Protected: Day 04 - Of Elderly Innards and Surveys from Hell

* cross-posted from http://lfs.jmtuazon.net *

Dear Friends, before reading this entry, you may have noticed that this is an entry for certain people only.  Over at my internship blog, it is protected (password is thelordisgracious).  This is because there are some parts of this story that are quite confidential, so I'm not gonna risk anything by posting this publicly online.  I only set this entry for viewing of Journ people only, so that I can share some of my experiences.  Owkie?  Now read on.  Hindi naman ganun ka-grabe eh, nakakangarag lang.  Oo, paranoid na.  =P

So if last day was a very slow day, today is one haggard day.  But despite all the workload we had to work off, suprisingly, I had so much fun today.

The day started at the usual stop: Kamuning Police Station 10 at 10am.  I arrived a little bit earlier than Sir Marlon.  When he arrived, we checked the blotter but nothing interesting caught our fancy.  We hung out at the QCPD Press Office for a little while with all the other journalists there.  It was my first time inside the press office, and I was quite stunted to find out that some of the press people who were there were merely playing games on the computer!  Uhmm... something definitely wasn't right there.

Because there wasn't a good enough story in Kamuning, we decided to go to Camp Karingal already.  Jetz, Kuya Marlon's friend who's a reporter for Abante, let us hitch a ride with him again.  With the two's small talk inside the vehicle, I found out (more like, concluded) that--get this--Jetz drives the FX we were riding that very moment as sideline after working his beat.  I was like, owkeeeiii... But somehow I understood his situation.  Whoever said that work in the media is a lucrative profession must be from another planet.

In any case, when we arrived at Camp Karingal, we checked the blotter and found a shooting incident involving a tricycle driver.  Sir Marlon let me took notes but a police officer took the blotter for a while, so we asked for a printed copy instead.  Jetz asked me to photocopy it, and so I did.

After getting the shooting incident story, Jetz went ahead while me and Sir Marlon went to the 2nd floor of CIDU to wait for the Chief (Supt. Mabanag).  When he came out, Sir Marlon asked some updates about the RC Cola robbery.  This is the part where I got very freaked out because they were casually talking of having to "kill" the suspects.  Here's how their conversation went:

Marlon:  O ano sir, titirahin nyo na ba?Mabanag: Oo, kaso di ko pa alam kung anong oras eh.Marlon: Sir ang gawin nyo pugutan nyo ng ulo, front page yun!Mabanag: *laughs* Haha!  Matutuwa media non pero lagot kami non!

Okay, so that wasn't a direct quote but you pretty much get the idea.  While they were talking about having to "eradicate" the suspects, I quietly cringed at my seat and sank low.  I got really freaked out!  I mean... so the stories were true, I thought, the Police really does wipe out criminal suspects, just like that.

Moments later, however, I discovered that they were merely talking in jest.  Chief Mabanag later explained that they were still planning their tactic on how to get around capturing the suspects, whether they attack outright or they let the suspects fire back.  Whew.  Boy, was I relieved!

The chief then invited us for lunch after that small talk.  At first I was quite uncomfortable, being the ideal student and all, but I dug in anyway.  I didn't eat that much but not because I was having an ethical dilemma, but because Claire so succinctly related to me how she was invited for lunch yesterday and they were kidding her that the meat served was double-dead goat meat.  And looking at the food served today, nothing else came to mind but GOAT MEAT.  So yeah, even if I don't really eat fish a lot it felt like it was the only food in the world for me.

Sir Marlon later told me how he's a bit frustrated at goody-two-shoe reporters who refuse to eat lunch and dine with their sources.  Sir Marlon told me that somehow, you'd have to get close to your sources, because it is in these unguarded moments that they sometimes reveal information that may be vital to your story (but of course, you can't quote them, you only take them as leads to pursue an angle).  Okay.  Major ethical dilemma right there.  I can't wait to ask this to Sir Teodoro come next sem.

We hung out at CIDU for a little while because they said that the operations against the RC Cola robbers would commence any time that day.  So we stood by for a moment, hoping that the operations would start any time soon.  But come 2PM, we dropped our pens and paper and called it a day instead, because the deadline for news summaries is at 230PM and we need to type our stories fast.

Before going out of the Camp, we proceeded to the Traffic Sector office to check if there are new stories that came in.  Fortunately, there was one, about an old lady doctor being run over by a bus somewhere in Cubao.  Unfortunately, when we asked, there was no report of it yet.  Seconds after some policemen arrived, carrying a man in handcuffs, and the people told us that was the driver of the bus who ran over the old lady.  Okay, jackpot! I thought.  We interviewed the man and I took some notes.  We also interviewed the investigator.  I was a bout to get a picture of the commotion when Sir Marlon signaled me not to take any pictures.  Okay. So that is why there are no pictures today.  Hehe.

So yeah, the incident was about this 75-year-old lady who got run over by a bus near 20th Avenue.  The gruesome parts?  The lady's innards fell out of her body, onto the street.  Yes, liked those squished rats, cats and dogs we usually see on the street.  The sad part is that the driver denied the allegations, saying he didn't notice the old woman.  Okay, I was thisclose to saying Bawal ang Tanga!!! to that driver, because hello, how could he not have felt a bump when he ran over something?!  That was a freaking woman under your vehicle!!!  Then again, no judgments.  The case is still under investigation.  Hehe.

Marlon told me to write this story.  So we went back to the NUJP headquarters and wrote all the stories we got that day.  In between our tasks, Marlon got calls and texts from people about the Trinoma incident.  Apparently, it slipped under our watch.  But thank God Sir Marlon had contacts here, there and everywhere and we somehow got details of the incident.

Funny incident:

JM:  Sir Marlon, do you think I should write that the old lady's innards fell out?Marlon: *thinks deeply*  Uhhmmm, huwag na siguro.

Okay, that's how morbid I was thinking this afternoon.  After writing my story Sir Marlon edited it (take note:  heavily!), and we filed it to the day desk.  This concludes the first part of the day!  It was 4pm.

I only had 1 hour travel time to Makati.  I skedaddled on the way to the MRT to catch the train fast.  For more haggardness, I was really hungry at that time because I wasn't able to eat lunch that much during the chummy moments with the policemen.  So before going to the office, I dropped by McDo for a takeout.  It was 4:50 pm, and the counter person in McDo didn't seem to mind.  Sinungitan ko nga, ambagal eh!

It was 4:55 when I went out of McDo, and I ran all the way to the office.  I was gasping for air when I arrived at the department.  It was 4:58.  I ate my food and Ate Kate gave us our assignments for the day.

Remember yesterday being a slow day?  Well, lo and behold, we got dumped with so much work today that I had to take some home just to be able to finish them.  Ma'am Miner, who wasn't in the office that time and only left a note for us, asked us to dig up survey stories in 2007 and 2008, evaluate them, look for common features, compare them with the raw press release, define 'margin of error' and for more, rewrite the published article and give more human face to it.

Before anything else, let me remind  you that 2007 was election year.  JUST IMAGINE HOW MANY SURVEYS CAME OUT THAT TIME.  So Claire and I read each other's minds and subconsciously split the workload.  Without even talking to each other, I searched for Pulse Asia surveys while she searched for SWS surveys.  Later on Ate Kate told us we could split the workload.  When we asked each other how to split it, we found out we already did!  So yay.  Great minds think alike, they say.  Hehe.

In between juggling our tasks we watched Kristy Leigh Cook say goodbye on American Idol, eat a Kenny Rogers dinner and reminisce Ate Kate's and Ate Eliza's masscomm days.  It was 8:30pm and Claire and I aren't even done with our work, so Ate Kate told us to bring it home and e-mail our output to her.

Yay!  Today was a very productive day, and it's still not over, hellow.  I'm still not finished with my article.  Oh wel.  The best part of it all is Claire and I got to chat in her car on the way home, and it was fun reminiscing what happened today.  The bestest part, I believe, is that we did so many work but in the end, we were quite happy about all that we did.  It was very fulfilling.

The sad part is, Claire's gonna leave on Saturday na!!!  GRRRRR.  Tomorrow's her "last day" by far, and she'll be back May 7/8 na. In short, I'll be doing this stint for 2-3 weeks by myself.  Yeah.  I'll try to have as much fun as I could without Claire.  Ugh.  It's gonna be so different and not to mention difficult on Monday without her.  Oh well.  I guess life's all about making do with what you have.

Hours covered today: 7 hours on the field, 4 hours in the office (11 hours in all)