HERMANOS. Good day. I'm here with Mr. Joel Lacsamana, an award-winning business and political journalist who has been working for over 15 years. He's been in newspapers in the Philippines, the U.S., and other countries in Asia. He is now currently working as a communications director in one of the Ayala group of companies. Mr. Joel, how did you come about in news journalism? How did you start out?
LACSAMANA. Well for starters, my late father was a journalist himself, in fact a famous journalist. His name was Jimmy Lacsamana and he was the former sports editor of the Manila Daily Bulletin during the golden era of sports, as they called it, during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. And among my 5 brothers and sisters, I was the only one who basically took an interest in journalism and writing per se. And because of that, even in school in Ateneo, in grade school and in college, the U.P. and the Lyceum of the Philippines, I was quite active in the school organs in these schools, basically as a reporter or as an editor. And it was natural that when I got into college I took up B.S. Journalism as my major in college, with an aim of becoming a journalist and following the footsteps of my father.

Q. What was the first newspaper you ever worked on and describe how was it like?
Q. Well when I was in my final year at the Lyceum of the Philippines, I basically did some cub reporting. I was a cub correspondent in fact for the Manila Daily Bulletin for 1 year. It was an informative year I suppose in my career. I wasn't paid for my job. We were paid per column inch, so you really push to come out with articles, and I was tasked to cover the immigration and post office beats. At the time, it was an office populated by men, mostly men, who were a lot older than I was, and there were very few people who would take time out to basically teach the ropes to a young cub correspondent like me. It was a staid boring place, but I hung in there basically because I really was serious about becoming a journalist at that time.

Q. What was it like working in a newspaper in terms of its location, the facilities you're using, and the people you're working with, and also the conditions, meaning holidays? And deadlines, how strict were they with deadlines?
Q. Well during that time, journalism was a far cry from what it was now. There were no computers in the newsroom, and the pay was very low. I had some mentors which really helped me a lot, like Teddy Owen, a veteran grizzled newsman from the past who had worked with my father before. 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 be, 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. And in fact if you were late in your deadlines, 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 teletyping machine. And if he didn't like your copy he would really yell at you, and in fact even use your copy to wipe his shoes. That's how strict they were at that time.

Q. Now I've noticed in your resume that you've worked in a lot of newspapers, some even in abroad. So, what was it like in abroad? Was there much difference in terms of the way they handle things in management?
Q. Well at the Bulletin, that was just my cubbing years. Actually after that, upon graduation, I had applied for and got a job at Business Day. And it was here that I really began to learn the full ropes of journalism. I was with people who were more or less closer to my age. Even the editors, were though a little bit older, were younger and more fast on their feet intellectually, more driven, and the competition was keener, and there was a much higher premium in Business Day for fairness, for strict adhesion to the facts of the story, and for investigative and digging of facts. And through the years, after that I had worked basically even in overseas, even in Singapore which a very authoritarian country, it was pretty much like the Marcos years at that time. One cannot say that journalism there was a second hand profession. There was a high degree of professionalism, a high degree of technology or computerization, and investigation of the facts and adhesion to the facts was very much also strictly followed. To this day, I bump into some old colleagues who had worked in Singapore, for example the Singapore Straits Times, and their professional habits still stick with them to this day, particularly in so far as interviewing, and collection of the facts, and writing of the story, and getting both sides or all sides of an issue at all times.

Q. How about your relationship with your editors and your colleagues? Was it very much casual or was it strictly professional?
Q. When I was in Business Day, it was a very, I would say, a very chummy relationship with my colleagues over there. And also when I covered the beats, (when I covered the sports beats for three years, from 1983 till 1985, then I also covered the defense beats during the coup, the EDSA revolution, and the coup years up till 1989), I developed very strong professional relationships with co-journalists who were very professional about their craft and cover their beats with dedication as well as a high degree of interest. Of course there were also some "bad eggs" there who really just showed up just for the sake of showing up. And its just too bad that there seems to have become a proliferation of these kinds of journalist over the past few years compared to more serious professional ones which I've come to know during the years I was still a journalist.

Q. Are there any very memorable colleagues or editors that made a very significant impact on your life?
Q. Oh yes. A lot of these guys are dinosaurs now but they're during the time when I was covering the sports beat for Business Day. A lot of them are still around like Al Mendoza, Ding Marcelo, and Lito Takuhan, Jun Engracia. These guys, you know, basically took me under their wings when I was learning the ropes, covering the different sports in the sports beat. And then when I was in the defense beat, I came into a group of really fine professionals like Noli Pelayo, who now is the city editor of the Today magazine, Martin Makfil, who now covers Malacaņang. These were a different breed of journalists after coming from the sports beat. They were more into investigative-police-type journalism, in which they were highly competitive about the facts they were getting. Though they were not as flashy or stylish as the sports writers had come to know, they were more into basically getting the stories faster than the others; and this was something I highly prized learning from them. And later in my latter years, when worked in the United States, I'd come into a group also of American journalists, who as we covered the business beats were very professional about their approach to journalism. Also highly technical, in the sense that the time cyber-journalism was in its infancy (were talking about the 1987, 1988). And during these years, I think I came into some very good relationships and learned a lot of things.

Q. What was your very first beat and what have you learned from that experience?
Q. Well like I said earlier, in the Bulletin, my first beat was the immigration beat and post-office beat. Post-office beat was basically a dead beat; there was really nothing much to get there. But the immigration beat I was hanging around with a lot of those flashy immigration officers, a lot of them were corrupt I have to admit, who did their raids on illegal aliens as well as illegal goings-on at the international airport as well as the port area. It was an exciting time for a guy who was just 20 years old trying to learn the ropes of cubbing for a major daily. I learned a lot from that too.

Q. During the time of the Marcos regime, do have any significant memories during the EDSA revolution, or the coup attempts?
Q. Oh yes. I think first thing that comes to mind was when I found myself with a couple hundred other international as well as local journalists, at the Kalayaan or Heroes Hall in Camp Aguinaldo with then Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile, Fidel V. Ramos, and their henchmen. And Enrile turns to us and says, " Well this is it ladies and gentlemen, Marcos is about to bomb this building in the next thirty minutes. Anybody is free to step out right now and save their hides." We all looked at each other and nobody really moved, I suppose. That to me was a turning point in my career. And from then on I've been covering coup attempts all the way until 1989. I was right in the thick of them and it was quite an exciting period. I also covered some army patrols say in Bicol, as well as Samar, covering some NPA campaigns at that time. And I think it was during these times that I really felt that I was a professional journalist.

Q. What can you say about the present state of our Philippine journalism?
Q. I wish I could be more optimistic. But now that I'm at the other side of the fence, working as a corporate communications director in one of the biggest conglomerates in the country, I come across really young journalist who are a lot of times is all basically laziness. They'd rather cover stories from where they are. They'd call you and try to get in-depth articles from you over the phone. Or even in fact have you fax the whole story to them instead to where they are in whatever press office they are. And then they'll just call in the story over there, to their editors at the newsroom. Gone are the days in which they have to go to the newsroom to file the story, to argue with the editor about the facts in the story, and then get the satisfaction of reading their story the following day with their by-line on it. Most of the time they just call-in their story or fax it and then just disappear or vanish. The days of plain old, good old-fashioned digging for facts seems to have gone out the window.

Q. You probably heard of the cyber-journalism, and you probably witnessed the infancy of it. So you think the Philippines is ready for this kind of journalism?
Q. I think so too but I think a certain degree of control, in so far as how the stories are presented basically to the audience, should be exercised. Also, I've noticed in so far as the ratio of people connected with the net right now in the Philippines is still largely small. But I do see the potential for it in the future. Right now, you get at times in your e-mail a lot of stuff, which has not been edited at all. And a lot of raw information is traded on the net, in this information superhighway, which in the strict sense of journalism in the newsroom would not pass the muster of any editor. It will take time. I mean its there, its growing, and a lot of people are becoming dependent on it. And probably there will come a time, yes, in which the circulation newsprint will largely dwindle away. But I think that will still take some time for it to happen.

Q. What can you say to aspiring news journalists to become like you, an award-winning journalist?
Q. Well I think there's no magic formula for it. Its really hardwork, or not even hardwork, its sheer professionalism about one's craft. What makes one a good "basurero" or a good chef? It has to be that "basurero" or chef has to believe in what they do or they're doing. And I think to be a good journalist, one has understand why one is a journalist. One is there to dig for the facts, to get all sides of the story, to basically find out what are the real issues involved, and write it from the larger picture of things. Not zero-in on just some aspects which are sure to grab the viewer or the reader by the throat. There is a large degree of responsibility in journalism and I think this is something that should not be subjected to short cuts. The only advice I could give to aspiring journalists is to be true to their craft, be professional about it, and find out really who are my readers and what the story is all about. That's just the key there.

Q. Well I guess that pretty much says it all. In behalf of De La Salle University, I would like to thank you for sharing your time with us. Thank you and good day.