Gerry Gil's Creations
It has been 5 years
since
the untimely demise of Gerry Gil; 16 years since he started anonymously
writing letters to the editor; and 13 years since he wrote the last
known
letter included herein, having thus created within that 3 year period
as
many as 40 personalities from over 350 letters, all during the
interesting
time frame starting 2 years before the revolution that toppled
strongman
Marcos of the Philippines 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
website
will amply serve the students of recent Philippine political history,
editorial
and communication writers, and humor-mongers like most of us.
Herein are majority of his
letters, scanned and retyped from the trove of hard-copy files found
after
his death, or from his computer disk files. They are presented in
various groupings: a selected
list
of letters with common topics, the chronological
a list of all the letters, a list of all the persons
mentioned in the letters, and a roster of the letter
writers themselves.
Author Jimmy Ong, in the
1997 book of Gerry's writings,
Wordsmith
With A Slingshot expounds on Gerry's letters to
the
editor in his Introduction.
The book won the National Award
for Journalism A few samples
from the book are presented. Other
writings and obits are
also
included in this website.
GERRY
GIL
Website launched 8/20/2000. Latest update 1/16/2016
If you have comments or suggestions, email Danny Gil ferngil@aol.com