A family legacy waiting to soar again

Ang Katarungan—Cagayan de Oro City”s first newsweekly

Ang Katarungan (The Reason) is the first newspaper to be established in Cagayan de Oro City. It was printed in letterpress and was handset.

Established on July 1, 1903, Ang Katarungan was founded by the Neri brothers—the late former Misamis Or. Rep. Ramon B. Neri and former Misamis Or. Gov. Vicente Neri San Jose.

Ang Katarungan initially was published in Cebuano, the local dialect and was a 4-page tabloid printed by an old-type Minerva printing press and was handset. Its first issue came out with 300 copies, a rather big circulation during the days of the early American period.

In 1926, Ang Katarungan changed its format. It became a bilingual—English-Cebuano news magazine in 16 pages.

Except for the interruption from two fires in 1937 and 1940 and World War II, the paper came out regularly up to the present making its claim as the oldest existing newspaper in this city valid.

The two fires in 1937 and 1940 destroyed the paper’s office and printing facilities. However, these setbacks did not dampen the publishers of the paper. Through the help of their friends and loyal subscribers it managed to put up its printing facilities again and resumed publication.

But when World War II erupted, the Japanese closed down the publication in 1942. When Liberation came in 1945, bombs destroyed the printing facilities of Ang Katarungan and again it had to literally begin from nothing.
On July 17,1948 with Vicente Neri as its publisher-editor Ang Katarungan resumed publication. The issue featured stories on the eruption of Mt. Hibok Hibok volcano in the island province of Camiguin, which was still then a part of Misamis Oriental.

It also carried advertisements of commercial establishments and subdivision lots for sale of the Nazareth subdivision (the city’s first subdivision, now one of the city’s barangays).

The newspaper later went back to being a tabloid when Augusto Neri, son of Vicente Neri, one of the founders of the newspaper assumed as publisher-editor in the 60’s.Augusto F. Neri or AFN as he was known also served as an elected ember of the Cagayan de Oro City Council.

The paper, now renamed as Ang Bag-ong Katarungan comes out every Saturday in four pages only due to economic difficulties according to its publisher. It is still printed in letterpress and earns mostly from judicial notices.

Upon the death of Augusto F. Neri in 1982, his wife Isidra P. Neri took over as publisher of the paper while his son Atty. Augusto Neri,Jr. took over as editor. Geronimo F. Valenton now edits the paper.


Source:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=539722&page=8