As a high school student in the early 1980s, I would go to the Ateneo High School library and pull out the latest issue of Sports Illustrated that I read from cover to cover. I loved reading as a kid because not only did it enrich my vocabulary, but it also took me to places I have never been to. It also whetted my imagination. Introduced me to athletes from all over the world. And to writers who subconsciously influenced me to write-Frank Deford, Gary Smith, Rick Telander, William Nack, Jack McCallum, Leigh Montville, and Rick Reilly.
Then I got into local sports pages of the newspaper as well as the magazines. I loved going to the wet market with my mom on Saturdays because I got to buy the magazines of the day-Sports Flash, Atlas Sports Weekly, and later, Champ.
I would cut out the newspaper columns of Rech Trinidad, Al Mendoza, Quinito Henson, Tessa Jazmines, Ronnie Nathanielsz, Henry Liao, and others.
Then in 1988, I got to write for my aunt’s newspaper-News Today with Gus Villanueva as my sports editor. I covered the old Philippine Amateur Basketball League and the Philippine Basketball Association. Then I began contributing to the Lifestyle and Entertainment section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer where I wrote about music, comic book artists, food, foreign ambassadors, and even ghost wrote some consumer tips.
The latter two, I did while I was still in college. You can say that even before finishing school, I got to work and get paid for it.
I only stopped writing for PDI when I found myself increasingly working long hours with the advertising agencies I was employed. Copy writing is miles different from journalism copy so I thought that my young writing career was over. I never gave it much thought until many years later while trying to eke out a new life in New York, I began writing.
Writing letters to my parents, grandmother, family, friends, and classmates about my adventures and misadventures in the Empire State. What I didn’t know was my family was circulating my letters (wrong as it was). An old editor reached out and asked if we could serialize the letters in the pages of a newspaper. ‘It was fascinating and riveting,’ was how my old editor described my letters.
I was mollified. They were too personal to share. It was just your typical ‘Dear Mom and Dad,’ but I really wrote the heck out of everything. You could feel the exhilaration, the wonder, the sadness, and loneliness in every word. Maybe that was what drew people in.
I turned my old editor down and never once thought of it again.
When I came back home, I was working for Solar Sports as the Marketing Manager when one day, BusinessMirror’s Ricky Alegre and Jun Lomibao came over to meet me to discuss a possible ex-deal.
BM had been out for a few months, and they felt that their four-page colored sports section was one of the local scene’s best, if not the best. In exchange for plugs on our two sports channels-Solar Sports and Sports Plus-they would give us advertising space and a weekly column where I could write about our local programs and just about anything sports.
Since there was no cash out, it was an easy agreement.
I am currently celebrating my 20th year as a columnist for BusinessMirror. That is over 1,200 columns plus an equal number of reports, long form pieces, and a lot of exposes. I have made friends and also enemies.
Of the latter, I met the late British investigative journalist Andrew Jennings who was famously banned by FIFA after his allegations of corruption in world football. He was famously vindicated following the FBI’s arrests of world football leaders in 2015.
I met Mr. Jennings sometime in 2012 in Jakarta and heard of my exposes and fight with the Philippine Football Federation about its corrupt practices. You cannot believe my elation when he said he heard and read my pieces-‘You know you are on the right track when you strike fear in the faces and hearts of the crooked officials.’
‘Getting banned-as painful as it was by FIFA-is like a badge of courage.
After hearing that from Mr. Jennings, I tread my craft with no fear.
BusinessMirror and my newspaper column, Bleachers Brew, which is also the name of my blog that I populated with content for over a decade until I stopped, have been instrumental in my professional career. Many of the sports writers and media people I admired back in the day, have become friends and colleagues.
In this time, I have also written for ABS-CBN, philstar.com, Rappler, Philippines Free Press, FHM and Men’s Health, and a lot of other magazines and web sites. I have been media officer for the Azkals and Gilas, and a whole lot of other teams and sports events. I have also parlayed this into doing reports for Aksyon TV, ABS-CBN, and Al Jazeera. During this time, I have also written 10 best-selling sports books. But the one constant has been BM.
There have been a couple of instances where I wanted to turn in my BM press ID, but it never pushed though. I guess I couldn’t. Wouldn’t. When I went past my first decade, that is when I made the decision to stay and try to reach 20 years with the newspaper.
And now, I have. Outside Sir Jun, I am the longest serving writer of the sports department not to mention the newspaper.
You cannot believe how proud I am to have reached this milestone and to have a career that has been very rewarding in so many ways.
I am grateful, thankful, humbled, and appreciative. And much love to BM and Boss Jun, Sir Ricky, Mam Chuchay for giving me this wonderful platform to write.