Public relations pioneer Carlos “Charlie” Agatep, a UST and Varsitarian alumnus, passed away on Monday, Sept. 12. He was 91.
Agatep’s death was announced by his son, Norman, in a Facebook post.
“A father figure and mentor to many, Dad filled everyone around him with so much love and light. He shall be painfully missed,” Norman wrote.
Agatep, considered by many as the godfather of the PR industry in the Philippines, founded Agatep Associates, Inc. (AAI) in 1988, which later became Grupo Agatep, a creative advertising, PR, and media agency rolled into one.
He took up journalism at the defunct Faculty of Philosophy and Letters. He finished it in 1953 and graduated cum laude.
Agatep became PR and advertising head of Esso Standard Fertilizer & Agricultural Chemicals and Mobile Oil Philippines. He taught public relations, mass communication, photojournalism, and advertising at UST, St. Paul University, and Assumption College.
A Fulbright and Smith-Mundt fellow, Agatep took up his master’s degree in communication arts at Boston University. He once headed the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) and was director of the Philippine Association of National Advertisers.
In 2017, he received the Gawad Panday, the highest distinction in the Philippine PR industry.
Agatep became the first Filipino to be named “Communicator of the Year” in the executive leader category of the International Association of Business Communicators Asia Pacific Communicator of the Year Awards in May 2022.
During the 37th Gawad Ustetika in June 2022, the Varsitarian conferred the Parangal Hagbong, the publication’s lifetime achievement award, on Agatep for his mark on the PR industry.
Norman said the Agatep family would soon announce the details of memorial services for his father.
“In the meantime, join us in prayer and in celebrating Dad’s richly blessed and inspired life,” he said.
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