Jersan Leopando: Ma'am, for the record, can you please state your full name and your position in this organization. Rosario A.

Garcellano: My name is Rosario A. Garcellano. I'm the Associate Editor for Readership of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Leopando: Ma'am, I'm just curious, what does a. Associate Editor for Readership do?

Garcellano: Actually, it's a relatively new post here in the Philippines. But in the United States, it's a going thing. This post is occupied by somebody who is to in charge of studying and critiquing of the newspaper, and, in short, trying to find ways and means to raise the readership level. We are operating on the premise that globally, not only in the Philippines, readership is plunging. This is because of the video explosion, the Internet, the MTV, communication has been so modernized that the viability of the print medium has become, so to speak, challenged. So, this post is mainly concentrated on that: to increase and strengthen readership.

Leopando: I understand that you graduated from the University of the Philippines. What My family is a reading family, so, it wasn't much of a difficult decision. It was, on my part, something that I knew I would go into. I'm not very big on classroom education; actually, ang dami kong incomplete na grade. I was trying to get away from the class but as for the reading part, I was helped along by my family in the sense that, well books were scattered everywhere in our household. My father was also writing and reading was second nature to him, so I was helped by that. It wasn't much of a decision as if, I was wondering what I should do. No, it wasn't like that. It was as if it were natural that I would go into it.

Leopando: So, I understand you have relatives in the newspapers? Garcellano: Family members? Well, I have a distant cousin who used to work with Business World. He's now with INQ7, our Internet-based provider.

Leopando: Did you work for other newspapers aside from The Philippine Daily Inquirer?

Garcellano: Oh, I've been around. I was still in school when I started out as reporter of the Graphic. It was a political magazine, a weekly, and I joined it shortly before martial law. I was still in school, but I thought I would start on a part-time basis. What happened was that I went on a full-time basis and naturally, school was ignored. Don't do that. You should finish your studies and get your degrees. When someone is young, one always thinks that one's actions are wise. When martial law was imposed, Graphic was one of the publications that were closed down. Well, during martial law, I went into other jobs like editing. I went to a nine-to-six job, editing technical reports; it damn near killed me but, I went through with it. And then, I went back to magazine work. I was present at the creation of the Inquirer, December 1985. (We are celebrating our twentieth anniversary on December 9. Imagine.) After a year, I was asked to help set up the Manila Standard. I was the Lifestyle and Features Editor of the Inquirer when it started; I joined the Manila Standard as Opinion Editor. After a year, I went to a fellowship grant in Stanford University , and returned to the standard when I came back. Later I joined the Manila Times as Editor of the Sunday Times Magazine, and after that I went back to the Inquirer. That was in '91, and since then, I've been working here.

Leopando: So what was your position before you became Associate Editor for Readership?

Garcellano: I was one of the Desk Editors. My last position before I became Associate Editor for Readership was Senior Desk Editor. But it's also one of my functions—I am still one of the desk editors.

Leopando: Ma'am, with regards to the facilities, what would you say about the facilities of the Inquirer?

Garcellano: What do you mean by facilities?

Leopando: The building…

Garcellano: The Inquirer owns this building. Before we moved here—let me see, was it in the mid-1990's?—we were renting a building somewhere off UN Avenue. Before then… okay, let me start from the beginning. We started the Inquirer in a one-room affair, diyan sa Star Building sa Intramuros…ang liit-liit, nagbabangaan ang mga aura namin. And then we moved to what was once the Madrid Restaurant. You don't know this, it used to be a nice Spanish restaurant along EDSA, very old. That was when I left. Pero from there, nag-move ulit sila diyan sa BF Condominium sa may Intramuros, and then they moved to Paco, and that was when I rejoined them. From there, off UN Avenue, we moved here. This is our building; our facilities are A-1, our computers are top of the line. We are using the Tera Systems. (The IT people will be able to explain that; I can't.) We have our own printing press at the back. We have presses in Cebu, and in Davao.

Leopando: What is your method of printing is it offset or letterpress?

Garcellano: Offset siyempre. Ang letterpress panahon pa ni Mahoma yan. Although I caught that when I was a reporter. You know yang letterpress na 'yan, it was really a job that needed strength. The operators used lead, yung tingga, tapos marunong silang magbasa nang pabaliktad. Wala na niyan ngayon except in really old printing.

Leopando: Where you, in a way, a cub reporter before?

Garcellano: When I joined the Graphic as a reporter? I was the youngest. I was proud to be among the best. I was with Pete Daroy, who is gone now. And we also had Willy Baun and Ninotchka Rosca, who's now based in the United States. She was the one who hired me. She was my first boss. And Mercy Tira was also there. When I came in, I was the youngest and naturally I was like a cub reporter. But I remember it took a while to get a by-line. That's how it was, before you could get a by-line, you would sweat blood and tears. When I finally got a by-line, about three months later, the feeling was terrific. Ang galing. Kasi you feel you've earned it. The staff threw jobs at me. Nag- proofread ako, did captions. They'd say, "Andyan na si Chato, andyan na si Chato, ibigay ninyo yung proofreading." In short, inapi. Ganyan talaga, that's how it is, but I really felt that I was trained by the best.

Leopando: Ma'am, what are your memorable events as an editor?

Garcellano: Here, in the Inquirer, I don't know if you know that once upon a time we were hit by an ad boycott. The President then was Joseph Estrada. Talagang nahirapan kami. Nawalan kami ng revenue because he was angry at how the coverage was. The then President, thought the coverage of his presidency was too negative. He instigated the withdrawal of advertising from the Inquirer. But, of course, the newspaper's owners did not buckle down. There was absolutely no apology, although the revenues dropped. And as you know, I wonder if you know, advertising is the lifeblood of any newspaper. Without it you won't be able to operate. Pero the owners—the Prieto family—were very strong and did not buckle at the pressure. Those were terrible times, others would have sold out, but they didn't.

Leopando: Speaking of the former President Estrada, we read that you participated in the impeachment trial?

Garcellano: No, NO, NO. We did not participate in the trial; we covered the trial. But you know what, Nadine Gordimer, the South African writer, she said that the tension between being a participant and an observer of an event was what made a writer. For example, myself, if I'm covering a rally, I'm there, I'm supposed to be the observer and recorder of it. But then again, one can also say that because I'm there, I'm also a participant. But there is a difference: In covering an event, you have to have objectivity. So during the impeachment trial of President Estrada, the Inquirer was not a participant. It covered the event and reported on it for the public to be informed. Of course, TV was always present, but the main problem with TV is that the images are so transitory. But as for print, the newspaper interprets those images, reports what happened for the public to be able to make its own conclusions. That is the difference. You asked: did you participate in the trial? We did not. We were there, we recorded, we observed, we reported.

Leopando: As part of our requirement, we are asked for your bio data. We already asked for your full name. We have only researched your year of birth, which is 1948. We can't find the exact date.

Garcellano: Who told you that? (laughs)

Leopando: From the book Ma'am.

Garcellano: (laughs) San yan?

Leopando: "Pinay," a book by Christina Pantoja-Hidalgo.

Garcellano: I don't even have a copy of this. Ano naman ang nandito kong trabaho?

Leopando: This book includes your essays. It is a compilation of essays written by Filipino women.

Garcellano: Oh, you mean "No Exit"? And what else?

Leopando: I think there's another one here.

Garcellano: "No Exit," I wrote it when I was managing editor of Celebrity Magazine. But the problem with you people, because you are so young, is you don't know all these publications. And what else? Oh! "School and Early Sorrow." This is about when I was a student at the College of the Holy Spirit. San kayo nag-graduate?

Leopando: We're still studying pa po. Garellano : I mean, high school?

Leopando: San Lorenzo po.

Garcellano: Grade school?

Leopando: Yes, Ma'am.

Garcellano: What about you? Tolentino : Poveda po.

Garcellano: Poveda. Ok. So you ought to be able to relate to this essay. Have you read it? Tolentino : Not yet pa po.

Garcellano: Maybe you should. So that you'll understand me better. Ok, so what else do you want to know apart from my age?

Leopando: Ma'am, what is your civil status?

Garcellano: I'm married. I have two daughters. One is based in Singapore editing a travel magazine. The other is an artist. She is a book illustrator and she does an daily comic strips for the Inquirer. She is also teaching art lessons on the side. I'm married to a lecturer at the University of the Philippines. He lectures on literary criticism and contemporary literature.

Leopando: So I see that you're a family of writers and artists.

Garcellano: (laughs) We try.

Leopando: Ma'am, how about your education. Your school in elementary and high school?

Garcellano: I went to, what was then called Holy Ghost College. It's now College of the Holy Spirit. It is on Mendiola, near Malacañang. I went to that school from grade 1 to 4 th year high school. Then I went to the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. I also studied a full academic year at Stanford University at California.

Leopando: Thank you, Ma'am.