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Voice of People Power June Keithley passes away
(Updated 5:17 p.m., Nov. 25) Television host, actress, comedienne, and voice of the People Power revolution, June Keithley-Castro, succumbed to breast cancer Sunday night.
Keithley was best known for staying on air for 14 hours non-stop during the peaceful EDSA revolution that ousted President Ferdinand Marcos, maintaining the morale of the unarmed civilians who faced Marcos' troops.
In a statement, Malacañang expressed grief over Keithley’s passing, calling her battle “courageous and faithful,” much like her spirit during the EDSA People Power Revolution.
“Her courage enabled her to confront her illness, but also that of her husband, Angelo Castro Jr., whose death we all mourned in 2012, with dignity and the kind of serenity that can only come from an uncompromising faith in the goodness of God and trust in His plan for all things. As we pause to pay her tribute, we believe we speak for the nation in extending our deepest sympathy to her children,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
Keithley, who was closely associated with Jesuit media maven James Reuter, was a host of the Catholic station Radio Veritas during the most tense moments of the EDSA revolt against the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986.
In Angela Stuart-Santiago's book “EDSA Uno, A Narrative and Analysis with Notes on Dos and Tres,” former President Fidel Ramos recalled Keithley's role in getting reinforcements to come out and support the rebel leaders holed up in Camps Crame and Aguinaldo. "[W]e were able to do this through June Keithley and the radio broadcasting crews of Radio Veritas who were on the job, calling on the people, transmitting for us even messages which were tactical in nature," he said.
"This was the first time in military history, anywhere in the world, when private broadcast media, run by concerned citizens, were used to transmit or relay military orders or directives to military units in the field."
Fearing attack by government troops and assisted by teens, Keithley moved the broadcast to a secret radio station (which was actually dzRJ-AM owned by the anti-Marcos Jacinto family) and was among those who made calls for people to take to the streets to oust the dictatorship. Radyo Bandido boosted their morale with the continuous broadcast of civilians blocking the paths of Marcos loyalist troops.
“[The] peaceful revolution was marked by her voice on Radyo Bandido. There, in the isolation of a radio studio, together with two brave children, she spoke truth to power for 14 hours, heedless of the danger of contesting the media apparatus of the dictatorship,” Lacierda said.
Having Radyo Bandido, said Ramos in Stuart-Santiago's book, was "a great relief." "We were afraid that we had lost our major propaganda arm when Veritas's signal died down," he said.
Actor Gabe Mercado lamented the passing of both Keithley and Reuter, the latter passing away New Year's Eve of 2012.
For her role in the peaceful revolution, Keithley was honored earlier this year at the annual People Power celebration
“From the moment she played the 'Mambo Magsaysay' on air in February 1986, June Keithley's courage and faith sustained her as a voice that would not be silenced, because hers was a voice joyously secure in her faith: the very characteristics that will always make her more than just an unforgettable figure in our democratic history–they make her a human being who speaks to all of us for all time on the eternal truths that sustain men and nations,” the palace said. — Patricia Denise Chiu/DVM/HS/BM, GMA News
Keithley was best known for staying on air for 14 hours non-stop during the peaceful EDSA revolution that ousted President Ferdinand Marcos, maintaining the morale of the unarmed civilians who faced Marcos' troops.
In a statement, Malacañang expressed grief over Keithley’s passing, calling her battle “courageous and faithful,” much like her spirit during the EDSA People Power Revolution.
“Her courage enabled her to confront her illness, but also that of her husband, Angelo Castro Jr., whose death we all mourned in 2012, with dignity and the kind of serenity that can only come from an uncompromising faith in the goodness of God and trust in His plan for all things. As we pause to pay her tribute, we believe we speak for the nation in extending our deepest sympathy to her children,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
Keithley, who was closely associated with Jesuit media maven James Reuter, was a host of the Catholic station Radio Veritas during the most tense moments of the EDSA revolt against the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986.
In Angela Stuart-Santiago's book “EDSA Uno, A Narrative and Analysis with Notes on Dos and Tres,” former President Fidel Ramos recalled Keithley's role in getting reinforcements to come out and support the rebel leaders holed up in Camps Crame and Aguinaldo. "[W]e were able to do this through June Keithley and the radio broadcasting crews of Radio Veritas who were on the job, calling on the people, transmitting for us even messages which were tactical in nature," he said.
"This was the first time in military history, anywhere in the world, when private broadcast media, run by concerned citizens, were used to transmit or relay military orders or directives to military units in the field."
Fearing attack by government troops and assisted by teens, Keithley moved the broadcast to a secret radio station (which was actually dzRJ-AM owned by the anti-Marcos Jacinto family) and was among those who made calls for people to take to the streets to oust the dictatorship. Radyo Bandido boosted their morale with the continuous broadcast of civilians blocking the paths of Marcos loyalist troops.
“[The] peaceful revolution was marked by her voice on Radyo Bandido. There, in the isolation of a radio studio, together with two brave children, she spoke truth to power for 14 hours, heedless of the danger of contesting the media apparatus of the dictatorship,” Lacierda said.
Having Radyo Bandido, said Ramos in Stuart-Santiago's book, was "a great relief." "We were afraid that we had lost our major propaganda arm when Veritas's signal died down," he said.
Actor Gabe Mercado lamented the passing of both Keithley and Reuter, the latter passing away New Year's Eve of 2012.
Tita June was the voice and the face of EDSA. Fr. Reuter was her backbone and her strength. We lost both of them in the span of a year.
— Gabe Mercado (@gabemercado) November 24, 2013
For her role in the peaceful revolution, Keithley was honored earlier this year at the annual People Power celebration
“From the moment she played the 'Mambo Magsaysay' on air in February 1986, June Keithley's courage and faith sustained her as a voice that would not be silenced, because hers was a voice joyously secure in her faith: the very characteristics that will always make her more than just an unforgettable figure in our democratic history–they make her a human being who speaks to all of us for all time on the eternal truths that sustain men and nations,” the palace said. — Patricia Denise Chiu/DVM/HS/BM, GMA News
Tags: peoplepower, junekeithley
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