8 random facts about me

Dear Pepe and friends, here now is my answer to your tag - random facts about moi. Deciding what to include was difficult but it was a fun exercise! Here goes my list:

Fact 1. I was a premature baby. Yup, I was told that several days before I turned 7mths in my mother’s tummy, lumabas na ako. Nainip (impatient) na sa sobrang tagal, a trait that I still continue to battle with. The first thing that my parents did when they held me for the first time was check whether my fingers and toes were complete. They were so scared that their first-born was not completely developed physically and mentally that I was sent to doctors every month when I was a toddler for regular check ups. I was also enrolled in school at an early age. Natuwa pa sila when I was accelerated to grade one at the age of 6.

Fact 2. I was born to an Ilonggo father (from Roxas City, Capiz) and a Bikolana mother (from Naga City). I was born in Roxas City, grew up in Manila, then went back to Roxas City again to finish high school. I got my bachelors degree in Cebu City and worked there for a year before moving out to Naga and Legaspi cities. Having lived in several cities in the Philippines, I can speak Tagalog, Ilonggo-Hiligaynon, Bisaya-Cebuano and Bikol dialects. Had I stayed in the Philippines and continued working with a media company (ABS-CBN), I would have learned either Panggalatok or Chavacano as I was keen on being transferred to either Dagupan City or Zamboanga City. But, as fate would have it, I am currently here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and speaking the Khmer language.

Fact 3. While doing my TV internship in my last year of college, I interviewed Air Supply and Chicago and produced a feature story for the Starnews segment of TV Patrol Cebu. I also got to interview and write a news item about former Senator Jovito Salonga and Senator Aquilino Pimentel who were then running as President and Vice President, respectively. I got a flat one for that! Since then, the lure of TV broadcasting has been so strong that after a one-year stint with an NGO after college, I worked for ABS-CBN and the list of personalities that I interviewed, local and national, grew longer. I remember fondly Rico Yan who was such a gentle person and a very professional actor. Upon seeing my ABS ID at the airport, he and his group, including his mom, greeted us showbiz style (beso-beso) and granted an interview. May he rest in peace. There were also other movie actors and singers but I won’t mention them anymore. Mahaba ang listahan. I also remember the time I interviewed former Ka Bel (Crispin Beltran who was with KMU at that time) and Ka Satur (Ocampo) live via the program Dateline News (on SNN, now ANC), and other tradpols.

Fact 4. My college days in Cebu were the best years of my life. Some say high school life is the best, but I beg to disagree. My classmates (as well as school mates and board-mates) were from different provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao regions, and some from the Luzon area. We entered the university as gawky teenagers of different economic backgrounds and with different personalities, full of questions, full of hope and idealism, enthusiasm and energy for learning, for life and for the future. We left college after 4years (5 years for some) filled with lessons learned and bittersweet memories - hard work, heartaches, frustrations, successes big and small and fun experiences - enough to last us a lifetime. We went on separate ways to brave the world as global citizens... environmentalists, women’s rights activists, lawyers, journalists, businesswomen and men, teachers, doctors, later on becoming husbands, wives, fathers and mothers...

Fact 5. Although a bit late at 16years old, I was trained as a gymnast at the encouragement of my PE teacher in college. She saw in me a potential and took me under her wing. Four hours of training per day, for 4 years I trained together with the other gymnasts of the Central Visayas Gymnastics Association. Several years, several exhibitions, and several kilos gained later, I still could do a mean cartwheel and other gymnastic moves but, you won’t see me doing that anymore. Sige, pag may talent fee gagawin ko. I’ll do it if the price is right! Hehehe.


Fact 6. I am not a certified diver (yet) but I have been lucky enough to go diving. I took a crash course and voila…I enjoyed diving and the beauty under the sea immensely. I also learned the ropes of rock-climbing (with the help of Naga City’s Marlboro Man Reginald Tan), surfing (with a surfer dude from Daet, Camarines Norte whose name I forget now but he was actively promoting Daet as surfing destination in the Philippines) and target shooting (with Roger Dy, also from Naga City and placed third in the world target shooting competition in the late 90s) and they all got me hooked. Friend Chris Jackson, in one of his visits to Cambodia, took me to this firing range past Pochentong airport where we spent the whole afternoon firing handguns and AK47s in between catching up on stories. I never went back there, mahal kasi (it’s expensive).

Fact 7. I was good at producing coverage for live events. I was a producer for ABS-CBN Bikol (meaning, both Naga and Legaspi). One of my favorite moments was in 1998 when I was handpicked by ABS-CBN/RNG to man ABS-CBN Naga’s live coverage of the centennial celebration of the Philippine Independence in the province of Camarines Sur. The main task was to provide 10min live updates to Manila during the whip-around, and, as climax to the whole ABS-CBN coverage, feed the grand fireworks display, which was the highlight of the coverage, simultaneous with the other live points in the country. As there was time difference, the plan to broadcast the simultaneous fireworks display was on the brink of not happening. Camarines Sur was only minutes away from starting the fireworks while … the Luneta fireworks were not yet ready.

I gathered all my guts and went up to the old bat, then Governor Luis Villafuerte who was sitting prominently on the stage in full Filipiniana. I was hesitant but I had to do what I was set to do and request that the fireworks display be delayed a few minutes more so that it would start at the same time as the Manila fireworks. I wasn’t nervous but was just afraid that he wouldn’t let his fireworks display be delayed by the whims of a TV station. I know my EPs (Executive Producers) in Manila wouldn’t take no for an answer so I hatched a plan to make the old bat agree. To make the story short, we got the needed delay. What did I do? Nothing spectacular, I approached him with an “ABS-CBN ako” attitude (if you meet someone who works for ABS-CBN, you’ll know) and promised him that in exchange for the tiny delay, he would get a 5mins exposure live on national TV. While the other provincial live points were not successful, the grand fireworks display in Camarines Sur was shown live for the full 5mins with an annotation by our local host (Elmer Caseles) and interview with Governor Villafuerte. The Governor was so happy about the exposure that he, swelling with pride, invited the whole crew for dinner.

Epilogue. I got congratulatory slaps in the back from our cameramen (local and one came from Manila) and received a hefty talent fee for that! Villafuerte is now a Congressman who, months ago, was (perhaps, still is) one of the main figures in the battle for speakership in the congress.

Fact 9. Unknown to some, I can’t count well before 9 in the morning... :)

I would like to tag my good, good friend Sam, Ate Vicki, Francine,Bro. Vince, and others who would like to try this fun exercise!

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I also took the opportunity to post some photos that have been long hidden in my baul (chest). The first photo was taken during our J/S Prom in college. The second and third photos were taken in Daet with the surfing dudes and Jojie the guy who supervised my diving experience, in Naga City, respectively. The last three photos are testament to my stint at ABS-CBN Naga - interview with former Senator Orly Mercado in Lucban, Quezon; preparing for a live news update with the crew; and the last one is a photo of reporter-producers from other ABS-CBN's provincial stations to cover the 1998 Palarong Pambansa in Naga City. If you recognize some of them, they are Jun Tariman (Cebu), Andy Rara (Davao but now with GenSan), Woodrow Francia (ABS-CBN Naga/Legazpi), Aladin Bacolodan (then with GenSan but now with TV Patrol Manila), Gary (ABS-CBN Baguio), Macel Ingles (Naga/Legazpi), Cherrie Tinoko (Legazpi), someone from ABS Sales (Manila), Kate Madrid (Legazpi) and moi (Naga/Legazpi).