sorry for not blogging yesterday. i was just so tired that i didn’t fee like blogging. twas the first time i spent the whole day outside crame so i was adjusting to the new beat. really, you have to walk, run, commute and eat once you’re out there, lest you won’t survive.
the day started at almost 11. i was aimlessly wandering around the virra mall area, looking for the police precinct and for the gate to estrada’s subdivision (i was trying to develop a story on estrada’s visit you see). then i went to san juan police station but no one wanted to talk. so there, at almost 12 noon, i realized i still had no story. for the first time since my internship started, i felt like i didn’t have any direction.
luckily, sir luige called and asked me to cover a pro-fpj youth congress at 1 p.m. that day. he gave me the name of mayor jv ejercito’s public information officer and i was glad to have found her to be very accommodating.
sir luige and i later met up at the congress at the san juan gym. you should have seen those young people, more than a thousand of them from all over metro manila. some of them didn’t even know what they were doing there. someone just told them to ride the jeep or the bus to go to an fpj rally. since some of them were self-confessed diehard da king fans (never mind if they can’t remember even a title of his movies), they gladly came along. some were told richard gomez was gonna be there, niño muhlach and even the sexbomb dancers.
too bad you didn’t see how they reacted at the slightest hint of an artista coming. they literally stood on their chairs and screamed like hell. some were clever enough to bring a camera with them so they can pose with their idol.
the thing that struck me the most was the fact that i couldn’t believe i was covering an fpj rally, what with all my anti-fpj sentiments. but of course, being a journalist, you must put aside your personal views and not let them affect your craft. so i endured more than two hours, i suppose, of dealing with fpj supporters in the most professional way possible. i had no choice. i had to get jv ejercito’s comments so i had to wait. not that i have something against them, it’s the way they act man. of course, to be sure there are fpj supporters who don’t act that way.
sir luige’s story about the rally yesterday didn’t come out today in the inquirer. the event was apparently not newsworthy, not to mention the fact na binastos ni goma si sir luige. oh well, artistas with bloated egos. and poor brains. (pardon my prejudice)
after chitchatting with sir luige and the rest of the friendly reporters at the deped press office, we ended the day with dinner at edsa central mall—all five of us lining up for a long overdue meal. gutom ka na, pagod ka pa. hay…this is a reporter’s life. and so i’ve been warned.
today was no different.received a message from sir luige in the middle of pi class, informing me that he’s down with flu. that meant i was to be on my own, covering mandaluyong, pasig, san juan, rizal, marikina and other outlying areas. the prospect kinda scared me. i felt unprepared for the job. if yesterday i was groping for direction, what more now? luckily, the guys at the press office were kind enough to be of help and i survived the day.
i almost never made it when i got caught up in a traffic jam. on top of that, i can’t seem to find my way inside the deped headquarters. i was really lucky that i recognized two of the reporters who, as it turned out, were on the way to a press con. had i arrived later, i would have missed it.
and so off we went to a restaurant (hmmm…food na naman). there, we met the man who won as congressman three years ago but who never sat in congress because it was only last monday that the supreme court released the decision declaring him the winner. see, that’s how long it takes for the wheel of justice to turn in this country. poor guy. he was reportedly doing poor in the surveys for the present race. he may only get to sit in congress for less than a month in june.
on top of his woes, the incumbent mayor who is his ticket mate was reportedly supporting two other candidates for congressman. how could that be? di naman daw seloso si congressman. seloso my foot.
so i wrote about it. and another story regarding soldiers’ visit in antipolo. i wrote really slow. i finished past 6 when the stories were due at 4 p.m. i don’t know what they’ll make of them but i was told ok lang daw. ok.
just when i thought my day was over, i had to go to up cmc to meet up with some of the members of the council. got home at almost 9 p.m. but ironically, still with high energy. must be the full moon.
later tonight, i received one good advise from sir luige: speed is impt in newspapering. that only means kelangan mo pa mgpractice.
yeah, i agree. there’s always that tendency in me to stop after every sentence, review everything, edit, until i realized that i haven’t gone far enough in an hour of facing the monitor. i’m even trying to control my habit of checking and checking all over again otherwise i may never beat the deadline.
this blog is no exception actually of how i write. i could spend a good two hours coming up with three pages of blog a night. that’s really slow. now, i’m a little faster because i just type whatever comes to my head, even if they don’t make sense. i review what i wrote from time to time, to check on embarrassing “grammage” but since this is informal, it’s forgivable so the pressure is less. when it comes to news stories however, i could spend a good two hours writing less than a page of news. and that’s bad. terribly bad.
oh well, have a lot to learn. sir luige is right: 3rd year ka pa naman. u’ll learn.
learn, i will. you bet.
..........
starry starry night
