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Betty Go-Belmonte
Billie Mary "Betty" Chua Go-Belmonte (Chinese: 吳友德; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gô͘ Iú-tek; pinyin: Wú Yǒudé; December 31, 1933 – January 28, 1994) was a Filipina journalist and newspaper publisher. She established the STAR Group of Publications which publishes the national newspaper, The Philippine Star and The Freeman, the tabloids Pilipino Star Ngayon, Pang-Masa, and Banat, as well as the magazines Starweek, People Asia, and The Fookien Times Yearbook.
A street and a Manila LRT Line 2 station was named after her.
Belmonte was the eldest child of Jaime Go Puan Seng (1906–1987), founder of the Filipino-Chinese newspaper The Fookien Times and Felisa Velasco Chua (1911–2002), the daughter of a merchant family, both of Chinese descent. She had four younger sisters namely Cecile (1936–2004), Dorcy (1938–1999), Elsie (1941–2009) and Gracie (1946–) as well as an only younger brother, Andrew (1951–). She grew up with a devout Protestant upbringing in the Santa Mesa district of Manila as well as in the Kamias district of Quezon City. When she was eight years old, her family moved to the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains, near Ipo Dam to escape persecution from advancing Japanese forces during World War II, where they lived in poverty.
After the war, Billie Mary Go and her siblings took their elementary studies at Kamuning Public School and Hope Christian High School, and their high school studies at the Philippine Christian Colleges and UP High School. She was often teased at school for having a boy's name, so her father started calling her Betty. When she was 19, she wanted to become a Protestant missionary and stay single. This upset her grandmother, who wanted her to marry. In college, she wanted to be a painter and pursue a course in Fine Arts but her father thought she would not be able to make a living as a painter and enrolled her in an English degree at the University of the Philippines Diliman instead. There, she became a member of the Sigma Delta Phi sorority.
In UP, Betty Go experienced prejudice for being a Filipino of Chinese ancestry. Despite being born in the Philippines and having a local-born mother, because of her father's dual citizenship and emigrant status, she was treated a dual citizen unfairly as well by (native) Filipino students. Henceforth, she decided to join student organizations and activities, as well as, ran and won in the student elections to prove that a person of Filipino of Chinese ancestry can run and hold office.
After finishing college, Go attended Claremont Graduate School for her master's degree in English and American literature.
Betty Go's father, Jaime Go Puan Seng, founded The Fookien Times in 1927, which was once the biggest Filipino-Chinese newspaper in the Philippines. During the 1930s, the newspaper was known for exposing government anomalies and corruption, which led to libel lawsuits being filed against his father. He was acquitted and his case became the basis for the establishment of Philippine libel laws.
Her father saw her as his heir in managing the newspaper. After finishing her master's degree abroad, she was employed at the company as an assistant to the editor. She proofread articles and proved herself to be a very capable newspaper manager and publisher, with a deep sense of commitment and ethics.
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Betty Go-Belmonte
Billie Mary "Betty" Chua Go-Belmonte (Chinese: 吳友德; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gô͘ Iú-tek; pinyin: Wú Yǒudé; December 31, 1933 – January 28, 1994) was a Filipina journalist and newspaper publisher. She established the STAR Group of Publications which publishes the national newspaper, The Philippine Star and The Freeman, the tabloids Pilipino Star Ngayon, Pang-Masa, and Banat, as well as the magazines Starweek, People Asia, and The Fookien Times Yearbook.
A street and a Manila LRT Line 2 station was named after her.
Belmonte was the eldest child of Jaime Go Puan Seng (1906–1987), founder of the Filipino-Chinese newspaper The Fookien Times and Felisa Velasco Chua (1911–2002), the daughter of a merchant family, both of Chinese descent. She had four younger sisters namely Cecile (1936–2004), Dorcy (1938–1999), Elsie (1941–2009) and Gracie (1946–) as well as an only younger brother, Andrew (1951–). She grew up with a devout Protestant upbringing in the Santa Mesa district of Manila as well as in the Kamias district of Quezon City. When she was eight years old, her family moved to the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains, near Ipo Dam to escape persecution from advancing Japanese forces during World War II, where they lived in poverty.
After the war, Billie Mary Go and her siblings took their elementary studies at Kamuning Public School and Hope Christian High School, and their high school studies at the Philippine Christian Colleges and UP High School. She was often teased at school for having a boy's name, so her father started calling her Betty. When she was 19, she wanted to become a Protestant missionary and stay single. This upset her grandmother, who wanted her to marry. In college, she wanted to be a painter and pursue a course in Fine Arts but her father thought she would not be able to make a living as a painter and enrolled her in an English degree at the University of the Philippines Diliman instead. There, she became a member of the Sigma Delta Phi sorority.
In UP, Betty Go experienced prejudice for being a Filipino of Chinese ancestry. Despite being born in the Philippines and having a local-born mother, because of her father's dual citizenship and emigrant status, she was treated a dual citizen unfairly as well by (native) Filipino students. Henceforth, she decided to join student organizations and activities, as well as, ran and won in the student elections to prove that a person of Filipino of Chinese ancestry can run and hold office.
After finishing college, Go attended Claremont Graduate School for her master's degree in English and American literature.
Betty Go's father, Jaime Go Puan Seng, founded The Fookien Times in 1927, which was once the biggest Filipino-Chinese newspaper in the Philippines. During the 1930s, the newspaper was known for exposing government anomalies and corruption, which led to libel lawsuits being filed against his father. He was acquitted and his case became the basis for the establishment of Philippine libel laws.
Her father saw her as his heir in managing the newspaper. After finishing her master's degree abroad, she was employed at the company as an assistant to the editor. She proofread articles and proved herself to be a very capable newspaper manager and publisher, with a deep sense of commitment and ethics.