Malaria And Cancer

**mikaztro** · June 4th, 2005 08:24 PM

Reyster Langit succumbs to cerebral malaria

The Philippine Star 06/04/2005

Reyster Langit, son of broadcaster Rey Langit, passed away at the St. Vincent Memorial Hospital in the US from cerebral malaria. The younger Langit, 33, caught the disease while making a documentary in Palawan, which is known to be infested with malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Reyster didn‘t feel the symptoms of the disease until he left Palawan for Los Angeles, and was even reported to be responding well to medication and a blood transfusion done at St. Vincent.

Reyster went to Palawan with his team to investigate malaria, which afflicts many people in the said area and which has resulted in a high incidence of mortality.

Reyster’s father, Rey Langit, said in a DZRH phone patch from Los Angeles that Filipinos based in LA wanted to help Reyster in his crusade to get to the bottom of the deadly disease.

"Reyster told me that would have been the greatest achievement in his life. And Filipinos based in LA were willing to support him," the elder Langit added.

Reyster, his father said, was even able to bring his five-year-old son to Disneyland as a way of compensating for the time he (Reyster) spent away from the boy because of work.

Father and son have won many broadcasting awards for their weekly afternoon show Biyaheng Langit over RPN 9. Reyster produced and directed the said documentary show.

The Langit family is expected to return to Manila from Los Angeles tomorrow morning. They will bring with them Reyster’s remains. Interment will be at the Manila Memorial Chapel in Sucat, Parañaque.
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Benigno succumbs to liver cancer; 81
By Joanne Rae Ramirez
The Philippine Star 06/04/2005

"Wrote 30" would have been a bland way to describe the passing yesterday morning of STAR columnist and former press secretary Teodoro "Teddyman" Benigno.

A veteran newsman "who toiled the fields" for close to six decades, Benigno, a former boxer and self-confessed street fighter from Pasay, had always wanted the verbs in his news stories to be "leaping." So how might one describe the exit from this world of a man who lived life vividly and described it with throbbing realism?

Benigno, the bureau chief in Manila of the French news agency Agence France Presse for over two decades, would have crossed out any staid verbs in his obit. He cut his teeth in journalism as a sportswriter and waterfront reporter for the police beat in 1945 and likely would have approved if it were written that he "proudly hung his gloves over the ring after a valiant bout with liver cancer." He was a prizefighter till the end, unbowed till the final bell. He was 81.

"He died quietly," said his wife, Luz Palacios, minutes after he breathed his last at the Makati Medical Center at 6:15 a.m. yesterday.

Benigno was diagnosed with cancer last month, she said. The wake will be held at the Magallanes Village church.

Benigno, whose thrice-weekly columns in The STAR were widely read and admired, attributed his instinct for "leaping" action words to his stint as a sportswriter.

When he was press secretary to then President Corazon Aquino from 1986 to May 1989, Benigno wouldn’t just write "Please disseminate" when dishing out official memos. Instead, he would write, "Please cascade to all members of the staff."

Benigno was invited by then STAR chairman and president Betty Go-Belmonte and publisher Max Soliven after his resignation from government. It is said that to keep that major move under wraps, Benigno and Soliven sealed their negotiations in French.

Benigno’s column, "Here’s the Score," first appeared on the front page of The STAR on June 26, 1989.

In his preface to Benigno’s first column in The STAR, publisher Soliven wrote: "As a veteran newspaperman, political writer, Agence France Presse Bureau chief, linguist, professor, sports columnist and writer-of-all-trades, Teddyman always knows how to keep score."

Benigno, who lived in France from 1964 to 1969 while taking courses in international relations at the Institut d’ Etudes Politiques in Paris, was also the founder and first president of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines in 1974, two years after the declaration of martial law.

Benigno witnessed some of the Philippines’ most turbulent times, especially during the martial law years under the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Benigno was also a professor of the French language at the Centro Hispanico in Manila (later International Languages Institute), besides giving special private French language courses to government functionaries.

On Sept. 3, 1986, he was appointed by then President Aquino as her first press secretary.

Benigno covered the late Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. extensively, even during the latter’s three-year exile in the US. He was authorized by Mrs. Aquino to write Ninoy’s biography.

"He was gifted, erudite and thought-provoking. He wrote with flair and a fierce dedication to his principles as a journalist. He will be missed for his candor and passionate views," she said.

Benigno’s former assistant at the press office, Mila Alora remembers him as a "demanding and results-oriented boss, a great teacher and a loyal friend."

According to Soliven, Benigno was offered an ambassadorial post and directorships in government corporations after he left the Cabinet, "but he turned these down."

"Philippine journalism has lost one of its greatest men," Soliven said. "Teddy didn’t regard journalism as a job... to him it was a mission. He loved his country and loved his people. We will miss him greatly."

Former senator Raul Roco said, "Teddy Benigno must be having a good laugh. An iconoclast, he debunked institutions and in the process became an institution himself."

"He was reporting not only on day-to-day events but reflecting always on the bigger picture of nations and society," he added.

Senate President Franklin Drilon described Benigno’s death as "a great loss to the Fourth Estate... (he) will always be remembered as a stalwart, mightily putting into words his views amidst political upheaval... Teddy wrote with sensitivity, always discerning what lies ahead."

Teddyman was a recipient of numerous national awards: Rotary Hall of Fame, Rotary Columnist of the Year for several years, and the Catholic Mass Media Award. He also won the much coveted New York TV/Film Festival award for his interviews with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger which were aired on his TV public affairs program, "Firing Line."

Benigno was an alumnus of the Malate Catholic School in Manila, the University of Sto. Tomas, and the Lyceum University, where he obtained his AB in Journalism in 1967.

He left behind his wife Luz and son Marc, as well as daughter Nena — also a writer — from a previous marriage. The funeral will be on Tuesday, the family said. — With AFP, AP, Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero

"He was a both an avid Francophile and an ardent Filipino nationalist. Contemporaries inside the agency admired him not only for his informed reportage and incisive analysis, but also for the courage and passion which he brought into everything he did."

Former president Aquino said in a statement that she felt "sad and sorry" over Benigno's death, adding that "I will not forget the good things he did for me and for the restoration of our democracy."

Aquino spokeswoman Lourdes Sytangco told AFP the former leader was at the bedside of Benigno late Thursday, hours before he died.

A founding member of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), established to defend media freedom during martial law, Benigno's influence extended way beyond the Philippine islands.

"I was considered French, with almost all of the rights and privileges of a French citizen. But I never ceded any right I had as a Filipino. I was still and remained a Filipino to the core," he wrote in the January 2005 edition of the FOCAP magazine.

When Marcos was toppled by a popular revolution in February 1986, Benigno was asked to join Aquino as press secretary, a decision which he described as one of "the hardest I had ever made".

But working on the other side of the fence was not for him and Benigno resigned in May 1989 to return to his one great love, writing.

His column "Here's The Score" first appeared in The Philippine Star on June 26, 1989, and he continued writing the column up until a month ago when he was diagnosed with cancer.

Star publisher and columnist Max Soliven said: "Philippine journalism has lost one of its greatest men.

"Teddy didn't regard journalism as a job ... to him it was a mission. He loved his country and loved its people. We will miss him greatly."

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My condolences to the family of Reyster Langit and Mr. Teddy Benigno.
Media has lost two great media men and journalists.
We will miss you both.

**squala** · June 4th, 2005 08:35 PM

Why does it have to be the good ones.

Anyway, to prevent the sickness in your place, remove any stagnant water and be generous with the insecticide and repellants.

**artpogi** · June 4th, 2005 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by squala

Why does it have to be the good ones.

Yeah, you can say that again, di na lang yung naka away ni Blackmagic ang namatay para nabawasan salot sa lipunan

**chua_riwap** · June 4th, 2005 09:23 PM

Hmmmmm.......Gandang idea yan ah. Bakit di pagbakasyunin muna nila sa Palawan, yung mga lintek na politikos na sabit sa Jueteng Scandal? Para ganun, wala nang sakit sa ulo ang Pinas. Makagat sila ng lamok doon at tamaan ng Cerebral Malaria, in less than one month, tepok sila! :bwahaha:

**squala** · June 5th, 2005 05:11 AM

In other religions, you are permitted to kill anyone doing no good and all evil.

**ILuvDetailing** · June 5th, 2005 01:32 PM

sad news...

**shadowfax** · June 5th, 2005 02:15 PM

iba pala umatake ang cerebral malari na yan... two weeks ang incubation period sa katawan then wala pang manifestation kung may malaria ka o wala...

my condolences to Mr. Langit's family ang Mr. Benigno's famili... (kahit di nila ako kakilala) Let's pray for their souls...

**BlueGirl** · June 5th, 2005 04:09 PM

life is short nuh?isipin mo lamok lang ang katapat niya...sad pero lahat naman tayo magkikita-kita sa kabilang buhay...ipagpray nalang natin siya...at least natupad ang wish ng anak niya na pumunta sa disneyland bago siya pumanaw...may he rest in peace...

**OTEP** · June 5th, 2005 11:19 PM

Ang palawan is known to be an endemic area for Malaria (all kinds).

As per guidelines, dapat nag-prophylactic (preventive) treatment muna sila before going to said area.