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Inquirer Bandera

Philippine tabloid newspaper

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Inquirer Bandera is a daily Taglish tabloid newspaper based in Metro Manila, Philippines. It is published by the Inquirer Publications, Inc with editorial and business offices located in Makati.

01History

Bandera (initially called the Metro Times) was first published on September 10, 1990 by Manila Times journalists, Ralph Chekeh, Danny Mariano and Ricky Agcaoili, with Lito Bautista as the pioneering managing editor (up to his retirement in 2014). It was then the sister newspaper of Manila Times under the Gokongwei family who acquired the broadsheet in 1989 from the Roces family. The tabloid's first head office was located at the Manila Times Compound in Quezon City before it was relocated to Mandaluyong. English was primarily used in its articles until they shifted to Tagalog in the 2000s.

Bandera was known for hosting erotic columns and Page 3 girls, among those featured were Rosanna Roces and Margie Holmes. It had three sister tabloids: the "raunchier" Bandera PM, Bandera Tonight, as well as Bandera International Edition which catered to Overseas Filipino Workers in Hong Kong and the Middle East.

In 2001, the Prieto family, owners of Philippine Daily Inquirer, acquired Bandera from the Gokongweis. During the acquisition Bandera ditched its sexualized content in favor of a more wholesome image.

Bandera, which had three editions specific for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, moved to an online only format after its last print issue was published on July 5, 2020. Bandera is published online through Inquirer Plus digital subscriptions.

Watch videos about Inquirer BanderaExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Inquirer Bandera, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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