SunStar
+ April 12, 2021 I SAW it on a Facebook wall written by a senior who is now in his twilight years. According to him, as an octogenarian, he experienced and witnessed too many calamities more than what he expected. He heard the bombs dropped by the Japanese invading army when they targeted Clark Air Force Base as World War 2 exploded following the bombing of Pearl Harbor December 8, 1941. As a young boy, he was delighted to watch the sky featuring the “dog fights” between the US air force pilots and their Japanese counterparts.
Already a grown-up in the 50’s when the dissident groups led by then Huk supremo Luis Taruc roamed the countrysides and ambushes of government soldiers were waylaid. Those were dangerous years. The Huk movement nearly toppled the established government and only was averted when Ramon Magsaysay, a popular figure among the masses, was elected president. The succeeding years, the country enjoyed tranquility until in 1972 Ferdinand M
Fond remembrances of Dr. Crispulo Icban Jr., editor in chief of the Manila Bulletin
WELL-RESPECTED MEDIA MAN Mr. Icban’s favorite photo taken in his office while he was press secretary under PGMA administration
In the 1980s, the Icban family would go to the Ali Mall in Cubao on Sunday afternoons for dinner. On the way there from Project 8, where they lived, Mr. Icban would purchase sampaguita from the street peddlers. He’d bring the strings of sampaguita to the mall and, as the family walked around, he would fall behind and eventually disappear. They would find him later standing by the mall entrance holding the sampaguita like he was selling them. He would pretend to be a poor old, deaf-mute man, so that someone would take pity and buy from him the flower leis he had just bought to help street peddlers.