'The Freeman' chairman launches memoirs

MANILA, Philippines –  Dr. Jose R. Gullas, chairman of the country’s oldest existing regional paper, has penned a 160-page memoirs to be launched today, Dec. 12. Entitled To Never Forget, the memoirs bare the author’s innermost feelings and thoughts on his experiences, both bitter and sweet, from the time of his childhood to his experiences as an educator, a one-term congressman, and as the man responsible for bringing back the Cebu-based daily The Freeman to circulation in the 1960s to honor the fading memory of an uncle, Paulino Gullas, a brilliant lawyer and former assemblyman, who disappeared during the Japanese occupation and was never heard from again.

On The Freeman, Gullas also opens up on the challenging upheavals the paper went through that threatened yet failed to put the paper out of circulation in the ‘80s, as well as how a series of fortuitous events led to what he calls the paper’s “sweetheart deal” with the country’s leading newspaper, The Philippine STAR.

There are also candid tales about his family relationships, especially with his parents, Don Vicente and Dona Josefina Gullas, the founders of Cebu’s first university, the University of the Visayas; his several brushes with death; and his faith.

In his book, he also talks about the stories behind his present pursuits and advocacies, including his active propagation of Cebuano musical heritage through his multi-awarded choir, the UV Chorale, and the one-of-a-kind Halad Museum and Halad concerts, the latest of which was held early this year to become the most-attended Cebu concert in recent years.

Book cover of Dodong R. Gullas’s memoirs

It is worth nothing in the book how the idea of the Halad projects came to him: it was when he was still a congressman that he discovered that there was still widespread misconception about the origins of the popular Christmas carol Kasadya Ning Taknaa (which inspired the Tagalog version, Ang Pasko ay Sumapit). He was particularly bothered by this because he personally knew the composer when he was still a young boy; thus, he was inspired to establish the Halad projects to pay tribute to Visayan musical greats and long-forgotten Cebuano composers.

Dodong Gullas served only a single term in Congress, from 2001 to 2004, wherein his flagship project was the House bill regionalizing the payroll system for the half a million public school teachers in the country; he never joined politics again, as the words of his mother kept haunting him: that if they all would venture into politics, they might as well forget about running a university.

All in all, the book provides a very sentimental, insightful, humorous and, more importantly, grateful look at all that has happened in his 76 years. He specially dedicates it to his parents: “Their teachings and examples have guided and immensely enriched my life. I will never be able to pay them back, except perhaps in my loving remembrance of them.” Dodong Gullas said that he was inspired to write his memoirs after he went through a critical medical operation in 2008. Recuperating from this ordeal, he said, gave him the opportunity to reflect and put his thoughts into writing.

When asked if this was his “legacy book,” he said he’d rather call this memoirs  “the footprints of my life.”

The memoirs, specially printed in Singapore by Tien Wah Press Limited, will be launched at the Radisson Blu today, Dec. 12, with two great Visayan artists as surprise guests. One of them became very popular nationally in the ‘70s, but went into hiatus for many decades and might have never come out of it if not for Dr. Gullas and his wife Nena, who recently found the singer and encouraged her to make a comeback for her fans.