AIETAN & DELA RAMA Hi. I am Trina Dela Rama and I am here together with Rajwant Aietan, to do an interview with Ms. Joanne Ramirez, Associate Editor of the Philippine Star. Good afternoon. Where did you get inspiration to enter the journalistic field?
RAMIREZ. Okay. I've always loved to write. I was the editor of the high school paper, and then, during those days, I remember, journalism wasn't really a very popular choice for, people who wanted to write, especially because there was no freedom of the press at that time. If you look back, there were just about 3 newspapers and [they were] very controlled. People weren't hiding this. The government didn't hide it. There was really no freedom of the press. I'm sorry I'm giving away my age, but I just have to give that background. And then one day, my mom -- in fact my mom wasn't really very encouraging -- bumped into THE Max Soliven in a party and she said, "You know, I have a daughter. She wants to take up journalism for college but I am discouraging her because there is no future in journalism. She is just going to be muzzled and what are the opportunities? There is no free press." And then Max Soliven tells my mom, "You know, it won't be long now before we have freedom of the press. If your daughter wants to go into journalism, let her." True enough, I entered college in '79, graduated in '83, the time Ninoy Aquino was assasinated, and three years after I graduated, lo and behold, we had freedom of the press. One of the free-est presses in Asia and the world. So, that's how I got into journalism. Because I have always wanted to be, and because despite the fears of well-meaning people that there was no freedom of the press, there were also people who told me to go on and follow my dream.

Q. In what paper did you start with? And as a reporter or as a columnist?
A. Incidentally, the Max Soliven who told my mom not to worry and to encourage me to go to journalism -- he didn't know me then -- is now my publisher in the Philippine Star. And really, it's a small world because the present editor-in-chief of the Philippine Star was my classmate in journalism school, and at that time, they had a magazine called Star Monthly Magazine which was edited by his mother, the late Betty Go-Belmonte. So that was where I first cut my teeth, so to speak, in the publishing business. When I left it, I was associate editor of the Star Monthly Magazine. And then from there, I worked for almost seven years at the Presidential Press Staff and then in 1992 I rejoined the Star but by then it was no longer a monthly magazine but a leading newspaper of the land.

Q. Going back to your job in Malacanang how different was your work there as with the Star?
A. I had one and only one subject and that was the president and the presidency. Cory was my focus and of course the slant there was to project her daily activities, her pronouncements. My by-line didn't appear when my stories ever came out in the newspaper. In short, at that point in my life, I was the one making press releases.

Q. Is that the same as being press secretary?
A. Well, he was my boss.

Q. So you worked under him.
A. Yeah. I started as a writer and when I left in 1992, I was the executive editor of the Presidential Press Staff, which is of course under the Press Secretary. My first boss was Teddy Boy Locsin. And in between [my first and last bosses] I had Teddy Benigno, Buddy Gomez...

Q. In that regard, would you say that your editors or your colleagues exercised a certain control over what you released?
A. In the palace, definitely. Definitely. Because there are no ifs and buts about why you're there. You were not there to fabricate stories. But we were there to project the presidency in a stable light, and we were there to report her achievements. We weren't there to report funny anecdotes, we weren't there to report about intrigues. We were there to report about her achievements. Because Malacanang is a very legitimate press source. It's a source on what the palace does, the palace's side. The palace is a source of information about the presidency so we have press releases, we have press bulletins and the various newspapers and broadcast outfits get a copy of our daily press releases. And when it gets reported, they say, "Malacanang said". So, you have this feeling that your job has something to do with national security. Because when it's printed, they say, "Malacanang says". It's gospel truth as far as the palace is concerned. So if they say, for example, "The Palace says July 4 is no longer a legal holiday", then it really carries the weight of being very efficient, the imprimatur of the palace. So, that's how I approach my job.

Q. When you were starting out in Malacanang and afterwards in the Philippine Star, what were the hours required of you as a columnist or reporter?
A. In Malacanang, there were hours. There were normal hours. You know, the normal hours prescribed by law. But you must remember, I was serving a president during a very historic moment in history. I was part of Cory's in-house press at the time that she survived seven coup attempts. And so, when there's a coup attempt raging and you have various governments calling up your office, saying, "Is the gov't still in place?", you don't clock out at 6:00 and say "My time is up, I have to go home." So, I remember spending a couple of nights in Malacanang. I remember, of course, during state dinners, state visits. You do not program events. You don't say, "You must happen between 9 to 5 because I have to go home." Sometimes, events happen after six, and so, although we had various shifts later when I took on more responsibility, and I was promoted to editor, I had to make sure I was present during important moments, so the hours were never structured because you could never tell what's gonna happen in the press, especially during those historic six and half years. So that sort of prepared me for the newspaper, where, when it's flooded, when people wanna stay home, and people are advised to stay home, the more you should be at work. When there's a coup attempt, the more you should be at work, the more you should be on the poll, the more you should be at the streets reporting. And so, that prepared me for work in the newspaper. Because here, there's an earthquake, there's a "baha", you have to swim on the lake to get here. Like doctors.

Q. In that regard, when you worked with the Philippine Star, was the situation more or less different? Like with prescribed hours?
A. Of course there are prescribed hours, especially since you have deadlines. So, you have to come in at a certain time and you have to put the paper to bed at a certain time. But for example, there are late breakers, someone important dies at a certain time and there are other important events, then you wait. But then, when I entered the star, I entered as a section editor and not as a reporter.

Q. Aside from Max Soliven, who were other persons you worked with? Memorable people that influenced you?
A. Well, the late Betty Go-Belmonte. She was my very first editor. She was the founding chairman of the Philippine Star and she taught me many things, from seemingly small things as remembering to put in a caption the name of every person in the photograph. Because she says, you see these things everyday. But if there are six persons in the photograph and there's one you did not identify, then the next day what would his mother, father, brother , sister say if you did not identify that person? And then if you identify the person, you give glory to that person and you also boost circulation because his whole barangay will buy. In other words, you are also giving respect to the person you put out. So that I learned, from such things as writing captions correctly, to always looking at something as half full and not half empty -- I'm sure you'd heard of that parable of the glass, 'no? You can choose -- a half empty and a half full glass is the same, but you can choose to look at it as half empty or full. And from her also, I learned about giving the other side of the story. That we say this person is accused of being a thief but we contact that alleged thief and say, "What is your reaction? They are calling you a thief -- we have to get your side." That is really Betty-Go Belmonte. That is her legacy and I'm fortunate to have worked under her. I was also fortunate to have trained under Louie Beltran, my very first journalism teacher at the UP College of Mass Communications and Teddy Benigno, my boss in Malacanang.

Q. In terms of deadlines, how exacting were they? And how did they express that to you? Like your memories of editors, did they have certain styles in terms of how they handled their staff?
A. Your job really depends on it because the paper has to come out. It's a process. There's a production line after your work so you have no choice. You have to come out or there'll be no paper in the morning. So, they teach you that, but after a while it's just like breathing. No one tells you to breathe. You just do it, otherwise you don't live. It's the same with newspapers -- if you don't meet a deadline, the paper is not gonna come out and you'll be late and the first newspaper and the last newspaper on the street is not gonna be a sale. It's not good for the circulation and so we know that. And so we are always prompt. We keep our deadlines.

Q. In terms of your facilities, how do you describe the transition of offices, facilities? Like from old technology to new technology?
A. Well, technology has improved a lot. I remember those days when there were no fax machines, or when they weren't as ubiquitous as they are now. They used to phone in stories, so you had a lot of people with stiff necks because you put the phone here and you took dictation. And then, cutting and pasting. Imagine nowadays in the computers, you can just get the last paragraph and put it in there and its a breeze. But before, you had to throw a piece of paper and type it again. So it has helped a lot. But you'd be amazed. There are still some columnists who still type using typewriters.

Q. Why do you think they do that?
A. Maybe they are creatures of habit.

Q. At present, at the Philippine Star, do you still have people who phone in their reports or e-mail them? A; No more, no more. It's either e-mail or faxed. We're the state of the art technology.

Q. I understand you are a columnist.
A. Also. I have a fee-up column which is entitled "People". It's a features column. Twice a week.

Q. How different is your work as a columnist and as an associate editor?
A. Well, as associate editor, I deal with the news. The style of writing, who, when you have a very strong lead, but as a columnist, it's a features story in the sense that I don't have to say everything in the first paragraph. And I have more license to use more metaphors and I don't have to be reporting about the news. I'm just reporting about somebody who can inspire and whose example can emulated. I write a lot of human interest stories.

Q. So I take it, as a columnist, you have leeway to choose your topics?
A. Yes, definitely. Yeah.

Q. What preparations do you usually do before writing? For news do you do your own research? Do you go out and gather news yourself?
A. Well, I'm not a reporter anymore, but since I'm with the desk, and the desk shapes up the final product, the reporters bring it in, several stories, you put them together, you wrap them up in a cohesive, very readable and a very occulent package and you go over that. So of course it has to be accurate and then therefore before you sit at the desk they presume that you've had the experience, like they say, "Do you know the difference between Colombia the country and District of Columbia in Washington?" You know the difference between those two things. So, by the time you reach the desk, it is presumed and it has been tested that your stock knowledge of people, places and events are pretty substantial.

Q. So in a sense, editors are very involved in the whole process.
A. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, because you could say that the final product is in their hands.

Q. What significant events have you covered in the course of your whole career?
A. In the course of my whole career? Of course, from the Aquino assassination, EDSA, the triumphant state visits of Cory Aquino to the United States and to France where you felt 10 feet tall because, she being then looked up to as an icon of democracy -- that's really unforgettable -- you felt proud to be a Filipino.Of course, the present impeachment trial. It's the very first impeachment trial against a president in Asia, and the transition from Marcos to Aquino, Aquino to Ramos, and then Ramos to [Estrada]. Because I would say that I've experienced democracy first hand three years after I got out of college and these things we're witnessing is like an exercise in democracy. It's being tested and we're here, and I think it's a very exciting life we have now.

Q. As a features writer, when would you say did the department actually start flourishing? Because after the Martial Law years, more of news came out.
A. I think that features has its place in every newspaper, whether it's TIME Magazine, whether it's the Tribune -- National Herald Tribune, there's always a space for features because it balances the news and if you talk about the society pages, I think there were a lot of society pages pre-Martial Law and then I guess after the resignation of ... but I think features have always had a definite place in a publication. For instance, Ricky Lo is, according to Max Soliven himself, our number one columnist. People read him before they read the front page.

Q. Since you've experienced being both a columnist and an editor, would you say that you have a preference for just one? I mean, which do you like better?
A. Actually, at the moment, I have the best of both worlds and I don't prefer one over the other. I get to write features twice a week and I'm still exposed to the news and bringing out the news. On a regular basis, yes.

Q. I understand that you're the editor-in-chief of People Asia Magazine.
A. Yes. It's a sister publication of the Philippine Star. That is a features magazine with a very definite niche. It writes about people, real people who inspire, people who upset you, people who irritate you, but people you you'd like to read about nevertheless. People who've risen, people who have fallen. We are, in a way, a star-struck country. We like to read about show business, but it's not all show business.

Q. Isn't it difficult handling a number of positions at the same time? Being associate editor of the Star and editor-in-chief of the magazine?
A. Well, I think, if a woman can combine career and a marriage, she can combine two different aspects of her career. So women, I think, are natural jugglers.

Q. Which styles of your past editors do you think you've adapted for yourself in handling your different positions?
A. Definitely, the way I write news and stories, I think I'm very much influenced by Louie Beltran, who put a premium on the lead. If the lead does not mesmerize you and hold your attention, then your story can't hold water. Everything has to be in the lead because of the space constraints. If you want drama and you put the most important part in the last part, the attention span of the reader is so short. They're not gonna go to the last paragraph anymore and sometimes, that gets cut off because of space constraints. So I think in writing leads that really hold the attention of the reader, at least I hope they do, that's a very Louie Beltran lesson.

Q. How different is your work here in the Star and in the magazine?
A. Well, the magazine is that, we have a lot of photographs, a lot of pictorials. It's more creative. And the deadlines -- it's a monthly, so the deadlines are not as backbreaking as a newspaper which is daily. But you uphold the same tenets, 'no? Truth. The truth shall always prevail. Q.In the magazine, are your staff also reliant on technology as much as in the newspaper?
A. Yes, also. Also, yeah.

Q. As an individual, why do you think you are still writing? Why are you still in the business after so many years?
A. Because I'm doing what I love. And if you love what you do, it's not a job. It's like a passion. It's like doing something and the bonus is, hey, I'm getting paid for something I like doing anyway.

Q. Do you have any future career plans? Of moving, of staying in the Star?
A. You know, I am where I want to be.

Q. Lastly, any advice for people who wish to enter the journalistic field?
A. Okay, number one is, if you really like it, follow it. I took up Business Administration for two years, because as I said, I thought there was no future in journalism. I was just flunking Calculus left and right. But when I shifted to journalism, everything fell into place. I was a happier person. So if you want, if it's what you want, follow it. Never stop learning. Read, read, and read. That's the best way to improve your writing style, by reading. And you sometimes think you're the best. There are many, many other people who are also as good and so that's a very competitive world, and you keep your edge by not stopping, [by always] trying to learn.

Q. Thank you.