calling

A month or so back, I contributed an article to the Metropost on why I am a student journalist. It was during that time I realized that faith in the profession is as important as the passion to do it.

Last February 2-5, Silliman University Mass Communication students went to Manila for a field trip. And on February 4, the same day the stampede occurred, we got to meet Artemio T. Engracia Jr., the news editor of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI).

At that time, the office was partially empty. “The reporters are all on the field. They are covering the stampede over at Ultra,” Engracia explained.

A tall guy perhaps in his early fifties, he candidly explained the PDI process, from the reporters’ 3 p.m. deadlines to the simultaneous layouting and editing.

As my friend Monica Alipe said, “Even we already studied in classes some of what he said, it’s different now because it comes from someone who is actually doing the work.”

As the Inquirer editor himself explained the workings of a newspaper as big as the PDI, I was, to put it lightly, awed.

Here are some parts of the lecture he gave.

“PDI is basically the work of hundreds of editors, reporters, correspondents.” We were in the news room, and he pointed to the news desks. “These are the nerve centers of every newspaper in the nation.”

There are three major news bureaus: Mindanao Bureau in Davao, Northern Luzon Bureau in Baguio, and the Visayas Bureau in Cebu. They have a 240,000 circulation on weekdays, with 250,000 on weekends.

Aside from the fact that they never come out on Good Fridays and Good Saturdays, the PDI never missed a day since December 9, 1985.

On campus journalists, Engracia said, “I was one myself. I was very idealistic, and I was an activist. When I dropped out of the University of the Philippines in 1972 before Marcos declared Martial Law, I felt I could get work as a journalist, and I did. I was the sportswriter for the only Marcos newspaper, the Philippine Daily Express. Right then and there, because of Martial Law, there was a big demand for newspapers. Our printing presses were running all day so we put up an evening paper.”

He became the sports editor at 19 years old.

“My editors trusted me enough to be a one-man sports section. I started early. I loved my job. At times, I felt like I was getting paid for something I liked doing because I could have done it for free.”

Then he faced us and said, “You have to love what you are doing to have the endurance to stay in this profession for so long. I’ve been working as a journalist for 34 years. It feels like I’m still starting out with the enthusiasm that I had at being able to come face-to-face with the president, and tell her she’s not doing it right. Only a journalist can do that without fear of retribution from the most powerful person in the country.”

“Being a journalist is something else. It is a calling. It is much like the social worker, missionary or priest. If you don’t have that, you have no business being a journalist.”

He said that the strengths of PDI is that they are independent in the sense that even the owner of the paper cannot make them write about something. The editors have the liberty and independence to turn the owner down.

“Another strength,” he said, “is the pool of talent. We have very competent reporters.”
However, every now and then, there are still people who feel they are offended by the paper. They have a file of libel cases but there has been no case when a PDI journalist got convicted.

“We are not scared,” he said.

When asked if they get threats, he said matter-of-factly, “We get death threats. Even now we don’t follow patterns. We vary the time we leave the office, and vary the way we go home. Most times, days end very late.”

“There is a perception that we are a very aggressive newspaper. Sometimes people say we’re very reckless. But we’d rather take those comments than being called a timid newspaper, being silent when we should have been shouting. That, for me, is a graver offense.”

It is always refreshing to see people reaffirm what you have always believed.