Spring brought promises of new life and joy after the long cold days in the West.
Its last days – particularly the month of April – also caused sadness and nostalgia with the parade of obituaries we’ve witnessed – from Hollywood actor Val Kilmer (April 1) to Pope Francis (on April 21).
In the country, music lovers grieved the passing away of entertainment icons Pilita Corrales (April 12), Hajji Alejandro (April 21) and National Artist Nora Aunor (April 16).
Another notable figure who passed away was Fr. Brian Gore (April 20), an Australian priest and social justice advocate who was jailed as part of what has been known globally as the Negros Nine for trumped up murder charges in the early 1980s.
Fr. Gore was incarcerated at the Provincial Jail – then located at Gatuslao Street – along with Irish missionary Fr. Niall O’Brien (he died in April 2004), Filipino priest Fr. Vicente Dangan and six lay workers. They were in jail for over a year.
Fr. Gore died in Kabankalan City, where he spent long years of community service as prime mover of Kristyanong Katilingban, or the Basic Christian Communities, program.
I plan to write another item of how the Negros Nine case helped shape my media career as global attention was cast on the province during the long months of hearing that eventually led to their release.
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Another obituary posted on Facebook that captured my attention was on my former Mass Communication student at the University of St. La Salle (Class 1987) – lawyer Josephine Maria Natalaray, who passed away on April 13, due to cardiac arrest. She was 57.
I learned from her USLS classmate, Jonali Dionzon-Visitacion, that Jo just returned from a three-month vacation in New Zealand, where her 80-year-old mother, Thelma, is staying with her son, John Andres.
Jo’s sister-in-law, Anabel, shared that John Andres is the lone surviving among the five Natalaray siblings following Jo’s death. Anabel is the widow of Stephen Antonio, the youngest among the siblings.
Another friend of Jo, Dr. Rowena Bañes of the University of St. La Salle, shared in her Facebook posts recollections of the late lawyer who was her classmate at Negros Occidental High School.
Jonali confirmed Jo was the lone member of her MassComm class who graduated cum laude and that she was news editor of The SPECTRUM, the La Salle student publication.
I admit I have not updated myself with Jo’s professional life as a lawyer, but her Facebook posts shortly before her death showed a number of outreach activities she engaged in through jail visits and consultations in various parts of the province.
Apparently, as another former student, lawyer Joevel Bartolome, told me, those community activities were done as a core program during her 2023 term as president of the local chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.
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Jo’s civic engagement activities came as no surprise to me, considering that her father, the late Jose Ma. Natalaray, served as president of the Negros Press Club in 1970-71.
The newsman’s passion for freedom and social justice must have rubbed into the stream of consciousness of Jo and her siblings. I had close interaction with two of her brothers – Ivan, an outspoken and dynamic mentor was a respected faculty colleague at USLS while Glen Marcelo was also my student in the La Salle Mass Communication program.
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Those who have been touched by Jo’s life remember her for various reasons. My memory of her, among others, is anchored on her life in college, where she demonstrated remarkable diligence and on her media-related experiences – among them, Jo enjoyed a scholarship granted by the Negros Press Club for young people who wanted to pursue media-related careers.
Likewise, her creativity was recognized by the NPC almost 40 years ago (she was still a student then) when it gave her the plum prize in the contest launched by the club for the text of a memorial marker to honor the memory of those who have lost their lives while on the line of duty as members of the Fourth Estate.
The marker, almost illegible now due to the passage of time, is located at the western end of the Bacolod City plaza fronting the Negros Press Club.
The inscription, reflecting a resolve for all times and seasons, reads:
“Few men have pens for power
Some use their skill
Some let it lie still
Fewer still are they who have the art
Who take the pursuit of truth, justice and liberty to heart
Let them who fell in the night
With the pen as their might
Be not forgotten.”
Like the fallen media men and women of the Martial Law years, the writer of those lines will always be remembered.
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There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2) | NWI
