Blas Ople - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Ople was born in Hagonoy, Bulacan on February 3, 1927 to Felix Antonio Ople, a craftsman who repaired boats, and his wife Segundina Fajardo. He graduated valedictorian of his grade school class at the Hagonoy Elementary School in 1941. Upon the invasion of the Philippines by Japan during World War II, he also had been to Hagonoy Institute during his secondary schooling, the teenage Ople joined the guerilla movement and fought under the Del Pilar Regiment and the Buenavista Regiment of the Bulacan Military Area founded by Alejo Santos.

In 1948, he finished his high school studies at the Far Eastern University. He worked towards a degree in liberal arts at the Educational Center of Asia (formerly Quezon College) in Manila. After graduation, Ople pursued a career in journalism. He became a desk editor at the Daily Mirror and the author of its Jeepney Tales column. Still in his twenties, Ople was one of the youngest newspaper columnists of that era. Ople also established a public relations consulting firm.

He soon became known for his nationalist views. He co-founded the Kilusang Makabansa (National Progress Movement), an organization which frequently spoke out on issues of nationalism and social justice in the 1950s. In 1953, he joined the Magsaysay-for-President Movement, a volunteer group supporting the presidential campaign of Ramon Magsaysay, heading its Executive Planning Committee and working as a speechwriter for candidates of the Nacionalista Party. After Magsaysay's election, he joined the government as special assistant to the Secretary of Labor and technical assistant on labor and agrarian affairs.