WHO IS BETTY GO-BELMONTE?
Billie Mary “Betty” Go-Belmonte was the eldest child of Go Puan Seng, founder of the Filipino-Chinese newspaper The Fookien Times, When she was eight years old, her family moved to the foothills of the Sierra Madre, near Ipo Dam, to escape persecution from Japanese forces during World War II where they lived in poverty.
After the war, Belmonte 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.
In UP, Belmonte experienced prejudice for being a Filipino of Chinese ancestry. Despite being born in the Philippines and having a Filipina mother, because of her father’s dual citizenship, she was treated a dual citizen as well by Filipino students. 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 Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law in 1972, Betty’s family newspaper company was one of several newspapers forced to close by the government. Betty was already married to Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., and remained in the Philippines. She continued writing through her weekly Dear Billie advice column in the Daily Express newspaper.
1986, Betty Go-Belmonte established her own Filipino tabloid newspaper, Ang Pilipino Ngayon. It would grow in circulation to become the leading Filipino tabloid in the Philippines.
A few months later, Belmonte, Soliven, and Art Borjal established the national broadsheet The Philippine STAR that would compete against Inquirer and Manila Bulletin. Under Belmonte’s chairmanship, STAR would later on surpass the two broadsheets to become the most widely circulated newspaper in the Philippines, distinguished for its balanced, objective, and fair reporting.
Betty and Feliciano ” Sonny” Belmonte, Jr. had four children: Isaac, Kevin, Miguel and Joy Belmonte, Her daughter Joy serves as the incumbent mayor of Quezon City.
Betty died in Quezon City on 28th of January 1994 due to cancer.
Belmontes of Quezon City named not just the streets but also the LRTA Station ( Betty Go-Belmonte Station ) also during Feliciano ” Sonny” Belmonte’s terms as Mayor, all the new building (SB Building) in every Public School named after him.
SOURCE: Pinoy History
