GIANT IN JOURNALISM: He was a giant in journalism, but he was a gentle one. Read it again and that makes him a gentle man.
Soft-spoken and often low-key in public, even at the central news room of the Manila Bulletin, Crispulo ‘Jun’ Icban was one editor-in-chief you didn’t wish to avoid.
His was a welcoming, bearded presence, formal yet friendly, forceful yet approachable, serious yet funny. He was kind. He was full of character.
He understood measly paid journalists. He was one with them.
Jun was a far cry from editors in the old days from what we, journalism greenhorns in the mid-70s, heard of previous generations of newsmen.
They were said to be quite fearsome, overly strict, were compared to terrorists. It was as if they had a long wooden stick on their hand, ready to whip as they threw their weight around.
They would scream at reporters, embarrass them in broad daylight, in full view and within hearing distance of everybody, including the janitor and the copyboy, over a missing comma or quote.
They were lords and kings, before whom humble reporters, paid per column inch, were to genuflect, like trained carabaos during a festival in Pulilan, Bulacan.
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EDITORIALIST: There were names attached to some of them. One was called Judge, who was said to be the fiercest editor to walk in the face of the Philippine press in the 1950s. Reporters cowered in his presence, like cats before a growling tiger, afraid of his daily afternoon roasting.
Being a veteran journalist who started his career around that same time, at the old Manila Times, Jun must have encountered bosses at the newsroom with precisely this kind of temperament.
He surely must have walked and grew up in this kind of environment that trained him, honed his skills, nurtured his gifts as a reporter and later, as a sound editorialist.
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HUMBLE TEACHER: Luckily for us, who worked under his nose at the Manila Bulletin and Tempo, he failed to imbibe---and spread--- the culture of the 1950s newsroom when he assumed the editorship in 2003 of the newspaper that we both loved.
He headed the editorial office with a unique combination of discipline and compassion, sharing and understanding. I call it bittersweet.
He was without ego, simple and humble as can be, always ready to help, to teach, to inspire, to call you out over an editorial lapse, either in judgment or treatment of a story.
Even as he did this, it was with restraint, in a cool, gentle manner, minus the embarrassment and hysteria of by-gone eras.
He would even throw you a joke---sometimes sexy, even sexist---when he’s in no hurry to rush to a meeting. Or when you sit next to each other in some fancy lunch or dinner event.
He seemed to tell you that all’s well despite everything, those lapses included.
‘Hope you can learn from them.’
Jun Icban, who passed April 5 at 85, was a rare breed in media. Magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines. Masteral studies in journalism at the Syracuse University in New York.
A journalism icon.
A giant at only 5-foot-6.
May others follow in his footsteps.