WE ADDRESSED him as “Sir Danny” or “Boss DF.” Our Panay News founder Daniel “Danny” G. Fajardo was full of wisdom he loved to share with us his employees.
Like a father to his children, he always made it a point to motivate and inspire us to do more and do better.
Panay News is strong and resilient in the face of challenges such as the ongoing pandemic because Sir Danny planted it seeds in us. He may have transitioned to another realm but his teachings remain fresh in our hearts and minds. They are our guideposts and we feel like Sir Danny he never really left.
We are now in the second year of the coronavirus pandemic. If Sir Danny were still with us today, what would he have done? What would he be telling us his media “children”?
He once said our world is a revolving machine so we must have the courage to evolve, too, and not stay dormant. Or we would be left by the wayside, irrelevant.
Yes, Sir Danny was not short in courage. Surely, the pandemic wouldn’t scare him. His infectious nerve of steel is one precious thing that keeps us in Panay New going – as truth tellers, our job is more than ever crucial in a pandemic that has curtailed people’s movement and access to truthful and useful information, what with “alternative truths” and fake news spreading like wild fire, especially on social media.
To counter this, Sir Danny said “technology and modern sciences” must be used as new armaments but always with the truth as the gold standard.
He also warned us about enemies of press freedom, and these are not ordinary people. They are big – they have the force, power and influence he said Panay News should stay the course – expand the culture of press freedom and truth telling.
“The people want to know the truth,” said Sir Danny, and this was the very reason he put up Panay News 40 years ago.
Ah yes, as a doting father, Sir Danny would constantly egg us to improve our craft, and our favorite paper, too and have the determination to make it really the favorite of people not only in Region 6 but all over the country.
We in Panay News thus continue to remind ourselves, even in these perilous times, to be “vanguards of press freedom.” Yes, these were the very words of our dear Sir Danny, a maverick journalist. And they ring ever true./PN
