Five women editors-in-chief and one woman executive editor have led, one after the other, SunStar Cebu editorial operations. Uninterrupted line of women leaders since 28-year stint of SunStar’s first EIC, male, ended in 2010.
‘Cebu journalism firsts’
SunStar Cebu newsroom, 2025
Five women editors-in-chief and one woman executive editor have led, one after the other, SunStar Cebu editorial operations. Uninterrupted line of women leaders since 28-year stint of SunStar’s first EIC, male, ended in 2010.
■ Record still an unduplicated “Cebu First,” even in the region and the country. As of 2025 when CJJ published the recognition.
IRIS HAZEL MASCARDO
Special to CJJ
Nov. 7, 2025.
Updated Nov. 18, 2025
Both historic and record-setting. Six women — five editors-in-chief and one executive editor — successively managing SunStar Cebu’s editorial department.
Pachico A. Seares retired in 2010 after leading editorial operations of the paper for 28 years: almost three decades since 1982. After Atty. Seares stepped down as founding editor — along with Atty. Jesus “Sonny” B. Garcia Jr., founding publisher who conceived the idea of building influential local newspapers in key areas of the country — a woman took over as editor-in-chief, Isolde D. Amante. Then after her, another woman EIC, still another, and another, and two more, all women.
Thus after Seares: five women EICs and one woman executive editor (acting as chief editor), serving consecutively, back-to-back.
The five EICs’ length of service varied, from less than a year (Marchel Espina’s) to eight years (Isolde Amante’s).
A common virtue among the women newsroom leaders has been skill in and passion for journalism. Four — Sol Amante (IDA), Nini B. Cabaero (NBC) and Cherry Ann T. Lim (CTL) and executive editor Michelle So (MPS) — for years had worked closely with Seares (PAS). Of the five EICs, only Espina came from outside Cebu: she had served as SunStar Bacolod’s EIC, also briefly.
MPS — at the time editor-in-chief of Superbalita and concurrently executive editor of SunStar — led editorial operations briefly.
Michelle So was a sort of transition EIC but didn’t sport the title of chief, from Jan. 1, 2021 to Oct. 31 of the same year. Nini B. Cabaero had her last issue on Dec. 31, 2020 while Cherry Ann Lim took over only on Nov. 1, 2021. Michelle So in effect bridged the tenures of Nini and Cherry Ann.An editor who then worked with Michelle recalled: “She was a very valuable source of knowledge and advice on journalism and newsroom operations, appreciated by both old-timers and newbies.” So served as a “de facto EIC during a tumultuous time in the newsroom and helped keep the spirits of the newsroom people up…”
Like Seares when he was SunStar EIC, Michele So — during that 10-month stint as executive editor cum editorial head — was also Superbalita EIC, from March 2010 to October 2021.
FOR a culture largely built on male-dominated fields, a newsroom in Cebu City made history — establishing a legacy of powerful women holding the highest post: the editor-in-chief of SunStar Cebu.
It has been 15 years since a man last held the EIC position, following the tenure of first SunStar Cebu editor, lawyer Pachico A. Seares, who led editorial work for 28 years: from 1982, SunStar Cebu’s founding, up to 2010.
EICs’ excellence records
The only male EIC since the paper’s founding, Seares set a record of excellence for succeeding chief editors to follow, reaping such awards as University of the Philippines System’s Gawad Plaridel
and Cebu Province “Garbo sa Sugbo” in 2008; Globe Media Excellence “Newsmaker of the Year” in 2019; “Perlas Valuable Filipino Award” of Philippines Foundation Inc. in 2009; and Cebu City Government’s special awards on journalism in 2016 and 2023. That, on top of almost 200 media awards for SunStar and its journalists during his watch.
Aside from media awards, SunStar Cebu in the crucial first decade from entry to Cebu’s media industry managed, a citation said, “to survive and thrive in a fiercely competitive market, in journalism standards as well as in circulation and advertising.”
Isolde Amante, interviewed on “Kulokabildo,” YouTube, April 19, 2024.
Through the ranks
After his retirement, an era of women’s leadership began with Isolde D. Amante, who succeeded Atty. Seares in 2010.
Amante rose to the top post through the ranks as general assignments reporter, copy editor, news editor, and managing editor for news.. Amante had previously worked as a reporter and occasional anchor of GMA Channel 7 and as news editor of “Independent Post,” a cooperative-owned, short-lived newspaper.
Amante won two Camma (Cebu Archdiocesan Mass Media Awards), a PPI (Philippine Press Institute) citation for a special report co-written with SunStar colleagues, five international fellowships, and a Palanca in 2000 for short fiction. She finished a master’s degree in journalism as a fellow of the Asian Center for Journalism at Ateneo de Manila University.
Nini Cabaero, while at Harvard, as a Sandra Burton-Nieman Fellow, 2013-2014.
Sunnex and Harvard
When Amante left the newsroom in 2018, she was succeeded by Ma. Lourdes “Nini” Cabaero, who previously headed Sunnex (SunStar News Exchange), the newsroom’s platform for sharing editorial materials and resources.
Cabaero was a Sandra Burton–Nieman Fellow, selected by the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), spending an academic year at Harvard University from 2013 to 2014. She also took courses at Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cabaero was named “Newsmaker of the Year” in November 2020 by Globe Media Excellence Awards of Globe Telecom for her “impactful body of work” and role in leading the digital transformation of the community press in the Philippines.
A digital book attests to CTL’s talent and dynamism in journalism.
Producer of special reports
Upon Cabaero’s exit — and after Michelle So’s temp stint — award-winning investigative journalist Cherry Ann T. Lim assumed the post from 2021 to 2024. Lim’s name has long been revered for her special and investigative reports, earning her at least 21 awards throughout her 28-year “storied career.”
NEW EICs were announced Nov. 2, 2021 by SunStar with this photo. Cherry Ann Lim and Michelle So, third and fourth from left, with Mildred Galarpe and Roger Vallena.
She got six awards from CAMMA and the Explanatory/Investigative Story of the Year and Editor of the Year from Globe Media Excellence Awards in 2019.
Last Sept. 26, 2025, Lim launched her e-book titled “Cybersex, Troubled Fish, Tokhang and Other Stories,” a collection of award-winning special reports she wrote and edited for SunStar Cebu.
Marchel Espina, featured in Poynter.50, April 13, 2021, before she started work as SunStar Cebu EIC in June 2024.
Marchel then Mildred
After Lim’s tenure, Marchel Espina took over in June 2024 until January 2025. She had served as SunStar Bacolod EIC, correspondent to Rappler and The Freeman, and news reporter with Visayan Daily. Espina is currently the safety manager for Women in News-WAN-IFRA and manager of its Southeast Asia Advisory Program.
Espina was succeeded by Mildred V. Galarpe, who is the current EIC (as of this writing, November 2025). With years of journalistic excellence to her name, Galarpe was recognized as Newsmaker of the Year for the Visayas at both the 10th and 11th Globe Media Excellence Awards.
Mildred Galarpe (left) hosting SunStar’s Facebook Live interview program titled “Beyond the Headlines.” Here, with guest Minerva Gerodias, MCWD publicist and former colleague of Mildred’s in the news media.
While it may not seem extraordinary to some, the continued reign of women leaders in a newsroom like SunStar Cebu speaks volumes about a workforce that thrives free from societal constraints — a testament to women’s enduring power in journalism.
They align like stars
A hiring policy on gender? No, there’s none people know of, which apparently would have nothing to do with SunStar Cebu having had five women EICs for 15 years straight now. May just be coincidence that the EIC qualified and available each of the five times was a woman.
Maybe — never mind Shakespearean skepticism about celestial bodies deciding people’s fate — SunStar and its women EICs, like the stars, “align so souls can find one another” to continue producing a regional newspaper rich in history of good and successful journalism.
About the writer
