FOR THE FIRST TIME in our 21-year history, this rare display of "I love our own" testimony delved on a topic close to our heart.

With the fiesta month of May coming our way, what better way to document the occasion than hire the services of the Bohol Sunday Post for a special edition. (In this issue alone, we have at least three different fiesta editions incorporated in our regular Sunday issue).

Much as we wanted to keep it under wraps for fear of being accused of ego tripping down memory lane, it was a judgment call on our part, if only to set the record straight.

Anyway, now it can be told. While we knew that we were treading in unchartered waters when we decided to break the stranglehold of the newspaper monopoly in the mid-80's, it was sheer guts that motivated us to rewrite the course of history.

And anybody made of lesser stuff would have sulked in the corner at the first sign of hostile reception coming our way. The sight of Tagbilaran as the graveyard of carcasses of several newspapers that folded up while in operations was too vivid to contemplate. But driven and determined to survive no matter what, we threw all cushions to the wind and grabbed the bull by the horn.

Yes, Kith, not a few newspaper pundits in this city were amazed of our temerity to fight the well- entrenched position of the leading paper.

With nothing between our ears except the gumption to fight it out, we ventured the inhospitable environment amidst the forebodings of jaded observers.

Of course, there were those who were too frank to warn us that we don't stand a Chinaman's chance against the biggest newspaper hereabouts even in a six-month time.

Defying convention and fair warnings of dire consequences, we met the challenge head on. With no financial muscle to speak up , it was a scratch and catch existence from the very start.

Because we were a product of the new school of journalism, we introduced innovations in the newspaper business that caught the fancy and attention of Bohol's conservative media audience.

First we have to revolutionize the printing business. Although devoid of enough capital, we were able to convince the management of Lecel Printers to try their lithographic printing process in a bid to come up with top-of-the- line printing result.

Aggressive to a fault, the idea of playing on the competition's own game was the height of foolishness then but the die was cast. Did it bother in any way the competitor? Not at all because nobody including the leading weekly took us seriously. The argument presented then was that how can we possibly survive the rigors of competition when we are enmeshed in expensive printing cost.

But we persevered. We knew that in the long run we still believed that the old school media community would come to realize that an idea of modern printing has finally come.

Coupled with our enthusiasm to introduce new innovations in the paper's content, we lasted beyond the expectation of skeptics.

One innovation that captivated the interest of readers was when we invented the town editions. And with them came the corresponding fiesta editions, a virtual unknown at that time.

Knowing then that the fiesta market was one frontier worth developing, we introduced the fiesta editions in the early days of the newspaper.

To this day, the fiesta edition of the Post has become a permanent fixture of the paper that no fiesta in Bohol is complete without the customary special fiesta package.

As originator of fiesta editions, other papers followed suit. But there's nothing like the original doing an expert job. Yes, we are being followed by other ambitious publications but there's no way that they can come close to the original.