‘I Was Just Doing What Should’ve Been Done’: Eggie Apostol, Press Freedom Icon, Dies at 100
The Inquirer founder turned the ‘lipstick beat’ into a space for intelligent women’s reading
by Zoe Andin
Published on Sep 15, 2026
(SPOT.ph) Eugenia "Eggie" Apostol, one of the country's most influential journalists and founding chairperson of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, has passed away on September 13, 2026. She was 100 years old.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, which honored Apostol in 2006, announced her death, remembering her as a journalist who gave Filipinos “the information and voice they needed in a defining chapter of her nation’s history.”
Apostol became known for her fearless journalism during the Marcos dictatorship. She was the first recipient of the International Center for Journalists’ Knight International Press Fellowship Lifetime Achievement Award and the University of the Philippines’ Gawad Plaridel. In 2006, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts.
The Apostol family has requested privacy following her passing.
Who was Eugenia Apostol?
Born in Sorsogon in 1925, Apostol spent her early years there before moving to Manila, where her father served in the National Assembly. She studied Philosophy and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas before entering journalism through Catholic publications, where her willingness to challenge authority surfaced early.
As women’s section editor of The Sentinel, Apostol caught the ire of the ultraconservative Archbishop of Manila after criticizing a ban on ballet classes and performances in Catholic schools.
After The Sentinel, she became editor of the women’s pages of The Manila Times and The Manila Chronicle. There, she turned a “lipstick beat”—a term for the women’s lifestyle sections of newspapers covering home, fashion, and food—toward more civic-minded women readers. Under her editorship, female writers such as Gilda Cordero Fernando and Doreen Fernandez found space in the press.
The late National Artist for Literature Resil B. Mojares wrote of Apostol’s impact: “Crafting the [Manila Chronicle’s Woman and Home] magazine as “the intelligent woman’s guide to being a Filipino homemaker and career woman, she expanded the content to include consumer issues, civic activities, and broad national concerns.”
In the 1970s, Apostol founded Mr. and Ms. magazine with her husband Jose. Mr. and Ms. became Apostol’s platform for testing the limits of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship’s censors by publishing political commentary from independents and anti-regime critics.
This came at a cost. Soon, Apostol and other women journalists were summoned to appear before the military-controlled National Intelligence Board, a move Apostol called “scare tactics.” Her seemingly fearless reporting came from a commitment to her duty as a journalist: “I was just doing what should have been done. Journalists have to tell the truth.”
It was the assassination of Ninoy Aquino that pushed Apostol toward more aggressive dissent.
Furious at the mainstream media’s lack of coverage, Apostol launched the Mr. and Ms. Special Edition, a weekly tabloid focused on the Aquino assassination and its aftermath, edited by fellow journalism titan Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc.
With its hard-hitting, graphic coverage of Aquino’s body on the tarmac and the funeral parade that followed, the special edition sold over half a million copies, which eventually evolved into a weekly publication.
The journo that took on two presidents
Apostol helped found the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 1985 with a group of journalists and publishers that included Betty Go-Belmonte, Max Soliven, Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, and Luis “Louie” Beltran. Apostol served as the founding chair of the newspaper.
The Inquirer and other opposition papers were dubbed the “mosquito press” by the Marcos Sr. administration for their open criticism of the dictatorship. Inquirer documented the fall of Marcos Sr., EDSA People Power, and Corazon Aquino’s eventual rise to the presidency.
Apostol stayed with the Philippine Daily Inquirer until 1994, ending her stint as its publisher.
Although she went on to start the Foundation for Worldwide People Power in 1996 to preserve and promote the democratic values of the 1986 EDSA Revolution, with projects that included books and documentaries on Martial Law and People Power, Apostol never truly left publishing.
In 1999, after then-President Joseph “Erap” Estrada called for an advertising boycott of the Inquirer, Apostol founded Pinoy Times, a conversational Filipino tabloid covering the fall of Erap for over two years.
Apostol, who was in her mid-70s by then, was still on the ground pitching stories, covering the president’s unexplained wealth and scandals.
Her fortitude inspired generations of journalists, as colleagues left tributes for her across social media. The Philippine Daily Inquirer wrote on Facebook: “A fearless voice for truth and press freedom has fallen silent... [she] behind a legacy that helped shape Philippine journalism through some of the country’s most defining moments.”
Zoe thinks a lot but forgets just as much. Writing helps her deal with both problems. When she isn't writing, she spends time baking sweets, wandering around, or staring up at the moon.