We mark and mourn the death of an esteemed colleague, and a brother in
the lonely profession of filling out this leftmost side of the opinion
page. Generoso "Gerry" Gil was the associate and opinion editor of the
Manila
Standard as well as its chief editorial writer, and he was 53 when
he died on Wednesday. Each newspaper has its attitudes and moods, nowhere
seen more clearly than in its editorial section. Even by varying the length
of editorial pieces, a paper can alternately sound ponderous or puckish,
scholarly or nettlesome. The Standard employs an editorial format
that requires a certain spread of mind, a certain consistency of temper,
and Gerry Gil's breadth of interests and love of language proved perfect
for the job.
Nothing was too high or too low for Gil's cerebration, and he -
never one to flash his Stanford Ph.D - could put a showier
academic to shame with the old journalist’s stock in trade of patient research
and careful reading, as well as the editorialist's self-deprecating wryness.
We learned much from him, and he and his work will be sorely missed.
Jomar Kho Indanan
Opinion Today
Saturday, July 29, 1995
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