Gil Yuzon turned 83 on the 38th anniversary of the Edsa People Power Revolution.
He celebrated it with the launch of the second volume of his book titled “Person, Family, Society,” held on Feb. 19 at the Alabang Country Club. It’s a compilation of his articles published in this paper. Both volumes have the same cover design but of different colors—the first was black, the second one is yellow.
“Yellow was not a partisan thing. It was the color of Edsa. It was multiparty. It was not about Ninoy (Aquino) per se,” he said.
Yuzon has helped shape the local advertising and media industry. He founded the multinational ad agency Hemisphere-Leo Burnett, and held key positions in government including as chair of NBN 4. He also worked in investment and tourism agencies. But it’s in putting values in advertising that he is most proud of in his career.
“I was able to help the communication industry, the marketing industry. When you sell a product it shouldn’t just be for the money, it should have social responsibility,” he said. “During President Cory’s first few years, we started a movement for values-oriented advertising, contributed by different multinational and local companies.”
Endearing
He also founded V.A. Yuzon Foundation, and was past president of Rotary Club of Pasay. Yuzon has worn many hats, including that of a poet, writer, athlete, proud Atenean, husband, father and doting grandfather.This writer found Yuzon endearing in person. Despite being the man of the hour, he made sure that no one was out of place in his event. He thanked almost everyone who contributed to the second volume of his book.
His daughter Bianca Yuzon Henares described him as a beautiful soul.
Yuzon did not receive profit from his first book, and it will be the same for the second volume. All proceeds from sales will go to his chosen charities, such as the V.A. Yuzon Foundation, Rotary Club of Pasay and World Vision. “I wanted to communicate in writing human insights on personal, family and social civic topics, which have wide applicability in various situations, in short experiences, lessons and learning, which could be useful as well as interesting,” he said in his speech.
He highlighted some of the articles that he felt so strongly about. One of them was titled, “Could this year’s Edsa celebration be the last?” The story was published two years ago.
“As early as that time, I saw the probable change in our country. I noticed the distortion of our country’s history in social media, in a well-planned campaign to influence the perception of our younger countrymen, especially the millennials, about the events that occurred before they were born,” he said. “Today my prediction—I hate to call it a prophecy—has become a sad reality.”
He lamented how the Edsa Revolution has been removed from the country’s official list of national holidays. “And the reason given was how our holiday calendar has to be trimmed down because we already have too many non-working holidays.”
He added, “It’s quite ironic that Edsa, which celebrates the historic restoration of our democracy through a peaceful revolution, and has become a global model emulated by at least 20 other countries in regaining their own democracy by peaceful means, especially at the end of the Cold War, has been effectively erased from our national history by the stroke of a pen through a simple presidential proclamation.”
He described the Edsa revolution as arguably Filipinos’ most shining moment. Yuzon fears that this is just the beginning—that there will be more historical revisions, only to be met by the Filipino people’s silence.
“Before we know it, the dark, miserable and gruesome years of martial law, which many of us, still alive today, had experienced, will be known as the Golden Era in the Philippines,” he said.
Not done dreaming
He quoted Robert Heinlein in saying that a generation that ignores history has no past and no future. Yuzon highlighted another article from his book, titled “What makes a good citizen?”
“The most important responsibility of a citizen in a democracy is precisely to help preserve the freedom and the rights he enjoys. Ralph Nader famously said, ‘There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship,’” he said.
A project he took on with his family during the pandemic can be added to his contribution to Filipinos. He translated the lyrics of “Bayan Ko” into English. The song was sung by his granddaughter Hannah Carlos.
“My objective in life was to maximize all the potentials given to me by God in every way. So if I was able to do that in every aspect of life, that’s my legacy,” he said.
Writing was his first love, but he never wanted to be an employee. It was how he became an entrepreneur. Yuzon ended up in the creative business because it allowed him to write and earn.
“I told myself I cannot support my family as a writer or a poet. I wanted to exercise my creativity, but earn money pa rin. I had a young family, I married at 21. So I went to advertising,” he said. “I injected values and culture into advertising.”
His retirement also brought him back to his first love—writing. Yuzon has written three books on poetry and shared his thoughts with Inquirer readers through his articles in this section.
But Yuzon is not done dreaming. “You know, all writers I know want to write a great Philippine novel. I think it’s a pipe dream, but it’s still there at the back of my mind,” he said.