The literary and journalistic legacy of Joel Pablo Salud
Journalist, author, and editor Joel Pablo Salud passed away on March 19 after suffering a mild heart attack. He was 63.
Joel was the author of the books Blood Republic (essays), The Distance of Rhymes and Other Tragedies (short fiction), I, Journalist and Other Newsroom Introspections (essays), The Chief is in the House: My Little Journal of Angst and Peeves (essays), True Fiction and Other Stories (short fiction), Of Time and Ashes (poetry), Dissecting the Dictator: An essay on Tyranny (non-fiction), Laughaholics Synonymous (humor), and Specimen Zero (science fiction). He also contributed poetry to the protest poetry anthology Bloodlust and to the two-volume anthology of Philippine poetry The Achieve of, the Mastery, and an essay to the book Rizal +, among other works of his that appeared in various anthologies.
His book, View from the Foxhole: Shaping the Political into the Personal, won the Hilarion and Esther Vibal Prize for Best Book in Journalism in the National Book Awards in 2024.
He’d begun life in the working world as a dockhand hauling tons of produce daily at the North Harbor, having dropped out of the University of Santo Tomas, where he’d been studying Psychology. From that humble job, he moved on to working as a janitor in the Manila Standard newsroom, having gotten his lucky break when the tallboy newspaper was short-staffed and he’d been assigned to write a supplement piece on lightbulbs. He later became an editor at the Manila Standard.
Joel went on to write and do editing work for many publications, including the Manila Times, The Philippine STAR, PhilSTAR L!fe, the now-defunct Philippines Free Press, and the online news portal Rappler. He was editor in chief of the Philippines Graphic magazine for 11 years—a time that saw the Graphic dive deep into many of the country’s social, political, and economic issues with journalistic rigor and precision, and with neither fear nor favor.
It is rare to see a person go from dockhand to newsroom janitor to editor-in-chief of the last newsweekly magazine in the Philippines. That is exactly what Joel achieved. He was on fire to write and work as a journalist, a white-hot flame that never faded, but only grew stronger with the march of the years.
His integrity as a member of the working press has provided light for fellow journalists, and his work ethic included working whether or not he was sick, in pain, or nursing a brain-frying fever. If the public interest required him to work, then he worked the best way he could, whatever his circumstances may have been. He made no excuses and gave no quarter when the newsroom needed his hands on deck.
Joel held the line for Philippine literature when he fought weekly battles in the company boardroom to keep the Philippines Graphic magazine’s literary section open, and to ensure that the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards of the Graphic grew in integrity, prestige, and honor. From being the sidelight of the company Christmas party, the NJLA became one of the most anticipated annual literary events in the country, and the office Christmas party just became an office potluck party for the Graphic’s newsroom staff.
In fact, Joel held the line so firmly for Philippine literature that he served as a judge of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, and was part of the Manila Critics Circle (now the Filipino Critics Circle) as one of the permanent board of judges for the National Book Awards until he asked to leave the MCC for health reasons in 2023.
Beyond writing and editing journalistic pieces and authoring books of essays, humor, short fiction, poetry, and science fiction, Joel also gave lectures to students across campuses nationwide.
He lectured on journalism, sharing a store of knowledge nearly four decades deep with young campus journalists and writers. He took up the cudgels for the oppressed and gave voice to those who didn’t have a voice. He saddled his pen with grit and grace to serve the Filipino reading public and the world. Joel was generous to a fault with all he had, especially the knowledge he’d gained as a journalist and writer.
You can take the journalist out of the newsroom, but you cannot take the news from a journalist. Joel was one of the rare breed of journalists who kept plugging away from social issues even after he was no longer working for a publication, finding alternative means to traditional publication to get his messages out.
A few weeks before his demise, Joel was working to help raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes, which his youngest child, Likha, has. He’d just spent days taking turns watching over Likha in the hospital with his partner, Che. Likha had been confined in the hospital ICU for diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening condition triggered by her T1 diabetes, which had only been diagnosed after she’d been rushed to the ER. He was drumming up support for this T1 awareness campaign he’d embarked on when he had to be rushed to the hospital because of his heart attack. His physical heart may have succumbed, but his heart for service through writing never died.
Joel embraced Christianity, and in his last years, he took to writing about Christianity and faith on his Facebook profile, his Medium blog, and, recently, on Substack. His explorations of journalism, human nature, faith, and Christianity are still up on these digital platforms and are now a valuable resource for those who seek to learn from him.
Our prayers and sympathies, nay, our hearts, are with Joel’s family in this time of grief. We have lost a good man, a damn good journalist, and a brother in writing and in the newsroom. May God have mercy on his soul, and may God comfort us whom he has left behind.
