How did you get to Thailand? Why this country, of all others?

It was March 1993 -- a mere four months after the Americans withdrew from the Philippines -- when I came to Thailand.  I -- along with thousand other Filipino base workers -- lost my well-paying day job at the U.S. Facility Subic; I was editor-in-chief of the base newspaper, Subic Bay News, and worked directly under the Commander-in-Chief of the US Naval Forces in the Western Pacific.  With the base closed, I was thinking of moving back to my birthplace Manila but not to Bangkok or any other city overseas.  

I wasn’t too keen on going  abroad at the time because I still have a job as editor-in-chief of the city newspaper, Olongapo News; the provincial newspaper, Zambales News; and was concurrently also a stringer for Kyodo News Japan. Going abroad was farthest in my mind.

But the owner of Asean Journals Co., Ltd., the publisher of What’s On group of magazines in Thailand, was a very persuasive man.  When I did not report for the first interview in Manila, he sent me three telegrams until I finally relented.  He thought that with my background in Olongapo, a city that was also an R&R camp town of the Americans, I would be perfect for the Pattaya Mail, which he was just starting then with a partner as the “first English language newspaper” in Pattaya.  

Anyway, I did not become editor of the Pattaya Mail and instead stayed in Bangkok to become group   editor-in-chief of Asean Journals’ travel magazines across the country. I have been a travel and tourism journalist since then.   

Why did I go to Bangkok?  I guess I was always willing to test the limits of my talent and capabilities. I consider myself first and foremost a journalist and would rather write hard news  than frivolous lifestyle capers but I don’t’ say no to anything so I’ve worked with all kinds of publications already – from weekly papers to trade journals, from entertainment rags to lifestyle magazines. :) I can’t fool myself that the future of Olongapo looks bleak after it was out of the American wings, so to speak.  I wanted to stay a humble smallville editor – but was easily persuaded to seek greener pastures.  It seemed a logical career choice, too – becoming a regional journalist.   

Crap aside, my reaction was more like, “What the heck, everybody’s going abroad, maybe I can give it a try for one year.”  I said one year?  That one year became 14 years, and today I’m still here.  I’ve learned to love Thailand and its people, and haven’t regretted making the move, except perhaps sometimes on the family level – I wish I was with my kids all the time (but that’s another story).  

What do you do now? What were the steps you went through to get where you are now?

I am presently editor-in-chief of Lookeast Magazine, one of the longest running publications in Thailand (37 years), and the oldest travel magazine in the kingdom bar none.  I have been a working editor-in-chief for more than 20 years now; starting in 1982.  Journalism is the only career I’ve had in my life. It’s the only job I have been doing since 1982; it’s my life.  I eat, sleep, breathe, dream, live journalism.

I started as a proofreader for the weekly newspaper The Guardian in Olongapo in 1982 then quickly became reporter, news editor, even did cartoons for a while, and went on to become  one of the most popular local journalists at the time. I have written or edited for practically every local English publication in the city until I took nest with Olongapo News in 1986 and later, Subic Bay News.  

Paycheck in the Philippines was abysmal, as I’m sure you know, but I was fortunate to earn decent bread: first with my employment with the Americans, and then with my employment abroad.  But even if I were a “starving journalist” I don’t think I would have stopped being a journalist. Journalism offered me something that helped me get through the years.  I love what I am doing, I love to help make a difference in the world and that I may be able to do it through the world of ideas, through a world of creativity and talent, makes me feel blessed.  I may not be a Rico Hizon (BBC) or a Veronica Pedrosa (CNN) but I’m proud of what I have achieved.  

But I’m proud not only of my writing and editing record. I was proud that for 10 years (from 1982 until I went to Bangkok), I was helping train young journalists. I was a fixture resource person in journalism conferences   and workshops; I conduct private lectures in schools that invite me; I try to inspire aspiring journalists about the craft. One of my students even became a famous TV news personality Arlene Dela Cruz-Bayagbag (I think her surname has changed twice already).  Before going to school in Manila she used to come to my office at Olongapo News for training.

I was also proud to be a part of administration then of Gordon because it allowed me to do help in many ways.  I was member of the Peace and Tourism Council of Olongapo. And because I was close to the mayor’s office, I found myself doing things like helping save people during disasters and participating in city events. I was even emceeing during city fiestas.  

I was also doing charity work with the Jaycees, Rotary, and YMCA. I may not have given much money to causes but I have given much of my energy, time, and even I’m the one saying it, talent.
On  one   side, I was also doing stage and other work with the Kabataang Barangay; I was president of Dularawan Experimental Theater of Olongapo, and I performed, directed, organized and marketed several plays in our city.  Later I became president of the Olongapo-Zambales Media Association.  

Of course, I was also enjoying the perks of the job: rubbing shoulders with the famous (and infamous), the great and the not-so-great, the politicians and celebrities, the heroes and the rogues. I was not only socializing with movers and shakers in the city and in the region, I was helping influence minds. I was in the epicenter of local history in the making.

Job-wise, success came fast, and in 1987, I was selected as one of the first four recipients of the “Outstanding Journalists” award given by the Olongapo Press and Radio Club, the first of the three “Outstanding Journalists” awards I earned in my 10 years of journalism work in the Philippines.

I was always conscious that I was doing an important job, but I wasn’t really chasing a legacy.  In fact, I was trying to continuously better my own self, and my own art and craft through self-learning. But I am aware that if I am to become a good journalist, I should always think about the big pictures, the historical perspectives, the readers, first and foremost. My job is to express not to impress, and I hold a public trust.

Looking back, I’d say I have devoted too much time in my work – I still do – and my personal life did often take a backseat.  Fortunately, my family supports me – I was separated twice but I have four great kids -- and ultimately all my efforts paid off, quite well I would say.  

Honestly, I miss the job recognition I used to get in my Philippine jobs. It’s always nice to be recognized  and modesty aside, I consider the string of awards and certificates in the first 10 years of my career both from the public and private sector, my wealth.  I haven’t received any award or certificate in my work in Thailand – except maybe those from attending the seminars and workshops of the likes of best selling author Jack Canfield (“Chicken Soup for the Soul” fame) and mind-mapping expert Tony Buzan – and yes, that one from the American Press Institute (Copyediting) in 1999.  

But my work life in Thailand has been fulfilling and satisfying even without them. A job well done is a job well done; it’s a reward by itself.  

Work-wise, I always find myself in situations where I have to test the limits of my abilities.  I always try to see how much  I can  take.  While doing full-time editing, I would accept part-time jobs. I did sub-editing with Business Day. I wrote freelance with Bangkok Post in 1994. I was freelancing with The Nation until 2005. I wrote for Business in Thailand, Siam Trade, and other English publications – all while I hold full-time positions.  Where did I get the time? I try to make time, in a manner of speaking.  I like to do a lot of things simultaneously. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t. But it’s fine.  

Personal-wise, I have done (and still doing) things some people can only dream about. I work with many creative people; I meet some of the most interesting persons this side of the globe: I travel like a jetsetter without putting a hole in my pocket; I enjoy the pampering of those who knew my value as a travel journalist; I get to try everything from kayaking in Tasmania and getting lost in Sri Lanka to climbing Klein Matterhorn, and a lot of things in between.   

I’ve done and tried things I never thought I would, and I know I’m making my children proud.  I can say with all sincerity and without a patina of arrogance  that, to use a cliché: “I’ve been there, done that, seen this, met many of them (people who matter) – and I’m still young enough to enjoy life with my children and grandkids.  

I also miss, perhaps more, the opportunity to be of service to others in a more direct way like I did in the Philippines, although I’m trying to remedy that. Doing something to help raise the Filipinos’ appreciation of their own culture and tradition, as Siam Pinoy hopes to achieve, would be great.   

How did I get to where I am now?   Haven’t really thought where I am now, but even when I was just sixteen, I know that I was already consciously enriching myself with what I believe can help me reach my future goals.  I am probably what they call an auto-didact and I have to learn a lot on my own in my pursuit of career excellence. It was not a royal road, indeed; it took a lot of hard work, persistence, guts, and determination.

You could say that I put in a lot. I was a voracious learner, although I don’t consider myself a nerd.  As a grade school kid, I was reading world history textbooks of my elder sister Beth. As a teenager, I drown myself with the poetry of John Lennon, Bob Dylan, and Alejandro Abadilla as well as with the philosophy and Voltaire and Santayana. I was reading books like Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, The Little Prince, Grapes of Wrath.  To me, they are not just entertainment; I look to them to expand my own view of the world, to find the meaning of my own existence.