ROLAND URETA : A eulogy

The morning of January 4, 2001 brought me sad news. I was in the midst of crossing my residence to my law office when words reached me from the radio that broadcast journalist Roland Ureta, program director of Radio Mindanao Network – DYKR, was felled with assassins bullets on the night of January 3, 2001 at Barangay Bagto, Lezo, Aklan.

That dastardly and senseless killing of Roland Ureta calls for the collective condemnation and indignation of every God-fearing and law-abiding citizen.

Roland Ureta now ranks as a martyr to the cause of press freedom. From Celso Abad Tormis to Ermin Garcia to Roland Ureta, forces of evil in our society may have uniform mindset that for evil to triumph, you have to gag, muzzle, and chain and silence the press.

Let it be impressed upon our minds, let it be instilled into your children, that the liberty of the press is the palladium of all civil, political and religious rights.

Before the advent of the radio and television, it has been said, and rightly so, that the invention of printing added a new element of power of the race. From that hour the brain and not the arm, the thinker and not the soldier, books and not kings were to rule the world; and weapons, forged in the mind, keen edged and brighter the sunbeam, where to supplant the sword and the battle-ax.

In 1969, a journalist whose had escaped my memory said that the primary task of the press is to be an instrument of political, social and economic progress. Of course, by press we mean both print and electronic media. The press as espoused by the journalist should create a climate change – by setting an atmosphere conducive for the transition from the traditional to modern society.

Roland Ureta, as a broadcast journalist, had fulfilled his duty of reporting well. He had reported perceptively on a country in ferment and on institutions that respond slowly to popular aspirations. He had served as channel of ideas from leaders and the broader masses of our people. Also, he had carried back to the government not only the voice of the less fortunate but also the grievances of the ordinary citizen.

As a broadcast journalist, Roland Ureta had lived up to expectations that the press shall from attitudes, establish values and nurture receptivity to change. Roland Ureta had the marks to which true journalist are heir to, summed up by H.L. Mencken that the job of the press is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Roland Ureta had complied with the H.L. Mencken definition. Roland Ureta even in the name of provincial development has never abandoned his role as an independent watchdog. He had religiously followed the responsibilities of a watchful press: to inform to educate. To prod., to nag if you wish, and thereby move this province and our beloved Philippines forward.

Roland Ureta has joined his Maker when we still need him more. We surrender to the Lord even as we hope and pray that Roland Ureta’s perpetrators shall sooner be arrested by police authorities so that they may face the consequences of their cowardly acts before are courts.

Roland Ureta, broadcast journalist, a friend and kumpadre had passed into another life to join his Maker in a country where Death is not sovereign and God holds dominion over all. He now rest in the loving bosom of his creator.

To his dearest one, his beloved widow Emily, and his son Ken-Ken, his parents, relatives, friends and associates, I extend are heartfelt condolence. I know in the heart of Emily are these words of great poet:

“And so it comforts me, yea, not in vain

To think of thine eternity of sleep,

To know thine eyes are tearless though mine weep

And when this cup’s last bitterness I drain

One thought shall still its primal sweetness keep

Thou hadst the peace, and I, undying pain.”

And this prayer for Roland

“Now the laborer’s task is o’er,

Now the battle day is past;

Now upon the farther shore

Lands the voyager at last.

Father, in thy gracious keeping

Leave we now thy servant sleeping.”