Cendaña, ex-Marcos information minister, dies

Former information minister Gregorio Cendaña succumbed to a heart attack at 8 a.m. Friday at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City. He was 76. Cendaña, a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), was most remembered for his role as information minister during the Martial Law years under former President Ferdinand Marcos. He was a member of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) that recently gave an "XXX" rating to a video newsreel on the life of former President Joseph Estrada. During the Marcos years, Cendaña headed the National Media Production Center and the information bureau that is now the Presidential News Desk under the Office of the Press Secretary. Cendaña was quoted as saying then that government sees the press "not as its adversaries but as its critical collaborators." In October 1998, he deplored what he called government inaction on the vital need to undertake a full-blown information dissemination campaign in the United States. He said that with the advent of information technology, the Philippine government must be pro-active in reaching out not only to the overseas Filipinos.-GMANews.TV