Sir Danny keeps us going
TODAY, it is exactly two years since Panay News founder Daniel Gumban Fajardo transitioned to another realm, the so-called Great Beyond. But truth to tell, it feels like our dear Sir Danny – or Boss DF – never really left.
The words of wisdom he big-heartedly shared with us, his staff, remain alive and fresh in our hearts and minds and these serve as our guideposts in these very challenging times.
If Sir Danny were still with us today, what would he have done in this time of coronavirus pandemic? What would he be telling us, his media “children”?
“Our world is a revolving machine,” he once told this writer, and so we must have the courage to evolve, too, and not stay dormant. Or we would be left by the wayside, irrelevant, he warned us.
Yes, Sir Danny was not short in courage. Surely, the pandemic wouldn’t scare him. His infectious nerve of steel is one precious thing that keeps us in Panay New going – as truth tellers, our job is more than ever crucial in a pandemic that has curtailed people’s movement and access to truthful and useful information, what with “alternative truths” and fake news spreading like wild fire, especially on social media.
How do we counter this?
Use “technology and modern sciences” as new armaments, Boss DF once said, but always with the truth as the gold standard.
“There are enemies of press freedom, and these are not ordinary people. They are big – they have the force, power and influence,” warned Sir Danny, he who battled and overcame more than 200 cases of libel.
We should not cower in fear, he said in a fatherly advice. “Panay News should stay with its resolve to expand the culture of press freedom in this part of the country. That is the philosophy of Panay News.”
And we should be “consistent with this policy” of truth telling and untrammelled press, Boss DF insisted.
He fully understood that “the people want to know the truth” and respected the Ilonggo public’s wish for this – the very reason why he put up Panay News in the first place, nearly four decades ago.
We in Panay News thus continue to remind ourselves, even in these perilous times, to “be the vanguard of press freedom.” Yes, these were the very words of our dear Sir Danny, a maverick journalist. And they ring ever true.
Ah yes, as a doting father, Sir Danny would constantly egg us to improve our craft, and our favorite paper, too. “Improve advertisement revenue, layout, marketing, operations…(S)ee to it that (it) will continue to be readable and interesting,” he told this writer.
Have the “determination to make it really the favorite of the people not only in Region 6 but all over the country,” said Boss DF.
And deep in his heart, Sir Danny knew this would be achieved in due time. He told this writer: “The next generations of the family will – I have no doubt because I believe – continue the operations of Panay News. “This is the only legacy I’m leaving them.”
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It’s his legacy to the Ilonggos, too. And one that he could truly be proud of./PN
