Maximo Soliven

Gravestone of Max Solivén in the Heroes Cemetery Libingan ng mga Bayani

Máximo "Max" Villaflor Solivén (born September 4, 1929 in Manila ; † November 24, 2006 at Tokyo Narita Airport , Tokyo , Japan ) was a Filipino journalist , publicist and publisher .

Life

Solivén's father, Benito Solivén, was a politician in the National Assembly before the Second World War and later died of the consequences of the death march of Bataan in 1942 and the subsequent imprisonment in Capas , Tarlac , during the Second World War.

Soliven himself took during the war on the resistance against the Japanese occupying power part and completed after school one Undergraduate degree ( undergraduate ) at the Ateneo de Manila University and got the Ozanam Award for writing awarded. He later studied at Harvard University , where he earned the title of Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) in international studies at the chair of Henry Kissinger .

He began his career as a journalist in 1949 as a volunteer for the Catholic daily newspaper "The Sentinel" before moving to the Manila Chronicle in 1954 as a reporter for police and politics. From 1957 to 1960 he was editor in charge of economics for the daily newspaper " The Manila Times ".

In 1960 he was also the publisher and editor of the now-defunct newspaper "The Evening News", which within a year improved its rank in terms of daily circulation from sixth to second place within the daily newspapers appearing in the Philippines. In the next twelve years, he also served as foreign correspondent of the newspaper operates and reported in this function by several significant events in Southeast Asia such as the Vietnam War and the Tet Offensive in 1968, but also about the Gestapu- attempted coup in Indonesia in 1965, which followed by a massacre by the military resulted in half a million people. He also reported on the detonation of the first Chinese atomic bomb on October 16, 1964 at the Lop Nor nuclear weapons test site and conducted an interview with the then Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai .

On September 23, 1972, he was arrested as a leading columnist for the " Manila Times " after the declaration of martial law by President Ferdinand Marcos .

After three months in prison , he was released on parole in December 1972 and was also ordered not to leave Manila for three years. Furthermore, he was banned from working as a journalist for seven years and was also not allowed to leave the Philippines during this period.

Together with Betty Go-Belmonte , wife of the long-time mayor of Quezon City Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte , he first founded the newspaper “Philippine Daily Inquirer” on December 9, 1985, which soon became the leading newspaper of the opposition to the dictatorship of Marcos .

However, after disagreements with the other co-founder Eugenia Duran-Apostol, he and Go-Belmonte together with Art Borjal founded the daily newspaper "The Philippine Star" on July 28, 1986, which today ranks second in terms of readers, circulation and advertising occupies. At the "Philippine Star" he remained active as editor and columnist until his death.

He has received several awards for his work as a journalist and, among others, was awarded the Knighthood of the Legion of Honor (Chevalier de la Legion d Honneur) by the French President François Mitterrand in 1991 . In 2000 he received the rank of "Encomendero" of the Orden de Isabel la Católica from King Juan Carlos I of Spain . In addition, he was voted “Journalist of the Year” by the Philippines Press Club, with the laudatory speech given by his former university professor Henry Kissinger.

After his death, he was buried with military honors in the Libingan ng mga Bayani Cemetery in Taguig City , Metro Manila . He was also posthumously awarded the rank of Grand Officer of the Order of Lakandula , one of the Philippines' second highest orders after the Quezon Service Cross , by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo .

His younger sister, Ethel Solivén Timbol, was also a journalist and, between 1964 and 2007, lifestyle editor for the Manila Bulletin newspaper.

Web links

• Biography in the media museum