The publisher of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Isagani Yambot, a long-time member of the International Press Institute (IPI), passed away on Friday, March 3, succumbing to a heart attack. He was 77 years old.

Yambot, known in the Philippines for his staunch defence of press freedom and independent journalism, enjoyed great respect among journalists and press freedom groups in the Philippines and abroad.

Defining Yambot as “a pillar of the struggle for press freedom”, The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUPJ) said that “notwithstanding manning the helm of one of the top newspapers in the country, he always found time to involve himself in campaigns for press freedom and to end media killings”.

IPI Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said: “We are deeply saddened by Mr. Yambot’s death. The Philippines has lost a champion of independent journalism and IPI has lost a good friend. It seems like yesterday that we had dinner in Manila, just before the Taiwan World Congress, that Mr. Yambot was telling us about the difficulties of practicing good journalism in the Philippines and we discussed ways in which IPI can continue to promote press freedom in the country.”

During an IPI press freedom mission to the Philippines in September 2011, Yambot welcomed an IPI delegation, including the IPI executive director and two members of IPI’s executive board, who travelled to Manila to campaign for an end to the widespread attacks against journalists in the Philippines, and for stronger press freedom guarantees.

“President Aquino has pledged to reverse the nation’s record of unpunished, anti-press violence,” Yambot told IPI during that meeting, before adding that a number of elements, including incompetence and alleged corruption on the part of investigators, a weak justice system, and trial delays prompted by legal manoeuvring, would render the task a difficult one.

Yambot also proudly handed over to the IPI delegation two sizeable books about the history of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the country’s most respected and successful newspapers. He had been publisher of the Inquirer since 1994 and a member of IPI since 1997.

“Some would refer to his editorial preferences as ‘old school’, but it is a phrase that can be misleading,” the Centre for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said of Yambot. “Those preferences are, after all, neither new nor old, but simply good journalism.”

Yambot’s family announced on Monday the schedule of his wake at the Arlington (Felicidad Chapel), which will end with his cremation on 9 March.

“We extend our most sincere condolences to the family and friends of Isagani Yambot,” IPI’s Bethel McKenzie said. “He will not be forgotten.”