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I was browsing some old newspapers and saw one column telling out his origins as a professional leading him to write a column.
As Ka Doroy Valencia, the father of Philippine Journalism once said: any fool can write a column, and many fools do. I perhaps have joined the league of fools who are able to speak what’s in their mind. Before, we need to be employed as a columnist to have our opinions counted. Now, any Tom, Dick and Harry can articulate their opinion and be able to be read via the social media and through blogging. Technology has redrawn the battle lines and has changed the way we tell our opinions.
Cavemen narrated their origin stories via cave drawings. Vandalism in its earliest form has become a written history of a life of a caveman. Now, we have an inkling how our ancestors lived their lives.
I would like the readers to have a better idea of who I am. If Deadpool was able to tell his origin story, why can’t I? Surely, Batman and Superman will tell you how they became friends after starting out as enemies. Gladly, Diana Prince surely be able to tell you how she became Wonder Woman, just watch the upcoming movie for more details.
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So let’s start the legend… with the voice of Ryan Rems Sarita.
I got into journalism pretty early in my life. I was barred to write any further when I was in the 6th grade for the school paper because I wrote something controversial. Let’s just say, I was reading a lot of Mao’s Red Book at that time and I was influenced about how the revolution should push the dictatorship of the proletariat.
I settled down and became more involved with the Church and was active in it. I was a member of the choir who used to sing at regular intervals. Many of those intervals were first Friday masses at school. I was an altar boy which influenced me to enter the seminary.
My passion for journalism overtook my dream to serve and I was admitted to the journalism program of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, the Catholic University of the Philippines. I wanted to write ever since, but getting into the program made me realize there is this calling or perhaps in this case an itch that needs to be scratched.
Let’s say I struggled during the two years I stayed in the journalism program. I wanted to be good at the fastest time possible without thinking about the distance between two points. I was such in a hurry to become good at the craft, not knowing how horrible my writing was. The frustration and the rejection slips only pushed me to practice and to improve my craft. Fledgling writings that I had in the past when read now can be a good material for a stand-up routine.
After leaving the University, I had a lot of options as a journalist. After my internship with the Manila Standard then, I was told to stay as a stringer or a reliever for the business section. My fledgling career in journalist started with business journalism. I learned business journalism from Tony Lopez, who used to write for Asiaweek and now publishes BizNews Asia magazine.
Yes, I also toiled at the police beat with the Manila Standard at the Kamuning Police Station in Quezon City.
My career never really took off until I replaced a classmate and took one of the correspondents’ spot at the sports section of the now Malaya Business Insight. Under the tutelage of Jimmy Cantor, I spent more than a year as a sportswriter. I covered the PBA, UAAP and NCAA with regularity while exposed to football at the Ateneo. There was a point in my life I don’t want to watch the PBA live because it has become routine. Too routine. It was getting no fun and more like work. Just imagine you have to go to the PBA for work and not for leisure. It could be I was too cocky not to count my blessings. How many of us could come to the Cuneta Astrodome, Araneta Coliseum or the ULTRA just to work? I need no tickets to get in, just this small calling card-sized press ID card.
It dawned upon me what I was doing was fun but does not fulfill my being.
My family returned to Dumaguete around 1999. I quit my Manila job to join the Negros Chronicle. Negros Chronicle is owned by the scion of those who run the Bohol Chronicle, albeit in Negros Oriental. I started a long career in community journalism with a Dejaresco. I learned a lot because there are things in newspapering which was never taught in the classroom. I also dabbled in FM radio as a news director. After more than a year, I left.
My feet led me to the Negros News, one of the leading newspapers at that time in Negros Oriental. I stayed there for four years. Along the way I learned about how newspapers are printed and the whole business of newspapering. Newspapers are in itself business enterprises and you need to find where to get the next funds so you can still have a next issue to speak of.
In 2004, the late Ciriaco Guingguing recruited me to write for his newspaper, the Bohol Sunday Post. I held the office of the executive editor for several months, until I bolted out to try out Cebu.
I will not much dabble with Cebu in this origin story. Anyway it is better to keep those years in the limelight, just like Jesus had missing years in his Biblical biography. I also will have some of those.
And the road led me back to Bohol by way of the Bohol Tribune.
My history with this newspaper continues to evolve as the moments drag on. It is unfair to create a story of my life with this newspaper, because it would omit the big stories, which surely a disservice. Perhaps, we can revisit this idea of having a part two next year, after a lot of things have happened and surely will happen.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
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