DRIVING THOUGHTS
Until today, almost 43 years since I joined Manila Bulletin, I still say — “No day is the same for a journalist.”
You start a day with coffee and plans to have dinner with family — but that does not always happen. The weather, a politically-charged statement, an accident — and many more reasons — change the course of a journalist’s day. Oftentimes it takes the journalist, as reporter or editor, to unplanned destinations that produce a story.
The stories of these “unplanned destinations” are the stuff that planted the heritage of the Manila Bulletin in the Philippine landscape. For many generations — for 125 years since its first issue as a shipping paper in 1900 — news and opinion came from the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation’s daily broadsheet newspaper, two tabloids, a dozen regional and theme magazines, and in recent years — from news online on mb.com.ph, social media accounts, videos, and youtube.
I joined Manila Bulletin as a provincial correspondent, sending my stories to Cornelio de Guzman, then the provincial news editor. One evening, Mang Kune called to invite me to write for Manila Bulletin. I felt honored, and without hesitation, I accepted. I remember at least two stories that made it to page one then the alcogas fuel product that was launched in Bacolod City which was part alcohol produced by the island’s sugarcane; and the sinking of Don Juan where hundreds of Negrenses on their way home from Manila, perished.
When my family moved to Manila in 1982, I applied for a permanent position and was assigned to be one of the editors at the desk of Tempo, the English-Tagalog tabloid that soon challenged the popularity of long-established tabloids in the metro.
I covered many events and I still think of the “unplanned destinations” which took me to a story. One which I am still proud of because of the experience in getting the story together is about a healer in Silay City, Negros Occidental.
The healer story was on page one for many days. I crossed two rivers to get to her house in a mountain barangay, and days later, I stood in the cold morning dawn watching the long line of “patients” come to her place in Silay City. Meanwhile, there were those who called her healing the “work of the devil” thus, while the healing sessions went on, there were loud prayers coming from across the lot.
I covered the story from all angles, interviewing people who had witnessed the healing sessions. I had an extensive interview with a Catholic lay leader who recounted how a snake had appeared from the garden and crawled up his boots shortly after he had prayed over two women who had been in a healing session with the so-called “miracle worker.”
I also interviewed the parish priest of the city where the healing sessions were held. Incidentally, on my way out of the parish church grounds after the interview, I met an old woman who claimed to have been sent to that city — she had come from Manila — to warn the believers that the healer was a “dark force from below the earth.” In the brief time I was talking to the old woman accompanied by a young man who was translating my questions to the her, she went into a trance, her arms and bodies moving aimlessly, she had to be carried into the church and set to lay down on a pew.
Tempo and Manila Bulletin, gave me many opportunities to sharpen my skills as a reporter and an editor. I’ve covered many events, standing at the sideline while history happened. I did some work on almost every phase of production — most of which are now non-existent because of technology. Reporters on the field dictated their stories to the news desk via a phone call, and I would take that while balancing the phone between my head and shoulder. The deadline was at 4 p.m. and editors worked till late at night to catch the latest stories.
When digital transformation came, the work procedures changed. Stories were sent through email. Editing, layouting and proofreading were done from the newsdesk, or remotely. Story conferences were held three times a day — face to face or via zoom.
The most significant changes were the disappearance of the “deadline time” and the “digital first” rule. Stories had to be sent ASAP because it had to be posted online ahead of other media companies. A big story was not kept for tomorrow’s print edition, it was now “digital first” — the print edition was for telling the whole story.
Telling a story had taken in another element — it had to be told as-soon-as-possible. But one element in journalism has stayed — a good story has to be told.
That is Manila Bulletin’s enduring commitment — telling the stories that shape a culture and oil the wheels of progress. For 125 years, Manila Bulletin has been the source of true stories.