Honeyman: Primo

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An Independent View

Monday, October 3, 2011

PRIMO Esleyer died last Wednesday afternoon. He was 79.

When I arrived in Bacolod in 1996, I became a regular purchaser of local newspapers. Fairly soon, I recognized that the most informative and erudite arena was Primo’s Feedback column. I could not, and still cannot, understand how he was able to produce such insightful work six days a week - over three hundred times a year.

Each article required much research, analysis, fact-finding and verification. To the facts, he applied his perceptive vision, filtered by his unique brain, and put into words that we can all understand.

It was not until 2000 that I finally met Primo. At our first meeting, we debated sugar industry issues. Exports to the US were significant at the time and we discussed the historical origins, in particular the Tydings Macduffie Act passed by the US Congress in 1934. Primo generously gave his views on the underlying motives of the US government. He owed much to his education at school and college. It gave him a lifelong love of literature, poetry, music and Ilonggo culture. But it also honed his brain and enabled him to approach any problem with a rigorous and analytical perspective. His mentors and their successors at CSA - Iloilo can be proud.

He abhorred corruption. Particularly when it involved an individual abuse of authority. When an employee was victimized on a trumped-up traffic offense by a bribe- extorting police officer, Primo conducted his own investigation. Once he had established his employee’s veracity, he caused the errant cop to be thrown to a less hospitable place than the City of Smiles.

He occupied many prestigious positions. He was president of the Negros Press Club (NPC) four times. He wanted journalists to be proud of their profession and he wanted the NPC to be a visible and significant part of our society. In his last stint as president (2005-2006), he did much to achieve these goals. In 2005 he organized an informative, educational but also an enjoyable and morale- boosting weekend for NPC members. Held at Mambukal on the weekend of 9-10 July, this Public Journalism Seminar was a great success. On his way home on the Sunday afternoon he dropped in on Mayor Leonardia’s birthday celebrations. Primo enjoyed the company of, and was welcomed by, all the community.

He was troubled by corruption. He tried but could not really understand why it was that, in a Catholic country, there is so much malpractice. Reconciling spiritual beliefs with chronic graft should be impossible, he opined.

Tirelessly, he inveighed against injustice. Even in recent weeks, when his body was failing but his brain was not, he wrote on the unhappy case of Lt (ret.) Nancy Gadian. He hated the bullying tone of the AFP when it responded contemptuously to her expressions of concern relating to the disbursement of US funding for the Balikatan 2007 exercises.

His strong feelings about injustice also affected the private sector. He believed that organizations sometimes performed below par and that, when they did so, they occasionally behaved with an inappropriate abuse of ascendancy. Telecommunications, financial services and travel were three sectors, which appeared in his unerring sights.

But he was scrupulously fair. If the excoriated ones responded, then he presented their response. Primo believed in the level playing field. He also believed in the ‘Power of One’, that one person, given sufficient tenacity, can make a difference. When that one person was Primo, he was right.

He loved travel, particularly with his friends. In fact, he kept in a separate file those articles he wrote when he was on the road.

In 2003, when his beloved wife Fe died, there were those who wondered if he would stop writing. ‘Oh no’ he replied ‘My column is my lifeblood.’ He mourned for a few days but within a week he was writing again.

His extraordinary range never diminished. One day he would write trenchantly about the imperfections of local irrigation projects and the next we would be regaled on the beauties of nature as seen through the prisms of Keats and Shelley.

Facilitators are generous people. Primo was a great facilitator. He was often the catalyst by which people who otherwise might have a permanently adversarial relationship were able to meet and be friends.

He gave generously of this time. A not untypical day might see him depart from Igbaras in the early morning, reach Dumangas after a drive in the pouring rain, take the ferry to Bacolod and go straight into a long and difficult meeting at Bacolod City College (BCC).

From his own experiences, he was aware of the importance of education. Facilitating tertiary education for those who could not afford fees was important to him. He would love to see BCC flourish.

A few years ago on such a day, he also has an evening meeting with a Belgian friend, André de Hertog who, at the previous weekend, had a road rage encounter with Charlie Cojuangco. André was still upset when we met and it took all of Primo’s mediation skills to smooth the ruffled feathers.

Later Primo met Charlie’s staff who was anxious to say ‘case closed’.

Primo was unique and cannot be replaced. All we can do is to draw lessons from his advices. He wanted journalists to be self-respecting and not to be beholden to anyone other than their readers. He would not be pleased when Malacañang praised the Malacañang press corps. This means that the press corps is compliant and subservient which is not what he wants journalists to be. He aligned himself with his good friend, doyen correspondent, Amando Doronila who writes thought provoking articles which is a necessary counterweight to the self- congratulatory tone of Malacañang.

When people meet me, they often say: ‘Oh you’re Primo’s friend’.