History of Philippine press / Carson Taylor.

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History of the Philippine Press

all government employees, to the interests of whom it was
apparently devoted. It only lasted a few months.
El Diario de Avisos came out as a daily, February 1,
1868, and ceased publication October 11, 1869. In 1869 a
new afternoon paper was founded by Joaquin de Loyzaga
and Francisco Diaz Puertas, taking the same name as a
paper that had a very brief existence in 1858, El Comercio.
This gave Manila three daily papers, The Diario de Manila,
El Porvenir Filipino and El Comercio.
El Comercio, doubtless by reasons of more efficient
management became the strongest, developed the greatest
circulation and had the longest life of any paper ever published in the islands, 1858 to 1925, 56 years under the
same name. In 1925 it was purchased by Senator Ramon Fernandez and combined with La Opinion. El Comercio was the most progressive of all Spanish papers and
withstood the unfair competition of the Diario de Manila
during the period while Elizalde was supporting the latter
with funds stolen from the Obras Pias. After the death of
Joaquin de Loyzaga, Diaz Puertas became the editor and
when he died Jose de Loyzaga, son of Joaquin, succeeded
him. Jose de Loyzaga, a man with the real instincts of a
journalist, well educated, broad minded and with a tremendous capacity for work, developed E1 Comercio to its highest
point of efficiency and service to the public. It was on the
crest of the wave of success about 1898 when the war
brought Dewey's fleet, the occupation of the islands and
the Philippine insurrection. It lost practically all its provincial circulation by reason of the blockade. Loyzaga met
the new conditions by reducing expenses, using his plant to
print the Manila American, under a contract by which he
was able to use the cable service of the latter, and continued to carry on. He made a brave fight but was finally
forced to give up some five years ago and sell out for a
very small amount. He died in 1926.
During the period from 1870 to 1888 many papers of
various kinds and classes appeared and faded out, without
apparent results so far as the general course of life was
concerned except to afford their publishers temporary diversion and the public some amusement.
In most cases their names are sufficient to indicate
their character. Among them were:
El Trovador Filipino, in 1874, a weekly devoted to
poetry; Revista de Filipinas, in 1875, described as a scientific and literary weekly; El Oriente, an illustrated weekly