My MB Escapade

It has been almost three years and it’s only fitting that I write this long blog post and divide it into three parts, just like those series of special reports that I have dealt with in the last couple of months. After all those painstaking moments that I have encountered, at least this is the best way to encapsulate most if not all of the lessons that I have learned in my life as an employee of the Manila Bulletin, the Philippines’ leading national newspaper.

First of Three Parts

All the world’s a stage and we are merely players, we have our own entrances and exits. This quote from Shakespeare really proves to be true. I had my entrance to the world of Manila Bulletin last May 12, 2010, and on March 31, 2013, my last day, was my exit.

It is my passion to write and be informed about any available topic. From my humble beginning as a writer for the Adamson Chronicle, the Manila Bulletin accepted me and designated me as a researcher for the editorial department. Similar to my experience in Adamson University, the Manila Bulletin made me feel like it’s my second home.

I had my superiors, my workmates, my colleagues, and my friends. We all formed a circle that went along the bounds of what’s normal and ordinary. Aside from this, the Manila Bulletin extended to me what it really feels like to work in the field of news.

I entered the company during the period of the last presidential election. On my first day, the atmosphere was more like what would happen in the coming administration of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III who won particularly after gaining prominence for the death of his mother, democracy icon former president Corazon Aquino.

It happened all so fast. From a senator who feels comfortable being not in the spotlight, Noynoy was catapulted into power, just like her mother, without them heavily preparing for it. Unlike other politicians, Noynoy was believed by many as the hope of this great nation, which suffered during the past years.

Now as a researcher, our task was to provide other supplementary information, aside from his election, to make sure that the people will be aware of what kind of person he is. Just like what Stephen Glass believes, journalism is the art of capturing behavior. As a journalist, we should not just report the news. We should also make it memorable. 

The reporters’ task was to tell what Aquino was doing. Our task was to inform people about how he differs from his mother and from the other presidents. Reporters tell the news. Researchers provide the details to make the news interesting.

That is one reason why I liked being a researcher. I wasn’t only being fed with the basic details about what happened; I was being informed about all the angles, all the stories, all the reasons as to why it happened.

I didn’t believe in the saying that you should fall down, when you’re starting, to immediately learn something. It was the case until I had my baptism of fire, not once but thrice. On the third time that I fell down and got humiliated, I stood up and learned not to repeat the same mistakes again.

The first baptism was when I accidentally added another zero to a party-list representative’s votes making them the first group to earn a total of three seats in Congress. It was published in the first edition of the newspaper but fortunately corrected during the following runs. The second was when I corrected two new cabinet members’ names believing that what I saw in television was right, only to find out from our business editor that the news channel was wrong and I was a fool for believing them. The third baptism was when I was tasked to write an obit that I mistakenly keyed using an advance date, making the story appear like someone was about to die.

In those three instances, I learned how careful we should be in accomplishing our task. From that time, I learned how to cautiously, but still in an immediate manner, finish looking for necessary details to be given to our superiors for the stories that they were editing.

I was assigned to do a lot of works: from profiling to provision of backgrounds, histories, timelines, trivia, supplementary stories or information, yearend stories, yearbook of government and non-government officials; monitoring; clipping; typesetting; proofreading; calling or talking to people in varying classes of the society; writing of special features, investigative reports, press releases; photography; and all the other things that can help in the production of a worthy newspaper.

One thing I am proud of with my stint in the institution was that I made it a point to finish all the things that I should do and helped the paper be competitive with the others. Hearing no remarks from me about the gravity of all the work, I’m sure that I played as a valuable member of the entire editorial team. On my part, I learned and I could say that I really learned big time.

Working for the news is being part of history. That’s what I felt most of the time specially that we, researchers, were the point person when it comes to breaking news.

Perhaps most of my memorable experiences while working for the Manila Bulletin was banked to the fact that I (as part of the four-then-two-then-back-to-four members of the Research Section) assisted heavily in providing supplementary data to compliment the breaking news that sometimes were being fed by the wire services, including the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Agence France Presse (AFP), Associated Press (AP), Reuters, New York Times (NYT) and European Pressphoto Agency (EPA).

Among the breaking news that I could remember were the death of some government officials and big personalities; appointment of Chief Justice Renato Corona and his impeachment, which gave me my first front page story; the death of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill and rebirth of the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill to its passage; the stepping down of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and entrance of President Aquino to the Malacañan Palace; the extrajudicial killings; drug fiasco in Hong Kong of Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson; the gas leak in a high-end Makati tower; the stock distribution option of the Hacienda Luisita; appointment of Ma. Lourdes Sereno as Supreme Court Associate Justice and later first female Chief Justice; the bloody Manila Bus Hostage in Quirino Grandstand; the rise of our Miss Universe candidates in the world renowned beauty pageant; the winning of the Php741 million lotto jackpot; the promotion of our tourism slogan from the flak ‘Pilipinas Kay Ganda’ to ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’; impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez; incarceration of former president Arroyo; tropical storms and habagat; rise and fall of boxer Manny Pacquiao.

Other international big stories included the great earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosion in Japan; the Arab Spring; the death of number one terrorist Osama Bin Laden; wedding of Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge; the financial crisis in United States and Europe; death of Steve Jobs; the massacre in the once peaceful nation of Norway, transition of power in various countries including communist nation North Korea; election in United States; Spratlys and Sabah standoff; canonization of San Pedro Calungsod and the historic resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City.

There are other big news that we became part of as chroniclers, providing the most needed details and making the stories more comprehensive. I will forever be grateful to what I have experienced in the Manila Bulletin.

Perhaps in the future, I will look back and share the stories of these big news that once shaped the world, in a manner that will always include the first national newspaper that carry my byline.

Second of Three Parts

Apart from the work that I will truly miss is the people who I have encountered while working in the Manila Bulletin. When you start to build connections, it is really hard to break especially when these people have made a big impact in your lives.

I enjoyed the company of my co-writers in our student publication that when I left them, it really broke my heart. After I stayed with the Manila Bulletin, I could say that for the second time in a long time, I managed to find another family through my co-workers.

I had my senior editors, who served as my grandfather and grandmother. I had my not-so-senior editors, who appeared like my second parents. I had my colleagues and best friends, who acted as my siblings. We all bonded under this one roof that served as our second home.

Now, many have left but many still remain. For those who left, I would really treasure the moments that we’ve shared. To ate Gie, ate Ria, Angel, Dave, Poy, sir Ricky, sir RamFra, sir Albert, sir Fort, sir Robert, sir Diego, kuya Jovan, thank you.

To those people who opted to stay, best of luck to all of us. Most of you have truly made a very big impact to my life.

To the chosen few, we’re all in this together from the very start and until the coming days, I will still be with you. I’ll try my best to always keep in touch to let the flame of friendship continuously burning. This is not the end, but still, THANK YOU!

(I planned to include in this post short messages for every member of the elite circle of the chosen few, but hey, I don’t want others to know who you are so I’ll just send you a text message to serve as a reminder that I’m also just a text message away.)

Conclusion

This borrowed quote from the film Shattered Glass perfectly describes what’s happening in news publications:

“There are so many show-offs in journalism, so many braggarts and jerks. They are always selling, always working the room, always making them look hotter that they actually are. The good news is reporters like that make it easier for you to distinguish yourself. If you’re living a little bit humble, a little self-effacing and solicitous, you stand out. So you bring a co-worker to a lunch even if he’s buried to a deadline. You remember birthdays. It’s true, journalism is hard work; everybody is under pressure, everybody is grinding to get the issue out. Nobody is getting any sleep but you are allowed to smile every once in a while. I mean even Woodward and Bernstein would go out for a burger now and then, and they win a Pulitzer. Some reporters think it’s the political content that makes the story memorable. I think it’s the people you find, their quirks, their flaws, what makes them funny, what makes them human. Journalism is just the art of capturing behavior. You have to know who you’re writing for and you have to know what you’re good at. I record what people do. I found out what moves them, what scares them and write that down. That way, they are the ones telling the stories and you know what, those kinds of pieces can win Pulitzers too.”

I love the pressure of being able to contribute something in order to further inform the people. At times, I wrote interesting background articles about some stories that some of my friends didn’t know happened. Working in the field of journalism makes you appear intelligent. If you know a lot of current affairs, you will be able to give a sound comment or remark over what’s happening. If you are inside the newsroom, you can feel like you have an inside scoop over what might take place. When you’re in the field of media, you have the power to control the opinion of the people around you.

For me, these things matter a lot. But if I find out that some things (even how little they may be) are already piercing through the very principles that I believe in, I don’t want to be part of the picture anymore. For me, it’s better to quit than connive in the abominable scene that is happening.

I may be letting some minor issues in but deep inside me is still an idealist Adamsonian, who knows when to face his battle and when to retreat to further strategize and come out with a better plan.

Now, I actually don’t consider myself leaving the field of journalism. In the first place, it is one of the fields in mass communication that I truly love. My parting word to all those who plan to enter and those who plan to stay in this field is similar to another quote in the film Shattered Glass:

“There are good editors, there are bad editors, and you’ll have both. My hope for you though is that once, at least once, you get a truly great one. A great editor defends his writers against anyone. He stands up and fights for you.”

In addition to being a great editor or superior that I wish you to have is this lesson that I learned from the film:

Don’t just stand up for anybody; stand up for what you believe is right. If something is wrong, act. I have acted through my resignation. I am sad over what I’m leaving, but happy and excited over what I will be embarking on in my future.

To all those that I have wronged, let me take this opportunity to apologize and vow that in the coming days, weeks, months, and even years, I will surely be better.