CANSANA. Good afternoon, sir! So, first when is your birthday?
DEL CASTILLO. January 1, 1941.

Q. Where were you born?
A. Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Q. Are you married?
A. I used to be and yeah, I used to be.

Q. So, where and when did you finish your elementary education?
A. It's a long time ago.

Q. Around what year?
A. All I remember is I graduated high school 1956...Arellano High School...and my elementary grades were at the Sigio Apostol Elementary School, Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Q. How about your college education?
A. I was a working student so it was staggered, noh...Lyceum...BS Journalism. But, I also took three years of Agriculture...BS in Agriculture.

Q. So, when was that?
A. Uhh, I worked through college so about 19...by 1968 I was finished.

Q. Did you pursue higher education after college?
A. No more. No more...because I got...my kids were...my family was growing.

Q. What was your first job?
A. My first job was a... was a clerk in a flour mill, Republic Flour Mills. And then, as a working student, I got promoted to assistant personal manager. But upon finishing, my first job after college was the Manila Times as a business reporter in 1966.

Q. Did you ever dream of being a journalist?
A. Oh yes! Because I sold newspapers. I sold the Manila Times which was my first employer as a journalist.

Q. So, what led you to work for a newspaper? What made you decide to work for a newspaper?
A. Well, it was my dream and I've always...I've always been...I've always made my English course...English subjects are...I got top grades in all my English subjects. Always flat 1.

Q. So, what was the first newspaper you worked for?
A. The Manila Times...the old, the Manila Times, the one that Martial Law closed down. The Manila Times of Chino Roces.

Q. You were there...
A. Yes! Yes! After seven years...I was working for seven years when they closed it down.

Q. So, what was the feeling to be a business reporter for the first time? What was your feeling?
A. Nothing special. In fact at various times, I was a police reporter. Sometimes a political reporter...sometimes, I covered the president. But, by and large, I was more honed on the business...on the business bits.

Q. Where was this newspaper located...the business office?
A. Florentino Torres...the first newspaper?

Q. Manila Times.
A. Florentino Torres. The original office in Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Q. So, this oral history project...we were asked to do this so we will be able to describe the differences between journalism before and at present.
A. Oh yeah.

Q. So, could you describe the Manila Times' physical facilities before like its printing and office equipment, the lighting in the office?
A. Well, there is a major difference in technology, of course. Now all newspapers...all newsrooms are full...filled with PCs or computers. When I first entered the newspapering game, the...the highest...the state of the art thing was the electric typewriter which was useless to reporters. What we...what we used to hammer on were the old style, old-fashioned Remmington...the noisy typewriters that you bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang! And in fact, the clickity-clack of those old-fashioned typewriters were the music of the newsroom. Without them, you couldn't get inspired to write your story. There was a time. But now, the newsrooms are very quiet because of the computers. All you...all you hear are the...are the gentle clickity-clacky of the keyboards but there it is really very, very... And the...and the printing presses are also louder than the printing presses of today which are more quiet. They hum but at that time, you could hear it from within a half kilometer radius when a printing press was going...was printing a paper.

Q. What was the printing press they used before?
A. The rotary...

Q. Rotary press...
A. The rotary press, which was the most modern at that time...the Manila Times. In fact, it was the biggest newspaper and had the most modern printing press and the fastest, too. Oh, that was letterpress...that wasn't...that's not offset. The offset is totally different.

Q. So, how about the people you worked with before...your publishers, your editors?
A. Oh yes! They were all very, very professional. In fact, I had a solid beginning as a journalist and then...the...the prestige of our publisher was...was a... was incom...was the highest at that time. Chino Roces is a sort of a folk hero among...among...among people who got involved in the EDSA thing, you know? And he was...he valiantly fought the Marcos administration. After...after the...after the...his soldiers padlocked the Manila Times and he continued the fight, hindi ba? And then also, we had the best and the brightest editors you could find in the Manila Times then, headed by the late Joe Luna Castro...Jose Luna Castro who was the...who was the author of the first Philippine handbook...the handbook on Philippine journalism. Well, it was really an expansion of the style book of the Manila Times. Handbook of the Philippine...of Philippine journalism. You can still find it in the...you can still find it in the bookstores. [cut.]

Q. Do you still remember the first task given to you as a business reporter?
A. I remember...recommended by the dean of the Lyceum School of Journalism, Jose Lansang, Sr. with a note. The note said, "Chino, bearer is Butch Del Castillo, one of my...one of my topnotchers of my...who's at the top of my class. If you do not hire him, the note said, it will be a great loss for the Manila Times".

Q. You were not yet a graduate?
A. Graduate na. And Jose Luna Castro, he was totally unimpressed. Oh, so with a poker face, he gave me a stack...stack of a thick, wild of...a thick pile of papers. Will you write a five-story...a five-paragraph story about that? It turned out that the...the thick pile of papers were mostly letters from the Rotary Club about a scheduled meeting where a prominent personality would be speaking and then, it was a simple story about a rotary club meeting so in three minutes, I...in fact, I gave him s four-paragraph story. And then he finally said, it didn't deserve another paragraph. He looked...he took one look and he was trying to say, when can you start? And when...

Q. So, what was the very important lesson you learned from that...from that experience?
A. One very important that I...in the newspaper business, you cannot pretend to be anything. You can submit the thickest bio-data...to the...to a prospective employer...to a prospective editor even to a newspaper. It might be the most impressive bio-data, but...but the first three paragraphs that you write...the first four paragraphs that you write will totally unmask you for what you are. Whatever the...is said in that bio-data will be useless if you cannot write that four, those four paragraph in a clear, simple, concise sentence...if you cannot tell the story as simply and as effectively as possible. Noh, so you cannot bluff your way in the newspaper game.

Q. Do you have any other special memories as a reporter, as a police reporter?
A. Oh many, many! Ang dami, ang dami! Mga scoops ko. I don't think you have time for that.

Q. What were the other newspapers you worked for after the Manila Times?
A. Oh, after the Martial Law, I thought I could never...I could never go back to newspapering again because democracy was dead. There was a dictatorship. And then, but after two years, a cabinet member was able to convince me that Marcos meant well and that Marcos wanted to bring about important reforms in society by using the iron hand which Filipinos sometimes need, you know. Well, that could...it took for a while I worked with the secretary of agriculture as his spokesman, Arturo Tangco, Jr...the late Arturo Tangco, Jr. And the first five years of Martial Law were really good. Philippines was able to establish self-sufficiency in rice, in agriculture, in food...and Marcos seemed to be working in the right direction. But on the...I know on the sixth, seventh, eighth, he deteriorated and then began...began...they started to be greedy especially the wife, Imelda...and the brother. That's why I went back to newspaper after five years.

Q. What newspaper? Manila Times...
A. Yeah, I joined the Manila Times when it was revived but that was several years later. I joined the Times Journal. I joined and then I am a little...of the...business editor of the Evening Post, an afternooner...and various other papers...newspapers.

Q. After that, you entered Manila Standard?
A. I was...I was the business editor of the Manila Times when Chino Roces under Cory Aquino tried to revive the Times. So he called all the original, the living...the living...the living...the living survivors. And whoever, and then they took me as business editor. But, Chino Roces was getting sickly, so he couldn't attend to the paper too much and the...the glory days of the Manila Times were over, very clearly because there were other newspapers that were very strong already and we're hired to keep up with, you know, if we couldn't regain the premiere position in the industry. But I was business editor then, when Chino was about to quit because he was too sick and the paper was being sold to Gokongwei. Before it was being sold to Gokongwei, I was pirated by the Manila Standard so I transferred, I became business editor here. That was ten years ago.

Q. Do you have any other involvements aside from being a journalist? Are you a member of a civic organization?
A. Oh yeah! I used to be president of the National Press Club and I might be president again.

Q. So, what are the duties or responsibilities of the president...?
A. The National Press Club is the social club of the...the newspapermen in Manila and it sort of tries to think of activities to, you know, and then we...at one...during my term as president, I tried to put up a welfare fund...the things that I left...like the Rotary Club of the...or the Jaycees of the...of the businessmen. This one is on the...is exclusively for newspapermen and we have a clubhouse on Magallanes Drive.

Q. Do you remember any memorable editor you've worked with?
A. Oh yes! Quite a few...editors and publishers. Among them, Chino Roces, number one...two, Jose Luna Castro, the editor-in-chief of the Manila Times and then my mentor, antormentor, Quirima Polotan-Tuvera who was the fiercest female editor of this side of Asia but I learned a lot from her and she really honed us on the...on our...on our English. She was very strict. One letter na mali ka diyan, patay ka! One day...one day, I had to put out the paper. I was in charge. I was hacking the editor of the Metro Manila Times. I had to put out the paper. It was letter perfect! There was no typographical error, no grammatical mistake. Perfect! And then, Quirima Polotan surprised me when I came in the afternoon. I had a big cake! Congratulations, in one banner, for a...for a flawless page one. Ayan oh! Eh di, but this is a daily newspaper. The following day, we were celebrating after that, we put out the paper again eh ang dami ng mali. Kinabukasan oh, there was another banner...Butch, isoli mo cake ko! That's a memorable episode with Quirima Polotan and she's still alive. She's one of the best writers in this country and I owe a lot to her. I learned a lot.

Q. So, she's very strict when it comes to accuracy...?
A. Accuracy...language.

Q. ...ethics? Even ethics?
A. Yes. Even yeah.

Q. What was their attitude towards deadlines?
A. Oh, that's the first thing you learn in the journalism profession.

Q. Yeah, we are trained in school.
A. We better make deadline. Pagka yung pagkapa-patay ka. They will tease you. Ano ba yan, what are you writing that for, an annual or something like that? And there's no room for slow folks. You cannot...kasi araw-araw 'to eh...everyday. You might be excited about it today but tomorrow that's old hat. Yeah, so you...you go on and on very, very fast.

Q. How did they communicate this attitude to their reporters?
A. They...the systems of discipline vary from newspaper to newspaper. Kanya-kanyang style yan eh. There are people who do it by demerit. There are people who just shouts at you! Iba-iba...iba-iba nag klase.

Q. Do you remember any memorable colleagues...people you've worked with? How about reporters?
A. Oh yeah. I've tried quite a few who will become prize winners...who'll, after working for you, will go and seek employment elsewhere because mas matagal sila sa kabila. Mga ganun. I have quite a few.

Q. Do you have any special memory...a very special memory during the Martial Law?
A. Yeah...Martial Law...You know, the newspapermen in the country then were ambivalent. Do they continue...should they continue pursuing as newspaper in career under a Martial Law Regime? There was a contradiction in terms...newspapering...Martial Law. They never mix but...but...but was trying to make it appear it was a workable arrangement. Hey, I'm trying to do something for ano...We're otherwise democratic. People were ambivalent about their feelings. So, in my case, I tried to...we tried to push the limit. Everyday, what can you hit...what can you not hit. Obviously, in your report, you can never hit Marcos. You could never hit Imelda. What about the government in general? They immune as well, of course not! So, you tested the limit. Up to where you would go. So, everyday you are in danger of losing a job...because you are under Martial Law. So, one day, as a guest in Hongkong, there were...some of the Filipinos...newspapermen had fled to Australia like Doronilla...that Doronilla. He fled to Australia when Martial Law...because he was coward and I say this very publicly and then, there were others who went and joined the Hongkong Standard and other newspapers in different governments. One day, we were guest in Hongkong...in a Hongkong...dinner guest of a Filipino newspaperman. And he said, look at these here we can hit anybody we please while you there in the Philippines...kinakanchawan pa kami. You have a very tame press and then I said that...What are you trying to tell us...that we are the cowards and you are the braver? Look...everyday we're testing the limits in our country and what did you do, you fled and you are the coward! Gusto mo suntukan tayong dalawa? I literally challenged him to a fight. And you know that man, Manny Benitez, later on returned to the Philippines and when he became editor-in-chief of the revived Manila Times, the first man that he recruited was Butch Del Castillo. It was a memorable one...We became friends after that. And he saw my point. Hey, we're in danger of losing our job...in the comfort of your high-paying job... more democratic line here...Excuse me!
A. Do we have some more questions left?

Q. Some more... Were you there during the EDSA Revolution?
A. I was playing poker.

Q. What does an associate editor for a newspaper do?
A. I write the editorial at least once a week and then occasionally, I recommend possible business stories...for page one...and if there's anything really big, I am coordinating the Central Desk.

Q. Last question, sir. How did you manage to work for a newspaper and a radio station before?
A. Divide your time. I felt it was not for me...but after the first few words...there was stage fright eh...even your dad was nervous because you're imagining millions of listeners but after awhile, you develop presence and confidence...and then you talk casually, the more effective you are.

Q. What can you advice to future journalists like me?
A. Don't be afraid to try anything once...professionally. Like when I applied for business editor, during Cory's time, with the Evening Post, I was already a reporter of another newspaper. I went to Quirima Polotan...What can I do for you, Mr. Butch Del Castillo?...I'd like to be a business editor...How did you know that I am in the market for business editor?...I saw your business page...So, when can you start? Little daring, and above all, keep your nose clean. And if you keep your nose clean, you can write in authority. You can advice people but not on things you are guilty about. Obviously!
A. Okay?

Q. Thank you very much!