The dream of being on-cam

When I was in Grade 4, I was chosen to represent our section in the InterGrade Declamation Contest in our school. If I recall correctly, the piece which we delivered was titled "Unborn Fetus" which chronicles the memories of an unborn child starting from his/ her early days in the womb up until the time that he/ she was forced out because of abortion. It was then that my Grade 4 English teacher, Ms. Jennifer Dizon, more widely known as Teacher Jheng told me that I will make a promising newscaster someday. Somehow, that compliment stuck to me until it was time for me to decide what course I will be taking in college. Luckily as well for me, I passed the college entrance exam and got admitted to the BA Broadcast Communication Program of the University of the Philippi nes.

After graduating from college, I immediately got accepted as a news reporter for the first cable channel in Pampanga, the thenInfomax.8 now GNN TV 44 Pampanga. This is where I met my first mentor, the famous Tonette Orejas of the Philippine Daily Inquirer who was the News Editor of the channel. As they say, you will never forget your first boss, and I am so blessed to have experienced working with her as I learned a lot from the multi-awarded Kapampangan journalist. It's always a feather in my cap to say that I was mentored by Mam Tonette in broadcast journalism and I will never ever forget my fond memories of covering news stories in the whole province of Pampanga.

Mam Tonette assigned me to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan beat, and while I struggled at first and coped with the discussions during the Monday SP hearings which tackled the controversial quarry issues at that time, I challenged myself to step up and prove that they did make the right choice of hiring me as one of their local reporters. One of the most unforgettable coverages that Mam Tonette and I did was the Popong Fire Tragedy and the secret visit of Princess Caroline