(Veteran journalist and columnist Conrado De Quiros passed away November 6, 2023. He was 72 years old.)
When it was announced that Conrado De Quiros was teaching a class on opinion writing for one semester at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication, you can imagine the interest bordering on hysteria among the students.
It was the mid-1990s and De Quiros had already developed a reputation as a logical, levelheaded opinion columnist for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, especially among young people, so demand was unusually great to secure a slot for that class.
Fortunately for me, I was working as a student assistant at the admin office of the UP-CMC at the time, and so I had first dibs on any of the classes I wanted.
That's how I got into De Quiros' once-a-week class.
The thing I remember the most about De Quiros was how genuinely curious he was about what young people — i.e. his students — thought about the world.
He would walk into class, spend a few minutes engaging in small talk and then bring up a contentious topic that he would ask the students to proffer their opinion on.
Sometimes it would take a while before anybody would hazard a position, but eventually things would get going and there would be a lively debate.
De Quiros would just stand in front of the class moderating, but I don't remember him censoring or even chastising anybody for what they offered to the discussion.
More than anything it was his open and giving spirit that I appreciated about De Quiros.
I don't remember much about how we were graded, or what the final exam was (probably an opinion piece or two), but I do remember him giving us space to develop more critical thinking.
He would start questions with phrases like, "What do you think about..." or "That's true, but what about approaching it from this angle..." or "Put yourself in the other person's shoes..." De Quiros forced us to re-examine internal prejudices and previously held beliefs to try and expand what we thought we knew about the world around us.
That's what De Quiros' writing was all about for me. His column There's The Rub for the PDI was a space that managed to convey reason and rationality as much as it stoked fiery debate for arguing for or against certain issues.
I turned to him when I wanted to know more about the political issue du jour, expecting him to make light of convoluted matters or disputes. For the most part, he consistently delivered.
I didn't necessarily agree with him 100 percent of the time, but he earned my respect for presenting a viewpoint that always made sense and articulating them as only a master communicator like himself knew how.
De Quiros was also unafraid to take authorities on in his writing. He butted heads with prominent personalities-everybody from former Vice President Jejomar Binay to Korina Sanchez and Mar Roxas, to real estate companies and the MMDA-and used his platform to take them down when he thought they deserved it.
Of course, this was before the time when pelting the powerful with rocks didn't automatically put a literal target on your head, but it's to his credit that De Quiros developed a reputation for fearlessness as much as levelheadedness.
He had his detractors, of course; people who thought his ideas were antiquated and his musings generally lazy or uninspired. But even they couldn't counter his influence in the great sphere of public discourse.
He is, of course, also known for his ties to former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
But De Quiros was his own man with his own way of thinking, and whether or not you thought he made sense, you knew he was there and that he always had something to say.
His passing, then, leaves a great void not just in the arena of opinion writing, but in writing in general. Conrado De Quiros leaves behind a legacy of intellect, reason, and wit, and we are all the poorer for his loss.