Philippine News Service The Philippine News Service (PNS) was organized in 1950 as a news gathering cooperative by the publishers of the then-leading national newspapers: the Manila Times-Mirror-Taliba,
Manila Chronicle,
Manila Bulletin,
Philippines Herald,
Evening News,
Bagong Buhay, and
The Fookien Times. Its main function was to supply daily news and photos from the provinces to these newspapers, as well as to those in other provinces. Radio and television stations also used PNS stories for a fixed monthly fee or subscription. Foreign news agencies, such as the
Associated Press,
United Press International,
Reuters, and
Agence France-Presse, and a few private entities were also allowed to subscribe. Through the old mail system, it also maintained a news exchange agreement with foreign news agencies such as
Antara of Indonesia,
Bernama of Malaysia,
Kyodo of Japan,
Yonhap of South Korea,
Central News Agency of Taiwan, and
TASS of the former Soviet Union, among several others. When President Marcos
declared martial law on September 23, 1972, the PNS was forced to cease 24-hour daily operations since its major clients (newspapers, radio, and television stations) were padlocked and guarded by government troops. At the time of its closure, the PNS had some 120 news correspondents across provinces and cities of the country.
Establishment About four months after the imposition of
martial law, Marcos allowed a handful of newspapers and broadcast outfits to reopen. A group of former newspaper editors asked then the Department of Public Information (DPI) Secretary and later on
Senator Francisco S. Tatad to explore the possibility of opening a government news agency by acquiring the
World War II-vintage
teletype machines and other equipment of the shuttered PNS. The group's efforts resulted in the government reopening PNS, renamed Philippines News Agency (PNA), and restructured as the government’s official news outfit. Negotiations for the acquisition of PNS equipment were done by a group of former newspapermen from Tatad’s office at
Malacañang Palace, including the late Bureau of National and Foreign Information (BNFI) Director Lorenzo J. Cruz and the late Press Undersecretary Amante Bigornia. José L. Pavia, the late former executive editor of the defunct
Philippines Herald, was appointed as the first general manager of PNA. He led its initial eleven-member staff, with the late Renato B. Tiangco as managing editor, and Severino C. Samonte as national and provincial news editor. It was created by a Special Department Order issued by Tatad under the BNFI, its first parent bureau that also funded it. The agency initially used the vacated PNS editorial offices on the second floor of the National Press Club (NPC) of the Philippines Building along Magallanes Drive in the
Intramuros district of Manila. When Tatad turned on the switch to launch the agency in the afternoon of March 1, 1973 in Malacañang, he said: “The
Philippines News Agency will be operated in the best tradition of the world’s professional news agencies.” According to PNA, during the martial law years, the PNA along with international news agencies
Reuters,
AFP,
AP, and
UPI covered the entire archipelago and entered into news exchange agreements with some of these news agencies.
Expansion The following year, PNA inaugurated its first domestic bureau in
Cebu City, the country’s second-largest metropolitan area. In 1974, PNA also opened bureaus in
Iloilo City,
Baguio,
Davao City,
San Fernando, Pampanga;
Cagayan de Oro,
Bacolod, and
Dagupan. These were followed by offices in
Lucena,
Legazpi,
Cotabato City,
Tacloban,
Zamboanga City,
Dumaguete,
Iligan,
Laoag,
Tuguegarao,
San Fernando, La Union;
Jolo; and
Los Baños. The peak number of domestic bureaus was 23 in 1975, with the opening of additional ones in
Cabanatuan,
General Santos, and
Tagbilaran. However, these satellite bureaus were reduced drastically due to the agency's cost-cutting measures in later years.
Post-EDSA Until early 1986, the PNA, through the former Office of Media Affairs (OMA) headed by then Information Minister Gregorio S. Cendana, had overseas bureaus in San Francisco, California; Sacramento, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Toronto (Canada), Sydney (Australia) and Jeddah. These were closed down after the 1986
EDSA Revolution that overthrew the Marcos regime. During government reorganization in 1987 under President
Corazon Aquino, the BNFI was abolished and replaced with two new bureaus: the modern News and Information Bureau (NIB); and the Bureau of Communications Services (BCS).
Present The Philippine News Agency remains a division of the News and Information Bureau. The agency is an attached agency of the Presidential Communications and Operations Office (PCOO). ==PNA Newsroom notable people==