Remembering BGB as The STAR shines toward its 40th year
When I think about the wattage of The Philippine STAR, the first image that comes to mind is the glow that emanates from its new glass headquarters in Parañaque City—the building, just like its work, is bright and transparent.
And then I think of its guiding light, founding chairman Betty Go-Belmonte (“BGB”), whose 32nd death anniversary we marked last Jan. 28, six months short of The STAR’s 40th founding anniversary this July.
I was thinking of how proud she would have been, nay, is, of the new STAR headquarters, which is composed of a four-story building connected by a walkway to another building that houses its printing press. The new office was inaugurated in January 2025. Literally and figuratively, it is a long way from The STAR’s old offices in Port Area, Manila. Though the Port Area offices produced legends, scoops and indelible memories, The STAR has indeed moved up, rising like a new dawn.
But its guiding light remains unwavering, almost 40 years later.
“No doubt Mom would have been impressed with our building,” says her son Miguel, president and CEO of The STAR. “She would surely be happy and proud with what we have achieved—that is beyond her own dream for the company.”
Betty founded The Philippine STAR with Max Soliven and Art Borjal as the country was relishing its new-found freedoms, including freedom of the press, on July 28, 1986. It was the 23rd newspaper on the block.
Armed with faith and expertise, Betty saw it through till it became the country’s leading newspaper, supervising its operations even as she valiantly fought cancer. She passed away on Jan. 28, 1994.
When you enter the building, you immediately behold a bust of Betty, whom President Cory Aquino once described as “the epitome of faith and friendship.”
“It seems like my mother’s whole life was dedicated to doing other things for other people, she was constantly helping those in need. Never did she put herself ahead of others,” Miguel once shared with me. “And even if she could easily afford it, she never spent on material luxuries for herself, no expensive jewelry, bags, shoes or house. And yet she was one of the most powerful and influential women in the country before her death.”
Former Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Betty’s beloved husband, said in an interview that the grief of losing Betty has never left. “Grief doesn’t end. It changes shape, but it never leaves—and that’s love’s fingerprint.”
Betty is perhaps the only woman with the distinction of having founded the two leading papers in modern Philippine history—the Philippine STAR and the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which she left to establish The Philippine STAR in July 1986.
At The STAR employees’ appreciation party on the newspaper’s 25th year in 2011, Miguel paused poignantly in his speech and said, “Without her, I am 100 percent sure The STAR would not be here today.”
“It was she who convinced Max Soliven and Art Borjal to join her in setting up The STAR,” Miguel pointed out.
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I remember the Sunday afternoon in 1981 when I first met her. It was the launching of The STAR Monthly! magazine in Club Filipino, and my UP schoolmate Marlu Villanueva (Balmaceda) encouraged me to attend it because the new magazine’s editor Betty Go-Belmonte was a prominent name in the publishing world and had trained many writers. I remember the gloss of the event, because the hottest young stars of the era were present (I recall among them were Jacquilou Blanco and William Martinez). Betty was the editor of the magazine, and her firstborn, Isaac, the publisher. I remember how awestruck I was when I met Tita Betty. She was wearing a red dress and a gentle smile.
She gave me my very first paid writing assignment right there and then: Christopher de Leon. Since I was from UP like she was, she told me I had her vote of confidence. “I think you’re going to be a good writer!” (Betty majored in English at the University of the Philippines in the ’50s, and her love for the State University would endure until the day she died.)
And my life has never been the same after that. I was hired by “Tita” Betty, as she asked Marlu and me to call her, to be one of The STAR Monthly!’s writers, and eventually, its associate editor even though I was still completing my Journalism degree. The STAR Monthly! magazine also held office at the Port Area building where The Philippine STAR would be born five years later.
That is Betty Go-Belmonte’s legacy to me, but I am but a speck in the expanse of people whose lives she touched—from Presidents she supported with her life, to the shoemaker outside The STAR building that she gave an “office” to do business in (Tita Betty said he refused to be hired by The STAR because he wanted to be his own boss and she respected that), to the employees she said were the reason behind her efforts (sometimes business was a struggle, especially after the economic fallout of the assassination of Ninoy Aquino in 1983) to keep the company afloat; to the family she adored and taught the values of faith and service.
“Mom’s courage in the face of all the things that she experienced throughout her life is one thing I can never forget,” her firstborn child Isaac once shared. Betty founded The STAR on a guidance she received from a Bible verse, and she would face life’s many trials with discernment she got from the holy book.
“Her absolute, unflinching faith and devotion to our Lord,” is her second son Kevin’s most vivid memory of his mother, who passed away at age 60.
“I credit Mom 100% for molding me into the public servant that I am today. When faced with challenges, I often ask myself, ‘What would Mom do in my shoes?’ and immediately I feel guided in my actions and decisions,” her youngest child, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte, once told me in an interview.
***
How can one forget a mentor, who in her pursuit of journalism, aimed to treat everyone like a “star?”
In one of her editor’s notes in the pre-EDSA STAR! Monthly magazine, Betty wrote: “While others call you people, we here at STAR! choose to call you stars. In other words, no matter your station in life, if you shine and give light to this world, you are a star.”
Just like the building that rose beyond her dreams.
