In 2001, Jose Pepito Magpayo started publishing Bayanihan News, the first Filipino community newspaper in Calgary.
Magpayo’s story as a media pioneer was recalled in the Alberta Filipino Journal, a paper where he served as editor and marketing director from 2009 until his death on December 27, 2015. He was 70.
The Journal reported that the “Filipino community in Canada had lost a man ... who passionately shared his wisdom to others and … served as an inspiration to countless Filipinos”.
The Manila-born media man was also the executive producer of TV Filipino, which airs on OMNI Alberta.
Rod Cantiveros of the Winnipeg-based Filipino Journal described Magpayo as a “media man whose principle in life had not been tarnished even in times of adversity”.
Cantiveros also recalled that Magpayo was “a visionary man whose influence to the majority of the community had become a sentinel on how the mass media can promote and sustain the common good for the community”.
OMNI Alberta hailed Magpayo as one of its “most hardworking independent producers”.
Connie Kriaski, the publisher of the Calgary-based Pinoy Times, wrote that Magpayo was “known to many as one of the pioneers in the field of mass media here in Alberta”, and a mentor to aspiring community journalists.
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