Naga’s printing press

THE robust printing press industry in Naga City has it roots in history dating back as early as 1877.

And this is perhaps the reason why Naga City, which was unceremoniously stripped of its title as the regional center during the ignoble regime of Martial Law in the 70s, remains to have the upper hand in the printing industry in Bicol.

In early 20th century Bicol, at the onset of every month of January, a printed Almanake or Kalendariong Bicol could still be seen being peddled by vendors of religious articles in church yards of many Bicol churches. These calendars or almanac began with the printing press in Nueva Caceres (Naga’s old Spanish name) established as early as 1877. Originally named as ‘La Panayama’, the printing press was set up along the Naga River in Bgy. Sabang not by a Bicolano but by an enterprising Ilongo whose name was Mariano Perfecto. The old printer’s forebears have since settled in Naga and became professionals by their own merit. Now better known as Cecilio Press (which is located in the original barangay of Sabang), its publication continues to churn out the popular religious-educational pamphlets known as “catekista” “abakada’, ‘pasyon’ and ‘stampitas’. For sentimental reasons, perhaps, Cecilio Press sticks to its old process of printing, the letterpress wherein words or letters are printed from metal type or plates with raised surface, as distinguished from film-based offset printing.

In the late 1950s when bloodstained dust had finally settled after the war, Naga refused to relent its title as the printing capital in Bicol, drawing clients from as far as Quezon and Masbate.

There was a time when AMS Press, a sister company of the Hernandez-Sison owned Bicol Electric Company was the biggest and most modern in Bicol, if not in the entire Southern Luzon. It practically printed, year in and year out, all the yearbooks, journals and other literary materials from almost all the schools, offices, and parishes in the region. It was the first to introduce offset printing here and had the biggest offset machine that could only be found in bigger printing houses in Manila and Hongkong. In fact, AMS Press had regular clients from Manila because of its quality speed printing.

I could remember when our newsletter at the Naga Parochial School, “The Foundation”, would try to squeeze out “The Agnesian” of Legazpi City so we could meet our pre-Christmas deadline. “He who has the materials (manuscripts) complete, will come out first,” then young manager Jess Fortaleza would warn us little boys to be fair to those who submitted first their manuscripts and layout.

In high school as editors of Ateneo’s ‘Blue and Gold’, we would again find ourselves jostling with some campus editors from Albay, Camarines Norte and Sorsogon, who along with their moderators, zealously proofread and edited the drafts on working tables specifically provided by the printing management. Upon graduation, we would soon come back to submit the final layout for our yearbook, with the colegialas, who were there in the printing press on similar chore, giggling over our retouched black and white graduation photos.

After graduating from college, I would discover that AMS Press continued to print newspapers, books, and yearbooks from all over, but the number had relatively slowed down because other modern printing shops had sprouted in Albay and within Naga City itself. But AMS Press’ other fulfilling legacy is that it has afforded some of its own talented men to put up their own printing shops upon formally severing from the company. Mr. Fortaleza, upon his retirement set up his own Bicol Graphics, which specializes on weekly tabloids. Nilo Aureus who also worked as its plant manager put up his own Goldprint which is now one of the most respected printing shops in Bicol. Only recently, Nilo revived his family’s Bicol Mail, which is distinguishable, aside from its superior editorial content, by its colored frontpage layout, which is yet to be matched by any local weekly in Bicol.

An independent entrepreneur, William Concepcion of Willprint, found gold in printing. Within a few years, he has branched out to Legazpi and Quezon City and is constructing a larger plant along Concepcion Grande, fronting Pepsi-Cola Plant here. Its color-separation process is comparable with those found in Metro Manila, which makes our printing industry far ahead of those found in nearby Bicol provinces.

To our curious readers, Johannes Gutenberg of Germany invented the printing press that first used movable metal characters (forerunner of today’s letterpress) in the1440s. In 1455, he published the Bible, the first book ever printed with a printing press.

Before him, at about the 3rd century before Christ, the Chinese were already printing documents using clay seals. They later invented printing process using stamps carved out of wood blocks that were covered with ink and then pressed against paper.

In the Middle Ages, books were manuscripts, that is, they were written down and copied by hand by monks. They transcribed the texts of ancient Greek and Latin authors in their original language. Books were made with sheets of parchment paper rolled around two wooden pegs. In fact, the word volume comes from a Latin word that means rolled up sheets. Only later was it possible to make books by binding the pages together.

Today, books are printed with offset machines that can produce thousands of pages per hour. This is made faster with the invention of the computer that makes manuscript writing and editing a lot easier.