18/01/11

Quiet day in the office…

I have done so many exciting things through my time at the Philippine Daily Inquirer that I have forgotten that there IS a not so exciting element to journalism and that comes in the shape of the dreaded press release.

I visited the Malacanang Palace today, the home of President Aquino, and spent time in the press gallery. In the gallery there is a lot of waiting, most of the journos spend it updating their Facebook or beating each others scores in Tetris, but there is also a bit of hoping that when a press conference is finally called that the President may just pop in to answer questions. Alas, for me he didn't show up- eventually my luck for excitement had to run out.

But I did manage to write a story from a press release given out at the press conference. Many Australians may not know this but the Philippines are also suffering sever floods, especially in the south. Over 56 peoplehave been confirmed dead and many more missing. My story was on the relief pledge to help 10,000 victims.

It was added as a side bar to the main story on page 18 in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Palace is an amazing sight, but what I found strange was the small 'suburb' or city in Malacanang. I drove through the gates and found a slightly neater version of Manila, unlike Canberra where parliament house is surrounded by government buildings, long well kept parks and tidy houses. Everyday the president drives past not-so-well-off Filipinos in his Porsche*! Maybe it is a reminder of all that needs to be done…

*President Aquino just recently purchased a Porsche that absolutely laughs in the face of his new governments self-proclaimed austerity and modest lifestyle. Over the last week there have been many opinion columns, blogs, newspaper articles and other cognoscente's trashing his (what they say is) unnecessary spending.

From Manila lots of love,

Stace

xxx