Amando doronila biography sample

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What are your facts? It was to this newsroom – not just the physical space but its feel and vibes – that I found myself transported back to on 8 July after reading an ex-colleague’s message that our editor-in-chief at the ‘Chronicle’, Amando Doronila, had passed away. 

That newsroom was the setting I most remember Doro in, emerging from his room, tobacco pipe in hand (or sticking out through his teeth), clad in polo shirt with rolled-up sleeves and sauntering over for chat with an editor or another, a reporter or another. 

The ‘Chronicle’ was the only newspaper newsroom I have been part of, and Doro was my first editor-in-chief.

Newspapers critical of Marcos, including the Chronicle were shut down, while Doronila was among several journalists arrested and taken into military custody at the Philippine Constabulary headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.^[4] He was later released in December after being made to promise not to participate in "anti-national activities," resume work without a military permit from the military, give or participate in any interview with local or foreign media, and was required to report periodically to the military.^[1]

In 1975, Doronila went into exile in Australia, where he settled in Melbourne and worked for The Age.^[3] In 1985, he returned to the Philippines to cover the decline and fall of the Marcos regime.^[2]

Later journalistic career

After Marcos’ overthrow in the 1986 People Power Revolution, Doronila resumed his journalistic career in the Philippines.

GMA News. Feeling like a newbie all over again, I sent over a link to show Doro the Southeast Asian news series that I look after.

Amando Doronila Explained

Amando Ermitano Doronila (6 February 1928 – 7 July 2023) was a Filipino journalist, writer and newspaper publisher who covered Philippine politics from the 1960s to the early decades of the 21st century and was imprisoned and exiled by the Martial Law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos.^[1]

Early life and education

Amando Ermitano Doronila was born on 6 February 1928 in Dumangas, Iloilo, to Arsenio Doronila and Marcelina Ermitano.

Named Journalist of Year Manila Rotary Club, 1968, 88, Best Opinion Writer Catholic Mass Media award, 1987, 88, 89. If the information, interviews, research do not support what you had thought you might find or argue for in your story, drop your original plan. (He continued to write about Ataturk, and former Philippine President Manuel Quezon, in the ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer’, where he moved after the disruptive changes at the ‘Chronicle’ that led to its sale and closure later on.) 

Many years later (perhaps in the mid-2000s), I saw him outside the Philippine Air Lines terminal just as I stepped out from the airport arrival hall.

At times, when Booma was not around, I got to take on that role.

More bits and pieces of memory have nudged me in recent weeks. Writing, reporting and analysing are core to the craft, and there is not one journalistic path. (The other editor was Vergel Santos, managing editor of the ‘Chronicle’ when Doro was its chief editor.)

“Parang lagi lang nag-iisip.

4 August 2023.

Web site: Amando Doronila, 95 .

I saw that he had turned 95, meaning that he was about the age of my father, whom I lost not too long ago. He had contracted a respiratory syncytial virus, a complication of pneumonia, after receiving care for two years in a nursing home.^[3][5]

Selected works

• The State, Economic Transformation, and Political Change in the Philippines, 1946-1972 (1991)^[3]
• The Fall of Joseph Estrada: The Inside Story (2001)^[2]
• Afro-Asia in Upheaval: A Memoir of Front-line Reporting (2008)^[2]
• Doro: Behind the Byline (2023)^[3]

Selected awards

• Chino Roces Freedom Award (2002)^[2]
• Rotary Club's Journalism Hall of Fame (2003)^[2]
• National Book Award (2008)^[2]

See also

Notes and References

1. Web site: Amando E.

   Doronila . He could look intimidating with his eyebags that gave him something like a semi-scowl, but he had this almost shy look around him too.

   Weeks after Doro’s birthday on 6 February this year, I texted a greeting to him through his son Augustine after another colleague, Margie Logarta, encouraged me to say hello.

   Member International Council, Asia Society, New York Society, National Press Club of Philippines (president 1971). 12 July 2023 . CMFR . After all, I was a sub-editor and reporter in large and often-frenzied newsroom, with other senior editors around me, during those ‘Chronicle’ years. Giselle . 2022-08-03 . How do you support you’re saying?

   For more than two decades, Johanna was with IPS Asia-Pacific international news agency as its regional director and before that, correspondent and regional editor.

   This article was also published by Vera Files.

   (END/Reporting ASEAN)

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