chance for revenge. Finally, I can get back at you for all the things you did to us.”
“Just try it,” he said.
Things really do come back full circle. I told him, “One minute you were terrorizing us, and now we get to order you around. Cue, Sir.” When President Cory Aquino sued him for libel after he wrote that she was hiding under her bed during the military coup, I covered the trial at Manila City Hall. During the hearing I noticed that he was busy writing something. Afterward I asked him, “Sir, what were you writing during the hearing?” He said, “I was making a feeding plan for my chickens.” Ironically, I had to unlearn everything he taught us in class because the requirements of broadcast news are different from those of print. You don’t have to describe the environment, the camera does it for you, the image is there. I had to throw everything out the window and learn the basics all over again. The advantage of being a journalism major was that even if I wasn’t familiar with the equipment, even if I had to change my reporting style, I could get to the substance of the story. My teacher Louie Beltran left an indelible mark on my life. Because I was always late for registration at UP, because I was afraid of math, and because I was terrorized by Beltran, I ended up becoming a journalist.
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