VETERAN journalist Julius F. Fortuna succumbed on Tuesday morning to a massive heart attack at the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City where he was rushed after complaining of difficulty in breathing.

He would have turned 61 on July 30 this year.

Fortuna wrote a regular column for the Manila Times. He had previously written columns for a number of newspapers, including People’s Journal, Sun-Star Manila, The Freeman and Daily Globe.  He was also associate editor of the Manila Chronicle in the mid-90s. 

Fortuna was also a director of the Board of Trustees of the PNOC Shipping and Transport Corp.  Fortuna began his journalism career immediately after his release from detention as a political prisoner from 1974 to 1981. He covered the foreign affairs beat for the Daily Globe.

Fortuna served as an officer of various media groups. He was Director of the National Press Club and later of the Samahang Plaridel.

Fortuna took up Political Science at the University of the Philippines in the late ’60s and later transferred to the Lyceum of the Philippines. He was a member of the national council of the militant Kabataang Makabayan in the late ’60s and later served as secretary-general of the Movement for a Democratic Philippines, the coordinating body of radical groups that organized the massive demonstrations now collectively known as the First Quarter Storm of 1970.

As he was already in the order of battle of the military for his radical activities, Fortuna went underground in August 1971 upon the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. He was arrested in October 1974 and spent seven years in Fort Bonifacio and other detention centers as a political prisoner.

Fortuna leaves behind his wife, Sabina, and two children, Jillian and Amilcar.

He lies in state at Chapel 2, Funeraria Paz, Araneta Avenue, Quezon City.