TRILLANES AND PRESS IDs
i was walking along paseo de roxas cor. ayala ave when Other Half texted me that trillanes and co. are attempting to stage a coup. (that was his term, "coup"). i did not give it much thought at that time because i thought it was just "another" protest rally and i was already an hour late for my presscon so i just proceeded to my appointment.
then everybody kept texting me that this and that happened and a friend from abs-cbn has been sending me email messages about the drama that was unfolding a few hundred meters away. my boss then texted me to do a related story on it.
armed with my eee pc (naks!) and free wi-fi access inside the venue of the presscon i was attending that time, i read stuff online to keep me updated while i was calling sources. i was toying with the idea of staying in makati and just station myself in ayala tower 1 to do do my stories (kasi free wi-fi access sa tinatambayan ko dun).
but at 1 pm, i told my colleagues that we should get out of makati CBD before we get trapped there since trillanes said he wouldn't surrender (*ubo ubo*) whereas the PNP looked like it's set to barge in manila pen. better be safe than sorry. true enough, they have already barricaded ayala ave and other thoroughfares.
we got back to the glorietta parking area (near mercury drug) and my colleague's driver said there were several civillian-clothed men from the parked hi-ace vans "na may mga armas". madami daw. he suspected that these were magdalo men since they were not wearing uniforms but he wasn't sure if they were wearing magdalo armbands.
but we couldn't be sure. i told my colleagues that if these were indeed magdalo men, they should have aided trillanes and sumugod na sa manila pen. pero pwede rin sila yun at nagaantay ng lang ng critical mass of supporters and waiting na mag-mala edsa 1.
anyway, i called up my boss and told him where i was and related to him what i saw/knew. he just told me to write the story he ordered me to do, section 1 daw. thankfully, we got away from makati before the PNP fired, so on and so forth.
i didn't know there were still journalists and camera crew left inside the hotel. i think that was idiotic since they would be in the way of a military operation.
pero wala nang tatalo dito: tv reporters were announcing on air the troop movements! in the US that is a no-no and they would imprison you for that. di naman tanga sina trillanes at syempre nagmomonitor din yang mga yan sa tv at radio.
when i was already in ortigas, tapping furiously on my sub-notebook, my boss called me and told me to get out of makati since nagpapalitan na daw ng putok and tear gas and it might escalate into something bigger. told him i was already out and would be sending the stories in a while.
after work, i went to another building and met with my other collegues who were with me earlier and watched tv with them. to our horror, we saw journalists -- and we personally knew some of them -- being led away by authorities to a bus bound for bicutan. what the ---! one of them was the husband of our colleague who was there with us. we were like "what the heck is happening?!"
strange thoughts were running through our heads like martial law and state of emergency ek-ek, forgetting that it was already past 8 pm and we should be home before 12 mn because of the damned curfew. our press IDs wouldn't save our asses this time, as seen on tv. one colleague said baka lalo pa kaming mahuli nyan.
the "what-ifs" were bouncing back and forth inside the room where we were staying temporarily. sabi ng kasama ko 15 mins of fame namin yun if ever napasama kami kunyari sa mga hinuli. (kasi saling pusa lang kami dun dahil di naman daw kami nation reporters.) hehe.
baka ako nagwawala na dun sa loob ng bus and nangaaway na ng mga tao, which will be caught on camera. tapos tatawagan ko presidente namin sabihin ko "tawagan mo si GMA na palabasin na ako!" for more drama. hehe.
nagbibiruan na lang kami ng mga ganun to keep ourselves at ease and mawala ang worries na baka hindi kami makauwi.
later inside the car, our colleague from tv told us that their newsroom was like a war zone -- energy levels were hitting the stratosphere, masyado daw hyper na mga tao and editors were snapping at anyone like crazy due to tension. that colleague said kating-kati na raw siyang mag-field early nang magsimula pa ang seige kaso di pwede at walang maaiwan sa homebase since everyone was deployed somewhere and nahuli pa yung iba at nasa bicutan pa. (yan ang drawbacks pag napopromote na at nasa desk, wala ka sa aksyon. hay.)
another day in the life of a practitioner.
then everybody kept texting me that this and that happened and a friend from abs-cbn has been sending me email messages about the drama that was unfolding a few hundred meters away. my boss then texted me to do a related story on it.
armed with my eee pc (naks!) and free wi-fi access inside the venue of the presscon i was attending that time, i read stuff online to keep me updated while i was calling sources. i was toying with the idea of staying in makati and just station myself in ayala tower 1 to do do my stories (kasi free wi-fi access sa tinatambayan ko dun).
but at 1 pm, i told my colleagues that we should get out of makati CBD before we get trapped there since trillanes said he wouldn't surrender (*ubo ubo*) whereas the PNP looked like it's set to barge in manila pen. better be safe than sorry. true enough, they have already barricaded ayala ave and other thoroughfares.
we got back to the glorietta parking area (near mercury drug) and my colleague's driver said there were several civillian-clothed men from the parked hi-ace vans "na may mga armas". madami daw. he suspected that these were magdalo men since they were not wearing uniforms but he wasn't sure if they were wearing magdalo armbands.
but we couldn't be sure. i told my colleagues that if these were indeed magdalo men, they should have aided trillanes and sumugod na sa manila pen. pero pwede rin sila yun at nagaantay ng lang ng critical mass of supporters and waiting na mag-mala edsa 1.
anyway, i called up my boss and told him where i was and related to him what i saw/knew. he just told me to write the story he ordered me to do, section 1 daw. thankfully, we got away from makati before the PNP fired, so on and so forth.
i didn't know there were still journalists and camera crew left inside the hotel. i think that was idiotic since they would be in the way of a military operation.
pero wala nang tatalo dito: tv reporters were announcing on air the troop movements! in the US that is a no-no and they would imprison you for that. di naman tanga sina trillanes at syempre nagmomonitor din yang mga yan sa tv at radio.
when i was already in ortigas, tapping furiously on my sub-notebook, my boss called me and told me to get out of makati since nagpapalitan na daw ng putok and tear gas and it might escalate into something bigger. told him i was already out and would be sending the stories in a while.
after work, i went to another building and met with my other collegues who were with me earlier and watched tv with them. to our horror, we saw journalists -- and we personally knew some of them -- being led away by authorities to a bus bound for bicutan. what the ---! one of them was the husband of our colleague who was there with us. we were like "what the heck is happening?!"
strange thoughts were running through our heads like martial law and state of emergency ek-ek, forgetting that it was already past 8 pm and we should be home before 12 mn because of the damned curfew. our press IDs wouldn't save our asses this time, as seen on tv. one colleague said baka lalo pa kaming mahuli nyan.
the "what-ifs" were bouncing back and forth inside the room where we were staying temporarily. sabi ng kasama ko 15 mins of fame namin yun if ever napasama kami kunyari sa mga hinuli. (kasi saling pusa lang kami dun dahil di naman daw kami nation reporters.) hehe.
baka ako nagwawala na dun sa loob ng bus and nangaaway na ng mga tao, which will be caught on camera. tapos tatawagan ko presidente namin sabihin ko "tawagan mo si GMA na palabasin na ako!" for more drama. hehe.nagbibiruan na lang kami ng mga ganun to keep ourselves at ease and mawala ang worries na baka hindi kami makauwi.
later inside the car, our colleague from tv told us that their newsroom was like a war zone -- energy levels were hitting the stratosphere, masyado daw hyper na mga tao and editors were snapping at anyone like crazy due to tension. that colleague said kating-kati na raw siyang mag-field early nang magsimula pa ang seige kaso di pwede at walang maaiwan sa homebase since everyone was deployed somewhere and nahuli pa yung iba at nasa bicutan pa. (yan ang drawbacks pag napopromote na at nasa desk, wala ka sa aksyon. hay.)
another day in the life of a practitioner.
