Eggie Apostol’s military interrogation
Eugenia Duran Apostol, Tita Eggie, EDA, endearing warrior woman (Sept. 29, 1925-Sept. 13, 2026): You lit a candle in the dark and the flame grew to illumine the path ahead for many of us.
When EDA turned 100 last year, I posted this on Facebook: “Apostol founded the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 1985 during the dying days of the Marcos dictatorship. Before that, she published the Mr. & Ms. magazine and its feisty Special Edition that chronicled the aftermath of the 1983 assassination of former senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr. Summoned to Fort Bonifacio, she floored and disarmed her military interrogators with her answers. So very Tita Eggie!”
Her complete account is in my book “Press Freedom Under Siege: Reportage that Challenged the Marcos Dictatorship” (University of the Philippines Press) … Unlike her, we women journalists who were also interrogated one by one were more in the fight-back mode.
I was privileged to write the Sunday Inquirer Magazine cover story on her, “EDA: A long way from the lipstick beat” (March 6, 1994). She was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism. Literature and Creative Communication Arts in 2006. Several other awards followed. Excerpts from a column piece I wrote many years ago:
I first met Eggie Apostol in 1983. She was the publisher-editor of Mr. & Ms., a general interest magazine which leaned toward the entertainment side. But then a good number of Mr. & Ms. columnists were not writing about entertainment. There was S.P. Lopez pontificating on the state of the nation. There was Rene Saguisag with his lawful truths. There was Letty J. Magsanoc with “Letters” from herself.
Mr. & Ms. did not look like a subversive magazine. So why was Eggie called to appear before the National Intelligence Board in January 1983? Several weeks before that, five women journalists, myself included (I wrote human rights-related articles for another magazine), were also summoned to appear individually before the “sanhedrin” composed mainly of colonels with a general as head.
Apostol responded to the threatening summons. She had already heard about what we went through, so the unflappable Eggie thought she should do something different. While, we, the younger women journalists thought we should teach the men a lesson (we went to the Supreme Court after our individual interrogations), Eggie played it cool and emerged with laughter in her heart. How could she lose?
Later she would write about that experience in a piece titled “Too late the memo (of General Ver).” Excerpts from her account of her exchange with the officers we so abhorred and how she refused to buckle and how she found humor in the experience.
Someone said that there was no law that could possibly force us to accept the invitation, but an army threat is an army threat and not to be taken lightly.
“What, no lawyers?” Brig. Gen. Wilfredo Estrada, AFP (Ret.) who had signed the invitation was surprised. “But the others all came with lawyers.”
We begged to be different. We told them we had been editing the magazine for almost seven years without a lawyer beside us, why would we need one now?
We said, “No, lawyers sometimes cause more trouble.” And the whole room laughed.
Q. What is your concept of national security?
A. The state of the country’s health, which should be strong enough to withstand aggression from within and from without.
Q. How do you choose your writers?
A. We have a stable of the most worthy.
Q. How come they are all oppositionists?
A. They’re the best to be had. We’ve invited those from the establishment, like Adrian Cristobal, and he honored us only once.
Q. Are you aware that you may unwittingly be used by the communists in their propaganda?
A. Really? Thank you for telling us.
Q. And have you read this code of ethics?
A. Thank you for the copy. We believe we have observed the code as best we could.
Q. How come you switched from being an entertainment magazine to one with political articles?
A. When President Marcos lifted martial law and declared the restoration of press freedom in January 1981, we took him very seriously. We opened our pages to critical articles because we believed there was a need for them, that they would be healthy for the country. To suppress the expression of differing but legitimate opinion would be like covering the kettle and not allowing the steam to escape.
Q. Do you know that you are being read by the National Democratic Front?
A. No, we didn’t know that.
Q. Do you agree with everything your writers say?
A. Not always but we defend their right to say it.
Q. Do you edit S.P. Lopez?
A. Who, me? He knows much more than we do. We do not dream of changing a single word.
Q. But look at this line in his column, “Everything is falling apart in our country; the school system, the electoral system, the highways system.”
A. He knows what he is talking about. He was president of the University of the Philippines and he knows what ails the school system. As for the highways, it is obvious.
Q. And what about you? Do you believe…
A. Yes.
Q. It is not good to discredit the government because without government, there can also be no free press. For example, here is this quotation in your magazine from Susan Pleshette: “An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.” What government is she referring to?
A. The US, that’s the government she knows.
Q. You see, you have to beware of hidden messages that may be helping the enemy.
If you’ve read this far and are laughing, you must be a friend of Eggie’s and appreciate what she did for press freedom during the evil regime. During the most terrifying of times, Eggie hatched the Philippine Daily Inquirer and made it fly high. That is not to be disputed.
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