LUA & SY. So before we start, please state your name and your occupation, present occupation po.
VARONA. Ok, I'm Inday Espina Varona; but my real name is Maria Salvacion. Nobody calls me that. I'm city editor of Manila Times; which is to other papers could be news editor, especially. It's different from metro editor, ok? So what it does, it means I direct coverage of the news. I direct reporters where to go. Then, I help them find the right angles and propose this to the other more senior editors and then we meet and decide which stories to use, which not to use. If you notice Manila Times these days, we have a Mindanao bureau. We have a Visayas news bureau. So I'm also in top of those other, those two bureaus and we have just come out. It's only like two days old. No, three days old now. With the Mindanao edition, we're coming out with the Visayas edition this year. That's actually a whole different paper. Which means it's still the Manila Times, but it's tailor-made for the needs or for the Mindanao and Visayas markets. So that by the end of the year, one, just one set of editors will be closing virtually three papers, three papers.

Q. Three papers. Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao?
A. Yes, because we do total re-mat of the front pages, the regional pages, the metro pages, the opinion pages, and let me see, lifestyle and business pages.

Q. Okay. So please tell us how you got started in the journalism business po. How you got started? How you got involved?
A. I've always been writing ever since as a child, as a student. I was an activist. I dropped out. I went home. I went into news papering. That's about it. Well, my father is a journalist. We come from a family of journalists. I came at the right time - 1984; which is about the time where everything was blowing up in the country. So they needed reporters, fast. They needed reporters who are street-smart and all that; and so I got in and I never got out. All basically, except for the stretch of public relations then, I can work it.

Q. So miss, saan po kayo nag-aral dati?
A. UP Diliman.

Q. UP Diliman po? Bale, first job niyo po is a field reporter po?
A. Yes, actually.

Q. Miss, what newspaper?
A. No, it was local daily in Bacolod City. It's called Visayan Times. It was a 20-page…yeah, a 20-page local daily which include that 24-page local daily. But even for writing for the local daily, I was a stringer for a wire agency, Agence France Presse, a French news agency. And that's it.

Q. So during that time po, the EDSA, naabutan niyo po ang EDSA Revolution?
A. Oo.

Q. Did you cover that event po?
A. Not EDSA. I was in Bacolod then, which was, which if you know your geography, you'd know would be opposition-dominated city. It was certainly one of the hotbeds of the opposition against Marcos. And so it was probably next to Manila. Bacolod and Cebu would be it.

Q. So, can you describe ma'am the physical location po before like yung mga ginagamit niyo po pang-report, radio, or typewriters, or computers, the facilities.
A. The tape recorder has always been there. Basically, but more than tape recorder, especially when you're in the field, especially when you're covering an area known for insurgency and social unrest, which is Negros Occidental; you don't rely so much…tape recorders for the quotes, but basically, it was your hand. You have to write fast. You jot notes fast. It was your memory to absorb all those color, and typewriter. There were times when there were no typewriters in the sugarcane fields or elsewhere. So we just wrote down…wrote down our stuff. And what we did was rush to the first telephone available and phone-in our stories. Phone-in. As in there were editors who have to actually take down word by word what we are saying.

Q. You were dictating the…
A. Yes, dictating the stories. So kung mahina ka, masisigawan ka, nagrereport ka pa lang. I'm mean dito ngayon, masisigawan sila pagkatapos na, mga dalawang oras na kapag nakita na namin yung mga reports nila. Noon, dumidikta ka palang, nasisigawan ka na. You know, if you are dumb and all that.

Q. So, who have you worked with before ma'am? Nakasama niyo po sa field or sa trabaho po?
A. Okay, well, in Bacolod, there's a strong group of media people who were very active and very daring at the time of Marcos. We were known as the COBRAANS - it's the Correspondents Broadcasters Reporters Associations. And we were also a news service, an alternative news service. Although the members of that alternative news service were also stringers or reporters for what we call the mormoid string media, okay? So we would follow our news dispatches for the mainstream media and we would help, what we call the people's organizations then, with their own news dispatches. So it was a double job for us. Well, there's Edgar Cadegatos of Malaya. He is probably called; he is called the dean of provincial journalist then, very, very fierce reporter. And when I came to Manila, and that was about '87, I worked for the Evening Star that was under Louie Beltran.

Q. Evening Star?
A. Uh huh, and Angelo Sampo. Then I worked for The Globe, under Teddy Boy Locsin, Jarius Bondoc, and other, Gary Mariano was there.

Q. So, yun po yung naging boss nyo po? Sila Louie Beltran, yung mga naging heads niyo po?
A. Well, AFP, that's Bobby Caloma. Who's now bureau chief of AFP in Singapore, Hong Kong, I think. Teddy Benigno for a while was AFP.

Q. So, were you getting enough during that time ma'am with your salary? Was it enough for you?
A. Yeah, because I started as a correspondent for the national…for the international news agencies and then later on, for the national dailies, when dailies started coming out again. Yes, because…well, Bacolod is provincial. The standards of living are not that high. I had also independent means, a little. Not much wealth, but a little independent income from the family and I was a regular reporter for a local daily so, you know. That could tie you already.

Q. So, do you have vacations or leave? Kasi, mukhang palaging yung trabaho field di ba? So kailangan, everyday…
A. Theoretically, yes. We have vacation leaves. We are entitled to it. Sick leaves, vacation leaves, all that stuff. Like all other workers are, theoretically. But, when times are bad, where there's crisis, the unwritten rule is only a fool would take a leave.

Q. So as long as there's news, kailangan nandoon ka palagi?
A. Oo. Nobody's indispensable. Pero nandoon na rin na alam niyong maraming trabaho, you don't want to leave your colleagues hanging. On the other hand, there's also the attraction of being there when the whole thing's blowing up. Kahit naka-leave, nagkaka-cancel ng leave. Kahit day-offs namin, particularly here in the Manila Times, there's always a gauge when there's news coming out. Because when people have their day-offs, they start coming in. In the middle of the day, biglang susulpot kasi gustong…baka sakali lamang…

Q. …mayroon ng news. So, were there any memorable or significant events na nangyari po sa inyo habang kunwari nagtatrabaho po kayo? For example, during the EDSA Revolution, kung anong special…
A. No…

Q. …or particular event na memorable po para sa inyo?
A. Well, Bacolod was a pretty dangerous place to work in. It was a time of… it was very violent time in the 80s and there was violence from both sides. There was the Escalante massacre, which we covered. Well, the aftermath anyway, when bodies were still all over the ground. And people were brandishing guns, all around. And they were actually using these guns. And we get plenty of threats-like letters and telephone calls. And during the time of the EDSA revolution, that was in Bacolod, there was a major rally also there. And at that time, there was the provincial police…no, the Bacolod police chief who actually died the following day out of that. He was ambushed that time. I wasn't his very favorite…his favorite person actually. He hated me and I don't know why he started pulling me. I was trying to skirt around so that we wouldn't bump into each other because I have seen him. Because shortly before that, he actually trained a gun on a man. And buti na lang, he had more level-minded police officers na inakyat yung baril or else there would have been bloodshed. Cause as far as from me, there were other armed men around there. And I will go. So as I said, I was trying to skirt around but apparently he had also spotted me. And he was trying also trying to like, you know, go around people. And then we met up somewhere then he started pulling me and like the whole bunch of journalists started a tug-of-war there. And lucky for me I was with two Italian journalists at that time. They were my guests. I was also stringing for them. They were doing a documentary at that time and well, they were bigger than he was. And it was lucky that some of his cops, because Bacolod is a small place where family friends or were my friends. And so like eventually, I manage to get out of that script. But it was a daily thing for us, actually. Because there were times when we'd be walking down the street and there'd be an ambush and then there you'd be covering it and like bullets would fly.

Q. Sa harap niyo po nangyayari talaga 'yong ganun?
A. Oo, yeah.

Q. So talagang dangerous po talaga yung…
A. Well, we didn't take stupid risks. Probably, when it comes to ambush case and all that, probably photographers are more vulnerable because they scramble for the best shot and sometimes the best shot happens when the bullets were within all around you, like two inches from your neck and all that. Otherwise, reporters, actually, they look, see. They don't have to, you know, they don't have to take those photograph. So, it was less. But it was still…it was still a bit scary sometimes. And there was a time when like, I was with a broadcast reporter and suddenly, well, an ambush happened right in the middle of a busy street. And I was left holding his radio and his station was calling to him and there was nothing else to do but report for the radio station and I didn't know how to speak Ilonggo all that well and I wasn't a broadcaster. So my cadence and all that was different but I had to do it. And they were laughing at me afterwards because they said, you know, there were like…there were guns and there were moans, and you were reporting. And you were in a very malumanay voice and like "Oh, there's another one dead". And it was very funny I guess, for other people because like they're so used to broadcast pak-pak-pak-pak-pak staccato. And then suddenly there's somebody who's talking there la-la-la-la voice.

Q. Right around those things there…
A. Well, actually, I was pretty much shielded but I could see like, two guys falling one after another, so I was reporting the like. He probably thought that I was in the middle of the street. I wasn't actually. Afterwards, I never, you know. I probably had months of teasing from people there.

Q. So, pero yung mga letters po, for example, threats po. Hindi naman yon nag hinder sa inyo para mag-pursue na mag ano ng story…
A. No, writing is the only thing I knew actually. So there's really no choice there. I can't do business.

Q. So ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, ano po ang nangyari talaga sa Manila Times? Like, were you affected of the change ng ownership?
A. Uh no. I wasn't with the old Manila Times, so I wouldn't know. Malou Mangahas would probably be the best person to answer that or Rubina Gokongwei, the old publisher. I know what other people know that Erap got mad. That he was putting the squeeze. Although of course, the Gokongweis don't much admit that. The Gokongweis, and they apologized. They were forced to apologize. And the old editors didn't like that. So a whole bunch of them walked out that time. Malou apparently opted to stay. And then, but a few months later. So there was some bitterness between Malou and her editors that time; but she opted to stay on. Ironically, a few months later, Gokongwei opted to sell. It was Katrina Legarda who represented the new owners. I wouldn't want to speak for Katrina. She claims that it was Regis Romero, etcetera, etcetera. There was some confusion later when she was booted out and apparently she was booted out by the Crespo family and the Jimenez family. So it was a big surprise to everybody to learn that if Crespo wasn't involved, why was he booting her out? You know? So, whatever. I was, I had fun with the "Kat group", it was a very young editorial team, most of them were my friends, or became my friends anyway. Great spirit there. But as I told them outright, when I heard who were the new people coming in, I said I think they're gonna be asking me to stay, because I have known Cip Roxas, who was my Editor for Manila Standard for a long time, Philippine Post, and I said, I have worked with them, and I trust them enough, and in fairness to the Katrina team editors, they were very clear about that. There was no call for a mass walk out, there was no call for a mass leave or like that. Actually, what we talked about was that anybody who can hold on to the job should stay. Other people asked, why are you staying? It's a chromo paper. Yeah, but tell me which paper isn't, doesn't have any vested interest to protect? And we've all known that. We've all known that for a long time. We all know that media by virtue of its need for a huge capital outlay, needs capitalists, and basically, in this country, capitalists are political lords, too. So, you know? And the challenge actually is to try to keep the integrity everyday, the battle everyday, the trenches. The newsroom is a trench.

Q. Newsroom?
A. Yeah, is the war trench. The battle goes on everyday. Some days you lose some battles, but most days you win them, so, simple lang yan e, as long as you can hack it to stay and you fight, and you stretch the limits of press freedom. If you think its hopeless deep, mamundok ka nalang. Ganon talaga. Well, for me. There are no two ways. I don't go on whining or whatever. If it gets too much, I walk and that's it.

Q. So ma'am, what were the newspapers po na napag-work niyo po? Natrabahuhan niyo po?
A. Well, the Evening… a prick of… a couple of local dailies, The Evening Star, uh no, The Manila Chronicle. That was then Shiela Malou were there. Briefly for the Manila Times, when it first opened after EDSA but then they, there was a strike; they went all to Manila Chronicle, so you know, the correspondents, sino yung kaibigan niyo, dun kayo. May tiwala kayo sa editors niyo. Lipat din kami sa Manila Chronicle. I stayed in Manila Chronicle for like maybe more than a year. I was in Bacolod, remember. And then all the while, for AFP, the news agency. I used to write for Philippine News and Features, that's a church owned feature service. Then I went on to the Evening Star. Then I went to the Daily Globe. Then I dropped out for a while. Then I came back to journalism.

Q. So miss ngayon po, ngayong since may mga e-mails na po, ganon pa rin po ba yung ginagawa, or pag kunyari mag sesend na news po before editing, by e-mail po ba? Or kelangan punta sila dito, bigay nila yung typewritten report, then you edit.
A. Umm… by e-mail, by fax, by… if news is breaking and it's near deadline time, they phone in stories, ok. But we still, we still insist on that. Lalo na kung wala namang mga e-mails dun sa pinagpupuntahan nila, we still do it. Sometimes they come in. Or especially if they're hiding their scoops from other reporters, from the beat, they come here. Basically we don't care where they do it as long as the stories get in. But there is a difference though, because before that, you know, we would come in when there was no fax, when there was no email, and the traffic wasn't that bad, we had reporters coming in to the newsroom, and so there was more interaction with the editors, and so there was more time you sit them down beside you and go over the copies one by one. Ito katangahan to, you know, this one shouldn't have been there. It was jumping to conclusion, blah blah blah, all that stuff. Right now, you try your best, you talk to them, but they're not there beside you so, yung mentoring, una, pangalawa, yung actual technical improvement ng kanilang trabaho, kulang na rin. And three, most especially, this is uh… and I am known to be very vocal about this, I really do worry that they are being swallowed by the beat system.

Q. The beat system po?
A. You know, when they run in a pot, like a pot of gold, and they have the same stories, and if you look at that, like you know, sometimes kakamut ka ng ulo, is this a press release? Is this a story or what? You know. And I wish they'd be little more critical in their news coverage, instead of just accepting what, you know, what their sources say. Who climbed has seen all. I suppose they'll get there. It's a different meaning din e. Dati kasi, you were supposed to be critical. Nahubog kami, oposisyon. Nahubog kaming, nahubog kami na ang media lang ang tanging pwedeng magtatanong, during that time, so you know, so we were trained for that. Its easier, but its also harder for the new reporters these days, because on the surface, things looks so easy, but on the other hand, there are many ways of hiding the truth, and there are many ways of making people complacent and lazy, and tempting them with other things, so that they don't go sniffing around for the truth.

Q. So continuing ma'am, can you describe any differences po yung beat system po, kasi namention niyo po kanina yung beat system before, yung mga nineteen eighty (1980) plus po, and the beat system now, or is there any difference?
A. May, I don't know if it's actually the beat system, or it's the internal systems in newspapers. There've been beats, you know, since time memorial, but, dati kasi, mas tighter yung coordination between the editors and the reporters. So the peer pressure was somewhat alleviated. Kasi madaling magusap ng buong gabi ang editors at reporter na oy ganito ang gagawin mo bukas, ngayon ang hirap hirap na niyan. So actually, ang mentoring happens on the beat. So when our young reporter goes to the beat, and when she or he meets more senior reporters, and they start telling her, ok lang yan tumanggap, ok lang yung ganito, may mga ponente sa beat, etcetera, etcetera. It's pretty hard for a young malleable, vulnerable reporter to withstand that kind of pressure, and we have had, I have had, especially to crack them hard sometimes, and tell them when they're sleeping, and tell them outright na, bigyan mo ako ng istorya wag press release. Kasi kung press release lang naman, nagpapadala naman lahat ng mga senador dito. I don't need that; lets not waste each other's time. Because they've got professionals doing that. Ang main difference before, I don't know if this affects the quality of a person when he or she becomes also an editor is that, ang daming mga reporters ngayon ayaw umalis sa beat. I don't know why and I don't want to put malice to anybody's decision, but on a beat, you're tied to a certain mindset. We covered the provinces, and we were correspondents and there was no beat. You had to scramble to cover that damn province. You cover the war, you cover the business, you cover the politics, you cover the social events, and they were important and all that stuff. So mas well rounded ang development ng knowledge. Mas malalim ang development ng analytical skills ng tao. Kasi para na yang estudyante ka e, pumunta ka, sige, pupunta ka technique, puro technical subjects, nasan na yung humanities mo? I mean technical subjects are fine, but where is the grounding in general knowledge and humanities, that a person will need, to make those technical skills give some meaning, di lang sa buhay niyo kundi sa buhay ng ibang tao. So siguro, ganun pa yung perspective na nakikita naming nagiiba, na nagiging technical, nagiging… paano ka magiging editor kung hindi ka umikot at di mo nakita ang iba't ibang fields ng trabaho, so mapapako ka sa isang sector, sa isang field of expertise. Sa beat, ang dami daming spoon-feeding na nangyayari. Misan, hihintay lang, what we tell them, bakit kayo nakaupo sa press office niyo? Hihintay lang kayo na tatawagin kayo for a forum, for an interview. Hindi lang naman isang source sa isang departamento, ang dami daming, anong ginagawa ng mga papers? Why do we get so little news that comes from documents on earth? Wala, kasi nakaupo lang ang marami. So yun ang hinihingi namin sana, na mabalik yung drive, na the young reporters shouldn't take things too easy, and wait for people to give them the news. Because when a person gives you the news, that's usually self-serving. That's the way it is. That doesn't mean you don't use the news, because it is news, but it is self-serving. Sino naman ang gago na bibigay sayo yung kontra sa kanya? Pero you shouldn't just wait for someone to give you the news, you should go around look for that news, you should go around dig up that news, which is not happening so much this time.

Q. So as of this very moment po, do you feel successful or fulfilled na po kayo in this line of business, journalism po?
A. Fulfilled? No, you're only as happy as your last edition, actually. Tomorrow, no. Wala. You thrive on conflict, you thrive. I'm happy because I'm back in journalism. I missed it for a long time. I don't know about fulfilled. I would probably want to write the story differently but then hindi lang naman ako ang isang editor sa diyaryo at hindi naman ako mayari ng diyaryo, although in fairness to Mark Jimenez, he hasn't really interfered all that much in this job. But there are also standards to be followed and you know, it's a learning process everyday. Sabi ko, gusto mo ng isang splashy headline, but you're overruled sometimes, minsan naman nananalo ka sa botohan kung ano yung headline. So ok lang, what I can live with, I can live with Mark Jimenez telling me na, "wag niyo naman akong pasigawan sa kaibigan ko." I can live with that. So ano ba problema? "Pwedeng wag nalang ito yung headline? Yung pangalawa yung headline?" Pag kung ang pag-uusapan namin yung headline, I'm willing to give up some headlines. Ang hindi ko lang, ang non-negotiable ko is, the killing of a news story. Yun sa akin, non-negotiable yon. And in fairness to Mark Jimenez is he allows us to carry the story. We don't have the luxury of space, kelangan isasak-sak namin, puro wrap up. If you read the Inquirer…

Q. Parang summarization po?
A. Hindi naman summarization. Pero the Inquirer would have four different stories on a single subject. We will probably have two. And in those two stories, we weave in more stories, so you will have to be a good reader, or a more conscientious reader to read through our news, but then we don't aim to be the Inquirer noh. So ang ano namin, is kung medyo napakainit para maging lead paragraph, sige sayo na. Yung joke namin, sige na Erap, sayo na yung lead paragraph, sa amin na yung third to the last paragraph. Parang ganon tingnan. Yung at least ma… its… I don't think there's gonna be any fulfillment in that sense, because there's always the give and take in any newsroom. We just try to keep us honest as much as possible. And in the end of the day, that's what counts. You ask yourself, were you, did you try your best?

Q. So for example ma'am may mga aspiring newspaper writers or reporters po, based on your personal experiences po, ano yung pwede niyong ibigay na payo or advices sa kanila po?
A. Read.

Q. Read?
A. Read. People, they don't read. I've talked to young reporters, and I am appalled, actually appalled by the fact that they don't read. Or if they do, I don't know ano yung pagintindi nila sa binabasa nila. Reading. But more than reading, be interested into… you are not going to be a good reporter if you are not interested in the world at large. Kung ang interest mo lang isang bagay, dun ka lang. You are gonna be a legman, you're gonna file in the stories, but you are not going to be a real journalist. You will only become a real journalist and a good one, if you're able to link two (2), three (3), four (4), five (5) desperate things together, and come up with a meaningful story out of it. and the only way you can do it is by being interested in the world, being interested in people, taking your time to go talk to people, not just the officials, people in the streets, and if you can't do that, you'll never really get anywhere into the profession.

Q. Thank you very much po!