VIGUERA. What was your first job related to the media or to the press?
FORMOSO. I was first a contributor. It was a section called "Sunday Leisure" in the Manila Daily Bulletin. It was Manila Daily Bulletin, this was before Martial Law. I was…I think that was right after school. But before that I was…ah no! That wasn't related to the media coz I was working with Raul Ingles in the U.P. College of Mass Communication and we were producing brochures for the U.P. Then I was contributing to Bulletin. That was my first job, then I was hired as reporter for the magazine.

Q. Reporter…so, you started as a reporter for the school?
A. For the…no, for the Panorama magazine.

Q. Oh! Panorama!
A. For Bulletin. I was at first a contributor to the Sunday Leisure section, which was edited by Ethel Timbol. That appeared in the Manila Daily Bulletin. Then, Manila Daily Bulletin had a Sunday magazine called Panorama, which is still existing today. Ah! At that time, it was a big magazine…big-size magazine. It is not like, like the size today. And later, I was hired to be a reporter for that magazine, Panorama. But that was already Martial Law when I got hired.

Q. What made you get into that line of work…writing?
A. Well, I majored in Journ in U.P. and the reason I majored in Journ was it didn’t have Math. You know, there were only 2 Math subjects. So that was my choice. My choice was whether to go into Journ or Foreign Service. And I was thinking…well, …what would I do in Foreign Service? And I kind of wrote in high school, for the high school paper. So, I thought I would have a better chance being a journalist than being in Foreign Service.

Q. Okay. Can you describe your early experiences as a reporter for the Panorama?
A. My early experiences…at that time I got hired because they wanted an entertainment writer. Panorama didn’t have an entertainment writer, so when I got hired, I was told by Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc was like the assistant or the associate editor and she said they needed entertainment articles. So, that’s kind of where I concentrated, writing entertainment. So, I did mga profiles of movie stars, directors, singers, bands, TV performers, stage performers, etc.

Q. What year was this?
A. This was, in the 70’s. I think that was '74, '75 like that.

Q. Can you tell us if it was hard working during those years? The '70's? Early '70's?
A. It was hard because it was Martial Law. You know, I was contributing for the Bulletin when Martial Law was declared. So, one day, we go to the Bulletin and we are told that the paper's closed. Martial Law had been declared that morning…that early morning. So, that whole day, guards were in front of the building and nobody was let in, you know. So, when I came…coz I'm saying "we" because there's like 3 other U.P. graduates from my batch who were employed by the Bulletin. So, when I came that day, we couldn’t get inside because the…it was locked, all locked-up and Martial Law had been declared. So, after that…shortly after that, they reopened the Bulletin and it became Bulletin Today. And there were only 3 papers that were operating, Bulletin Today, Philippine Star and Journal, I think…Times Journal. Okay. So, at that time, you couldn’t write about many things. You can't write about politics, especially. And we had to learn self-regulation. In the beginning…there was even, I think, a body that was formed by Marcos to…to censor.

Q. The articles?
A. Yeah. To censor stories, like that. And many…I wouldn’t say many…a few issues of Panorama were confiscated… they were already out in the streets and they were confiscated, I think, by soldiers or they never got out of the printing press because the government…because people in Malacanang did not agree with what was coming out…

Q. What was in it.
A. …you know, what was written. So, I think, one instance of that was, we did a survey of campuses. And we asked college students who their heroes were and Marcos came out as one of the heroes, but his…he wasn’t…I think his points were not as high as Benigno Aquino's. So…and definitely, Imelda was also in but hers was also low. Her score was low… her ranking. So, you know, that was confiscated. I think that was confiscated.

Q. Okay. Do you remember the first location of the paper? Coz most of the papers before were located in, were situated in Intramuros. Was…
A. This one was in Intramuros. When I worked for Bulletin, it was in that gray building at the corner of Arroceros. So, it was in that small building. Then, they built this big building in the nearby lot. A real nice building made of brick. But, at that time, it was in Intramuros and I think it still is there. Bulletin is still there.

Q. Were the offices okay for working? The lights, the printing, the ventilation inside, when it was still there in Intramuros?
A. In Intramuros? Our offices, like the Panorama office, was a small, enclosed office. And, it was okay. I don’t remember complaining about the physical facilities. But, it was a lot better when we moved to the new building. Yeah, the new building was centralized air-conditioning. So, that was a really better set-up.

Q. How many hours did you used to work for the paper? For writing for Panorama?
A. Gosh! You know, you just never count the hours! It wasn’t like 8 hours or like that. Some days you work more than 8 hours, some days you work less than 8 hours. But, usually you'd go to a press conference or an interview and then after that, you go to the office and then you…you know. I remember, I think we…after the press conference or interview we'd show up at the office to report…to report there. And then, we would do our writing. Since I was writing for the magazine, it wasn’t as hectic as the daily reporters. You know, the deadline wasn’t everyday at 3 o'clock or everyday at 5 o'clock like the daily reporters. It's more leisurely in the magazine. Our deadline is, for example, Monday…you know, Monday, all stories should be in, that are going to be used for Sunday. So, it wasn't as hectic. But, the beautiful thing about working for a newspaper is that nobody's counting the hours, because the truth is, you're working all the time actually, when you're a journalist. You know, you may be outside…you know, you're riding in a bus, or you're in a taxi, or you're in a restaurant or like that and you're absorbing everything or you're observing everything, diba? So, then, you notice something and you think "Oh! That would be good to write about!" or, "That's news!" …and then you know that you have to file that story to their desk.

Q. How was it working on holidays?
A. Oh! That's…that's the sad part about working in the newspaper. Although your time is flexible, you do have to work on holidays. There's no such thing as a Christmas. For example, you're there on Christmas…on New Year's…I remember we had to work always, but the magazine, again…I think that's the reason I stuck to magazine. I've always not been a news person eh! I'm a feature writer, and that's…I like feature writing better than news writing. You know, I like the freedom to interpret. With news writing kasi, talagang you stick to the facts and then, there's no room for your insights or your interpretation. But with feature writing, you can do those things. Now, in the magazine, I remember, if it was going to be…if it was nearing Christmas, we would work longer hours, so that we wouldn’t have to work on Christmas day. Because you have to remember that there are people who are working for the press, the printers. So, if you don’t do your issue earlier, they don’t get to get Christmas coz they have to work. They have to print the magazine. So, it's like an agreement, they will say, "You advance the issue so that these people could have a holiday". So that's what we would do.

Q. Can you describe to us your previous working conditions in terms of salaries and deadlines, how it was before?
A. You know, that’s funny. Salaries…(laughs). I don't even remember. The salaries of journalists have always been bad, you know, compared to other…careers.

Q. Professions?
A. Yeah, always been, but see, I don't think anybody gets into newspapering for the money…

Q. For the money.
A. No, it's for the excitement. It's because you want to write. It's because you want the experience. You have a sense of adventure, especially if you're young. Especially if you're young, you're idealistic. You think your writing will matter and that it's going to, in some way, influence some people who are powerful…and things like that. So, my salary was…I don't remember, but I don't even remember talking salary. You know, like people would hire, diba? Normally, people would hire and then you would ask how much…

Q. How much.
A. Or they would advertise and they would put how much the salary would be, no? But, in the news field, I don't…I don't remember asking even. Even when I got this job as editor, I didn’t ask how much the salary was going to be. You know, but, working conditions…it was bad in the sense that I didn’t have my own car at that time. When you're a young reporter, your salary's only so much, you can't afford a car. Which was one reason why some reporters would teach college, or would teach high school or would teach on the side so they can pay for their cars. But I was too tamad to do that. So, the hard part was commuting. You know, getting from one assignment to another especially if it's raining or you know, flooded. But, as for the working conditions in the office, they were fine. I don't remember that being a problem.

Q. How was it in terms of deadlines?
A. Deadline was always bad for me (laughs). I'm one of those notorious people who cannot meet their deadline. And I know there's no excuse for not meeting a deadline, coz you know getting in that there will be deadlines. But, I was kind of spoiled, you know, because my editors would wait until I finished, like that. And what they always said was that it was okay because they didn't have very much to correct, you know…unlike other stories, where they had to do a lot of editing. With my story, there was minimum editing. But, I was terrible at deadlines. That's the reason I didn’t go for the daily beat. I didn’t become a daily reporter. I went to the magazine because I had a hard time. When I'm writing something kasi, I like to do a lot of research, you know? And then, even if I only use 1/4 of that material, I still wanna know more than I'm supposed to write.

Q. Do you remember how it was being a "cub" reporter?
A. I wasn't like that because I didn’t work for the daily eh.

Q. Okay.
A. It's like the "cub" reporter would…he'd get the police beat, for example, and I never went through that

Q. Since you're working for the magazine.
A. For the magazine, yeah. I guess they have a lot more adventure than magazine writers. But, as a young writer, as a young reporter…coz you may be considered a "cub" reporter because you're new, right? But, I was writing entertainment and, at that time, there were only a few papers so that wasn’t much of a problem that I was new. It was a problem in the sense that, for example, everybody knew everybody. You know, people knew others and then I wouldn’t know who to contact. I wouldn’t know who was the manager of such actor or such actress and like that. I didn’t know the procedures. I didn’t know those things. So, I relied a lot on Crispina Belen, who was writing Celebrity World. It's column…it's the Entertainment column for Bulletin at that time, and it still is there in the Bulletin. So, I got a lot of help from Crispina Belen. She made introductions for me. And then, I also…because I was the entertainment writer of Panorama, whenever Crispina went on vacation, I had to close that page for her in the daily. So, I had to edit early on in my career, I got that exposure where I edited the Entertainment section and, you know…got to close it. And if she'd be away for a week, I'd be the editor for a week and sometimes I would even write her column.

Q. Can you describe your very first assignment?
A. For the magazine?

Q. For the magazine.
A. For my very first assignment…what I consider my very first was…

Q. What was it about?
A. For the Sunday Leisure, when I was just contributing, it was…I had to cover the opening of the exhibit of Danny Dalena. It was an exhibit of political cartoons. You know, he was a political cartoonist and he had a show and I…I had to go cover that exhibit. But for the magazine, I think my very first story was on Elizabeth Ramsey. I don't know if you know her. That's the mother of Jaya…

Q. Jaya.
A. The reason I was… that was Elizabeth Ramsey, was Letty, who was the associate editor…Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc…she liked Elizabeth. She said she was such a fantastic performer and she never got written about. Which was, too bad really. The real talents don't get written about. So, I had to go to…at that time, we had theatres like Clover or Manila Opera House, like that. And they had these live shows and Elizabeth Ramsey was singing there. And I had to go interview her there. I watched her show and then I interviewed her after…backstage. That was my first assignment.

Q. What did you learn from that first assignment of yours?
A. That it was a lot of waiting (laughs). That you have to be prepared to wait a lot. That you have to go to places like that, because at that time…I can't remember if it was Clover or Opera House, but it might have been Clover. It was a theatre in Sta. Cruz, Downtown Manila. It wasn't like…it definitely wasn't A-B you know this was just before the time when they started already to show bold, live shows, they were already starting to show those but they had like a real nice show with Elizabeth Ramsey singing. Then, after her, there would be a bold…or something like that. But then, you could see that the guys were there. And that, so, if you're a young reporter, you have to sit there and watch the show.

Q. The show.
A. And you just have to be…to look tough, I guess. You know, so that's one thing you learn, is that you can be sent anywhere; that you can't choose where you can be sent. But, I think magazine writers have a better time than the daily reporters. For example, because if you're in the police beat …everyday there will be murders or, you know, rape or things like that, things that are out to affect you emotionally. So, that's one thing you have to learn. I guess to…be flexible. You have to learn to adapt.

Q. Coz you can't choose your assignments.
A. Yeah. You can't always tell, for example, your interview subject, "Can we meet at Intercon?" or "At the Pen lobby?". You have to go…even just for writing "Tales of the City", I don't know if you know that. Every Sunday, there's a story that comes out about little people, in the Metro section of the Inquirer. For those people, you have to go where they are to interview them. And they're people who, don’t frequent the hotels or the first class places, or live in nice houses. So, you have to go, for example, to the dumpsite or…like that.

Q. How was it like working with the publishers and editors before?
A. The publisher of Bulletin that time was Hans Menzi. I don't know if you know Hans Menzi, but…

Q. Yeah. We studied him.
A. You did?

Q. Right now.
A. Oh!

Q. First time.
A. Okay. That's good! What have you learned about Hans Menzi?

Q. Just that there are a lot of newspapers that came out like the Manila… the Daily…the Bulletin, the Times Journal and there's a whole bunch of names that come out…and, like Roces…a lot of Roces'…Alejandro…
A. Yeah, because the Roces' published the Times. Hans Menzi was the publisher of Bulletin. Hans Menzi was a Marcos aide you know, and he had been a resident, a Philippine resident for many years. In fact, I think he assumed Filipino citizenship, but I think, by birth he's Finnish. He was from Finland. So, he really…he was foreigner…he looked like a foreigner…

Q. Like a foreigner.
A. He's a white guy, you know, foreigner…and acted like one (laughs). So, then, whenever we did something in the magazine that people in Malacanang… that the Marcos' didn’t like, or Imelda didn't like…and he got called, Mr. Menzi would get called. I don’t know if they gave him a dressing down or something, but he would get called. When he got back to the Bulletin, he would call us, the staff, and we would like just stand there before him when he called us and tells us how we should watch what we're doing because we didn’t…the Bulletin to be closed down and, for so many to lose their jobs. That was the line he always used with us. Make us feel guilty about people losing their jobs if we got closed down. But, I remember standing there while he gave us this talk about, you know, practicing self-control and fairness and accuracy. And he would be eating his snack, whatever it was, pie or ensaymada, or whatever he would be eating. And he would be drinking something and he would not even say, "Do you mind if I eat?" or "Join me" or like…it was really like somebody, like a white lord, you know…a white lord who's talking to his peons. That was the feeling that I always got and I really didn’t care much for him.

Q. How about the editors?
A. The editors were good and I had at first, it was Mr. Sebastian Catarroja and he was a good editor. Then, when he left, it was Levi Marcelo, and then it was Letty Magsanoc. And they were all very good editors. They're very nurturing. They encouraged you. Letty was fantastic. Letty would write you notes when you, for example, submitted a really good story. She would write you a note, saying how good that was. How that made her feel…how proud she was to be editor of a magazine where that story was published. She would even give cash…bonuses, you know, like that.

Q. For a good article.
A. For a good article. She would give…she would do that.

Q. So, with regards to accuracy, ethics and the grammar aspect of news writing, how were the editors? How did they inform you about that?
A. Well, at that time kasi, my generation, we came na from Journ schools eh. Unlike the older generation, where they came from different fields because, I think the Journ, the Masscom courses were offered later. And a lot of the older newspaper men, not a lot, but some of them did not even go to college…just learned, you know, on their own or learned on the job. But we went to school, went to Journ school and then when we got there, we knew about these things. But there is nothing like being on the job to learn these things. At that time, when we submitted our stories, we had to stand next to the editor while he edited it coz it was hard copy. You didn’t…I'm gonna tell you, the way it is today is that you…if I were a reporter, I would write something on the computer, then I would save it. Then, my editor would get it on her screen, you know…get that file when I'm done. She would get the file on her computer…

Q. Computer.
A. Okay, retrieve that file, edit there. So, I don't get to see what's happening, okay. I don't… there isn't a hard copy. Okay, so she edits it, saves it and then it gets printed. We had to type, you know, have a hard copy, submit that. Then, stand next to the editor, while the editor edited, and he would talk to us, you know and he would point out which mistakes we made. And I think that's how we learned. We learned a lot from that. Now, the reporters I don't know, they don't seem to learn because they make the same mistakes over and over.

Q. Were there any memorable editors?
A. Letty. Letty is a good editor. Like I told you, she would, like, give cash bonuses. She would write notes. When she was editor of Panorama, she would invite people from different fields so that…because when you're a reporter, you write about different things, especially in a magazine. You write about different things and you don't necessarily have the expertise on all those things. So, what she would do was that she would invite, for example, an anthropologist or invite a psychologist, or invite people who are experts on different fields. And then, they would talk to us. And we learned a lot from those sessions. That's what Letty was like.

Q. What about colleagues? Do you have any memorable colleagues?
A. Oh! Lots of newspaper people are characters. So, a lot of them are memorable, you know.

Q. An unforgettable experience with a colleague.
A. (Laughs) There's a lot of memories kasi. You know, that's the nice thing about a newspaper career.

Q. Exciting?
A. Yes. Yes, everyday's different. Everyday makes for a good memory. Well, there were bad memories. But the good ones are great. The more exciting ones are great talaga. I think it's what you make of it. But, a lot of newspaper men really are characters. You know, they're different from people in other careers. They're attitude about life is different. They're more…they're aggressive. They're adventurous, they're…especially those who were in the police beat, you know. They have lots of good stories to tell. And those are the ones who really grow into good…memorable characters, those newspapermen.

Q. What were your best memories as a young reporter?
A. I guess it's ano…it's writing that story about the political prisoners. You couldn’t write about political prisoners…

Q. During the Martial Law.
A. During Martial Law, but somehow, Letty was able to…there was a time when the Marcos government was told, you know, "Don't be too strict with the press", "Don't censor too much", they felt that at that time, they needed to relax a bit. And the military wanted to change their image. So…then somehow, Letty got clearance for us to go interview some political prisoners. Now, the reason she did was she said people wanted to know what the conditions were inside.

Q. Inside.
A. And, if it was true that political prisoners were being abused…

Q. Maltreated.
A. Or tortured, or you know, those things. So, they gave us clearance and I was the one who got sent to interview Satur Ocampo, everybody who was in that prison. I think Father Ed was also there, you know. I don't know if Joma was there. So, that was memorable for me.

Q. You were talking about Fr. Ed inside the…
A. Oh! Who was that?…Satur Ocampo, Satur's younger brother was there…and I don’t know if Joma was there, then Fr. Ed was there, I think. Boy Morales was there. I can't remember the people. Vicky Segui was there. Vicky happened to be my classmate in U.P.

Q. She was?
A. And she was inside. She was a political prisoner. She was pregnant. Her husband got killed by the military because they were in the mountains. So, when they got caught, the husband got killed in the skirmish. And so… then, she gave birth in the…inside.

Q. The cell?
A. Yeah. In Bicutan. It was in Bicutan. They were in Bicutan. At that time, that was the political…the place where they took political prisoners. So, I wrote that story. Then, on Christmas, the whole staff…the magazine, instead of holding it somewhere else, we invited performers and then we bought food and we brought the performers and the food to Bicutan to entertain…

Q. For the political…
A. Yeah, to have a Christmas party with the political prisoners. That's what we did. We brought…we took Rey Valera there, Rico Puno. I don’t know who else…Anthony Castelo, I think. We invited pretty good names you know. Pretty good performers with big names. And they were…I think they had a good time, the political prisoners. And that was a memorable experience.

Q. So, that was also considered one of the most important things that you were asked to cover, or were there other important things that you were assigned to cover?
A. No, I think that was…to me, that would rank as the most important one because I was an entertainment writer, you know.

Q. And doing something like that was different.
A. Yeah. I would profile Nora Aunor, Vilma Santos, you know, all these movie stars and producers…and how important can that be? (laughs).

Q. Being a reporter under entertainment, why do you think that you were sent to write for the political prisoners?
A. Because, at that time, they were starting to…I think, groom me to write other things.

Q. Go beyond entertainment.
A. Yeah, go beyond entertainment because…and I was wanting to do that also. I wanted to, I really wasn't gonna be an entertainment writer but that was the opening. That was what they needed. I wanted to be a political writer. I wanted to tell the government how to run things (laughs). That's me, that's always been me. So, when the chance was given…then, you know…

Q. You grabbed it.
A. I took it. Yeah. Even now, I didn’t want to be a Lifestyle editor (laughs). I said that I was gonna give this a try. But, I still wanna be a political writer, that's what I wanna be.

Q. So, given the chance, you'd still…
A. Yeah. If given a chance between editing a political magazine or the Lifestyle section, I would…

Q. Choose that.
A. Choose…yeah, the magazine or the section, for example, if there were a section that's in depth or something.

Q. What were your memories as a reporter, during the Martial Law?
A. That a lot of things…during Martial Law, a lot of things made you angry, but you couldn’t do very much. You tried to write between the lines. You know, you tried your best to write and hope that people would understand, read between the lines. You know, I remember some women reporters, and that included me, were invited to go to Olot, Leyte. And that was like, the resort of Mrs. Marcos, and was for her birthday. No, it wasn't for her birthday. I don't know…I was kind of surprised why we were invited. So, there were like 10 women writers. So, we got there and there was Imelda singing, entertaining us and offering boxes of chocolates and like that. Then, after dinner, I realized why she wanted us there coz she broke the news to us, that she wanted to be governor of Metro Manila. So, that was the reason why we were invited…

Q. Invited.
A. Yeah. And a lot of the things she was saying, I didn’t agree with. But, you just sit there, you know, and u don’t…you can't openly argue with her. It's a different setting. You know you have limits. And a lot of people at that time knew that the military could always be sent to pick you up. But, anyway, I wrote that story, and I wrote about how the family burying grounds…coz inside…okay, you enter their compound, it's Olot, it's called Olot, in Olot, Leyte. And there's the sea. It's a seaside resort. And there are two mountains inside their compound. Before you enter their compound, you pass by the town's cemetery. Okay, so you see the town's cemetery, then you get into their compound and you see their burial grounds, where they bury the Romualdez's and it's bigger than their town cemetery. So then, I think, I write that…I include that in my story. I also say there's piped-in music and I didn’t know how the hell that got done, you know. There was like music from the coconut trees…and they didn’t the way I wrote the story. They didn’t like it, I was told.

Q. The editors, or the Romualdez's?
A. No. Imelda…Mrs. Marcos didn’t like it. So, after that, I never got invited to any (laughs)…

Q. Any other…
A. Because, at that time, when you wrote something that she liked, you got invited to all her trips abroad, you know, like that. That wasn't my goal at all. It was okay with me.

Q. So, how was it different being a reporter before and being an editor now?
A. It's a lot different. First, because now, it's not Martial Law and that's the reason I took this job. It's because there would be no constraints, in other words. And I know Inquirer has been getting away with so much. I mean, if you're aware…if you read the Inquirer, you know it's been highly critical. There's the boycott…the advertising boycott and that, of course, is a little bit of a constraint. But otherwise, editors are free, you know, to run their sections unlike that time, okay. When you're editing, you conceptualize the…for example, with Lifestyle, I know 2 weeks from now what's gonna come out. At least, what you want to come out with, you know. You have a lot of responsibilities as editor. As a reporter, your responsibility is to submit 2 stories a week. In Lifestyle, my reporters have to submit 2 stories a week. But, as editor, you edit, you conceptualize, you give assignments, you make sure that things get covered, things like that. You're abreast with the trends and that you're really not getting behind the other Lifestyle sections of the other papers.

Q. So, which do you prefer?
A. If I were younger I would like to…because, as editor, you don't get to write much. You don't have time. I think that's the negative side to that. If you like to write, you don’t want to be an editor coz you wouldn't have time to write. But if I were younger, I would prefer to be a reporter. But, this time, now for my stage in life where I have kids who are in school and that…things like that.

Q. So, like now it's the '90's, with the coming millenium, how can you compare the papers now, the Inquirer, compared to the papers before?
A. The papers before, when I was a reporter?

Q. Yes.
A. Oh! The papers now are a lot better because there is no Martial Law, you know. There's no censorship. There's no fear of reprisal. There's no fear of…being picked-up by the military. There's no…you don't have to censor yourself. It's more exciting and the technology's…

Q. Better.
A. Yeah. Can you imagine we had to type on typewriters and (laughs) then you submit that hard copy and the editor will edit and then they'll take that down to the men who used lead, you know, like that. But, in the magazine kasi, that was the daily no? But with the magazine, we were computerized na. That time, there will be input guys. But, at that time, we had to cut them like that and paste them up. Now, here, they lay-out on the computer, using the Pagemaker. So, at that time, you had to manually paste-up things like that. Now, the technology is great for research. You know, so much information is at your fingertips now, you know, with the Internet. If you're gonna write about Prince Albert, all you have to do is download what they have on the Internet on Prince Albert, and they have tons of things about Prince Albert.

Q. Did any of your work get censored? Or did you ever get reprimanded for writing such an article?
A. Yes, at that time, yes…during Martial Law, a lot. I think I've already mentioned those things. But, there would be times when the editor-in-chief, I remember that…Ben Rodriguez, who was the editor-in-chief, and he's still in Bulletin. He would…like when he sees me, he would sit next to me and say, "If we don't have to praise them, we don't have to criticize them", referring to the Marcos'. And he would say, "I just want to remind you that a lot of people work here and that their jobs are at stake"…(laughs) the same old line. And I would sit there and I would nod my head and I'd promise to be good.

Q. So, what can you advise those aspiring reporters today?
A. Today?

Q. Yeah.
A. Aspiring reporters? I don't know what they learn in school nowadays, you know. But…are you a Journ major?

Q. I'm actually under the Communication Arts department.
A. Okay.

Q. So, we take everything…Broadcasting, Film and Print.
A. Okay. We had really good teachers and I'm not saying that we were better students. But, we had good teachers, people who really worked in the papers…newspaper and had a lot of experience, and were teaching on the side. So, we… before we even went into the newspapers…into the offices, we already had the skills. We knew we had the grammar…

Q. Your advice, today, for the reporters.
A. It's so hard to give advice. But, what is it? Make sure your information is accurate, you know. Make sure you use the right words, you know…it's hard. Don't just settle for it. It's easy to write if you're just gonna use any word eh. But try to find the right words. The best way to say something in other words. That way, your story is different from the others. Then, also, to research. To make sure that you know what you're writing about. You can't just wing it. It shows when you don't have the information, the data, when you don't have the background, it shows in your writing. There are holes in your writing. You know, I don’t care how good you are with words, it will still show. If you didn’t read up on your subject, if you have no information, it will show. And, I think, the last one is get a good editor (laughs). A good editor always helps. Everybody needs an editor.

Q. Now, as a Lifestyle editor, how are you as an editor to the writers under Lifestyle?
A. I kinda know what they're good at. So, I give them the assignment that's in that area. And then, for example, I know that there's a lot of education that you can gain from travel. So, since I've been editor just September, everyone has gone abroad, except for me. I've sent them out. We get a lot of invitations to cover events outside the Philippines. And, I've sent each one of them…everyone of my reporters because I feel they need that exposure, especially if they're working for the Lifestyle section. As editor, I give them…I tell them, "Okay, the photos are wrong because you're talking about food here and the photos are not about food". Because, sometimes that escapes them eh. The thing is that you just don't make a photo assignment. You don't just tell a photographer, "Go there and photograph such and such". You have to give specific guidelines. What do you want photographed? And I don’t know that. The reporter knows what he wants to write about. And then, sometimes I would tell them, "Oh, you need to get more information about this, about that". But, also, you have to remind them to write…as editor, that's your job, it's to tighten it, you know…sometimes, coz it's so long and people nowadays don’t like to read long articles. I don't know…it's the MTV age, so, they don’t have time to read long articles so, we use a lot of photos, short stories.

Q. So, are the photos like, sort of your gimmicks? Coz there's so many newspapers, there's the Bulletin, there's Philippine Star. Are the editors in-charge of thinking of different ways to…
A. Yes, of course. It's the editors that conceptualize the issues. For example, we came up with the "yaya" stories, the "yaya" articles, I don’t know if you read the Inquirer regularly. But I did a short essay on the "Yaya from Hell". Which is about a yaya who's hurting the kid who she's supposed to be taking care of…and then, an accompanying story to that…one of my reporters, she did a survey among parents on their bad experiences with yayas. So then, the next week, we ran two stories on workshops for yayas. One at U.P., one at Forbes, you know. Of course, the U.P. one was a lot less expensive. And the first one is the one that's run by Maricel Laxa. And then, what happens after that is that on television, you see this tape from Taiwan, where a Filipino yaya is being accused of hurting a baby. So, we preceded them, we had come up with these stories and here comes the tape. What I'm saying is that, why did we come out with those things? It's because I noticed that parents, when, they have yayas, become too trusting, too complacent, you know…too trusting of the yayas with their kids. You have to be on top of things. You can't just think that just because that yaya is nice to your kids when you're around, that she's nice to them when you're not around. And that, when your kids need comforting, you have to be the one to do that, not the yaya. We wanted to make it as an eye-opener, because sometimes when people have yayas, that's it, they think they're free of problems. But that's not true. So, I think we did well on that. We got a lot of response about those issues. And then, we have, for Fashion and Home…I have a sub-editor, Marge Enriquez, and she has a good eye for trends. You know, Lifestyle is only as frivolous as you make it. It doesn't have to be all about fashion, or about Beauty tips. We have a day for Art and Culture. We have a day for Fitness. We have a day for milestones, like weddings. Lifestyle is whatever they can't cover in the news. It's the…I would say, the more positive side because in the news, you get what? Murders, and fires, and hold-ups and all those things and corruption. We can, like, balance that by showing nice things that are happening in the world of art and culture, fashion, even marriage.

Q. So, in the long run, do you still see yourself working for the press?
A. Down the line?

Q. Yes.
A. How many years from now? (Laughs) Yeah. I think so, a lot of newspaper men grow old in the business. You don't ever resign (laughs). That's what we always said when we were younger, "These people die here!" (laughs) and we said, "How are we ever gonna get their positions?". Because, they, like…they just stay. They never quit and I know why. It's something you can do until you're maybe…too old to think.

Q. Okay.
A. Do you have enough?

Q. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much.