Letty Jimenez Magsanoc

Magsanoc is among three journalists whose names were added to the Bantayog ng mga Bayani (Monument of Heroes) Wall of Remembrance in 2016. Bantayog ng mga Bayani cited her for "speaking truth to power without fear." Magasanoc was recognized "for testing the limits of press freedom as writer and editor, for defying media restrictions and censorship under martial rule and for facing up to the wrath of the dictatorship."

Magsanoc described herself as "newspaper-struck" from an early age, contributing features to the (Philippine) Sunday Times Magazine while a senior at St. Teresa's College, Manila, encouraged by Times women's editor Eugenia Apostol. She spent most of the 1960s in the United States, taking a masters in journalism at the University of Missouri. In 1963, she married Carlos Magsanoc, a doctor. Her daughter Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala is a broadcast journalist who produces news documentaries. Jimenez-Magsanoc died on the night of Christmas Eve, December 24, 2015, at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig, after suffering from cardiac arrest.

Apostol, in her acceptance speech at the 2006 Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts, said: "The Filipinos were outraged and more than two million of them joined (Aquino's) funeral procession. But the Marcos media hardly took note of the event. That was when I decided to do a 16-page special issue on Ninoy Aquino's funeral, using the resources of a woman's magazine called Mr. & Ms. which I was then editing ... The response to the funeral issue was unbelievable. The agents kept coming back for more, and so we had to print 500 thousand copies. After that, I had to ask Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc to help me edit a weekly Mr. & Ms. Special Edition just to feed the hunger of the readers for more about Ninoy and a growing anger towards martial law and Ferdinand Marcos. Every week we felt called upon to record the various demonstrations of civilians against Marcos, and when no reprisal came (except for an invitation to an interrogation at Fort Bonifacio in January 1983), we went on for three years ..."

Magsanoc was the editor-in-chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer since 1991 until her death in 2015. She was the first woman and the longest-serving (to date) editor-in-chief of the country's leading newspaper. Almost one month after her passing, Magsanoc was recognized as the Filipino of the Year for 2015 by the newspaper she worked at for three decades.

Magsanoc was the first editor-in-chief of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine from 1986 to 1987.

Letty Jimenez Magsanoc was editor of Mr & Ms Special Edition from 1983 to 1986.

In 1978, General Hans Menzi, publisher of the Manila Bulletin, asked Magsanoc to take over the editorship of Panorama. Magsanoc was reluctant. "I did not want to be editor because I just wanted to do writing. You know what it's like to be editor, you have to sit at the desk, give out assignments, and clean up everybody's copy. It is difficult to conceptualize the whole issue. What I wanted to do was go out and write." She demanded that Panorama be given a 60 per cent editorial to 40 per cent advertising ratio and to her surprise, Menzie agreed. Magsanoc's arrival at Panorama gave the magazine a new reputation. Circulation soared with Magsanoc's editorship. Panorama staffer Margot Baterina said: "We pursued stories that nobody else dared to touch." National Press Club data of the time put the magazine's circulation at 300,000 on Sundays more than triple the combined circulation of the two other morning dailes.

In 1976, Magsanoc began to write for the daily Manila Bulletin, after a co-editorship with a male colleague did not work. She wrote a thrice weekly column, The Passing Scene, alternating with columnist Tony Nieva. Later, she was given her own column Not for People Only. This was when she began to get into trouble with authorities for being critical of the post-martial law Marcos government.

Between 1976 and 1981, Letty Jimenez Magsanoc was editor of Panorama, the Philippines' largest circulation magazine of the time. Five months after being named one of the 1981 Ten Outstanding Women of the New Society she was forced to resign after writing an article perceived as critical to the government.

The Magsanoc family returned to the Philippines in 1969. Magsanoc joined the Manila Bulletin. When the women's section editor of the Bulletin's Sunday magazine, Panorama left, Magsanoc was asked to take the job. "The last place I wanted to land in, in any publication was the women's pages, which I consider a journalism ghetto. I was trying to get away from writing about lipstick and fashion. fortunately I was allowed to write about almost anything. Sometimes it had nothing to do with women.".

Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc (September 13, 1941 – December 24, 2015) was a Filipino journalist and editor, notable for her role in overthrowing the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. She was an icon of democracy. Magsanoc was editor of the crusading weekly opposition tabloid Mr & Ms Special Edition. She was editor in chief of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.