THROWBACK: First Day (And the Most Memorable Event Too)

THROWBACK: First Assignment

I realize that my team and I just can't forget our first time -- covering the day's news events as a reporter for the LGU (local government unit), that is. I don't know why, but we realized this after someone among us suddenly resigned and a 'newbie' took over her post. Let me recount how I myself started.

As I remember it, my very first event happened on August 18, 2016, according to a photo stamp. It was a distribution of free galvanized iron roofing materials by the DSWD for residents whose homes were badly damaged by a recent typhoon. The distribution was held at the old municipal covered court, in front of which was a stage that strangely didn't match the position of the covered court. It was a hot and humid day, and there was a huge and noisy crowd, but I braved the scene, going right in the middle of the action, at the center of which was the first department head I would get to know. I learned that she was Ma'am Lerma Padagas, the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Officer. She was often referred to as the Mother Teresa of Bayambang.

Common sense dictated that I could not interview her while in the middle of things, so I backed off and observed the goings-on instead. But Ma'am Lerma was so kind she told me to interview her instead at her office when I dared anyway to ask her a question or two.

A few moments later...

It was quite humid inside her cramped office -- I don't know why, but she said it had been a problem for a long time. Looking around her, I saw nothing but mostly female strangers, except for someone I knew from childhood: Grace! What a pleasant surprise! I said to her something like, "Hi, hello, how are you, why are you here!?" In no time, I was able to get all the data I needed this way.

I went back at my borrowed desk at the Municipal Library, a space I borrowed together with the Media Affairs Officer, Dr. Letty Ursua, and other consultants, and Tourism Officer Chris Gozum, the one who, just one day before, tipped me about a vacant position that fit my experience and professional qualifications. As I was settling down and I was not yet even finished writing down my draft, what would I learn from my fellow new hire, Lilia, who was to serve as my informant, that there was another thing going on, so I went, but I can't remember this part for now.

In the afternoon, I found out that another department head was holding a dialogue with Brgy. Magsaysay residents at the Sangguniang Bayan Session Hall. It was the Municipal Assessor, Ma'am Annie de Leon, facing an audience among whom was someone I knew: Mrs. Lim. To get to the venue, I had to climb a flight of stairs that looked too steep it made me palpitate a bit at the first step.

I had to wait for her meeting to finish before I was able to gather some helpful information. And what an uncomfortable information it was, I was to learn, because it involved something about untitled land parcels that reportedly belonged to the municipal government, according to records.

It was after this moment that I had an anxiety attack upon reaching the lobby of the Municipal Hall. Looking back, I think I got overwhelmed by my first day assignments: all so sudden, without warning, and coming in threes. I thought, "If this is a typical day at the LGU, I am not sure if I could survive here."

Fortunately, the municipal administrator who recommended me to the mayor for hiring must have been tipped about what happened. Soon, she told me to look for another reporter "kasi mahihirapan ka." And that is how I was able to hire Darwin Magalong, a Journ graduate of UP Baguio, as news reporter/writer (who is now a fire officer at BFP).

Anyway, that news story was the very first article that I was able to submit to our ICT people for publication in both our new official website and Facebook page.

I'm not sure how I got by, how I have been surviving each challenging day on my tenth year at LGU-Bayambang. I know I couldn't have pulled it off without the assistance of a dozen talented people: overall manager, thinker, visionary, media point person, deputies, fellow writer-editors, layout artists, ICT people, videographers, video editors, photographers, runners... and an army of informants. There indeed must be a God who is considerate to me despite my inadequacies, faults, and failings.

***

Most Unforgettable Assignment

As for the most unforgettable event, I, another writer (Verna), and our assigned photographer (JV) that day were surprisingly unanimous in saying that an event thrown for local young PWDs was the one event that shocked us in a way that we had never predicted. It topped my interview with an OFW from Jordan who was treated like a slave by her haughty female Muslim Arab employers and raped by the man in that evil family, and another interview I had with a woman who was jailed in China and was able to come back home with a bald head as among her punishments.

We can't quite forget the scene which was held at the now fully air-conditioned Balon Bayambang Events Center. It was supposedly a surprise birthday party thrown by Ms. Babet, a nurse at the Rural Health Unit I together with the church she belonged to, Victory, and the Nutrition Office. The target beneficiaries soon arrived at the venue one by one, and the event started in no time.

The moment we saw the kids, especially the most disabled ones with tubes attached to their noses, either on wheelchair or in the arms of their parents, we found out how we couldn't stand the sight of each. Even without talking to one another, we found ourselves feeling so stressed fighting back our tears while witnessing the whole affair. In the middle of the event, just when things were about to heat up, we left one by one without saying a word to each other after we got enough details.

Now with the three of us back at the office, that was when all hell broke loose, as we were able to unload our feelings and verbally exclaim the pangs of pity and sadness that we felt but tried to bottle deep inside.

(Raw, unedited, unfiltered photos by JV. I am not in any of the photos because incorrigibly introverted me studiously avoid getting photographed in events I cover, haha.)