Letty Jimenez Magsanoc

Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc (September 13, 1941 – December 24, 2015) was a Filipino journalist and editor, notable for her role in overthrowing the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

She was an icon of democracy.

Magsanoc was editor of the crusading weekly opposition tabloid Mr & Ms Special Edition.

She was editor in chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

She spent most of the 1960s in the United States, taking a masters in journalism at the University of Missouri.

In 1963, she married Carlos Magsanoc, a doctor.

Her daughter Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala is a broadcast journalist who produces news documentaries.

The Magsanoc family returned to the Philippines in 1969.

Magsanoc joined the Manila Bulletin.

When the women's section editor of the Bulletin ' s Sunday magazine, Panorama left, Magsanoc was asked to take the job.

"The last place I wanted to land in, in any publication was the women's pages, which I consider a journalism ghetto. I was trying to get away from writing about lipstick and fashion. fortunately I was allowed to write about almost anything. Sometimes it had nothing to do with women.".

In 1976, Magsanoc began to write for the daily Manila Bulletin, after a co-editorship with a male colleague did not work.

She wrote a thrice weekly column, The Passing Scene, alternating with columnist Tony Nieva.

Later, she was given her own column Not for People Only.

This was when she began to get into trouble with authorities for being critical of the post-martial law Marcos government.

Between 1976 and 1981, Letty Jimenez Magsanoc was editor of Panorama, the Philippines' largest circulating magazine of the time.

In 1978, General Hans Menzi, publisher of the Manila Bulletin, asked Magsanoc to take over the editorship of Panorama.

Magsanoc was reluctant.

"I did not want to be editor because I just wanted to do writing. You know what it's like to be editor, you have to sit at the desk, give out assignments, and clean up everybody's copy. It is difficult to conceptualize the whole issue. What I wanted to do was go out and write."

She demanded that Panorama be given a 60 per cent editorial to 40 per cent advertising ratio and to her surprise, Menzie agreed.

Magsanoc's arrival at Panorama gave the magazine a new reputation.

Circulation soared with Magsanoc's editorship.

Panorama staffer Margot Baterina said: "We pursued stories that nobody else dared to touch."

National Press Club data of the time put the magazine's circulation at 300,000 on Sundays more than triple the combined circulation of the two other morning dailes.

Five months after being named one of the 1981 Ten Outstanding Women of the New Society she was forced to resign after writing an article perceived as critical to the government.

A Time magazine article which hailed Magsanoc as an Asian hero described the circumstances that forced her departure from Panorama: "Magsanoc had written a tongue-in-cheek story on Marcos' third inauguration as President. Marcos had sought to fend off criticism of his rule by staging a faux election. His "victory" was celebrated in a sumptuous, if surreal, ceremony, in which a choir sang Handel's Messiah. Magsanoc led off with a line from Handel: "And he shall reign forever and ever." Marcos thought that blasphemous and got her fired."

Magsanoc's forced resignation sparked a media furore, with journalists using their columns to speak out, though several pieces were suppressed by publishers.

Several articles rejected by other magazines were published by Eugenia Apostol's women's magazine, Mr & Ms.

Magsanoc's article was a piece about the inauguration, illustrated with candid photographs and captions, under the title There Goes the New Society; Welcome the New Republic

The forced resignation of Letty Jimenez Magsanoc was the first of a series of events that led to criticism of the Marcos government for suppressing press freedom.

The events were:

Letty Jimenez Magsanoc was editor of Mr & Ms Special Edition from 1983 to 1986.

Jimenez-Magsanoc died on the night of Christmas Eve, December 24, 2015, at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig, after suffering from cardiac arrest.

Magsanoc is among three journalists whose names were added to the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes) Wall of Remembrance in 2016.

Bantayog ng mga Bayani cited her for "speaking truth to power without fear."

Magasanoc was recognized "for testing the limits of press freedom as writer and editor, for defying media restrictions and censorship under martial rule and for facing up to the wrath of the dictatorship."

The Senate of the Philippines, in a resolution filed shortly after her death, recognized Magsanoc for her contribution to the restoration of freedom in the Philippines.

Jimenez-Magsanoc was the eldest of nine children of Colonel Nicanor Jimenez, a former Philippine National Railways (PNR) manager and director of the NISA, the government intelligence agency, later Philippine ambassador to Korea.

She is survived by her husband Dr. Carlitos Magsanoc; and her three children, including Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala.

Magsanoc described herself as "newspaper-struck" from an early age, contributing features to the (Philippine) Sunday Times Magazine while a senior at St. Teresa's College, Manila, encouraged by Times women's editor Eugenia Apostol.