after the field trip

The Philippine Daily Inquirer went out February 5 with the headlines, “74 Dreams crushed.” It referred to the stampede at Ultra the day before, killing 74 and injuring hundreds who lined up for the Saturday game show extravaganza of ABS-CBN’s Wowowee.

During the time of the stampede, we were in Manila from February 2-5 on a field trip for the Silliman University School of Communication. And as if to remind us of the tragedies of reality, the hotel we stayed in was right next to the Arlington Funeral Parlor, the same place where the dead were sent to.

“I cried because you can really feel the grief in the atmosphere,” said Monica Ann Alipe, a Mass Communication junior who dropped by Arlington on our last night there. “They all looked so stunned and shocked as if they could still not believe what happened when it was already ten o’clock at night.”

“We saw this guy asking around for contact numbers, and he seemed so distraught. We tried to help him out by telling him to dial 163,” she added.

Judy Gay Jandayan, another Mass Communication junior said, “I am thankful we didn’t think about going to Wowowee as part of the field trip. This morning, I remember how every now and then a phone would go off in the bus because parents were worried about the stampede.”

The annual field trip gives Mass Communication juniors opportunities to interact and get first-hand accounts from media practitioners in various fields. With the current statistic of around 350 Filipinos losing their jobs everyday, it served as a defining trip to most students when it came to their career paths.

This year, our first stop was supposed to be ABS-CBN to meet with Cito Beltran. Unfortunately, it got cancelled because of last-minute business and time constraints. We went to GMA in the afternoon where we got to meet Kuya Germs, and take part in his show on DZBB.

Some of the students were shocked that GMA was so small because everything appeared big on television. When we were able to pass by the Pinoy Big Brother house later, many also said it was so small.

Reality also hit hard when we got to meet Artemio Engracia, Jr., the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) news editor. We met him last February 4 in the afternoon when all the reporters were on the field covering the big story at Ultra.

The San Miguel Corporation, Agatep Associates, Perceptions, and Creative Point, Inc. gave us valuable inside information when it comes to corporate communications, public relations and advertising.

We even got to meet Rene Nieva of Perceptions who composed the song “Tara na, Byahe tayo” as part of a Bonamine campaign that eventually spiraled into a Department of Tourism Philippine promotion.

On one of our lunches even, after going to one of the PR firms and we saw the fifty-seconds-or-so long apology of ABS-CBN to the victims of the stampede, we couldn’t help but think, “This was what our speaker was talking about when he said crisis management. Now that’s PR.”

Another field we were exposed to was the call center industry. On a dialogue with Silliman University Mass Communication alumni, they related their stories on how Manila life is exhilarating, and how the call center, while being a short-term career plan, is still fun and a great money-earner. One of them was a human resources officer who interviewed prospective agents, and we got a lot of advice from her.

For Judy Gay Jandayan, “The highlight was the camaraderie within the group.” Coming from Davao, she also realized that Manila might be expensive but all the opportunities are there. The metropolis is there.

While the country was buzzing about the stampede as a testament to the hard times (people lined up for the show again an hour after the pandemonium erupted even with bodies still sprawled around), these 27 Mass Communication students, along with Mrs. Melita Aguilar and Prof. Irma Pal, went to various companies thinking about their futures.

Alipe says it best when she disclosed, “I admit I was disappointed with some cancellations in the itinerary, but those places were not the highlights. In its entirety, the field trip made me see where my interests are.”

She wants to go into corporate communication. The rest ranged from covertly sleeping during advertising talks and being wide awake when we were in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Whatever the case, we were all Mass Communicators there, rekindling hope that there will still be a big break somewhere to get to our dreams.

Hope is a good thing. That was one productive trip.