| Established on April 15,
1999, the Tarlac News Center has
been conceptualized as the online news
provider of the province of Tarlac,
Philippines. Now, it is being recognized
of being at the forefront in promoting
Tarlac in cyberspace, as it has become
the leading Internet portal of
Tarlaqueños. In fact, it is the most
frequently visited Internet site of
Central Luzon. At first, due to
monetary constraints, the News Center
was first hosted by Yahoo!
Geocities. After more than a year of
operation, the people behind it decided
to acquire its own domain name, the tarlacnews.com.ph.
And thus, on August 26, 2000, it was
renamed as tarlacnews.com.ph:
Tarlac News Center.
ITS BEGINNINGS
tarlacnews.com.ph (or
the Tarlac News Center) traces its
roots to the erstwhile Tarlac Observer
Online, the online edition of the
weekly Tarlac Observer, which came
into the Internet on June 16, 1998 with
the help of Trellis Communications, a
franchisee of Mosaic Communications (the
Philippines’ oldest Internet service
provider) which is the first ISP to
operate in Tarlac.
On April 1999, however, Benjie Villa
decided to leave the Tarlac Observer
as its editor-in-chief. After a while, as
the Tarlac Observer Online was
actually being operated under his own
initiative, he decided to re-establish it
as the Tarlac News Center.
Originally, the Tarlac News Center
was supposed to be a mere online news,
feature and opinion provider of the
province. Which means that it would have
no print counterpart.
But the idea did not pick up. Thus,
the need for partnerships.
The first print partner then eyed
during the latter part of 1999 was the Tarlac
Businessweek, which was to be renamed
as The Weekly News. But the plan
did not push through.
On February 2000, as Villa –
together with veteran journalists Erlie
I. Duduaco (formerly of the national
newspaper Malaya and the Philippine
Daily Inquirer) and Gener Pasion
(formerly of Malaya) – joined
The Inquirer as its
editor-in-chief, a partnership has been
finalized with the said weekly newspaper
and the Tarlac News Center.
The Inquirer, owned by veteran
journalist Charlie Gatdula (of the Manila
Bulletin), is actually the oldest
community newspaper of Tarlac that has
been in operation since the 1950s.
THE PRINCIPLES
The people behind the Tarlac News
Center maintain to adhere to the
basic principles of the noble journalism
profession.
The Tarlac News Center will
continue to uphold the basic --- not
necessarily the traditional ---
principles of journalism.
It shall be fair, responsible,
fearless and truthful in the performance
of its self-imposed duties.
As the Tarlac News Center has
assumed the role of becoming
Tarlac’s leading portal in
cyberspace, it shall continue to upgrade
its services that would mainly cater to
Tarlaqueños around the world.
RECENTLY...
With new concepts and new ideas, Tarlac
News Center has decided to break
away from the notion of being a mere
online news provider. Thus, it was again
renamed tarlacnews -The Tarlaqueño
Global Community, as the Web Site
has become the virtual online community
of Tarlaqueños around the world.
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