"As a relatively inexperienced public speaker, I prepared a text for a speech I was supposed to read for the occasion. However, as I scanned the crowd, I felt that what I wrote could bore the audience to tears. So I decided to wing it and, going by the applause, it seemed I didn't do too badly. But here's what I wrote not only for record purposes but for my fellow San Estebanians to understand my mission as editor in chief of Philippine News."

     My name is Lito Gutierrez, grandson of Juan Miguel Sipin Vergara of San Esteban, Ilocos Sur, and Agapita Beltran of Santa, also of Ilocos Sur. I am now the editor in chief and associate publisher of Philippine News, which some of you may know, is the oldest Filipino American newspaper. I myself joined it in June 2003, to make it a newspaper that each and every Filipino anywhere in the world would be proud of. I also brought with me two of my daughters to boost my other qualification as a proud father.

     As you may know, San Esteban has sired some of the best journalists and writers the Philippines has ever produced - Prud Europa, the Bigornia brothers Amante and Jess, among them. If I could just attain a fraction of what they have achieved, I’d call it a day. But my task as the editor of the premier Filipino American newspaper is more than daunting. Any competent journalist can put together competent newspaper. But, realistically or not, I aspire to create a great newspaper, for which sheer competence is not enough. It needs passion, a trait that I hope to impart and share with you tonight. There is no doubt that Philippine News is the No. 1 Filipino American newspaper. Even our so-called competitors have acknowledged this as fact. Whereas most of them would simply cobble together articles and photographs downloaded from the websites of newspapers in the Philippines, we at Philippine News report on issues that are immediately relevant to our needs and aspirations as Filipinos in America. No other Filipino American newspaper can claim better coverage for such issues as the fight for veterans’ equity, the struggle for immigration reform, the success of Filipinos in all aspects of American society.

     Also, no other newspaper is trying to reach our young Filipino Americans who, proud of their heritage, crave to know more of their bloodlines. This is not an easy task. It is also not cheap. Right now we are giving out Philippine News for free, like the other FilAm newspapers that simply repackage the news they cut and paste from the Internet. Which is why I am here. To seek your support to share this burden in empowering us Filipinos in America to assume our rightful place under the American sun. Not so much because I claim to be a kai-lian, but for our children so they may carry on our proud heritage.

     In the next few months, we are going to sell Philippine News for maybe 50 cents, just like the other mainstream newspapers, like the San Francisco Chronicle or the San Jose Mercury News. Or you could subscribe now to Philippine News for a special 50 percent discount rate of $39 a year, For such a small amount, you could contribute to raise even higher our journalistic standards. We could reach more of not only our fellow Ilocanos but all our kababayan as well. For only by reaching out can we unite and achieve a critical mass needed for America to pay more attention to us. I myself am a Democrat, but anyone of you who have followed our political coverage would know that as a newspaper, Philippine News is a forum for all ideas of all political persuasions.

     Let me set modesty aside for a bit to cite you an example of how much political “clout,” if you will, Philippine News has gained since I took over its editorship nearly three years ago. At the height of the last presidential campaign, I got a call from the New California Media, a loose coalition of media organizations, asking me to speak for all Asian media to protest the Kerry campaign’s move to pour advertising campaign money into African American and Hispanic media. The press conference was covered by the mainstream newspapers, including the Chronicle and the Mercury News. If the Kerry campaign thinks that it could take the Asian communities for granted, I asked, they’d better take another serious look.

     The following week, I got a call from a reporter of the Mercury News, asking me to comment on John Kerry coming to Daly City as a result of what I wrote. If with our current relatively small circulation we could influence a presidential campaign, just imagine what we could do for our community as a whole with your support.