JAVIER. Good evening Sir.
CRUZ. Good evening.

Q. Before we start, could you please tell us a little about yourself?
A. Well, now, I work with the Inquirer. I have three grown up children. One of them is a doctor in the U.S. Two are here….and I have two grand children.

Q. Kumusta naman po sila?
A. Okay. One of my children is the Vice President of Shangri-La Plaza sa marketing. Interview proper

Q. What were the circumstances that led you to chose this kind of occupation?
A. When I was in high school, I liked to write. I contributed to our school newspaper and my English teacher told me to take up journalism. So that's what I did in college, I took up journalism.

Q. From there, did you plan to take up journalism as a career?
A. Yah, I took up journalism first. But you know, before I graduated, the Manila Chronicle took me in. So I was still an undergraduate and I was already working. So when I graduated, I was already committed.

Q. When were you first employed with a newspaper?
A. I don't know the exact year but it's….fifty-five maybe…fifties

Q. So mga forty years na rin ho kayong employed?
A. Yes, because as I said, I was still an undergraduate at that time.

Q. Ano po ang pangalan ng newspaper niyo?
A. Manila Chronicle, the old one.

Q. Was it the biggest newspaper at that time?
A. No, that was the second. The biggest was The Manila Times. The Chronicle was the second.

Q. Manila Times, yun po yung….sa Roces…yung nagpapatakbo…
A. Yes, their office was located at Soler and new Avenida. Ours was at Intramuros.

Q. A Intramuros. Kasi po yung traditional location was Intramuros, like The Manila Bulletin, they were also located there.
A. No, The Bulletin formerly was located at Soler and Calero. That was the original. The Manila Times was there, The Manila Bulletin was there, The Evening News was there, The Daily Mirror. It was, I don't know. Intramuros was very much later. The Chronicle was the first in Intramuros.

Q. How did it feel like, sir, working in print journalism during the early years?
A. Well, yah, very good, very good. Because it is much more exclusive at that time because there were only a few newspapers then. But now, there are so many.

Q. What did the buildings and offices look like back then?
A. Well, they looked better than some of the present offices of the newspapers. They had their own building, they were big and they were owned by the publication, not rented.

Q. How many people, sir, were employed back then?
A. Well….um…

Q. Mas marami po before kaysa sa ngayon?
A. Depende sa Newspaper. There are very small newspapers now so that means they have less staffers. Also, before the advent of the computers, there are more people working.

Q. Kasi po dahil sa mga compouters, less effort na rin po di ba?
A. Less people can do the work. I'm referring to the mechanical, printing press.

Q. So, how about, po, yung mga office equipment ninyo?
A. Of course, the equipment now are computers. Back then, it was typewriters. In the printing press, they were the Linotype, the hotset metal. Now we have the computers.

Q. Mayroon na rin pong mga newspapers found on the internet.
A. Now, you can send the contents of your computer to others through the Internet. You can be read immediately in other countries through the internet.

Q. Your early colleagues and editors, did they work well with you?
A. Yes, there were merely very good journalists.

Q. Like who sir?
A. Well, like Soliongco, Armando Manalo, they were the outstanding columnists.

Q. Yung mga editors niyo po, were they strict on deadlines?
A. Oh yes. Yes because you have to be out in the streets at a certain hour. If it's…both of them. If it's a morning paper, you have to be out before midnight. And if you're an afternoon paper, you have to be out in the streets before noon.

Q. During your early years, sir, how much was your monthly salary?
A. Ang starting salary ko…Three Hundred Sixty Pesos

Q. A month po yun?
A. Yes, that was Two Hundred Twenty One pa non eh. So that's One Hundred Eighty Dollars.

Q. Enough na po yun?
A. Oo, at that time, yes.

Q. That was big na po?
A. That was big. Kasi, I think inflation robbed the Peso a thousand percent of its value.

Q. Gaano po kayo katagal nagtatrabaho? How many hours?
A. Sometimes we used to work up to eleven. We used to start after lunch. Some had to work even longer.

Q. How about on holidays po, did you still work?
A. Yes. There were no holidays for us.

Q. Kahit na any special occasion you still had to work?
A. Oo.

Q. Pero hindi naman po hassle yun?
A. No, we are used to it. Kasi, if you work for a newspaper, you must expect to work long hours during holidays. Otherwise, if you don't work, that means there will be no newspaper the next day. So bale, half of the…not half…almost all also work on Sundays. Maski ngayon ganon din.

Q. Sir, were you ever a cub reporter?
A. No. I mainly started as a writer for the magazine.

Q. Were there a lot during the early years?
A. Yes. Almost everybody starts as a cub reporter, but I started as a magazine writer because while I was an undergraduate, I was already contributing short stories and articles to the magazine.

Q. Sir, when was your first beat?
A. Beat. I was first….it was…I was writing a movie column. So if you want to call it a beat….It wasn't like a beat that you have to go there everyday. But after that I was promoted already to editor and the first reporter job I had was covering Malacanang. So I started at the top. Editor eh. Also at the top of the reportorial kuwan in Malacanang.

Q. Ano po feeling maging editor?
A. Well, there's a lot of responsibility. You're responsible for the newspaper unlike the reporter who's responsible only for his story. But you're responsible because you hold the whole paper.

Q. So it means po sir, na marami pong trabaho yun.
A. More pressure kasi you're rushing until the deadline. You'd rather be at home, but still when you sleep, you're still thinking if what you've done is correct. The next morning, you look at the newspapers, feeling that you have missed some stories that the other papers have. There is constant stress.

Q. Mahirap po yun kasi sir, di ba, marami pong newspapers, tapos kailangan mong I- check lahat po.
A. Yes, you have to look at all the newspapers.

Q. Sir, during your long career as a journalist, did you ever have any memorable editors?
A. Yes, Soliongco and Joe Bautista. Joe was my professor. He was the legendary Manila Times editor.

Q. What made them so memorable, sir?
A. Well, Bautista sponsored the training of so many reporters who became stars. He had taught so many journalists.

Q. Sir, how were they when it came to accuracy, ethics, content and grammar?
A. Better than now.

Q. Better than now? As in they really checked….?
A. No, because now you have stories that say "sources said". Walang identification. At that time, you had to identify. If he doesn't want to be identified in the story, you have to tell the editor.

Q. Any memorable colleagues or people you worked with before, po?
A. Rod Reyes.

Q. What made him unforgettable?
A. Well, Rod Reyes posted as a drug addict….in Malabon and he wrote exclusive stories for that. And Rod won a journalist award.

Q. What were your best memories as a young reporter?
A. Being a reporter is much more fun than being an editor.

Q. Is it because it's more adventurous?
A. Well, you work outside, you don't have much more pressure like an editor, you work shorter hours, you're not hooked up w/ the editor, you're outside.

Q. Mas exposed ho kayo?
A. Some reporters, like me for instance, when I was promoted to editor, I didn't want to accept the editorship although it's a promotion, rank and fame, because it's more fun being a reporter.

Q. What significant or historical events, sir, did you cover?
A. The EDSA, people power.

Q. Were you there? Did you join the people?
A. Yes. I also covered the presidential elections from the time of Garcia.

Q. Sir did you ever cover Martial Law?
A. Yes, I did. Martial Law, I was editor of the Daily Express.

Q. With the physical conditions of the papers during Martial Law, nung time na yon, maraming pinasarang diyaryo.
A. Yes. They were Manila Times, Bulletin, Evening News. Then they reopened much later.

Q. Sir, out of curiosity lang po, naabutan niyo po ba yung World War 2?
A. I was very young back then.

Q. Sir, did you ever remember anything about World War 2?
A. Not much because I was so young.

Q. With your vast experience in journalism, sir, has it really changed much today compared to your early years?
A. Journalism? Yeah, very much. Because of the different technologies, news is much more wide and complicated and there are much more stories now than before, more pages in the newspaper, so many other publications.

Q. Sir, what can you say about the tabloids now? Mas marami po sila than before.
A. Yah. So much. Noon, how many tabloids were there? I think there were only two or three. Ngayon mas madami.

Q. Are there more challenges now than when you were younger?
A. Yes, because there are many much more complicated stories. Before, Filipino readers were not much interested in what's happening in the other parts of the world. Before, there was no competition from television. Now, television is a big competitor.

Q. What decade, sir, do you suppose produced the best journalism in our country?
A. Well, I would think that during the time which was the fifties and sixties. I know that people, they know journalism. And that was the golden age of Philippine magazine journalism. We had the best magazines at that time. There were the Sunday Times and This Week Magazine. Philippine literature was big and you can even compare, you can look at the magazines then the magazines now. Now it's nakakahiya compared to the magazines then.

Q. Is it more financially rewarding or is it more for personal satisfaction?
A. Well, both. It's for personal satisfaction. And the pay is good. If you're a good journalist, you get pay higher than the cabinet members.

Q. Sir, are journalists more resourceful now in gathering information compared to the earlier years?
A. No, they were more resourceful before. Kasi noong araw walang mga PRO. Now there are PRO's so they can be feed…

Q. Parang binibigay nila yung information….
A. Yes, noong araw, you have to work for it.

Q. In ending sir, what would be your advice to someone who is aspiring to become a journalist?
A. Read a lot. I think the best journalist now loves to read a lot during their formative years. When I say reading, I mean reading books and news magazines so that you'll be up to date on what's going on. You read the newspaper. Spend less time with television, more on reading because television, you get very brief stories. If you want to know just what's happening, you can watch the news. But you have to read for more in depth reports because that's where you get the….especially the newsmagazines.

Q. Sir, that ends our interview. Thank you very much.
A. Okay. I hope I was able to help you.