AS WE end the year with hopes of having a better one in the days to come, I cannot help but recall the memorable things that happened in the past.
Going over my digital photographic files, I noticed that I have captured a lot of images about my community’s environs and work related activities but this 2014, more are about me and my grandchild Akiboy. An image of me together with a year old baby is a big contrast to my archive of self portraits and family snapshots. We just realized that with my wife that we have already spent twenty five years as a Christian couple. Time rolled fast and as always, we were too preoccupied with our individual activities that we haven’t planned any celebration for our silver anniversary until it came to pass unceremoniously. We decided to tie the knot in Baguio when Manila was under siege by the rebel forces led by now Senator Gringo Honasan. We were probably the most photographed husband and bride at that time because our video shooting and camera clicking friends in media were there to share our bond and document it in the process.
We live in a world of give and take, win or lose with conflicts of all magnitudes. We have indeed aged, became grandparents and as the cycle continue, we will eventually bite the dust as another Johnny comes along.
On the day that the Christian community is celebrating the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ, the angels came to fetch my friend Angelito “Toots” Soberano to the great newsroom in the sky. He is gone and I was there at his bedside when he received his last sacrament of the sick. There was a deep sadness in the hospital room and no one would even think of capturing that moment but that last breath of his will forever imprinted in my memory of a person who has captured people’s photographs.
In my social media site, I mentioned that I’m not his official or personal biographer but in one way or the other, he managed to get me to intrude into his life and take photos of him as well. I did not knew much about Toots prior to his news-photo reporting days but I heard that he was once a radio commentator or announcer in a government broadcast station. I was already into active media particularly on photo-video coverage when this guy with a turbo charged car and expensive Nikon camera entered the scene in Baguio.
A lot of his news photos came out in front and inside pages of national and local newspapers and magazines. As a news correspondent, he has contributed to various international media outfits and despite his age and heavy gadgets, he was also able to cover remote and far flung destination that only the young and daring photojournalists would dare go. Toots was an active member of the BB-PICAG, an active volunteer group based in Baguio doing civic works several times. There were times when I became his passenger and Toots is one guy who really floors the gas until he has overtaken the one in front as if he is always in a hurry. In 1991, Toots joined our media organization's Operation Sayote when we distributed relief goods to areas affected by the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and that's how I came to learn about his civic-mindedness. I once invited him to share his news photography experiences with my mass communication class at the former Baguio Colleges Foundation now University of the Cordillera and boy, he really prepared for his lecture complete with his laptop and quotes from masters of the craft. He talked about the decisive moment stressing to students that when in the field, a photojournalist must stay focused and should always be ready to anticipate and record the spur of the moment.
There was a time when I organized a day-in-a-life type of photography project when Baguio was under reconstruction from the damages wrought by the killer quake of 1990 and I fully remember his chosen subjects that included a Luzon taxi and the beggar along Session Road who seemed like a permanent fixture even if it rains. When social media became frenzy among us practicing newsmen, he became one of my followers who shared his images.
He consulted me for his college completion requirements and we collaborated on a lecture video on Photojournalism. He visited me twice at the Baguio Media Museum and donated an old lens and flash unit. He reserved more gadgets for the newseum but things were overtaken by events. The Tibaldo family joins the members of Baguio’s tri media in deep sorrow for the loss of a good reported. As always, we look forward to a brighter future.