I just recently came from Singapore where I joined a good number of journalists cover the 41st Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM) and related gatherings.

I went there to take a good look at the event and get some good dose of on-the-job training. As a journalist, it was my maiden foreign assignment and I did not plan to waste it. My employer, one of the Japan’s leading newspapers, would perhaps have been very disappointed had I failed them.

Good thing, I have friends and acquaintances in the Philippine foreign press, a result of more than a decade work as media officer for the country’s biggest people’s organizations and partylist groups. I could join them, watch how they work, and learn from them. I know no enemies among them, that’s for sure.

In sum, I wasn’t there to compete, tooth and nail, for honors. I was there to cover the news.

Unfortunately, some Filipino journalists (kuno) have other ideas. Days into the event, I would begin to discover that a draft Asean document get to our “war room” even before I get there with my own copy. Something’s amiss somewhere, I thought, for how could a copy of that document get there ahead of me when only Filipino journalists have access to them?

The same thing happened the next day. Unfortunately for the “lucky” recipients of the Philippine copies of the documents, they cannot explain some background questions about it and were asserting that their answers were correct, when it was all too obvious that they weren’t– proof that the document was just handed to them. One of their sources would later commit a monumental blunder, sending out a “kuryente” story for all the world to see. The blunder referred to the same question the recipients had a very hard time answering.

[Another bad thing about what the scums did was that it violated terms laid down by the sources of documents. It is a no-no to pass on Philippine documents to non-nationals. The scums’ sources should know that the documents they give may be finding their way to unintended, non-Filipino recipients!]

I was not able to catch the scums in the act of passing on the documents. But body language, frequent huddles with the same group of people, and — from what I have heard — a long, sullen track record full betrayed them. Bit by bit, the pieces of the puzzling plot came together and I saw for myself maybe the prime examples of the worst “colleagues” a new journalist can have.

Getting a document is good, even amazing. It never fails to impress editors and bureau chiefs. But that is only half the story. The other half requires skill and know-how. From what I learned through self-help, readings and stories from veterans, obtaining documents is like a walk in the park compared to analyzing them and producing stories.

I don’t know these scums but they sure aren’t friendly. I never did anything bad to them but they found it so easy to try to undermine me. Their companies are not even direct competitors of my company! Is it about the age? Have they become so jaded that they equate success with being “photocopy machine operators”?

Thus, at the end of the long coverage, I was happy to get that pat in the back from my boss who said “good work!”. The scums did not succeed and only exposed themselves as examples unworthy of emulation.

Related posts:
Dateline: Singapore
Photos of reporters covering 41st ASEAN Ministerial Meeting