A Christian communicator

Reflection

This sharing was delivered in a forum organized by the Humanities and Social Sciences senior high school strand of Sienna College, Inc. (Quezon City).

I am not a writer, really.

By profession, I am a physical therapist, at least since I passed the licensure exam in 2001, and now, by vocation, I am a priest.

Writing really is a task for me that is why I really hate it when people ask me to write. Perhaps I developed this skill way back in high school when we were made to write pages and pages of reflections in our "diary" or journal. I am a product of public school education, pala, but I would say that I am lucky to have a grandmother who was an English teacher, I think, and my parents are very supportive when it comes to our studies.

Reading, I believe, really helped in my writing. I read a lot from the moment I learned how to read, but now I am so lazy reading. Really. With so many information available in the internet, we hardly have enough time to really read. And with so many movies, series and documentaries to watch on streaming apps, do we even have to time to do anything? It is part of our changing world, and you children, well, I guess you are more adept at this multi-tasking stuff because this is the world that you know from the very start. Us, oldies, we are kind of slow, but anyway, journalism, for me did not come by chance. Nope, nope, nope. It was a choice that I continuously make.

It started in 2003 or so, when I decided to leave my job as a promising medical representative, selling medical equipment, devices, and supplies not just to hospitals but also to schools and for industrial clients. It started with an advertisement from Inquirer Publications, Inc., a sister company of Philippine Daily Inquirer, focusing on their more pangmasa publications like the one's they give out for free in the train stations - Libre, and also the tabloid, Bandera, and the now out-of-print regional paper, Cebu Daily News. They've converted to the digital format.

The ad said that they were looking for Account Executives, I didn't know what that meant, its just that the title sounds important. Executive. My title as a medrep then was Professional Sales Representative, so Executive sounds better, right. Plus, being an avid fan of PDI, I really really really wanted to work for PDI, so I grabbed the chance. I applied for the job, only to realize when I was accepted that I was to sell advertising spaces for the local paper, CDN or Cebu Daily News.

It was an exciting job - you get to be invited in very important events, you get to brush elbows with important people, you get to have VIP passes in exclusive shows and all, plus travels here and there, without spending not even a peso. But of course, there are instances wherein you would entice potential advertisers to spend their millions by placing an advertisement in your paper for a day, month, or years. If you could get a year-long contract, that is heaven and you don't have to work much. But of course you have to maintain that by building a relationship with your client, which means giving them favors like featuring their company and product in the paper. Which means you need a writer and a photographer to do that for you. But then there are instances when we would run out of writers, so that's when I started writing. It was for a product called Meat Magic, at a time when being vegetarian was really not yet a trend. Of course it was easy for me to write about the product because, in all honesty, I was using it as a meat alternative and protein source. I was a vegetarian for, maybe, two years. Full vegetarian - no fish, no egg. But I was not a vegan. The reason was more spiritual than health because I was fit at that time, at 24 or 25.

So, when I told the editor that I needed a writer, she told me, I can't give you one so you better write that yourself.

That's the start. She liked my article, or maybe she was like thinking, if he would not request for a writer then that would be less headache for me. So from then on, I'd barely request for a writer, and the clients also loved it.

I started writing feature articles like travel, food, events, profiles of important people, new products, and just about anything even showbiz stuff and I am not a showbiz person. One time I even asked a singer about his "acting" career because I thought he was the same person, they just have the same family name. I am not really a showbiz guy, but it was fun, really.

I mean, getting to try new products when it is not in the market yet. Having to go to places. Mind you, I was able to go jetskiing from Cebu to Bohol, went scuba diving in Panglao, got to go to Boracay and enjoy crocodile steak (I was no longer vegetarian at this time), and get to be treated in high end resorts and hotels. And every special occasion you would receive gifts and cakes and all. That's part of the life, which was very hard for me to leave.

Eventually, I became a sub-section editor of The FREEMAN, which is the country's longest running community paper and part of the Philippine Star group. This was still with lifestyle, which also came with bigger perks. I now get to travel abroad, for free. And then there was this stint with a bilingual (Korean-English) travel magazine, iNeed Travel and Culture Magazine, and such other smaller publications. 

But really, this was not the kind of writing that I wanted. I wanted to create change in our society and so I decided to write some serious stories - stories about abuse, about corruption, about human rights abuses, about killings.

A friend from Bulatlat.com, one of the country's pioneering independent alternative online news magazine, asked me to write some stories about killings in the Visayas region and I said yes. So, I also started writing for them and I felt more fulfilled and satisfied.

In 2010, I was given a fellowship at the University of the Philippines-College of Mass Communication for the Graciano Lopez Jaena Workshop on Human Rights Reporting and the Culture of Impunity. It was a beautiful experience and I became more determined to really be a true journalist, not just there for the perks, which is unethical for a serious journalist as these could be some form of bribery and corruption. But I wanted to be there to be able to really report the stories as it should be, highlighting stories that many mainstream media would not cover because they could not get any money from it.

That is one of the problems of mainstream media. They are dependent on ads for them to make money and for them to be able to pay their workers, so they have to make considerations when it comes to the stories that they publish. At times, many journalists or reporters would even start endorsing products, which really is very unethical, that is if you are seriously considering being unbiased with your reporting. Now let us say you are endorsing a famous fast food chain, now what if that fast food chain is abusing their workers, do you think you could still write that story? Or if you are endorsing some food supplement, which eventually is unmasked as a scam, surely you could not say anything negative about that product, right?

With Bulatlat.com, I came to realize the true weight of the profession, and by weight, I really mean weight because your income, which means the salary you are able to give to your writers, is dependent on donations and not on advertising. That is why they can be unbiased in their stories, or they can really right stories as they should be told, in the perspective of the people who are being abused, marginalized, and exploited. Yes, because you want change, you want that they would have better lives, you want them to really experience kaginhawahan, and you know that your weapon, the pen or keyboard, could make that change happen. It exposes the bad of our society, at the same time highlight that which brings good to the people like inspiring stories of people who have gone beyond the challenges that they are facing.

Journalists can inspire and they can be catalysts for change, for a better society for us. And for this, I feel that I have found my calling. Until now I am still part of Bulatlat.com, but they don't pay me. I asked them to use the money they are supposed to pay me, for them to be able to hire more abled staffs.

I write because I want to write, not just "write, write," but to write with a purpose, with meaning.

Bulatlat is also the reason why I entered the priesthood. Because of Bulatlat, I learned of the life of the martyred priest in Samar, Fr. Cecilio Lucero. I was inspired by his life, how he gave his life for a person he did not know. That was in 2009, and around four years later, I entered the Carmelites, because I believed that I could truly make change happen as a priest, and I am still hoping for that to happen.

Today, I manage the social media accounts of the Order of Carmelites in the Philippines - our Facebook page, Philippine Carmelites (@CarmelitesPhCom), and our website, www.CarmelitesPh.org. At the same time, I help in giving workshops, lectures, and seminars on Social Communications as part of the media advocacy and apostolate of the Order through the Titus Brandsma Media Center and the Institute of Spirituality in Asia.

The work can be challenging, as our responsibility as Christian communicators is not just to deliver any story or message, it is with the intent, with the hope that the story you share would inspire the basic virtues of faith, love, and hope, and that the message you share would be instrumental in inspiring people to work for the building of God's Kingdom on Earth. How are we to do that? That is the challenge.