Veteran journalist Joe Pavia dies at 72

UPDATED 5:36 p.m. - Philippine Press Institute (PPI) Executive Director Jose “Joe" Pavia passed away at 5:25 a.m. on Monday, the veteran journalist's family has confirmed. Pavia's brother Tony told GMA News Online that the PPI chief, 72, died of complications from lung cancer. “He had undergone three surgeries before he was diagnosed with cancer last March," Tony said. Pavia is survived by his wife, Loreto Quijano, and eight children. Pavia's body lies for viewing and for ceremonies at the Arlington Chapels in Araneta Avenue, Quezon City. The burial date is yet to be decided. Meanwhile, in a press release, PPI said Pavia filed a medical leave late last year for his first surgery but was never able to return, the PPI said. The PPI said Pavia passed away in the same hospital where he underwent three surgeries for brain tumor. He has been executive director of PPI, a national organization of newspapers, since May 2009. "Pavia is best admired as a teaching editor, from his years at the Daily Philippines Herald, where he was caught by the imposition of martial law in 1972," the PPI said. The PPI noted that Pavia lost "both his newspaper and his job as assistant news editor, to his years at the official Philippine News Agency, which he tried to run as professionally as the conditions of the emergency permitted." "At PPI, he ran its every training program and conference and often served as a resource person on similar occasions elsewhere in Asia. All this time, he also published his Bulacan-based weekly for Central Luzon, Mabuhay, constantly held up as a model for community newspapers," the PPI said. For its part, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said: "The NUJP salutes Joe who has always worked with a big heart for the cause of community newspapers as he was one of their own." "The NUJP will forever remember Joe as a staunch press freedom advocate," the NUJP added. Advocate of press freedom Known as an advocate of press freedom, Pavia chaired the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ), a group of media professionals formed in 2003 to help the families of slain media practitioners. He was also a vocal critic of the controversial Right of Reply bill. Pavia was likewise the pubisher of Mabuhay, a weekly regional newspaper in Central Luzon. – Suzette Dalumpines, VVP/HS/RSJ, GMA News