24 Facts About Eugenia Apostol

Eugenia "Eggie" Apostol was born on September 29,1925 and is a Filipino publisher who played pivotal roles in the peaceful overthrow of two Philippine presidents: Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Joseph Estrada in 2001.

In 1936, when her father was re-elected to the National Assembly, the family moved to Manila, where Eugenia Apostol attended Holy Ghost College, where she finished elementary school as valedictorian in 1938.

Eugenia Apostol wrote a column for Commonweal, a national Catholic weekly and copy for Philippine Manufacturing Company.

Eugenia Apostol married Jose "Peping" Apostol on February 18,1950.

In 1950 Eugenia Apostol became women's section editor of The Sentinel, a national news weekly, which succeeded Commonweal in 1949 as a publication of the Archdiocese of Manila.

Eugenia Apostol criticized the archbishop's ban on ballet classes and performances in Catholic schools as well as a controversy triggered by the presence of Russian ballet teachers at St Scholastica's, a convent school.

In 1954 Eugenia Apostol became women's section editor and associate editor of Sunday Times magazine, the supplement of the country's leading daily, The Manila Times.

Eugenia Apostol stayed with the Times for ten years, working with both the magazine and the newspaper.

Eugenia Apostol found light work in handling, as editor and writer, the traditional women's beat of home, fashion, food, and human-interest features, and had a knack for infusing something lively, fresh, and innovative into what would otherwise be "canned" and conventional.

In 1964 Eugenia Apostol moved to the Manila Chronicle as editor of its new Sunday supplement Woman and Home.

Woman and Home was phased out in 1969 but Eugenia Apostol stayed on with the Chronicle as editor of its expanded Better Living section.

Eugenia Apostol became editor of the Woman's Home Companion, the first Martial Law women's magazine in the Philippines.

The magazine struggled for some years before it broke even due, Eugenia Apostol says, to a crowded women's magazine market.

Eugenia Apostol launched the Philippine Inquirer, a tabloid-size weekly, on February 4,1985, with herself as publisher and editor-in-chief and a staff of only two writers - JP Fenix and Candy Quimpo.

When President Ferdinand Marcos announced in November 1985 that a snap presidential election would be held in February 1986, Eugenia Apostol saw it as an opportunity for a "concerted anti-dictatorship campaign".

Eugenia Apostol invited some of the country's biggest mass-media publishers to breakfast in her home.

Eugenia Apostol's goal was to persuade the group to launch a single daily newspaper in time for the election but the group was largely unenthusiastic.

Eugenia Apostol originally envisioned a cooperative-owned newspaper but the pressure of events led to the Philippine Daily Inquirer being registered as a corporation, with the stipulation that only permanent employees could own stocks in the paper.

Eugenia Apostol headed the PDI as chair of the board of management with Betty Go-Belmonte as vice-chair.

Eugenia Apostol severed all corporate and editorial ties with the Philippine Daily Inquirer on January 26,1994, resigning from the board and retiring from the paper.

Eugenia Apostol is said to have seen the battle for corporate control to be detrimental to the paper's growth.

On January 9,1996, Eugenia Apostol founded the Foundation for Worldwide People Power, a non-profit organization based in Pasig with the aim to improve facilities and teaching in Philippine public schools, publish books and produce video documentaries about martial law under Ferdinand Marcos, the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr.

When President Joseph Estrada called for an advertising boycott of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and sued Manila Times over a corruption story, Eugenia Apostol set up the Pinoy Times.

Eugenia Apostol designed it as a popular tabloid for the masses, written in everyday Filipino it attempted to deliver "quality journalism with the price, size and liveliness of a tabloid".