His widow Ruth de Leon had this to say of him, as a journalist, in an e-mail sent to Bulatlat from The Netherlands where she is now based:
“Whenever I read newspapers from there, I always think about what Manong said that reporters must be more circumspect in their writing, and editors/copyreaders/proofreaders must be more circumspect in their editing. Sloppy writing is getting to be more prevalent these days.
“He was also sad about the spread of envelop-mental journalism (bribery).”
Politicization
At the same time that he was making entry into journalism, he also became active in union politics. His experience in media workers’ struggles, together with the overall socio-political ferment at the time he was “coming of age” as a journalist, would later on be instrumental in his politicization.
Shortly after he joined the Herald, the newspaper’s employees and workers organized a union, with Teddy Benigno as president. Tony signed up right away when Benigno asked him to join. With this, he risked getting into trouble with his uncle – especially when the union got embroiled in a dispute – which was luckily settled amicably.
The late 1940s and early 1950s were periods of strong nationalist stirrings, and Tony was caught up in the current. He said he was strongly influenced at that time by the ideas of Sen. Claro M. Recto, his editor Jose A. Lansang, and poet-journalist Amado V. Hernandez, as well as by writers Renato Constantino, Ernesto Granada, and I.P. Soliongco.
From the establishment of the National Press Club (NPC) in 1955, Tony and his friends in the Herald were regulars at its bar. Not only that: he would also later get deeply involved in the organization’s politics.
In the 1960s the union headed by Benigno died what he called “a natural death, from neglect.” Beningo had transferred to another media outfit and there was not much enthusiasm among those left behind – even as there was a need for unionizing because of the measly wages the employees and workers were being paid.
Shortly after, the employees and workers at the Herald reorganized the union. The Madrigals – who owned the Herald, Mabuhay, and El Debate – soon sold the newspaper chain to the Sorianos, and the unionists, who registered with the Philippine Association of Free Labor Unions (PAFLU) led by Cipriano Cid, would not long after get into what was to be the fight of their lives at that time. A deadlock in collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations in 1962 led the unionists to go on strike. The strike lasted three months and left an indelible mark on the consciousness of Tony, who from that point on “could not pass a strike area without contributing to the strike fund and giving the strikers a few words of encouragement.”
At Bulletin he also joined the union, of which he was later elected vice president. When he was promoted from reporter to news editor, he initially wanted to decline the promotion because it would make him part of management and would run counter to his status as a unionist. But Rodriguez insisted that he assume the position and disregarded the issue of whether or not he was with management or with the union. He took the news editorship but stayed with the union.
In the early 1970s he juggled three major positions: president of the NPC, chairman of the Amado V. Hernandez Memorial Foundation (AVHMF), and one of the leaders of the original Movement of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL).
As NPC president, he led in giving space to statements and views from activist organizations, and allowed them the use of the NPC office as a sanctuary from violent dispersals as well as a venue for their press conferences.
At the same time that he was juggling leadership tasks in the NPC, AVHMF, and the MCCCL, he also got invited to join a group under the National Press Bureau of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Later on he became a member of the Preparatory Commission of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), which was under the CPP’s United Front Commission.
A revolutionary
At the hour that martial law was declared, he was downing a few bottles of beer with friends at the NPC office: after the end of the drinking bout he swam the Pasig River – then as now notorious for its stench – and disappeared into the revolutionary underground.
