Inquirer publisher updated biodata before heart surgery

Taiwan Ambassador Raymond Wang (left) presents a gift to Inquirer publisher Isagani Yambot during his visit to the Inquirer in this file photo. INQUIRER/RAFFY LERMA

MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Daily Inquirer Publisher Isagani Yambot Sr. loved raking his fingers through his hair as this always put him to sleep. The night before his death, Yambot asked his son, Isagani Jr. or Jun to do exactly that.

“That Thursday night, Daddy asked me to stroke his hair again: lambing niya palagi sa akin iyon maski noong maliliit pa kami kasi gustong-gusto niya iyon nakakatulog siya (that was a fond predilection of his, even when we were small, whenever he wanted to sleep),” Jun told the Inquirer.

Jun said he got worried when Yambot told him not to come back to the Medical City in Pasig because he was likely to be discharged from the hospital the next day after undergoing quadruple heart bypass on February 21.

“Dad kaya mo na ba talaga (can you really manage to)?” he asked.

Yambot insisted he was okay, and was, in fact, joking the whole night with his son, asking if he had found a new girlfriend.

At 3:30 p.m. Friday, Yambot died of “cardio-respiratory arrest secondary to coronary artery disease” at the St. Therese Hospital in Pasig where he was rushed by family members hours after his discharge from the Medical City. He was 77.

Yambot, who liked to play “hopscotch” (piko) as a kid  and loved to eat, underwent angioplasty last year.

Jun said Yambot was very particular about cleanliness. Yambot would always scold him whenever his shoes were not “tidy and shiny” whenever he visited his father at the Inquirer.

“But the irony is while his shoes were always clean and shiny, my Dad would sometimes not wear socks para daw convenient, saka pa-jologs,” Jun said fondly of his father.

He said his father’s attending physician at the Medical City told him that Yambot was seen by nurses weeping in his bed two days after his bypass operation, probably after reading the news about the death of former Ambassador Benjamin “Kokoy” Romualdez.

Yambot had worked with Romualdez for many years in the Journal Group. He served as Romualdez’s press attaché at the Philippine Embassy in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 1981 to 1982, and at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. from 1985 to 1986.

Minutes before Yambot’s discharge from Medical City, he told his wife Mildred: “Come on, hurry up. Let’s get out of here. It’s depressing here.”

Before his operation, Yambot went to the Inquirer library to update his bio-data.

Born on November 16, 1934 in Tagbilaran City in Bohol, Yambot studied Liberal Arts at the University of the Philippines and was a fellow of the Washington Journalism Center.

Yambot’s mother was a Science teacher while his father was a Mathematics-English teacher. Named outstanding news editor by the College Editors Guild of the Philippines in 1975 and a lifetime member of the National Press Club, Yambot won the Catholic Mass Media Award for best in-depth article in 1994. He was given the Lakan Award for outstanding achievement in journalism by the Tondo Rotary Club in 1995, and   honored as an outstanding Manilan in the field of journalism by the City of Manila in June 2000.

Yambot’s career in journalism started as a deskman at the now-defunct Manila Times in 1953 where he later covered the Malacañang and the Senate beats.

In 1973, he joined the United Press International as night editor and a year later, transferred to the Times Journal where he served as managing editor from 1983 to 1985. He was managing editor of Malaya  in 1988.

In April 1989, Yambot came to work as executive editor of the Inquirer and was appointed its associate publisher in June 1991. He was made publisher in February 1994.

In 1999, as a spokesperson of PDI, Yambot spoke out in defense of freedom of the press at a time when the existence of the paper was threatened by an advertising boycott initiated by the administration of President Joseph Estrada.

Known as “PDI’s grammarian,” Yambot wrote portions of the first Stylebook of the Manila Times and the Stylebook of the Development Academy of the Philippines. He also co-wrote the Inquirer Stylebook with University of the Philippines professor Cristina Pantoja-Hidalgo.

In its statement, the PDI management said Yambot will be “surely missed but his spirit lives on in the work they do to ensure editorial policies are closely followed.”

“We are very grateful for all of his contributions and we applaud his passion and commitment to his work. We request that you join us in prayer for the eternal repose of his soul,” the statement said.

Malacañang spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a statement that Yambot’s was a profound shock at a time  the newspaper was enjoying unparalleled public trust and popularity.

“Isagani Yambot was a newsman in the no-holds-barred days before martial law, and continued in the profession in the oppressive martial law years; he was one of the links with the pre-martial law press who mentored a new generation of journalists to understand just how much a free press matters, and who stood shoulder to shoulder with his peers each and every time free speech came under attack after EDSA,” Valte said.

She said Yambot was a calm, cheerful presence not only in the newsroom and boardroom of his paper, but in every gathering of note among journalists and between media, civil society, and government.

“His was a voice of passion yet reason; the loss of his presence will be felt deeply by a nation that knows all a newsman can ask for, in the end, is this simple epitaph: he wrote it, as he saw it, with honest words and with his only master, the truth,” Valte said.

Yambot is survived by his wife Mildred; Patricia Cacho-Yambot; brothers Efren and wife Lerma, Ruben and wife Rosita, sister-in-law Aurora Yambot; daughters Ma. Victoria and husband Ramon Jose, Maria Julieta and husband Jess Factora, Maria Paz and husband Toti Queliste, Maria Vilma and husband Steve Santhuff; sons Isagani Jr. and Ernesto Yambot; and grandchildren Julienne, Jef Factora, Jonathan Yambot, Myronne Jose, Maria Monica, Juliesse Factoran, and Gail Isabelle.

His body lies in state at the Arlington Memorial Chapel on Araneta Avenue in Quezon City. Details of the funeral will be released later. The family said Yambot’s remains will be cremated as he wished.

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