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The veteran journalist was 71
MANILA, Philippines – Veteran Filipino journalist Danilo “Dan” Luis Mariano has passed on, just seven months after his wife died last February. He was 71.
Dan Mariano died Tuesday, September 16, his son, actor-singer Ramon “Oj” Mariano, tenor of the eighties Original Pilipino Music (OPM) vocal group, The CompanY, announced on his Facebook.
Dan Mariano’s wife, Teresa or Tess, was a social worker who headed the Quezon City Social Services and Development Department from 1990 until she retired in 2016. She was a former president of the Association of Local Social Workers and Development Officers of the Philippines.
Last July or less than two months ago, Mariano wrote about his pain after losing his wife last February 17. She was 72.
“Tess and I got married on 29 July 1971 then suddenly last February she was gone. Now, the many, many memories of her love and laughter that filled and brightened the 53 years we shared will have to sustain me — as well as our children — because learning to live without her is such a painful struggle,” he said on Facebook.
Three years ago, they renewed their vows in their 50th wedding anniversary in St. Peter Church, Quezon City during the pandemic.
A heartbroken Mariano also posted a photo of his first Father’s Day without his wife last June.
“Hugs to you. Just know Tita Teresa Mariano and Tito Mariano are rejoicing together in heaven. praying for you and them and the family,” Moy Ortiz, singer and artistic director of The CompanY, commented on Oj Mariano’s announcement.
After he stopped working, Mariano continued to take an interest in news, reposting stories on current events on his Facebook and attending public fora.
“One word: Unprofessional,” he wrote in one of his last public commentaries in response to dismissed Bamban, Tarlac Mayor Alice Guo’s selfies with arresting personnel.
“Time was when the NBI and other law enforcement agencies required newspapers to conceal the identity of their field operatives lest they get ‘burned’ and become vulnerable in future operations. Not anymore apparently. Nowadays they eagerly and gleefully pose for selfies, which they circulate in social media for the whole world to see. One word: unprofessional,” he said.
Mariano was a former editor in chief (EIC) of news.abs-cbn.com, after which he became deputy ombudsman of the Office of the Network Ombudsman of ABS-CBN Corporation. He worked with its former head, retired Supreme Court justice Jose Vitug.
He left ABS-CBN in 2023 after his and Vitug’s contracts were no longer renewed.
The network ombudsman was an “independent body reporting directly to the ABS-CBN Board that receives, investigates, and makes recommendations on complaints against news personnel,” ABS-CBN had said in a release back in July 2020 at the height of its franchise renewal hearings in the House of Representatives.
“He was impatient with lazy writing, angry when we used cliches and inaccuracies. He challenged us to think how best to tell a story and my goodness, did we learn,” wrote ABS-CBN desk editor Dave Dizon on Wednesday. “Paalam, Sir Dan. The knowledge you freely gave will not be forgotten.”
Mariano also worked in various newspapers such as Manila Times, Philippine Daily Inquirer, and TODAY.
“In the late 1970s, Dan Mariano started his job in an ad agency. But he knew journalism was his true calling. He was known for his fearless reporting and dedication to finding the truth. These qualities landed him important editing jobs at some of the country’s prominent newspapers,” wrote journalist Abe Cerojano in the Inquirer on Tuesday.
Mariano was an alumnus of the University of the Philippines and finished high school in Ateneo de Manila University. He was an activist and a political detainee during the Marcos dictatorship. He was also an avid diver, occasionally exploring the seas in Batangas, Mindoro, and Palawan.
His funeral Mass and cremation is on Thursday at Arlington Memorial Chapels in Quezon City. – Rappler.com
