Jose Mari Velez
José Mari U. Vélez was a Filipino lawyer, journalist, business executive, and activist best remembered for his long career as television newscaster anchoring The Big News on ABC-5 and for his service as an oppositionist delegate to the Philippine Constitutional Convention of 1971. He was one of the opposition delegates at the convention, which was why he was one of the first to be arrested when Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial law in September 1972.
Vélez died on March 6, 1991 at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City after battling lung cancer. was a graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman and of the Center for Research and Communication, which eventually evolved into the University of Asia and the Pacific.
