The Philippine Daily Inquirer headline was concise: “Corky Trinidad, 69.” So was the Associated Press report that followed:
“Honolulu Star Bulletin’s award-winning editorial cartoonist, Corky Trinidad, died Friday, after 40 years of poking fun at life and politics…
“Born in the Philippines, Trinidad was the first Asian editorial cartoonist to be syndicated in the US. He specialized in caricaturing and skewering politicians, most notably Ferdinand Marcos.”
Pancreatic cancer ended another story of how corrupt dictatorships drive the best and the brightest of a country into nations that “allow them to breathe free.”
Francisco Trinidad Jr. came from a family of journalists. His parents were broadcaster Francisco “Koko” Trinidad and columnist Lina Flor. An Ateneo graduate, he joined the Philippines Herald in 1961 as a political cartoonist.
International recognition came quickly. Los Angeles Times-Washington Post Syndicate started publishing his cartoons. Corky created the comic strip “Nguyen Charlie” during the Vietnam War.
He joined the Star-Bulletin in 1969. His cartoons were picked up by diverse papers — from The New York Times to Politiken in Sweden, Buenos Aires’ Herald and the Manila Chronicle.
“He left the Philippines because of harassment by Ferdinand Marcos,” recalls Carl Zimmerman, former AP chief in Manila. Married to a Filipina, Zimmerman became Star-Bulletin editorial writer. “If Corky stayed [until martial law] he’d have wound up in prison.”
In the early 1970s, I wrote for Star-Bulletin. When I passed by Honolulu, Corky picked me up for lunch with his wife Hana. He asked about the emerging dictatorship — and home. “I know how men in exile feed on dreams,” Aeschylus wrote.
Zimmerman was visiting the Press Foundation of Asia when military agents arresting journalists arrested me. Waving the photocopied arrest warrant, with Juan Ponce Enrile’s signature, I said: “Here, Carl.”
“Are you a foreign journalist?” the agitated colonel asked, snatching away the warrant. “You’re not to see this.”
Corky became the first of many journalists who would seek refuge abroad. Australia opened its door to columnist-painter Alfredo Roces and Amando Doronila. The Chinese Commercial News’ Rizal Yuyitung settled in Canada. Brother Quintin opted for San Francisco. The Manila Times’ Eddie Monteclaro signed up with the Chicago Tribune. I joined the United Nations.
Other exiles from the Marcos dictatorship included Benigno and Corazon Aquino, Raul Manglapus, Eugenio Lopez Jr., Sergio Osmeña Jr., Heherson Alvarez and human rights lawyer Juan Quijano. Charito Planas slipped out the backdoor to Sabah, disguised as a nun.
Ambassador Eduardo Quintero exposed bribery by Marcos of constitutional convention delegates. “Persecution drove Quintero to self-exile in the United States where, in December 1984, he died of a heart attack at age 84,” Doronila recalls. “He was vindicated by the Supreme Court in 1988, four years after his death.”
“By their exiles, you shall know them.” Look at what Marcos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo tossed up.
Fabian Ver and Eduardo Cojuangco squeezed into escape helicopter bucket seats. Police officials Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao ran before they could be grilled about the mastermind in the murder of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer. To dodge testifying on kickbacks, Estrada auditor Yolanda Ricaforte left no forwarding address. Neither did members of Estrada’s “midnight cabinet”: Jaime Dichaves, Dante Tan and company. Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn Bolante skipped town to dodge questions on the fertilizer scam
Every day Corky would draw a color cartoon for the front page and a black-and-white one for the editorial page. For 40 years, he did that. Yet, he found time to teach cartooning at the University of Hawaii.
“Corky enchanted and infuriated more readers than anyone else in this newspaper’s history,” said Mary Poole, Trinidad’s editor. “Politicians he skewered were first in line to acquire the original drawings. That included US presidents visiting Hawaii.”
He kept an eye on the twists of Philippine politics. In December 2007, he emailed me his cartoon on the Magdalo caper at the Peninsula Hotel. It depicts a handful of soldiers, perched on a mall stand, demanding: “Gloria Resign.” Heedless crowds walk by. “What’s all that about?” a woman asks. A man replies, “EDSA 52.”
Exiles often sink roots into the country that gave them liberty denied at home. America became the home of his choice, Corky said at one ceremony honoring him. But he did not take any of citizenship benefits for granted.
He gave to his adopted country much of the talents that he brought from the Philippines. Among other things, he trained a new generation of cartoonists. Jon J. Murakami, for example, met Corky as a fifth-grade student.
“Corky really became the face of the Star-Bulletin for many years,” said Zimmerman. The paper’s obit noted: “Trinidad’s philosophy for young cartoonists was as simple as it was elegant: Take a stand.”
“Aside from following basic aims of informing, instructing and entertaining, the editorial cartoon, first and always, must make a statement,” Corky wrote. “It must BE a statement… I have never seen a great cartoon that sat on a fence… And a few drawing skills help.”
Was America’s gain therefore our loss? Human lives are not a zero-sum game. A country of migrants, like the Philippines, must tell its sons and daughters: “Bloom wherever you are planted.”
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Email: juanlmercado@gmail.com
