Sunday, July 01, 2007 Baguio boy wins Rotary Club of Manila journalism award
IGOROT radio reporter Francis `Kiko' Calado has come a long way from his native Baguio and Sablan, Benguet to the posh Philamlife Tower in Makati, where he received the Broadcast Journalist of the Year award from the Rotary Club of Manila last June 21.
He would have worn his signature g-string and lugged a borrowed spear that had earned him the sobriquet `Torogi' (Igorot) among his peers. Or donned his cowboy boots and 10-gallon hat, an equally outlandish outfit in the Big City that had also marked him as `promdi,' provincial or one from the country. But the dress code called for a coat and tie, so he wove his ponytail for the ceremony.
The awards committee cited him by saying "your body of work for the past year, especially coverage of breaking events and your in-depth discussions and analysis of these which have helped the public's appreciation and understanding of these events," the note said.
Rotary Manila gave weight to his special reports on the gruesome discovery of the skeletons of 80 alleged NPA rebels who were reportedly killed by their comrades in Leyte in the 1980s and on the plight of a former Filipina entertainer in Japan.
While reporting from the field in Pilipino, the Ibaloi reporter shifted to English in his response at the awards. He recalled what then DzRH general manager Ed Montilla told him when he joined the outfit: "If you are on the right track, go ahead. I don't care how you do it. Just deliver the best story you have from the field, but if you think you cannot do it, then you don't deserve to be part of DzRH."
He wasn't sure that he was on track, when he started out with Bombo Radyo DZWX here in the 80s. As is the practice in media, he was initially assigned to the police beat. Police investigators who had since retired, however, remember him not for his reports but for that night he and fellow fledgling reporter Lawrence Banawe flagged down a mobile patrol car to taxi them home after a night out with fellow Baguio reporters.
The duo made it as far as the backseat where they fell asleep. Not knowing where to bring them, the patrol cops parked the car beside the police station and locked the door. The glint of the morning sun woke them up, only to realize Bobby Angel of rival radio station DzWT had scooped them at the police blotter.
They tried to squirm out but found they had been handcuffed together. They suspected Bobby had something to do with it.
Kiko was with DzNL in La Union, a sister station of DzRH, when the July 16, 1990 killer quake hit Baguio. DzRH ordered him to cover the tragedy, prompting him to hike up Naguilian Road to be able to do it.
"Being the only correspondent with direct contact to our main office in Manila, I was the only reporter to air blow by blow the accounts in Baguio for three days, until the Manila and foreign media came in," he recalls.
Satisfied with his reportage, DzRH assigned him to Manila where he covered the police beats in Caloocan, Malabon, Valenzuela and the whole of Quezon City.
Veteran police officers in these stations remember him as the reporter who also cooked meals for them.
His reassignment to the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame and the Armed Forces general headquarters in nearby Camp Aguinaldo expanded his coverage. It took him to various parts of the country, aboard choppers and planes, beside colonels and generals.
One night, while on coverage in an Abu Sayyaf camp, he asked the band commander to share some stories about his exploits, while they were waiting for developments regarding a kidnapping.
"Alam nyo," the commander began, "nagpapatrolya kami minsan nang ambusin kami ng army. Patay kami lahat. Tumayo uli kami, tapos inambush din naming sila. Patay sila lahat."
"Teka, teka, kumander," Kiko cut in. "Paano naman nangyari ang ganoon - inubos kayo, tapos inubos n'yo rin sila?."
"Teka, Kiko. Kanina, sabi mo mag-istorya ako," the peeved commander replied. "Ano talaga gusto mo, Kiko - istorya o debate?"
That was in 1994 in Basilan, while he was following up developments in the hostage-taking of 23 public school teachers by the Abu Sayyaf. He was also there to bring the news when the Abu Sayyaf led by Commander Robot kidnapped several foreigners.
"There I met veteran photo-journalist Eric de Castro, who is also from Baguio," Kiko said. "I was also there when Commander Robot was arrested, when he was killed during a police and military assault led by another Baguio boy, Senior Supt. Benjie Magalong, then head of a special action force in Bicutan."
Kiko himself had to stay in jail for an expose of anomalies in the penal system. He had to learn to adjust to the stench and sight of death and devastation to bring to the nation news of the Ormoc flash floods tragedy in November 1991. For 20 days he slept on top of a mountain for an on-the-spot coverage of the Cebu Pacific plane crash in Misamis Oriental.
"On the plight of the former Japayuki (Filipina entertainer in Japan), I was able to find her in one of the karaoke bars in Ermita, Manila," Kiko said. "The Japanese embassy reacted and invited her to know the real story. The embassy later invited me and gave their reaction to it."
What he didn't broadcast but told fellow media here was when then Vice President Joseph Estrada, then head of the anti-kidnapping task force, kept reporters waiting for a press conference about the arrest of police officers involved in extortion.
"Imagine the faces of my fellow reporters when Erap appeared just to ask "nandito na ba yong taga-DzRH?," as if the presscon won't start without me," Kiko said.
Kiko has gone a long way from those boy scouting and cub reporter days to serving as vice president of the PNP Press Corps and president of the Defense Press Corps. Still, he swears that, with or without awards and recognition, he's still the same Baguio and Ibaloi boy.
"I always miss Baguio and Sablan, so please call me up when you're down here in Manila and I'll come running," he said in Ilocano.(Ramon Dacawi)
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