As the Spanish-American War was being fought, La Democracia, the first Filipino newspaper that recognized American sovereignty in the country, urged the Filipino people to accept the new government and to help heal the wounds of war. Edited by Trinidad Pardo de Tavera, it was the official publication of the pro-American Partido Federalista, the first political party organized on December 23, 1900 by 125 Filipino illustrados.
Besides La Independencia and El Heraldo dela Revolucion, other Filipino newspapers were also published as the Americans established their military government in the country. Among these was La Patria, the newspaper that openly championed freedom and independence and directly challenged La Democracia. Published by Pablo Ocampo and edited by Rafael Palma and Aurelio Tolentino, it was closed by Gen Arthur McArthur, the father of Gen Douglas McArthur9.
The closure of La Patria and the assertion of American military rule did not dampen the newspaper industry. Unfazed, Pablo Ocampo published La Libertad and continued to fight for freedom and independence. As a result, the American military authorities banned the newspaper, and its publisher was exiled to Guam for two years.
Meanwhile, Rafael Palma, a lawyer, educator, and social scientist, founded El Nuevo Dia, Cebu's first daily newspaper, on April 6, 1900. In collaboration with the then Speaker Sergio Osmeña Sr.10 and Commissioner Jaime Carlos de Veyra, Palma criticized American military rule. In the end, the newspaper was severely censored and as a sign of protest, it came out with large blacked-out pages that ostracized the Americans who championed freedom of the press and expression in their country, but censored them in the Philippines.
El Grito del Pueblo and its sister publication in Tagalog, Kapatid ng Bayan, edited by Pascual Poblete, and El Filipino Libre, published by Manuel Xeres Burgos, also cried for freedom and independence and criticized American military rule.
On the other hand, English language newspapers were published to cater the needs of the American reading public: Bounding Billow, published aboard US Olympia;11 Official Gazette, published by the American military government; American Soldier, published for a month with some 20 issues; and Soldier's Letter, published by the 18th Minnesota Volunteers in the US Army. These newspapers had common point of view: “These islands were rich untapped sources of American wealth and capital. The natives, half-devil and half-child, insist on playing government: a group of warlike tribes who will devour each other the moment American troops leave.”
On October 11, 1898, Thomas Gowan, an Englishman rather than an American, edited and published the Manila Times, the first continually published English language daily newspaper in the country. In 1899, George Seliner joined the Manila Times as business manager and later bought the newspaper from Gowan. Seliner sold it in 1902, reacquired it in 1905, and sold it again in 1907.
The then Senate President Manuel Quezon12 bought the Manila Times in 1917. During his ownership, the newspaper was generally staffed by Filipinos, a pattern followed by Governor General Francis Burton Harrison13 in Filipinizing the government. In 1921, Quezon, who found out that politics and journalism are like oil and water that could never be mixed well, sold the newspaper to George Fairchild, a Hawaiian senator engaged in the sugar industry. Politically speaking, the newspaper became the mouthpiece of American politicians and businessmen and was intensely pro-American and anti-Filipino. In 1926, Fairchild sold the newspaper to Jacob Rosenthal, a businessmen engaged in the shoe industry.
Alejandro Roces Sr., the father of modern journalism in the Philippines, bought the Manila Times in 1927. At that time, he was also the owner of the TVT chain of newspapers: Taliba, La Vanguardia, and Manila Tribune. Roces founded the latter on April 1, 1925 when he failed to purchase the Philippine Herald.
Because of its substantial editorial pages and wide international coverage, the Manila Tribune, edited by Carlos Romulo,14 the Philippine Herald former editor, and staffed by Mauro Mendez, Benito Sakdalan, Amando Dayritt, Roberto Anselmo, and Fernando Maramag became the most informative and most entertaining newspaper in the 1920s. The Tribune Magazine, its weekly supplement, had a circulation of 40 000 during weekdays and 80 000 during weekends.
On March 15, 1930, Roces stopped the publication of the Manila Times, but continued the publication of the Manila Tribune, which became a morning newspaper, and the Philippine Herald, which became an afternoon newspaper. After World War II, Alejandro Roces Jr. revived the newspaper business that his father founded, but discarded the TVT chain of newspapers. Roces formed The Manila Times Publishing Company, Inc., and published the Sunday Times on May 27, 1945, which became the Manila Times on September 5, 1945.
Established by Carson Taylor, an Illinois public school teacher who came to the country as part of the Colorado First Volunteer National Guard Regiment, the Manila Daily Bulletin made its debut on February 1, 1900 as a shipping gazette devoted to ship arrivals and departures. Its early editors were H G Farris, 1900; George Rice, late 1900; Chas Bond, 1904; William Crozier, 1905; M L Steward, 1913; C R Zeininger, 1918; and Roy Bennet, late 1918.
