CEBU, Philippines – Veteran Cebuano journalist Emmanuel “Anol” Mongaya, 61, was cremated and brought to his final resting place in Cebu City on Monday, July 11. He died Friday, July 8.  

Doris Isubal-Mongaya, Anol’s wife and a publicist, said he had a stroke on Wednesday, July 6. He slipped into a coma before dying on Friday. 

Mongaya started his journalism career in the 80s as a correspondent for Philippine News and Features (PNF) and the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN).

In 1989, he became a reporter in Cebu for the defunct Newstime Daily, eventually becoming a managing editor of the paper.

SunStar Cebu hired Mongaya in 1993, He worked as city editor, regions editor, and the managing editor of its Bisaya newspaper. He led Superbalita Cebu from 1994 until his retirement in 2010.

His former SunStar colleagues described Mongaya as “pioneering” for developing the reporting style of Superbalita Cebu, the city’s most popular print publication.

Prior to his journalism career, Mongaya was an activist who fought against the dictatorship of Ferdinand E. Marcos.

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“Anol knew Cebu media well: its strengths and lighted places, its failings and dark corners. He knew who and what made Cebu journalism  shine and where it stank,” Cebu Citizens Press Council executive director Pachico Seares, a former SunStar editor, told Rappler

Seares and Mongaya were friends and colleagues at SunStar Cebu. 

In recent years, Mongaya was writing a column for Superbalita and business weekly Cebu Business Week while managing his blog “In Between Columns”.

Doris remembered Anol as a man who loved their four children and his community. – Rappler.com