The Freeman (newspaper)

The Freeman's beginnings can be traced back to the American colonial era in the Philippines from 1898 to 1946. At the time, the Americans had just granted the Filipino people several civil and political rights, including freedom of the press, which encourage several enterprising individuals to establish various newspapers in English and the local languages.[3]

In Cebu, several local newspapers emerged, such as the first Cebuano-owned newspapers La Justicia (1899) and El Nacional (1899), owned by politician, lawyer and journalist Vicente Sotto. He and his brother Filemon went on to establish other newspapers such as El Pueblo (1900), Ang Suga (1901–12), Ang Kaluwasan (1902–10), and La Revolucion (1910–41).[4][5]

Other scions of political families also followed suit and published their own newspapers, such as Sergio Osmeña’s El Nuevo Dia (1900–03), Mariano Cuenco's El Precursor (1907–41) and El Boletin Catolico (1915–30), and Vicente Rama's La Nueva Fuerza/Bag-ong Kusog (1915–40). Other newspapers include La Epoca (1922), owned by Jewish entrepreneur Leopoldo Falek, and the Catholic newspapers Ang Camatuoran (1902–11) and Atong Kabilin (1916).[4][5]

Inspired by the success of earlier newspapers and the increasing popularity of the English language among locals, lawyer, journalist and scion of the Gullas political family, Paulino Gullas, decided to establish his own newspaper. A former correspondent for the Manila-based newspaper The Cablenews-American, Paulino published the first issue of the English-language newspaper The Freeman on May 10, 1919.[1][4][5]

The newspaper was first published at its office along P. Lopez Street corner Colon Street in Cebu City, before moving to an office at the corner of Juan Luna and Colon Streets later on. The maiden issue consisted of 16 pages: 12 in English and four in Visayan. The next six issues equally divided its pages between English and Visayan sections. Over the years, the number of pages varied from 18, 20, 22, 24, 28, 40 and 32.[6]

The release of The Freeman soon gave rise to other English-language newspapers in Cebu, namely Jose Avila's The Advertiser (1922), Mariano Cuenco's Cebu Daily News, Leopoldo Falek's Star (1927), Vicente Rama's Progress (1928), Cesar Mercader's The Cebu Herald (1938), Cornelio Faigao's The Challenger (1940), Pete Calomarde's Morning Times (1943), and Alfredo Cruz and Angel Anden's The Pioneer Press (1945).[5][7]

The Freeman became an important mouthpiece for the Gullas political family and was essential in Paulino's election as representative of Cebu City's Second District in the House of Representatives from 1925 to 1927. However, the newspaper temporarily ceased publication in 1934 after Paulino was elected as Cebu's delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention from July 30, 1934, to February 8, 1935, that created the Commonwealth of the Philippines.[8][9][10]

The newspaper wasn't able to return to publication with the outbreak of World War II and the Japanese bombardment of Cebu in 1941.[7][11] Paulino later joined the Kapisanan sa Paglilingkod sa Bagong Pilipinas (KALIBAPI), the only Filipino political party recognized by the Japanese Military Administration and became commissioner of its Visayas chapter. This led to his appointment as member of the National Assembly from 1943 to 1944 during the Second Philippine Republic.[7]

With Paulino's death during the American bombardment of Cebu in 1945, The Freeman would not return to newsstands until 1965 when his nephew Jose "Dodong'" Gullas revived the periodical as a weekly magazine, and then as a daily English newspaper in 1969.[9][12] Dodong sought the advice of his father Vicente Gullas and Paulino's widow Hilda in reviving the paper. He also hired journalists Balt Quinain and Juanito Jabat to manage the paper, with Dodong serving as publisher, Quinain as editor-in-chief, and Jabat as associate editor.[6][13]

After dictator Ferdinand Marcos placed the entire Philippines under Martial Law in 1972, The Freeman and its printing press were shut down for a month, and one of its columnists, Resil Mojares (who would eventually be recognized as a National Artist of the Philippines for Literature) was jailed for several months because he had published columns which criticized the administration of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.[14][15]

The Freeman was able to return to publication after a month,[14] and was among the few Philippine community newspapers that remained in circulation and dared to publish news and accounts about the excesses and abuses of the regime.[6]

On August 23, 1994, The Freeman began publishing the Cebuano-language tabloid Banat as demand for printed news and content in the local language surged. In 2019, Banat celebrated 25 years in circulation as Cebu's leading tabloid newspaper in the vernacular language.[6][13]

The Freeman is currently owned and operated by the Philstar Media Group, publisher of the Manila-based, nationally circulated broadsheet The Philippine STAR. The media company, which is owned by the Belmonte family, acquired the newspaper along with its sister publication Banat on August 24, 2004, as part of its strategy of acquiring community newspapers to expand its reach and influence throughout the Philippines.[1][6][8]

In 2014, Philstar Media Group was acquired by Mediaquest Holdings Inc., the media conglomerate of PLDT chairman and CEO Manuel V. Pangilinan, making The Freeman and Banat part of the MVP Group of Companies along with other publications such as The Philippine STAR, Pilipino Star Ngayon, Pang-Masa, Starweek and BusinessWorld.[16]

Aside from print, The Freeman also has an online presence via The Philippine STAR's website, as well as in social media. In January 2011, the newspaper opened its official Facebook page,[17] followed by a Twitter page in March.[18] On May 10, 2019, The Freeman celebrated its 100th founding anniversary.[6][8][13]