I'm one of those notorious people who cannot meet their deadline. I know there's no excuse for that but I was kind of spoiled. My editors would wait until I finished. They always said it was okay because they didn't have much to correct. That's the reason I didn’t go for the daily beat. I went to the magazine because when I'm writing something I like to do a lot of research. (Viguera 1999)

The advent of new communication technology, which Today's Jimmy Perez extolls as the greatest invention that benefited journalists, has reduced some of the deadline pressure. Before e-mail or even fax machines, reporters had to return from the beat to the newsroom where they typed their stories. Jenny Santiago said she had to be back in the office at 4 p.m. to meet the 7 p.m. deadline. With a fax machine, she says she can get the story in as late as 7 o'clock and still beat the deadline. That makes sense because reporters can stay on the scene of a breaking story and devote more time to writing the story instead of devoting it to commuting between the beat and the newsroom. An added attraction for reporters is they no longer had to endure contankerous and temperamental editors.

Back when reporters typed their stories in the newsroom, editors used to correct their stories on the spot, and the story angle and other details. Asahi Shimbun correspondent Manny Mogato recalls how Vergel Santos would call reporters to his side, trying to make sense out of otherwise poor copy. He would extract other details from them and in the process rewrite the story. "Almost all of the new reporters had that kind of experience with him. You learned a lot because as he was rewriting your story, he would tell you what to do."

The interaction extended from the professional to the personal and resulted in some kind of camaraderie between editors and their reporters. Felix Lloren, a veteran of the pre-martial law Manila Chronicle, gives an example:

Most of the time gabi dumarating ang mga reporters. Yung mga editors mismo magaambag-ambag ng P5, P10 pambili ng pansit o ano pang pagkain. Doon kami lahat kumakain sa isang mesa. That was almost every night. Seldom yung walang pagkain. Pero ambag-ambag ang mga editors. (Iledan and Ong 2000)

Says Jimmy Perez:

Right now I don't see my editor anymore. In fact, some of my co-reporters don't even know my face, only my name. Suweldo namin ATM; dati pumupunta ako ng opisina para sa suweldo. The whole of 1999, minsan pa lang ako nakapunta ng opisina. (Bernabe 1999)

Estela dela Paz says Locsin always emphasized on the ability to analyze and interpret economic and financial data. But Locsin is legend for his respect for credibility and honesty. "If you're expecting to get rich [as a journalist], then get out of this job," says De la Paz. Sol Villa says Locsin, for one, insisted on returning gifts. "That's still the rule at Business World," he adds.

Some editors, like former Manila Times editor-in-chief Malou Mangahas, forbade reporters from accepting gifts, especially money during press conferences. In order not to antagonize the giver, reporters were instructed to turn over the cash to the desk, which in turn donated it to charity, and the proper receipt was sent to the giver.

Another well-remembered editor is Pocholo Romualdez of the Philippines Daily Express. "He was strict, but he was the best. He trained people well," says Philippine Star's Ching Alano, who credits her former editor for everything she knows about journalism. "He was the kind of person who wanted to share what he knew. When he read something interesting or useful, he would have it copied and passed around."

Proof of Romualdez's legacy exists in many of Manila's newsrooms which are run, says Jenny Santiago, by many of his former staffers. "Pagdaan sa kanya, malinis na talaga yung kopya," says Radito Torres, chief of correspondents at People's Journalists.

Kerima Polotan-Tuvera, publisher of the martial-law era Evening Post, evoked both fear and admiration. Butch del Castillo, associate editor of Manila Standard, calls her his "mentor and tormentor, the fiercest female editor this side of Asia" (Cansana 1999). Marianne Go forsook other job offers just to work beside her idol. She was simply the best, said Edgardo Malay, while Luciano Soriano said his copy became more readble because of Tuvera's corrections.

Louie Beltran's reputation as a terror might have intimidated some reporters although Chay Hofileña opines it was simply an image he was trying to project. "I think he earned the reputation at UP," she says, "He tried to carry that to the newsroom as well." Nevertheless it did yield its fruit. People editor-in-chief Joanne Ramirez said Beltran influenced her news writing:

If the lead does not mesmerize you and hold your attention, then your story can't hold water. Everything has to be in the lead because of space constraints. If you want drama and you put the most important part in the end, don't expect the reader -- whose attention span is so short -- to go to the last paragraph. Sometimes that part even gets cut off because of space constraints. Writing leads that grab the reader's attention, that's a very Louie Beltran lesson. (Aietan and Dela Rama 2000)

Ricky Lo, Philippine Star entertainment editor, acknowledges the support he received from Danny Villanueva:

He was very kind to everybody especially to aspiring writers. He was patient enough to give us pointers on what to do and he would help us locate the stars we wanted to interview. He would tug us along on shootings and pictorials for us to learn more about the job. He was very accommodating. There are editors who are insecure especially if they are threatened by newcomers. But if an editor is fulfilled, his tendency is to give back to aspiring writers what he has learned, to share with them the ideas, techniques and what ever he has learned through his experience. (Silva 1999)

Joel Lacsamana remembers mentors at the Bulletin like Teddy Owen and Pat Gonzales. He says they helped him a lot.

Most of the editors I've worked with, especially Malou Mangahas, were very strict, especially about ethics. In 1997 when I joined Manila Times, with Malou Mangahas as my editor, we were not allowed to take in gifts, especially money, especially during press conferences. Of course, we don't want to antagonize the news sources, so what we do is we bring the envelopes and turn them over to the editors, and they donate the money and then send the receipt to the one who gave us the money. Of course, there are some gifts allowed, especially during Christmas. But if you are a reporter earning P10,000 a month, and somebody gives you a house and lot and a car, I think it's too much, and that's not allowed.

Vergel Santos was very particular about grammar. When I was with Manila Times and Manila Chronicle, we had a senior desk person, he actually is the re-write man, named Rusty Otico. He was a very nice person. He would call you to his desk and say, "This is the right way of doing it, or writing it." Or if you have some lapses in grammar, he will correct them. In other sections, especially at the Journal, the editor was very mean. If he didn't like the stories, he'd throw them in the trash can in front of you. And if you made some grammatical mistakes, he would pin your news story on the bulletin board. Some editors shouted at reporters. You got a tongue-lashing, and sometimes they would ask, "When did you learn your English?" I was lucky because I had very good editors who were not that mean and they would teach you the craft. (Santiago 1999)

Sa ibang editor mas importante yung accuracy over grammar. Kahit na nagsasabunutan yun mga verbs and adjectives mo, okay lang sa kanila basta accurate ka. Kasi kaya naman nilang ayusin nila yung grammar mo. Pero yung facts mo, ikaw lang ang pwedeng mag-check niyan kung tama 'yan. Ibigay mo na sa 'kin yung facts, check-double check, check-double check on facts kahit mahina ang grammar mo, okay lang. Sa iba, pagbasa pa lang, "Ang pangit ng sulat nito," tapon na. (Castillo 1999)

Deadlines are the most important thing in a newspaper. No matter how good a writer you are, if you don't meet the deadline, you will be bullshitted by your editor and that's also happening to me. Usually, I have some good writers who don't meet the deadline. I always get mad because you can't delay the press. The moment you don't meet the deadline, you are bothering a lot of people -- your editor, the typesetter, everybody. A lot of people in media get fired when they do not meet their deadline. You don't ignore it unless you have a really big breaking story. (Young and Siy 2000)

If you don’t meet your deadline, other people won’t meet their deadlines to print the newspaper, to circulate the newspaper. So, after you write your story, they edit it, they compose it, they lay-out it, then it's brought to the printing press. Those are all scheduled, like the mat, will be with the press 12 o’clock. If you are not able to, if these people are not able to edit your story, typeset it and lay-out it in time, then your newspaper suffers a lot of loss kasi mauunahan na siya ng competition o kung naiwanan na ng eroplano, there’s a lot of financial loss involved there. (Alcancia and Sim 2000)

If the reporter's late and I'm late, then, the whole paper is late. May domino effect 'yan. My deadline now is 8 or 7:30. Kailangan by 7:30 ibibigay ko na sa production 'yung page ko. Iba naman 'yung reporter. Ang deadline nila is 3:30 to 4 o 'clock. Kasi maraming mga storya 'yan eh! Pero 'yung mga late papers siguro mga 6 o'clock. Pero kung mga 6:30 ka magbibigay nang istorya, then, my page will be late. First you'll get some bullshitting from me. Kung patuloy pa 'yon we might as well give the work to somebody else because kapag na-late ang page ko ma-le-late ang buong diyaryo. (Salazar 1999)

Your job really depends on the deadline because the paper has to come out. It's a process. There's a production line after your work so you have no choice. You have to come out or there'll be no paper in the morning. So, they teach you that, but after a while it's just like breathing. No one tells you to breathe. You just do it, otherwise you don't live. It's the same with newspapers, if you don't meet a deadline, the paper is not gonna come out and you'll be late. It's not good for the circulation. (Aietan and Dela Rama 2000)

Editors went by the deadline. Like if the deadline was four o'clock, you had to submit your story by four o'clock. If they didn't have the story by four o'clock, they gave you about 15 minutes more. Editors were so demanding because the fact that they were editors meant that they were good. So you didn't just submit any kind of story. If you submitted a sloppy story, the most common comment was, "Where did you go to school? You better go back to your school." Mahigpit noong araw. Now hindi na masyado kasi people know how to write because they are being trained in college. During my time only a few schools had journalism courses. (Abad 1999)

Grammar, dapat lahat kami we are knowledgeable in it. You have no business being an editor if you don’t know grammar, if you don’t know how to edit the stories. Kase ang assumption mo editors know more than reporters do. You should have command of the language. Kung gusto mong malaman kung paano pinopolish ang istorya meron kaming tinatawag na copy editors. The term is dinadaanan, babasahin, ikocorrect nila ang lapses sa grammar, sa syntax, tapos isusubmit sa amin and then we go over the stories again and then i-lay-layout sa page. Ipapakita na sa editor in chief who again takes a last look over the page and then i-approve niya. (De la Cruz 1999)

Masyado silang metikoloso when it comes to things like accuracy, ethics, and grammar. Kung halos lahat naman ng ano mo eh puro may mga wrong grammar, basta kahit punctuations or periods mali-mali or commas, tatawagin ka talaga. Pero may mga editors na para bang di dumaan sa pagka reporter. So diba parang feeling nila they’re very mataas ganyan. Feeling nila wala nang makaka-equal sa kanila. Yun may mga editors na di nila nirerespeto rin yung mga reporters. But in fairness, meron din namang mga editors na sabi ko pag may mali ka iche-check “Eto, hindi ito tama. Eto ang dapat.” Okay lang yung ganon. At least di ka nae-embarrass. Pero yung mga editors na sisigawan ka, mahirap yun. (De la Cruz 1999)

Deadline was always bad for me. I'm one of those notorious people who cannot meet their deadline. I know there's no excuse for not meeting a deadline but I was kind of spoiled. My editors would wait until I finished. They always said it was okay because they didn't have very much to correct. With my copy there was minimum editing. But I was terrible at deadlines. That's the reason I didn’t go for the daily beat. I went to the magazine. When I'm writing something I like to do a lot of research. (Viguera 1999)

Biro mo sila Ben Rodriguez, sina Bigornia brothers [Jesus and Amante], Francisco Tatad, Tony Zumel, lahat sila mga magagaling na writer yan, hindi binabasa ng editor yan kasi perfect. Yon ang pagkakaiba ng writer ngayon. Ang writer ngayon bibigay ang balita at bahala na ang editor minsan pangalan wala pang first name, walang designation. Noong panahon namin kailangan paulit-ulit mong binabasa yan. Perfect yan pag-binigay mo na sa editor di ka masisigawan. (Golez 1999)

Deadlines were the religions of newspapers. We had to meet a deadline by hook or by crook. The rule was that you must submit a story by deadline even if you were sick or dying. If you wre going to die, you had to submit first and die later. (De Guzman and Macatubal 2000)

[Editors thought of the deadline] like it was the end of the world. To a newspaper man a deadline is the end time for everything. After that, you can do whatever you please. But everything that you do must be geared toward the finish line which is the deadline. You have got to submit that story before deadline. After the deadline they simply turn away your story. There is usually a small basket beside the editor and of course there is an incoming box. Before deadline time you put your stories in the inbox. After that if you put that story in the inbox, all the papers in that inbox go to the wastebasket. (Aguja 1999)

They're so specific about deadlines. There are no friends among editors and reporters. You have to abide by the policy of the newspaper. When they say you have, you must, you should therefore file your report before four o'clock or by four o'clock. (Bautista 1999)

Yung matatandang editor, mahigpit 'yan. Pag palpak ang sulat mo mula ulo hanggang talampakan, mumurahin ka. Iiyak ka talaga 'pag hindi ka sanay, noong time na 'yon. Yung una kong isinubmit na istorya kinain ng editor ko! Kinain niya yung papel! Nagalit sa akin! 'Lang hiya, tinuruan ako...natuto naman ako. (Austria 1999)

[If you're late the editor] throws your pictures in the wastebasket. Even if it's a very good photo, an award winning one, if it's past deadline, wala na yon, tapon na yon. (Chugani 1999)

My editors were warm, approachable yes, but they were sticklers for accuracy, fairness. (Mallari 1999)

Mga editors ko syempre strict sila. Madaling pakisamahan pero palamura because of the deadline pressure. (Mallari 1999)

Most editors are really high strung because of the deadline. If you don't meet the deadline, they give you usually a warning. then a reprimanded, even a suspension. In the Inquirer, if you keep on filing your stories late, first your stories will not be used; second you'll get a reprimand asking you to explain why you're not filing your stories on time; and third you might even be subjected to disciplinary action. (Soria 1999)

If you don't meet deadlines you could lose your job but I have never fired someone regarding this. We are human and considerate. There are many obstacles like traffic or the number of pages you have to prepare. Sometimes you have to prepare ten pages within the same period of time. Sometimes the stories do not come as fast as we want them to. There are many hitches along the way. It's a daily struggle. Everyday is different from the previous day. (Silva 1999)

I had some mentors wh really helped me a lot, like Teddy Owen, a veteran grizzled newsman who had worked with my father [Jimmy Lacsamana]; as well as Pat Gonzales, who handled my copy everyday as I filed them from the immigration and post-office beats. During that time a journalist had to show up at his desk at about 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, do a story on his typewriter, and then submit it to his editors who were very strict about deadlines. If you were late your senior deskman or editor would come up to you and tear the paper away from the typewriter page by page and then send it to the linotyping machine. And if he didn't like your copy he would really yell at you, and even use your copy to wipe his shoes. That's how strict they were at that time. (Hermanos 1999)

My editors were very supportive but also they were very, very strict. I really went through a time in which my work was massacred everyday. It took me such a long time to get published and then when I came out, it didn't have my name on it because it was so mangled. It took me about a month or so before I finally got my credit. I think being a reporter is really very much an all in the job training kind of thing. There's no way to prepare you to be a reporter if you're not out there on the field. So you can't learn it in a classroom, certainly. My publisher, my editors were all very supportive but I think they were all very clear that they wouldn't cut a slack for anyone. (Francisco 1999)

Most of the time gabi dumadating ang mga reporters. Yung mga editors mismo, mag-aambag-ambag kami ng five pesos, ten pesos, pambili ng pansit o anong pagkain. Doon kami lahat kumakain sa isang mesa. That's almost every night. Seldom yung walang pagkain. Pero ambag-ambag. That just shows our closeness with each other. And merong nagtutulungan, meron ding mga intriga sa'min. (Iledan and Ong 2000)

The Bulletin is not very strict [with deadlines]. Kung wala kang masulat, that's your own lookout. Kung correspondent ka, wala kang madeliver, you're not going to earn anything. The Bulletin has a late deadline at 7 o'clock. As for as the other papers, kailangan dapat 3 o'clock nandun na yung istorya mo. (Siy 1999)

At that time, we had to go to the office around 4 p.m. to write our stories and meet the 7 p.m. deadline because by 9 p.m. it was ready for printing. Now it's easier. You can just send your stories by fax or e-mail. Even if you get the story as late as 7 p.m. you beat the deadline. (Siy 1999)

Before you had to be physically present [in the newsroom] to file your stories para right there and then pwede kang I-correct ng editor mo, pwede kang sabihan na hindi tama 'yung anggulo mo, hindi maganda ang anggulong ito, ito ang gamitin mong anggulo, na 'yung mga kulang mong detalye. Wala ngayon masyadong ganoon. Kasi nga andiyan ang fax machine, pwede agad nilang i-fax o magmo-modem lang sila, ise-send nila through e-mail 'yung stories nila. (Jacinto 1999)

[Reporters can submit their stories] by e-mail, by fax. If news is breaking and it's near deadline time, they phone in their stories. But we still insist that they come here lalo na kung walang e-mail dun sa pinagpupuntahan nila. Sometimes they come in especially if they're hiding their scoops from other reporters, from the beat. We don't care where they do it as long as the stories get in. But there is a difference though. Before that, we had reporters coming in to the newsroom, and so there was more interaction with the editors. You sat them down beside them and went over the copy one by one. Right now, you try your best, you talk to them, but they're not there beside you so, yung mentoring, una. Pangalawa, yung actual technical improvement ng kanilang trabaho, kulang na rin. (Lua and Sy 2000)

[At People's Journal Taliba] we have set an early deadline. Reporters are required to file their summaries up to 2 p.m. for the desk to have an idea of what stories we expect for the day. Reporters have also up to 3 p.m. to send in their stories by fax, phone in their stories, or computers. (Santos 1999)

I think our generation of reporters did not believe in the "tyranny of the desk." We were more democratic. When we were young reporters, the editor could totally rewrite your story, and you just saw it the following day, and you didn't know that binago yung lead, and it was sensationalized. Your sources could complain na I didn't say this, and then you explain na "Sir, I'm sorry, but it was my editor who did this." They thought just because they were editors, they could do whatever they wanted with your copy. We were more careful. The attitude was, every story is a collaboration between the reporter and the editor. When the stories come in, we edit, and then because we were reporters -- practically all of us at the Times were reporters once-- we had standards for news. We would say, "Kulang 'tong detalye mo." We'd ask: "Why, why did this happen? How does the official explain this? There's an insufficient explanation for this or strengthen the last story or get another source, or get someone to confirm this, this is a non-story." Nagawa na namin 'yan before, kasi naging reporters din kami.(Chua and Danga 2000)

Estela dela Paz:

He was strict with the quality of what you write, the depth. He kept on emphasizing to us that we should be able to analyze data, see what it means, and interpret it. He also inculcated in all of us the value of credibility, honesty. He was saying you really can't get rich in journalism. If you're expecting to get rich then get out of this job. But if you give something of yourself, you will always remember that. He was strict and he won't mince his words when it comes to your copy or what you wrote.

The grammar is more of Mrs. [Leticia] Locsin although of course the quality's there. But she's the one who corrects us. In fact, we have a 'Boo-boo Board' everyday, and then you go to the 'Boo-boo Board' to see where you made a mistake, everyday. And then we hold seminars to correct these mistakes. She jots down all the common mistakes in words or phrases, or how it was written, and then we discuss all these things during the seminar. That's done at least once a year. But we do that corrections, every now and then, like every two weeks. (Garrucho and Pua 2000)