RILLO & SO. How was your first experience working?
LOCSIN. I started working , actually I started working for my father. He had a Spanish daily then. That was after the war. Actually the newspaper was before the war. I began really selling newspapers in the streets when I was about seven years old. So that was my first experience with that and after the war I wrote for my father in the Spanish newspaper. Then my younger brother and I set up a provincial paper, Provincial Weekly, and I started writing for that.

Q. What province?
A. Negros Occidental, Bacolod city. I could not reconcile the idealism with the income so...

Q. How much did it profit?
A. Oh it was a provincial newspaper, it didn't pay at all. And if you got payed at all, it was just an allowance. So I went into sales and marketing. I worked for several multinational companies. The last of which was Shell Company, and I resigned. I hated everyday of selling. It was good money but there was no idealism in it.

Q. So you also tried working in other professions.
A. So I resigned. I resigned and I applied for the Manila Chronicle. I think it was in 1960. I applied as a cub reporter. I think for about P30 a month.

Q. Can you describe to us your first experience as a cub reporter?
A. They assigned me to the police beat. The first thing was you'll probably be buying pancit for the other reporters, for the desk men, that sort of thing. And you learn how to write. They put me in magazine, magazine writing. I, was assigned to the Chronicle magazine. So I won an award for them. I think I wrote about land reform. Then they assigned me to the business beat, business section, and that is where I stuck. Then I got out of the Chronicle and I set up the economic monitor which was Business Weekly. I could not agree with the publisher. Well, I was the publisher. I could not get agree with the editorial policies of the owner. The owner felt that I was stepping on the toes of the people, of his friends, and his associates. So I resigned and set up Business Daily in 1967. I set it up out of sheer ignorance, not knowing any better. That became the daily that closed in 1986 due to a labor strike. That was the first business paper of Southeast Asia.

Q. Did you always want to write about business?
A. Oh no. I write a lot of things. I also write poetry. Wait, I'll show you some things. Here, this is for you. This one I polished and edited. This was translated by my mother. I as the one who polished and edited this. The Noli and Fili. This is the new translation which they use in schools now. Speeches, magazine articles, love poems. Over the years you amass a lot of things. I even have clippings to show for it.

Q. Sir, can you describe to us the physical facilities of your first daily?
A. There were only six of us. When we set up Business Daily there were six of us. We had a small time sports car loaded, all portable typewriters in the back. Then we printed with an outside printer. We drove to press at Friday afternoon and went home Monday morning. That was the beginning.

Q. What are the significant events during the time you were working that are still memorable to you today? Like during the Martial Law.
A. We were the number one paper during Martial Law. We were the first ones who wrote about the hidden wealth.

Q. Did you like encounter any problems with, let's say, cronies, the government?
A. Well, before we always get phone calls. We always get threats, that sort of thing. But they never got around. We handled journalism in a manner which was fair and reporting was fragmented. So we spoke of a particular environment, and who could go against that? We didn't say he was a bum. We didn't say he was a thief. We didn't say he was pirating this. But we'd say somebody...okay this much, disappeared from the government, offers, that sort of thing, and documented it with documents backed up with facts.

Q. Sir, were there memorable editors, publishers you worked with before?
A. Well, I worked with the one who hired me, Mr. Soliongco. Do you remember Soliongco? I.P. Soliongco? No, you don't remember him. I.P. Soliongco? I also worked with, during Martial Law years, in the Association of Newspapers. I worked with Gen. Menzi. Hans Menzi, publisher of the Bulletin. Johnny Perez, who's publisher of the Express. There were only five newspapers at that time. Later on Malaya came along and some of the people now working in newspapers all came from me. Like Jake Macasaet, the publisher of the Malaya. He started out as a young reporter with me. First copy he had to rewrite eight times. Willie Baleh who later became the business editor of Bulletin started here as a stock market reporter. Bobby Tiglaw of Far Eastern Economic Review was reporter here. Maritess Vitug used to be a reporter in the Business Day, my former newspaper. Who else? Rexy Reyes, Wall Street Journal, but she passed away already. Some people from the South China Morning Post, they all came from here. One who came from here, Rita Raagas, became UPI Bureau Chief. All caboodles of them.

Q. Were there any other memorable experiences you had? Like, unforgettable ones?
A. Well the coverage of the coup, the coverage of God Save the Queen, plus the fuss on when they were plotting to depose of Mrs. Aquino as the president.

Q. Can you tell us something about that? How it was for reporters at that time when all this was happening?
A. Well they wrote their stories. It was just another job for them, you know, for them. They got their stories, they wrote it, submitted their stories to the desk, the desk edited them, furnished the background, told you to rewrite it, passed it, background ulit, tell you to go to the library, do some research, go back again, squish it. It's a lot of work.

Q. Do you work a regular 9-5 job or are there times when you have to work late?
A. Well, the normal, I used to work about, I'd be in the office about 6:00 in the morning until 10:30 to 11:00. It's the regular working hours. In Business Day, in Business World, it's only five times a week. Saturday is off but we start working on Sunday.

Q. Why Sunday?
A. Sunday because of Monday's issue. In the Chronicle I used to work 365 days a year, everyday without fail. I'd cover for the main three business sections in the morning, write the stories, close three special sections and go out and cover for the main page and finish at about 11:00 in the evening. At 5:00 in the morning I'm at the beat again. There are some people, believe it or not, there are some people who are in their offices at 5:00 in the morning. Are you taking up journalism?

Q. Yes. CAM-BMG.
A. Oh your in La Salle. Ateneo has a scholarship for journalism. It's funded, it's funded by me. I turned over to them received money I got from the Magsaysay awards and the proceeds from this book are going to the Ateneo Scholarship.

Q. Can you tell us, you worked as a reporter right? How was it then, like now, with all the technology to help us like computers and the internet to help in research, but for you how was the process?
A. Well we started with just a typewriter, then finally its all computerized now. As a matter of fact were far ahead of the other newspapers at computerization. We were the first ones to use computerized equipment, were the first ones to go online. We have an online edition. Have you seen it.

Q. We passed it there.
A. You what? Have you accessed our page?

Q. I have.
A. You can access us on the Internet.

Q. I've been to your site. It's really well done.
A. There are a lot of other things in the site that you can find. I'll show you as soon as it loads.

Q. Sir, what was it like working for a business type of paper compared to just anything?
A. Same. You go out, you understand what you're trying to cover, you understand the language, you translate the jargon to understand this language. But you have to go out there without bias, you leave your bias elsewhere and let the facts tell the story. And if you are to put up an analysis, it would be on the basis of facts. You say, "Two plus two equals four." Your opinion, you leave to your opinion writers.

Q. Sir, did you encounter any problems with your staff or the people who worked for you when you decided to upgrade to computers?
A. Well, we had to learn. Well, everybody had to learn. And now, I think, everybody knows how to use computers... This is what is found on the online edition. This is, for example, a coverage of Mobile Media about internet and print.

Q. Do you have reporters for your website and separate reporters for your paper?
A. We have reporters for the website. We have reporters for the...

Q. So, they're two separate...
A. Yes. The online editors are also different. But they all came from print media. They have to think like reporters.

Q. What are the difficulties encountered with online reporting, as compared to...
A. Well, first of all you have to learn the technology. But the major difficulty is, of course, your ability to cover. The ability to understand who you're covering. You must learn a lot of things. If you talk to somebody about music, you have to know what music is all about. Otherwise you won't speak on the same wavelength. If you talk to somebody about medicine, you have to understand a little about medicine. Are you graduating?

Q. No, sir. It's our first year.
A. Oh, first year. Okay. When you graduate you... because we always look for young reporters. We don't get from other newspapers. We get them fresh from College.

Q. Why is that?
A. Because we don't want them to have bad habits. We have a few from La Salle... the online editor and chief operating officer of this come from La Salle.

Q. Who?
A. Mike Marasigan

Q. Oh, we contacted him first.
A. Lisa Solano is from La Salle also. She is the online... she is the one who handles the online page. This for example...

Q. What are the certain bad habits that reporters usually have?
A. Well, first of all, integrity. You don't sell your data. You don't sell your principle. You must avoid what they call "envelopmental journalism," where people sell their story or do not write a story because they have been paid not to do so or to do so.

Q. Have you experienced this?
A. We don't here because we have a culture of our own. When you apply it goes with the job description. You are told that any violation of your integrity, it's not even a matter of... it's just a matter of circumstance or evidence. We have enough to separate you from your job. Bet we demand the highest integrity here. That means a sense of fairness, a lack of bias, not to write anything outside the basis of facts.

Q. Has your paper ever experienced threats because you didn't agree to...
A. Well, we've been sued for libel. Mrs. Marcos sued us for P5 billion one time.

Q. What happened to the case?
A. The court case was dismissed. Mr. Yuchengco also sued us. We have a lot of libel suits. But we tell our people that libel is not a mark of a good journalist. It only means you are sloppy. If you're not sloppy, you will not be sued for libel. But of course there are the people who imagine, that even if the story is good, you know, you have maligned them. And that's part of the game. You will go to court for that.

Q. Sir, did you ever experience problems with meeting deadlines?
A. Sometimes we have. If you don't meet a deadline we just trash your story. We use somebody else's stories, or some of the editors slug in another story or we get from the wire services. Sometimes we also have machine breakdowns.

Q. So what happens?
A. Well, the paper is delayed but we deliver the next day if we have to... like a power outage, for example.

Q. Did it ever happen that you weren't able to deliver the newspaper for a day?
A. At the most it would be delivered in the afternoon. So we bought a generator just for that. So, even if... we have power generation. Like this for example, you're online, you don't even see connections.

Q. So, when did you go online?
A. We were online since 1992

Q. Could you tell us anything we have to know?
A. You ask the questions. That's, again... that's the job of the reporter.

Q. What happens, for example, if your staff or writer or reporters don't make the deadline? Are there sanctions?
A. We have the paper to go out. Well, we have lots of feature stories, wire services. We have stories in stock.

Q. For back up.
A. We have stories, features that are all ready. We have some research material which we can write a story on, analyze and write a story on. Example we can get the latest employment figures. Say, "This is what's happening, employment is up. Why is it up? Because more jobs are coming in." We can say that, "The peso-dollar rate has improved. Why has it improved? Well because OCWs are remitting. And our export trade is going up." So we check the export figures and plot the export figures there into a graph. But you have to produce a story, the paper has to come out.

Q. I'm just curious. During the Martial Law there was a lot of heat in the media and press. I mean, politically the media was under a watchful eye. Was it really hard for the journalists to come up with their stories?
A. No. Not really. Well, it depends on how bold you are. Example, here... let me show you something. This is during the Aquino years. It's an editorial. Actually they're already infringing on the freedom of the press, even the Aquino administration was.

Q. What administration, do you think, was the beast time for reporters?
A. Well, no administration was good for reporters. It's that the press... media is always on the other side. That's why it's called the Forth Estate.

Q. Sir, were you always interested in business?
A. No. I was just assigned there. This was delivered during Martial Law, in Hawaii. Internationally delivered in a conference before an audience of American editors and publishers. And it was dangerous to make statements like that. This was making fun of the administration.

Q. What happened when you wrote this?
A. They didn't call my attention to it. They just sent a copy of the speech abroad. They probably thought... anyway this was a business paper. Mr. Marcos was a smart man. He felt the business paper was being read by people who were his enemies anyway. So it wouldn't make much of a difference. Now, if I were writing for a masa circulation daily, like the Bulletin, then he probably would have closed us down. But this he could turn around. As a matter of fact, in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer this is what he told them, " So you say there is no freedom of the press at this country and yet we allow such a notorious newspaper like Business Day to keep on publishing." So he used it as an instrument to indicate that there was freedom, there was a sort of democracy still prevailing in the country. His was not Martial Law. His was an authoritarian government primarily to save the nation from communists and to be able to improve the economic standards of the people.

Q. Did you ever try to make the newspaper reach the masses?
A. During the last few years of the Business Day, we were actually selling to the masses already. Because we were the only ones who were being... you know, who was credible. The reason for taking business as a medium is that running a newspaper is also for business. There are economies of scale. If you don't get a particular margin, you won't have enough money to run a business. So it's a business decision rather then anything else.

Q. Sir, to sum it all up, can you tell us what is really important in working in a newspaper?
A. What is the most important thing?

Q. Yes. What should we always remember?
A. Always remember integrity. And always be a lady or a gentlemen. Because when you leave the newspapers people will never forget you. They will say, "Where is the lady who used to cover us? Where did she go?" But if you're just a lousy newspaperman who does not, who is unprofessional, somebody mentions your name, they'll say "Ah... so,so"

Q. Thank you very much.
A. Okay.