Anything Under the Sun
Milagros P. Sanchez -- Media Matriarch
(This is an excerpt of this writer's speech during the celebration of the 85th birthday of Mrs. Milagros P. Sanchez last July 19.)
To us, mediamen, Manang Mila is the matriarch of the media. Not only is she the oldest among us but -- she is also in a very unique position as publisher, printer, editor of a publication, all rolled into one.
Yes, where can you find in the Philippines a woman at the ripe age of 85 being a printer, editor and publisher of a publication at the same time? This makes her a sui generis -- a class by herself.
Daku nga Milagro ini! (This is a great miracle!) Thus, Manang Mila is really true to her name -- Milagros.
Her publication is like a very unique one. It is La Panayana, the oldest existing publication in the whole Philippines founded in 1905 by her father Casimor Perfecto -- also the first printer in West Visayas way back during the Spanish time.
Since 1905, this annual publication was never interrupted except during the war years. Sometime in the 1960s Manang Mila took over the management of La Panayana up to the present.
The life of Manang Mila reminds me of my own experience few years ago. I revisited our farm where we stayed during the war under a mango tree. During the war that mango tree was very productive with big fruits. During my visit it was already very old with scarcer leaves but still producing mango fruits though very small ones now.
So, I meditated: This old mango tree understood its destiny and mission in the world -- to produce fruits such that even they are now small fruits it continues to produce. So a man, no matter how old is he, must try to fulfill the mission God has given him.
To Manang Mila, her divine mission is to serve God and man -- a mandate which she is still obeying in her own little way during her old age.