yes, he said, a good layout was one that followed logic, so that the reader’s eye and the mind didn’t clash. Vergel warned us about—no, steered us away from—clutter long before the print and online world could suffer from it. To him, good was and still is never good enough. He didn’t compromise his standards or ethics or independence—be it writing style or press freedom. As editor of People’s Journal , which he built from scratch to become the biggest circulating
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