goodby manong max

In my lifetime, there is only one Filipino that I admire most and he was no other than the prolific Max Soliven.

Since 1986, it has been my morning habit to pick up a Philippine Star newspaper - my choice of paper - to get the latest news of the day. But instead of reading the headline, I would dig in into the Opinion section for my favorite column "By the Way" of Max Soliven. And when the online version became available, reading his column was never been easy. From that time on, I never stop reading his works.

Reading the column was much better than the headlines because it was informative and the column was laden with "inside" information, comparative analysis, and most of the time "right-from-the-horse-mouth" info. Max offers a wide perspective of what's happening to his beloved Philippines and would oftentimes give realistic advice to our narrow minded politicians. He was never afraid to voice out his opinion to anyone including our Philippine President, and he even write kilometric column about political leaders of the world. You could easily sense his authority and knowledge of what he was writing, having been in the industry for over half a century and having had first hand experience and of the situation. Max was the icon of Philippine journalism.

Just like my regular day, I surf the net and open up the Philippine Star website and immediately browse the column written by Max. He wrote about the rising Japan and its move to amend its constitution. It was an open ended column, as usual, and I was expecting that by Saturday he would give a more detailed update. But I was wrong, there will never be no update to come. Max, my favorite writer pass away at 11:45am today.

To manong Max, the great saloyot, I will miss you very very much. Enjoy in the presence of our Maker.