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By Perry Gil S. Mallari and Rome Jorge
The world never stops. Not even for Christmas
or New Year. Rust never sleeps and neither do mechanics and
maintenance crews. No rest for the wicked and none for security
guards and police officers. Accidents do happen and firemen,
paramedics, doctors and nurses are on duty. People go home and go
back to work posthaste; hence bus drivers, airline pilots and flight
attendants who make do with coffee while the rest savor hot
chocolate. Indeed the world spins faster for the holidays. The news
happens regardless.
Throughout the silent nights of the holiday
season printing presses churn, broadcast towers beacon, newsrooms
clatter with sound of busy fingers and cameras keep a sleepless
vigil. As they witness the world savor its rest, its reunions and
its revelry, newsmen toil unsung.
Television journalist Rodrigo “Jiggy”
Manicad knows well the sacrifices of those who keep the world moving
past the holidays. He currently hosts Reporter’s Notebook, an
investigative news-magazine show aired on GMA 7 every Tuesday
nights.
Today a veteran with 14 years of experience and
already inured to working on Christmas and New Year, Manicad
nonetheless remembers when he was still virgin to such restless
labor. His bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from the
University of the Philippines in Los Baños, for all its rigor, did
not steel him enough for the harsh life of a journalist’s in the
city. His previous work experience, a three-month stint as a
researcher for rival television network ABS-CBN’s news program
Magandang Gabi Bayan, provided a rude awakening to the idealistic
young man. “I wasn’t able to bear the brunt of the workload plus
the flooded streets that I had to wade through during the rainy
season,” he confesses. But even that did not prepare him for a
cold, holiday-less Christmas.
He recalls, “That was in 1995, I was still a
writer then for GMA 7. Though it wasn’t announced in advance, I
already anticipated that I would be required to work on Christmas
Day and New Year’s Day since I was the only writer assigned for
the morning newscast. I remember writing the news on Christmas Eve
for the 7 a.m. GMA Balita program on Christmas Day.”
Nonetheless, Manicad and his comrades made time
to celebrate the holidays in their own fashion. “We just have food
delivered and have our Noche Buena in the newsroom,” he recalls.
The demands of his work have impacted his loved
ones as well. But it is their support, patience and understanding
that allow Manicad and many others to endure time away from home. He
shares, “It is good that my family understands well the nature of
my job as a journalist and that includes working during Christmas
and New Year.” He also shares how he copes with such work: “For
me, I just make sure to make it up to them the day after those two
big occasions.”
Manicad admits that, to a story-hungry
journalist, working on the holidays does have its attractions:
“The beat is more exciting during New Year’s Eve though. What I
remember well was seeing up-close the victims of firecrackers and
stray bullets being rushed to the hospital, which we were on a
lookout for every New Year’s Eve. I also consider being on the
beat on New Year’s Eve risky due to the fact that you have to
drive your vehicle through the fireworks smog at near-zero
visibility. The prospect of being hit by a wayward firecracker or a
stray bullet is also daunting.”
Such days away from loved ones—along with
assignments to the morgue, war reportage, libel and death
threats—comprise the gauntlet that makes for a journalist’s rite
of passage.
Manicad’s mettle as a news reporter was first
proven on May 1, 2001, on the event known as “EDSA Tres.” As he
reported upon the movements of the mob supporting deposed President
Joseph Estrada from atop a building in Mendiola, he recalls,
“There was only a handful of policemen on the ground floor of the
building trying to hold back the angry crowd bent on hurting us.
They were shouting that we were biased and they were already
throwing stones at us.” One such rock smashed into Manicad’s
head. With blood oozing from his wound and painting his face a
ghastly crimson, Manicad continued his live reportage undaunted.
Other adventures include: being mistaken as a
spy by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah while reporting from the
Middle East, interviewing various Iraqi tribes before the 2003 US
invasion and treading upon a minefield in the company of ex-Taliban
fighters in Afghanistan in 2001. Even now he dreams of one day
interviewing the world’s most elusive and dangerous man: alleged
terror mastermind and financier Osama bin Laden.
Such bravado and resolve are but necessities for
the journalist. This holiday season, Reporter’s Notebook brings
back three of its remarkable stories this year: a comprehensive
report on sex trafficking in Asia, a story on drug mules that
exposed how Filipinos were used as drug couriers by international
syndicates and a story on poverty in Tawi-Tawi.
This New Year also marks the first that the
34-year-old Manicad celebrates as a married man. With such love and
support comes responsibility and worry. Nonetheless, Manicad
attests, “My wife knows that, as a journalist, I’m on call 24/7.
So it’s all right with her if I need to work during the
holidays.”
More than any holiday merrymaker, Rodrigo
Manicad, his family and loved ones of dedicated journalists the
world over know the true meaning of the Yuletide season: service
above all and goodwill to mankind.
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