Nalzaro: Second columnist dropped

“BLOOD is thicker than water,” said radio-TV broadcaster  Bobby Nalzaro, explaining why his column no longer appears in Sun Star Cebu and Superbalita.

Nalzaro, an arch critic of suspended governor Gwendolyn Garcia, said he did not receive any warning before from Sun.Star editors to stop his attacks against Garcia, a cousin of the chairman of the paper’s board of directors.

In fact, according to Nalzaro, a ranking  Sun Star Cebu officer would tell him “Go, go, go!” each time he wrote stinging commentaries of the three-term governor.

But Nalzaro, who has been writing a column for 15 years in the English daily and 18 years for the Cebuano tabloid,  said he saw the gag order coming because it had happened before in 2004 to another Sun Star columnist, Marit Remonde, the Danish wife of Cerge Remonde, who was also writing a column for the paper and managing radio station dyLA.

In 2004, Marit’s column was dropped after Garcia family members complained about critical commentaries  she wrote about then  incumbent Cebu City Mayor Alvin Garcia.

Alvin is a first cousin of Gwen.  Their fathers, the late Jesus Garcia Sr. and Deputy Speaker Pablo Garcia are brothers.

At the time, some quarters urged Cerge to quit writing for Sun Star to denounce his wife’s gagging.  But Cerge, a close friend of former Sun Star editor Pachico Seares, chose to continue with his column.

In an interview yesterday, Nalzaro revealed that Marit talked to him on the phone last Sunday.  He would not say what they discussed, now that they share the experience of getting the boot.

Nalzaro, who earlier told Cebu Daily News that he was on a “sabbatical” after being advised by his editors to stop writing till the Capitol impasse is over, said he would wait until the issue blows over before deciding what to do next.

He said he needed to put a “period” to the issue. /Malou Guanzon Apalisok