UST FACULTY of Arts and Letters alumnus and longtime journalist Ruben Alabastro has died due to an undisclosed illness.
He was 83.
Alabastro passed away on Thursday, June 20, his daughter, Rachel Alabastro-Federez, confirmed in a Facebook post.
“It is with a heavy heart to let you know that our Tatay passed away yesterday. Please pray for the repose of his soul,” the post read.
Alabastro earned his Journalism degree at the defunct UST Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, now Artlets, in 1960 and worked for several international news agencies throughout the years, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), United Press International; Associated Press and Reuters. He also served as desk editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer until his second retirement.
During his time in AFP, Alabastro was known for his contributions to alternative press or “xerox journalism” due to media censorship under the Marcos Sr. regime.
UST Journalism instructor Manuel Mogato, who was Alabastro’s colleague in Reuters, described the late journalist as the most “superb” storyteller with an “impeccable eye for detail.”
“His flowery prose was much better than that of the English writers and poets. The news stories he wrote read like a fiction story,” Mogato said in a Facebook post.
“I was in awe of his masterpieces. Like soldiers, journalists fade away but are never forgotten… The legend was gone,“ he added.
Among the historical events that Alabastro had covered as a reporter were the surrender of Japanese holdout Hiroo Onoda in Lubang Island in 1974, the Benigno Aquino Jr. assassination in 1983 and the People Power Revolution that ousted the first Marcos administration in 1986. F
