Sunday, November 13, 2005

Why I Don't Cover PGMA Anymore

People asked me why I was leaving Baguio just when the President is coming to town last week. I told them I stopped covering her since last year. I can do this because I am jsut a correspondent and can choose what to write. But even if I am a regular reporter, I would probably tell my editor that what I would write would not interest me anyway.
I did this when our former mayor in Baguio was elected. I swore to myself that I will not enter his office nor mention his name in my article. I did and nobody noticed.
PGMA used to interest me. One of my favorite coverage was when she presented Schilling on Maundy Thursday. It presented a special problem among us because here we are with a very big scoop and we knew fully well that there would be no newspapers the next day except for Manila Bulletin. I think my story came out in New York Times. He he he.
Another was when she went to PMA one Friday night. It was rainign very hard so people were wondering why she has to come. The speech was blah except when she said, "I am married to my country." I said to myself that is the story. But I was the only one who filed about it as an allusion to her crumbling marriage.
Another was when she announced that she would no longer be running for President. This happened in front of the Rizal Shrine in Burnham Park. I caught the speech on TV and was there five minutes later, looking for people to react. Our bureau's story on The Queen's gambit was a finalist for the CMMA and probably lost because as we all knew, she lied.
I was at the airport when i read the news. I was going to Bangkok for a press conference on reproductive and sexual health. The delegates who were with me were so downtrodden by the news. Here is one woman president who was so anti-woman in her policies. What do we do, they asked loudly. Some suggested Raul Roco and FPJ. But we all knew that she will have her way, and she did.
The other times I covered her were dreadfully coordinated. One February 14, we gave her roses and I was shot giving her the thorniest rose she ever received. Then they gave the media strips of paper containing the questions they have to ask her, just like FVR time.
After that, I stopped covering her. There were instances especially during the elections when you have to be there but I did not write anything about her. I just forwarded the press releases.
My favorite piece on PGMA was the one I wrote for flip magazine which came out in the INQUIRER. I will provide it here later.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

mas sinungaling ka!!!!!

2:28 PM  

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