Antonio "Tony" Zumel – journalist and revolutionary leader - would have turned 78 last Aug. 10. Aug. 13, 2007 marks his sixth death anniversary.

Known to his colleagues and many friends as Antumel or Manong, Zumel was born in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte – the second of six children. His father was a lawyer while his mother was a schoolteacher. The Zumels were a rather well-off family, mainly because of the father's successful law practice; and Tony and his two brothers and three sisters were sent to the Holy Ghost Academy in Laoag.

The Zumel siblings were early on taught by their father – who had come from a poor family and had to work his way through law school – to eschew oppression. "Don't allow other people to oppress you, but don't oppress other people either," their father often exhorted them.

They were likewise taught the virtues of honesty and integrity.

His father died when he had just finished grade school, and as he himself described in an article, "the family's livelihood plummeted."

The change in the family's fortunes found the Zumel siblings having to vie for scholarships or work to be able to continue their studies. Tony enrolled at the Far Eastern University (FEU) High School and stayed with an aunt who was running a boarding house in Manila.

By 1949, even his aunt's business was not doing well, and he was thinking of dropping out of school when he got a job as a copyboy at the Philippines Herald, where his uncle Salvador Peña was then personnel manager. He worked in the daytime and at night went to college at the Lyceum of the Philippines.

A journalist with integrity

From the Herald newsroom and a couple of books on journalism which he had bought, he learned many of the tricks of the trade.

After two years as a copyboy, he was promoted to the position of proofreader. He quit college at that point, believing that he had a good job already – which he thought was what people went to college for.

Two more years and he became a reporter, covering at first the police and military beats. Later on he would cover the court and political beats. In his article "Our People's Interests Come First", he recounted:

"There was so much temptation covering the political beats. Although I tried to keep my nose clean as my parents had preached, I was not totally free of the corruption that were (and still are, so I hear) a fact of life in these beats. Even so, I tried to be as impartial as I could in all my stories, and gained some reputation as an uncompromising reporter... I worked according to a simple rule of thumb: to be close enough to the sources of news to be able to get the news, but to keep some distance so that proximity or even affinity to them would not color my stories."

In the mid-1960s, he was invited by Manila Daily Bulletin editor-in-chief Ben F. Rodriguez to join his staff. He did, and after a few years of covering various beats he was promoted to news editor.

As a journalist his respect for facts, for the written word, and for the honor of the journalist's profession was legendary.

In an article on Tony, his former Herald colleague Nilo Mulles had this to say:

"He had the natural facility with English of one who was at home in the language long before he took to writing as a profession, in contrast with many who get by simply by stringing words together. Tony also had that eye for the neat turn of phrase. He was the only Herald staffer I knew who habitually consulted the newsroom dictionary in the course of writing his well thought-out stories. He would take the time to ruminate over the exact meanings and nuances of words, a habit I did not find among too many newsmen whose main drive was to get the story done and get out of the office as soon as possible.

"He had integrity as a writer. Great respect for facts shows in his work. He would never put anything in his story the truth of which he had not verified."

His widow Ruth de Leon had this to say of him, as a journalist, in an e-mail sent to Bulatlat from The Netherlands where she is now based:

"Whenever I read newspapers from there, I always think about what Manong said that reporters must be more circumspect in their writing, and editors/copyreaders/proofreaders must be more circumspect in their editing. Sloppy writing is getting to be more prevalent these days.

"He was also sad about the spread of envelop-mental journalism (bribery)."

Politicization

At the same time that he was making entry into journalism, he also became active in union politics. His experience in media workers' struggles, together with the overall socio-political ferment at the time he was "coming of age" as a journalist, would later on be instrumental in his politicization.

Shortly after he joined the Herald, the newspaper's employees and workers organized a union, with Teddy Benigno as president. Tony signed up right away when Benigno asked him to join. With this, he risked getting into trouble with his uncle – especially when the union got embroiled in a dispute – which was luckily settled amicably.

The late 1940s and early 1950s were periods of strong nationalist stirrings, and Tony was caught up in the current. He said he was strongly influenced at that time by the ideas of Sen. Claro M. Recto, his editor Jose A. Lansang, and poet-journalist Amado V. Hernandez, as well as by writers Renato Constantino, Ernesto Granada, and I.P. Soliongco.

From the establishment of the National Press Club (NPC) in 1955, Tony and his friends in the Herald were regulars at its bar. Not only that: he would also later get deeply involved in the organization's politics.

In the 1960s the union headed by Benigno died what he called "a natural death, from neglect." Beningo had transferred to another media outfit and there was not much enthusiasm among those left behind – even as there was a need for unionizing because of the measly wages the employees and workers were being paid.

Shortly after, the employees and workers at the Herald reorganized the union. The Madrigals – who owned the Herald, Mabuhay, and El Debate – soon sold the newspaper chain to the Sorianos, and the unionists, who registered with the Philippine Association of Free Labor Unions (Paflu) led by Cipriano Cid, would not long after get into what was to be the fight of their lives at that time. A deadlock in collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations in 1962 led the unionists to go on strike. The strike lasted three months and left an indelible mark on the consciousness of Tony, who from that point on "could not pass a strike area without contributing to the strike fund and giving the strikers a few words of encouragement."

At Bulletin he also joined the union, of which he was later elected vice president. When he was promoted from reporter to news editor, he initially wanted to decline the promotion because it would make him part of management and would run counter to his status as a unionist. But Rodriguez insisted that he assume the position and disregarded the issue of whether or not he was with management or with the union. He took the news editorship but stayed with the union.

In the early 1970s he juggled three major positions: president of the NPC, chairman of the Amado V. Hernandez Memorial Foundation (AVHMF), and one of the leaders of the original Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL).

As NPC president, he led in giving space to statements and views from activist organizations, and allowed them the use of the NPC office as a sanctuary from violent dispersals as well as a venue for their press conferences.

At the same time that he was juggling leadership tasks in the NPC, AVHMF, and the MCCCL, he also got invited to join a group under the National Press Bureau of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Later on he became a member of the Preparatory Commission of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), which was under the CPP's United Front Commission.

A revolutionary

At the hour that martial law was declared, he was downing a few bottles of beer with friends at the NPC office: after the end of the drinking bout he swam the Pasig River – then as now notorious for its stench – and disappeared into the revolutionary underground.

In 1973, he became one of the founding members of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). He would be one of the drafters of the NDFP's original Ten-Point Program – together with Satur Ocampo, Enrique Voltaire Garcia II, Angel Baking, Simeon "Sammy" Rodriguez, Dante Simbulan, and Jose Maria Sison.

In the underground he would edit the news service Balita ng Malayang Pilipinas (News of Free Phillippines); Liberation, the official publication of the NDFP; and Ang Bayan (The People), the CPP's official newspaper.

He would be entrusted with more and more responsibilities in the revolutionary underground, and eventually became a member of the CPP Central Committee.

Tony was one of only a few in the top leadership of the revolutionary underground who were never caught by the forces of the Marcos dictatorship. With that, he is credited with having contributed considerably to the continuity of the CPP's leadership at a time when its top officers were being seized left and right.

He surfaced in 1986 as a member of the NDFP peace negotiating panel, together with fellow journalists Ocampo and Carolina "Bobbie" Malay; but they returned to the underground after the suspension of talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) following the Mendiola Massacre.

In 1989 he was sent on a special task to Utrecht, The Netherlands, where the NDFP International Office is located. He served as NDFP chairman from 1990 to 1994 and was senior adviser to the NDFP peace panel from 1992 until his death in 2001.

"Manong was one person who was respected both by comrades and by the enemy," De Leon said. "I think it is because he knew how to respond to people and how to carry out the struggle and debate. I just love reading his letters to people with opposite ideas and beliefs."

Continuing Zumel's legacy

A few years after his death, the Antonio Zumel Center for Press Freedom (AZCPF) was set up in his memory.

The AZCPF aims to continue Zumel's legacy in fighting for press freedom, as well as raising the ethical standards of the journalistic profession. It also counts among its objectives the holding of skills training programs for journalists and aims to serve as a resource center for media people. It also intends to do research on media issues and the conditions of journalists and other media workers.

"I dream of the Zumel Center as serving also as a physical base where media can come together, drink beer, and talk," De Leon, who is also an international coordinator of the AZCPF, said. "It could just be a social club at the start just like NPC, what is important is that media people would have a place to go to after work. From there they can discuss things and issues. Media people are like lawyers, they have a strong individualism but when there are issues they put up." Bulatlat