Teddy Boy Locsin

Teodoro Locsin Sr. was a journalist, publisher of The Philippines Free Press Magazine and father of former Congressman Teodoro Locsin Jr.

Early life

Teodoro Montelibano Locsin Sr. was born on December 24, 1914 in Silay City, Negros Occidental.

Educational life

Locsin attended public school from Grades I to IV and later transferred to Ateneo de Manila where he stayed on until he completed his Associate in Arts degree. At the University of Santo Tomas, he took up law. After graduation, he immediately passed the bar and went into practice.

Career

It was not long, though, before he joined the Philippines Free Press magazine as an editorial member in 1939. This marked the start of his 61-year affair with journalism.

A vociferous advocate for freedom, Locsin was intrepid in voicing out his protest. During World War II, when the Free Press was shut down, Locsin fled to Negros Occidental to join the guerilla resistance. Upon resumption of Free Press’ operations, he rejoined it and became its editor in 1963.

Locsin bequeathed to Philippine journalism his unbending standards for integrity, professionalism and truth. Aside from his editorship of The Philippines Free Press, Locsin also penned The Heroic Confession, a novel about Jose Rizal, Fragments and Ruins, a collection of poems, Trial and Error, a collection of short stories, among others.

When Locsin was editor of the Philippines Free Press, one of the oldest and most respected weekly magazines in the country, the magazine was among those that repeatedly warned of a plan by then-president Ferdinand Marcos to implement military rule to stay in power. Thus, when Marcos declared martial law in 1972 the magazine was closed. Marcos detained Locsin in a military camp, Fort Andres Bonifacio, for several months, along with a fellow journalist, publisher Joaquin Roces, and thousands of other opposition leaders.

Locsin refused an offer by Marcos to return his printing press and publish his magazine again because he believed it would have been used by Marcos as a mouthpiece of the martial law government.

The magazine resumed publication shortly after Marcos was ousted in a popular revolt in February 1986.

Recognition

Aside from the TOFIL award, Locsin’s other notable awards were “Outstanding Newspaperman for 1956” by the Confederation of Filipino Veterans, “Rizal pro Patria Award” in 1961, and the “Philippine Legion of Honor Award” (twice).

Personal life

He was married to his wife, Rosario, and had three sons, Henry, Ramon and Teodoro Jr., publisher and editor of the newspaper The Philippines Today.

Death

Teodoro Locsin Sr. died from cancer on January 22, 2000. He died late that Friday at Makati Medical Center, a suburb of Manila. Locsin had cancer of the colon that had spread to his liver as well as other illnesses associated with old age, his family said.

Website

• Teodoro Locsin Sr.'s website