'We're the freest press in the region but there's no pride in saying that we're probably also one of the most unethical.' (Photo by KJ ROSALES)

MANILA, Philippines — Everyone knows award-winning journalist Malou Mangahas as one of the founding pillars of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), the country's foremost
organization for investigative reporting.

After all, under her watch as the PCIJ's executive director, the organization was awarded the Agence France-Presse's Kate Webb Award, given to media organizations that have produced exceptional work in dangerous circumstances.

It was her work alongside PCIJ co-founder Sheila Coronoel that would bring to light former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada's mansions and mistresses and would prove to be the catalyst towards Estrada's impeachment.

But what people may not know is that if things had gone any differently, Malou Managahas would not be investigating – but preaching!

“I was head catechist and a religion medalist. I knew my Bible very well and I was teaching it. Gusto ko nga mag madre at mag misyonaryo sa Ethiopia nung bata ako!” she reveals with a laugh.

Fate, however, had other plans. Taking up Journalism at the University of the Philippines, her involvement in The Philippine Collegian as its editor-in-chief would derail her plans of pursuing a legal career. It was the tumultuous years of the Marcos regime and Malou would find herself served with an arrest warrant alongside student leaders and editors.

She would even find herself finishing her thesis on the run!

“I had to write it because deadline was looming. May arrest warrant and I had to avoid all the routines, like going home regularly,” she recalls. “Bitbit mo lahat ng thesis material mo. Writing it meant writing it on the floor with a typewriter in somebody else's house.”

That early brush with suppression, however, would prove to be a good foundation as she ventured into the real world and the heady days of the Cory presidency. Noticing that the stories being churned out by publications veered towards the superficial, she and a group of like-minded journalists set out to establish the PCIJ.

“We thought we could organize something like the PCIJ that could give reporters from the news media a chance to do fellowships. We organized the PCIJ hoping that we could do investigative reporting na pang-contribute sa pagbalik ng press freedom,” she says.

While she may not have ended up evangelizing in Ethiopia, Malou says she is now happy spreading the extraordinary stories of the country's ordinary people through media.

Aside from PCIJ, she has held various positions in the GMA Network, from being its vice president for Research and Content Development sa News and Public Affair, to heading the GMA News Research Team.

Today, Malou hosts on GMA News TV, “Investigative Documentaries”, delivering a different kind of documentary filmmaking.

“This program doesn’t really want to overpromise except that it will do investigation the way a good journalist should do it,” she says.

Malou says that she hopes to inspire action among those who view her documentaries -- and not the action that involves the barrel of a gun.

“Minsan ang mas mahalaga ‘yung impact sa community. Sa amin mas mahalaga ‘yun, na ang community ang nagkakaroon ng benefit doon sa istorya,” she says. “I don’t think it’s just a cry for blood that should be heeded. I think it’s really reforms in all its different manifestations. People’s lives are improved.”

In this 60 Minutes interview, Malou Mangahas looks back at a career in journalism that started even back in college – one that has seen her chasing after Cory and contemplating the mysteries of Imelda Marcos. She may not be preaching the Good News, but it is news that we need to hear nevertheless. (Ronald S. Lim)

STUDENTS AND CAMPUSES BULLETIN (SCB): You are more known as an investigative journalist than anything. But don't you get tired of investigating issues and then have those issues amount to nothing?
MALOU MANGAHAS (MM): Minsan, talagang nakaka-frustrate. Pero meron naman minsang nangyayaring maganda.

From the experience of the PCIJ, minsan you do some stories and good things happen. The story we did on the wealth, the mansions, and the mistresses of Erap led to his impeachment trial. May
mga istorya ng mga Cabinet secretary na nasabit sa overpricing ng gamot o ibang mga kontrata, natanggal. May isang justice of the Supreme Court that had to retire early kasi nasabit sa isang story na ginawa namin.

SCB: Should exposes be all about politics?
MM: Minsan mas mahalaga 'yung impact sa isang community eh. For example, we've done a lot of stories on the environment, nagkaroon ng aksiyon, nagkaroon ng protected areas, now they're saving endangered species.

Meron din istorya tulad ng public health stories, on dengue, cholera.

Mas mahalaga na may impormasyon na nailatag for mothers, ano ang importanteng gawin kapag mayroong ganito ang kanilang anak.

It's really not all about bringing the crooks to jail. Hindi lang 'yung result na gusto natin. I don't think that only the cry for blood should be heeded. I think it's really reforms in all its different manifestations in people's lives, whether through service delivery, or a corrupt official is exposed, or somebody is nudged out of office kasi talagang me gulo siyang ginawa. Or maybe over the long haul, we become better people in general.

SCB: But don’t you think people forget about these important stories so easily?
MM: Ang dali minsan makalimot.

SCB: And Erap was pardoned.
MM: Mismo! We don't stay with our stories too long. 'Yung mga dating bayani, sila ngayon ang sabit; 'yung mga dating sabit, ngayon parang sila ang accuser.

Hindi agad-agad matatapos ang lahat, but I'm willing to continue hoping. We shouldn't only be angry this time and then be cool about it after some time. Minsan may mga little and big victories, but all of these together, I hope the next generation of Filipinos would be better advised. We shouldn't be forgetful na some of our leaders don't do right by us, and then we are nice to them after so many years.

The changing face of media
SCB: How do you feel about the emerging influence of citizen journalism, considering that you have been a rigidly-trained journalist?
MM: We encourage it. This is how I see it — print is the medium of record and reference. They say it is a dying sector but I don't think all the titles will die.

There will be some that are so iconic ang role sa buhay natin, they will be there. A good number of our newspapers are reinventing themselves and repurposing content so you really need newspapers
as root media for online. You just can't go online without root media because you won't go far, wala kang content.

Radio is the medium of greatest reach in our country, because we are a developing country. When you need realtime reports on running stories, radio has been the media that has connected us all in the major events of our history.

But radio content is largely derived from print.

TV is the medium of greatest impact.

When you see it on TV, you really get angry. When you see it on TV, you sometimes cry, you sometimes want to participate as a citizen, you're moved to take some action.

Online promises to be all of those media. Record, reference, reach, given some time pa na maging accessible 'yung cost nung Internet service. More people are given purchasing power to have their own PCs and Internet connection. But also, the good thing is that everybody can be a content provider.

SCB: New media harps about “old’’ or mainstream media as outdated…
MM: I don't think that attitude helps at all. There's a lot of good practices and examples in mainstream media that online media can learn. However, old media shouldn't be that arrogant to ignore new media because there's a community out there that should be part of the service that we do as writers.

As for bloggers, we tell them that they are writing on public domain, and it cannot be that they do not observe rules. Do libel laws apply only to old media? I work with the Southeast Asian Press Alliance — we have members in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam — my concern is that we shouldn't give government a reason to crack down or regulate online media, lalo na kung 'yung practices ay hindi ayos. We cannot ignore things held as equally important by our Bill of Rights, like the right to privacy, right against defamatory articles, etc.

Citizen journalists should find their own bearing and clarify among themselves how best they could handle these issues. We've seen some examples, threats to file suit against bloggers. My sense is we should celebrate the freedom, but also look at how best we can preserve that freedom by doing excellent journalism online. Hindi 'yung “Ako, old media, ikaw, new media!” Eh wala namang pinag-iba. We all write, we made a choice to write, and this is the public domain that we share. The market should be the arbiter here.

SCB: Should there be a regulatory body for bloggers?
MM: We are worried not only about libel. We told bloggers, kapag kayo na extrajudicial killings na, don't tell us that you didn't make the choice to be journalists.

I'm not saying that there should be a regulatory body, I'm saying that excellent work is what we all should do or strive to do para walang excuse ang government to crack down. Hindi ba nagkaroon
ng attempt ang NTC (National Telecommunications Commission) in 2009 to cap bandwith? Minomonitor namin 'yun kasi tingin namin hindi dapat. Sa Thailand, criticism of the king ang entry point para sa crack down.

Sa Indonesia, pornographic ang entry point. I don't think we should be opening ourselves up to vulnerabilities like this.

Kasi kung Fourth Estate ang old media, Fifth Domain ang new media, and they are serving the same communities.

SCB: Aren’t you amazed at how things are changing for people watching the news?
MM: Ang problema natin as journalists, the bar is higher for us to do better content, to deliver content faster. Everybody these days is a content provider. People can post on Facebook, Twitter, faster than we can. They get the documents from digital files of private or public documents.

Dati ang news hahanapin mo from your favorite newspaper, delivered at your doorstep. Ngayon we go for keyword searches. Kahit saan pa galing ‘yan, whether si Obama, Mubarak or P-Noy. We search the name or the latest topic attached to that name and news will come from all over the world.

So the necessary thing for us to do is to produce better content and produce it faster. Given these developments, largely technology-driven, largely accessdriven, we would be better off cashing on prime, cutting-edge content, which is what GMANews.TV is trying to do for very discerning, very smart, very discriminating, intelligent community.

SCB: In short, people still want their news? Because now you’re also competing against variety shows.
MM: Ano ba talaga ang galaw ng TV? TV as a medium is really cut out to be, for most hours of the day, an entertainment medium. Kasi video, may nagsasalita, prominent personalities, etc.

TV is also a very important information medium. During crisis, we latch on to TV, we like the blow-by-blow account. You want to be informed, you want to be a better citizen, you don’t want to be just entertained.

The challenge really is for the news and public affairs sections of media to deliver content that will draw bigger audience groups. The push of GMA to bring its public affairs contents to primetime is a very bold and important move because it offers viewers choices.

SCB: How i s Investigative Documentaries different from the other documentary shows now airing?
MM: Ang cut ngayon sa mga public affairs is either you go talk, or you go magazine. There are magazine programs that are investigative and explanatory type. There are also those done in the feature or documentary tradition.

Investigative Documentaries doesn’t overpromise, except that it will do investigation the way a good journalist should do it. The focus is basically governance, public policy issues. So it’s how our government officials do well or badly sa mga pangako nila, sa pag-gamit ng pondong bayan, sa mga services na dapat dini-deliver. Hopefully the five segments would be sufficient to flesh it out, zero in on the context, present the different voices in the story. Hindi siya minamadali, hindi ‘yung tamang investigative reporting na gotcha, huli ka! But we will not overreach, we want to show we have proof, na totoo ‘yun.

SCB: Marami bang masasagasaan sa show na ‘to?
MM: Hindi naman pero maraming issues ang masasagasaan. Kasi kapag nagsusuri ng, kunwari corruption, ang bottomline na question palagi, sino ang guilty? ‘Yung method of work na gusto namin sana dito sa program, katulad nung ginagawa namin sa PCIJ, hindi siya hilaw. Sana mabuo ‘yung kwento, meron talagang paglilinaw, ano talaga ang nilabag na batas? Sino ang mga tao na dapat magpaliwanag dito? Ano ang implications niyan, magkano talaga ang nalustay?

Those exciting Collegian days
SCB: Has it always been writing that you wanted to do?
MM: My father wanted me to be a lawyer! (laughs) I was editor of The Philippine Collegian, those were different days. Nagka arrest warrant ako when I was the Collegian editor, I was Student Council president already.

SCB: What was the arrest warrant for?
MM: Subversion (laughs). Alleged subversion. 1980 ako nahuli. 'Yung arrest warrant si Enrile pa nga pumirma eh. Sabi ko nga sa kaniya, “Sir, ipasa niyo 'yung Freedom of Information Bill, quits na tayo!” (laughs)

SCB: Wasn’t it a badge of courage to be arrested at that time?
MM: There were many arrest warrants at the time for many student leaders. There was a time na about 100 people were in Bicutan, 80 of them students. Mga nahuli sa rally, mga campus editors, mga student council presidents, mga League of Filipino Student members.

When I was issued an arrest warrant kasama ng iba kong editors, uso 'yun at the time. Lahat halos na-issuehan ng arrest warrant. Nahuli ako using that arrest warrant, which was over a year old, when I was Student Council president already.

SCB: And you were also writing your thesis while all this was going on?
MM: I was supposed to graduate and I graduated on time. My mother was threatening to have a heart attack (laughs)! “Ano na ang sasabihin ng mga kaibigan natin!” You know naman our parents.

Collegian editor ako, graduating student ako, Class ‘80. Thesis usually ang last semester, di ba? Siyempre, nakapag start na ako dahil matino naman ako mag-aral. Kaya lang nung may arrest
warrant, you had to avoid all the routines, like going home regularly. Bitbit mo lahat ng thesis material mo. Writing it meant writing it on the floor with a typewriter in somebody else's house.

SCB: Buti nadala mo 'yung typewriter!
MM: Maliit lang naman 'yun no! (laughs) I had to write it kasi malapit na 'yung graduation and my thesis adviser was saying deadline na. There was a cut-off date for graduating students to complete requirements. I graduated on time and I graduated with honors!

SCB: Senator Miriam Santiago was the first Collegian female editor…
MM: Pangatlo akong female editor. But I was the first female Student Council president. Senator Santiago would later tell me: “Yeah, you're number three. But you did something better, you were
both Collegian and Council.” Hala, Ma'am, parang nagkataon lang po 'yun! (laughs)

SCB: How was it that time, those issues you were fighting for?
MM: It was very difficult to cover the government during Marcos’ time. It was the 25th wedding anniversary of the Marcoses and we were very keenly monitoring foreign magazines and publications putting out stories about them.

We came across one story and got permission to reprint it in the Philippine Collegian. It was about the diamond-studded rosary of Imelda, gift sa kaniya — daw. She was carrying the rosary during the wedding anniversary mass. We wanted to put it out to show, hala, ang daming problema ng bayan, and you have this very bongga na anniversary gift! Those were the types of issues. The Education Act was a problem. There was the La Tondena strikes because there was a Marcos decree banning strikes and public assemblies in all work places. It was a supression of the right to strike, which is of course an inalienable right, the right to peaceably assemble for redress of grievances. There were political detainees and military bases.

Modesty aside, we were the first to revive the Philippine Comedian. Tapos si Isko, 'yung cartoon na Iskolar ng Bayan, sa term namin nag-start. Tapos, it was such a great pack. My managing editors included si JV Bautista, si Benny Pacheco, the first earthquake engineer of the Philippines na nag-aral sa Japan. Lean Alejandro was my features writer.

Si Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, na nasa peace panel, was my news editor. May topak 'yung team namin noon (laughs).

SCB: How did you balance being editor, and Student Council president, and student at the same time?
MM: When you're editor of The Collegian, you're practically working. That meant staying almost two nights, every week, at the press. 'Yung press pa noon was the hot press, 'yung tingga ba na nagro-roll out, tapos babasahin mo pabaligtad (laughs)! Ang hirap magtapos ng thesis!

We had a little honorarium as staff members. Ewan ko ngayon kung magkano. Noon, P200 ang suweldo ko every week. Ang laki nun! And we left The Collegian with a lot of savings pa rin. At the time, hinanap nung tao 'yung Collegian and we were happy.

Every so often, we'd come out with The Philippine Comedian para doon sa mga isyu na mahirap diretsuhin, at para din students would have some chance to do political satire.

SCB: How did your father accept your decision to be a journalist?
MM: I was writing also kasi in high school eh (laughs). Ewan ko kung me career path breeding noon or something. My teachers were telling me that I was a good writer. But first I was a head catechist and a religion medalist. I knew my Bible very well and we were teaching it. Ang weird naman ng mga tanong niyo (laughs)! Gusto ko nga mag madre at mag misyonaryo sa Ethiopia nung bata ako! Ang uso pang basahin noon 'yung “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” ni Paolo Freire, 'yung mga Og Mandino.

So parang natural na pagdating ko sa UP, iniisip ko talaga naman in my mind na I wanted to take up Journalism and then go into law. Kaya lang nag-trabaho na ako, tuloy-tuloy na.

SCB: From madasalin naging matapang!
MM: If you look at the concept of social justice in the Bible, it's the same as 'yung concept ng benefits to the workers or the welfare of the working class sa mga Marxist at Socialists noon.

The reason for PCIJ's being!
SCB: So what made you fierce, palaban?
MM: Hindi naman, ang bait-bait ko ngang tao! (laughs) PCIJ nga, ang liliit naming tao. It's probably the articles that we put out and not so much what we are. I would agree that when I was a young  reporter, there was an impetuousness.

You were angry, you think you could take the world down. Pero nung reporter ako kasi, marami akong nadaanan na beats na mas kakalma ka. I've covered Labor, Foreign Affairs, Health, and politics of course. Nung panahon ni Cory, I was president of the Malacañang Press Corps, kami nga 'yung “brat pack’’ eh! (laughs).

SCB: Those years after EDSA 1 saw a lot of opportunities for young journalists…
MM: It was such a fast moving period in our history with so many stories to write. Paramihan ng story na kaya mong tapusin. Hinanda ko lang 'yung sarili ko with how government works, what it wants to do, the different branches of governance. Nung sa budget, nagpabriefing ako nang tatlong araw, paano ba itong General Appropriations Act na ito! Nung mga loans ni Marcos, pa ako ng BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) para ipaexplain kung ano ba itong behest loans. Those were the stories that had to be written and we didn't have a firm handle on what really happened.

The compulsion to study should always be there kung gusto mong malinaw at mahusay 'yung istorya. Kasi kung hindi mo kayang i-explain sa sarili mo, hindi mo maeexplain sa tao.

SCB: PCIJ also came at the time after EDSA?
MM: The real reason we organized PCIJ in 1989 was that we noticed that the stories have gone back to the shallow type. We felt nag slide back sa verbal intramurals ang politics, sa sisihan.

Kasama ko si Sheila Coronel, Maritess Vitug, Bobby Tiglao, Lorna Kalaw-Tirol, Howie Severino, we thought there were still a lot of things to write about. We thought we could organize something like the PCIJ that could give reporters a chance to do fellowships, and do investigative reporting to contribute to the return of press freedom to our country.

SCB: What else does PCIJ do today?
MM: We also organize training not just for the journalists here but more and more for the Southeast Asian journalists. For example, the 2009 elections in Indonesia was a time for them to cover elections and uncover corruption. Myanmar had elections last year and we did training seminars for them. I think Filipinos have a lot more experience and practice in doing reporting on all levels — basic investigative, online, etc. Our goal is to learn more from colleagues in the region.

Dapat ang palitan ng journalism books natin ay between each other, hindi puro Western. Meron kaming multimedia, website, documentaries, episodes we contribute to television. We also do research and database building. Our databases are probably the most comprehensive in terms of documents with government as hinge — statement of assets, personal data sheets, business and financial
interests, corporate record of companies owned by our public officials, election spending reports, civil works contracts.

We dream of eventually having a money-politics database na puwedeng gamitin ng tao at mag keyword search at magdagdag ng data on a sub-national level kasi this is our story and political history as a people. With a lot of very good people on the web, and people uploading to the web kahit ano at will, with databases like these, we could be better informed sa mga susunod na eleksiyon. 'Yun 'yung mga ginagawa namin ngayon.

SCB: Are we better off then than journalists in other Asian countries?
MM: Yes we are, in many ways. If you look at Southeast Asia in particular, we’re really better off. The Philippines and Thailand in a way although may portion nga na parang sacred territory sa
kanila. Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia are restricted democracies in large measure.

However, sa karanasan namin as journalists, the real test of the freedom you exercise as a journalist is really the newsroom. Meaning everyday you have to assert it, you as gatekeeper, with the
owners of media. I’m not saying it’s restricted but its really an unending dance between editors and owners.

SCB: Aren’t we supposed to have the freest press in Asia?
MM: We acknowledge that but also there’s no pride in saying that we’re probably also one of the most unethical, not-so-behaved in terms of journalism ethics. We also have the highest number
of killings of journalists! So parang oxymoron tayo, free pero parang killing field; free but also very murderous yung media natin.

SCB: How about the audience, have they become more discerning over the years?
MM: I think so. My sense of hope is coming from the fact that they’re now into media themselves, not only consumers but also providers of content who will be more discerning over time. Ang nakakatuwa sa web is parang the written word is king again. Dati imbued ka lang with visual delight. So may thinking process.

Memorable coverages
SCB: What are your most memorable coverages?
MM: Si Cory has been one long story I covered, five years. I saw the coup d’ etats, the hiding under the table, hindi under the bed (laughs). Sino kayang hindi magtatago eh andun na yung bomba na
binabagsak sa Malacañang. Those were memorable kasi dilemma mo hindi lang what to write but how to be safe. If the government falls, what is going to happen? Paano ang pamilya ko? naiwan ko?

SCB: How about the controversial Erap episode?
MM: It was memorable in a sense na from the very difficult project came a lot of stories, it unravelled ng maraming threads. We gathered about four boxes of documents, mga 166 companies initially.
We trimmed it down later on, yung talagang directly connected sa family. You can imagine organizing the data was really terrible in terms of the time you have to spend. Those are records you get from SEC, the Bureau of Registry of Deeds, land titles. Yun yung ginagawang trabaho ng PCIJ kaya between stories we are just really quiet.

When it comes out, parang ilang araw na kaming hindi nakaligo o nakakain ng maayos (laughs).

SCB: You wrote a very interesting piece on Imelda Marcos in the Panorama, back in those days when they were still in power...
MM: Ah yung hotsie patotsie (laughs). There was a meeting I think for Lifestyle editors, and I was already at the news desk of the Bulletin. So punta ako sa meeting. Hala ang tagal, salita siya nang salita, siguro mga tatlo o apat na oras. Hindi ka pala puwedeng tumayo at jumingle, bawal, disrespectful! Sabi ko anong gagawin natin dito? Will we be able to write it? Panorama was edited then by Domini Torrevillas. They thought, it would be a great story to write, Imelda on her personal story as well as her plans for the Ministry of Human Settlements. But we had a problem! Kasi talagang papagalitan sila pag nilabas yung story.

Sabi ko, “Eh di verbatim na lang natin, in her own words. Wala namang akong kailangan ilagay. Maybe there was a naughtiness to it but that was the only way we could run it. Tinakbo 'yung istorya, lumabas. Sabi niya “I’m not a hotsie, patotsie!” Kakaiba siya!

SCB: Weren’t you reprimanded?
MM: Sa Collegian kasi survivor kami ng mga ganyang harassment eh. And the only way really was to come out verbatim. Wala naman akong dinagdag dun kaya. Tuwang tuwa sila sa Bulletin nun. There was naughtiness to it but if you asked me, it was an editorial call that was really fair.

Away from the newsroom
SCB: Have you sometimes grown tired of writing about politics, and maybe, write about… fashion?
MM: Yeah (laughs). It would be unfair to say there is hard core or soft core journalism. It’s all journalism. I tell my students isa lang ang rule para sa lahat — accuracy and fairness. We don’t make any distinctions.

SCB: Are you a terror teacher, in the classroom or in the newsroom?
MM: Ay hindi, kabait ko nga eh, labs ako ng students ko (laughs). I make them work hard, that’s for sure. I think that’s the only way you could be a better journalist, to push the threshold of pain further and further away. Di ba writing is about pain, ano ka ba! Di ba the best stories you’ve written are the most painful process na dinaanan mo. The better it will be for readers.

SCB: What does a Malou Mangahas do on her free time?
MM: Nagluluto ako, naglalaba. Kasi wala kaming kasama sa bahay. Tatlo lang naman kaming piraso. My son is already a fourth year college student sa UP Manila. Madali lang naman ang buhay. I have an ate who comes over for general cleaning, pag plantsa once every week.

SCB: Do you still have time to read?
MM: I read books na historical fiction. I’m into studying a lot of topics, like for my apps to enjoy... Ang dami dami mga Shazam, kasi were trying to learn online, we're trying to find out kung ano yung puwedeng iPad based applications or content ng PCIJ. We’re reading more and more ‘yung mga online media discussions from the Wikilinks. Kasi nagulo ang journalism community doon. We’re of course trying to study this government more and more so if it does not come out in its medium term development program, that is an important document should we assess.

May mga books na kinocollect ako, ‘yung mga anchors like si Jon Stewart ang galing kasi nila mag breakdown very sharply ‘yung commentary. Stephen Colbert is a very interesting person. I watch a lot of cable TV pag gabi kasi ‘yun na ‘yung distressing at parang back to the real world.

SCB: Do you have games on your iPad?
MM: Gusto mo tingnan? Mayroon akong Bubbles, may puzzle ako ng mga dogs, Sudoku kasi ang sakit pa rin sa ulo, mag-iisip ka na naman parang ganun.

SCB: Do you have a Facebook account?
MM: No, I don’t have, kasi siguro old-fashioned ako na if someone writes you, you should respond. Nagwo-worry ako maging disrespectful.

SCB: Honestly, what do you think of young journalists today?
MM: I think there are many good ones — masinop ang trabaho, masipag sa paghahanap at pag verify ng data, maayos ang narrative, binibigyan ng panahon ang pagkasulat. So to me the content is ok as well as the form, the effort.

Marami din naman na parang akala nila they could just swing it. Madali kasi madala na once that you’re in media, you think you’re important as the people you cover. Di ba parang minsan akala mo, bossing or friendship mo si Congressman or si Senator. Parang ganun, nag ru-rub off sa iyo ‘yun.

But people remember most your body of work and in the end, they will measure you in terms of every story and how you try to build up on what you’ve written. It doesn’t really matter kung nasa TV ka ngayon or mayroon kang byline today. Of course it’s so thrilling to see your face or your name in the newspapers or on television. But at the end of the day, you’re really building your credibility, your body of work.