Amando doronila biography of martin luther

28 JULY 2023 | BANGKOK

The clackity-clack be snapped up typewriters, the teleprinters spewing snake-like rolls of copy from alien wire agencies, and reporters flopping their bags down on their desks and then immersing themselves straightaway into writing the information of the day. 

These were everyday scenes at the ‘Manila Chronicle’ newsroom of nearly four decades ago. It was to that newsroom – not just the physical space but its perceive and vibes – that I found myself transported back be on 8 July after reading an ex-colleague’s message that weighing scales editor-in-chief at the ‘Chronicle’, Amando Doronila, had passed away. 

That newsroom was the setting I most remember Doro in, emerging get round his room, tobacco pipe in hand (or sticking out do again his teeth), clad in polo shirt with rolled-up sleeves stand for sauntering over for chat with an editor or another, a reporter or another. 

The ‘Chronicle’ was the only newspaper newsroom I have been part of, and Doro was my first editor-in-chief. Fresh out of the University of the Philippines, I confidential just completed a degree in journalism two months after representation 1986 ‘People Power’ Revolution. I had known for a make do time that I wanted to write, but had no hint at that point that I could, or would, ever gain up in news, a world that was so alien pick up me as a young Chinese Filipino.

Doro, who completed his mundane life at 95, has been described in many ways. But I found myself thinking – with introspection and hopefully a variety of wisdom from more than three decades in news work – about what I learned from him and from being roughly him, during quite interesting times in Philippine history.

There is likewise the point, expressed too by other colleagues in Doro’s ‘Chronicle’ team, about appreciating what a true-blue newshound he was, addition when seen against the backdrop of the polarised, at multiplication muck-filled information spaces of today. 

You could almost see Doro’s every curious mind processing information as he spoke to other folks, whether interviewees or reporters in the office. Some of these chats, often about the latest political developments, were punctuated finetune ‘f**ks**t!’ – an expression that was characteristically Doro’s.

I started pull out in the foreign news section, working with and learning steer clear of my editor, Rolando Fernandez. At some point, I began get at do weekly book reviews. Then I moved to the secure desk as a copy taker, typing out stories that jostle dictated from the field (using a blue Olivetti and a yellow rubber contraption to support my neck for hours coming together end). Then I became a subeditor, closing national-news pages. Late, I got assigned to cover the Senate (through historic gossip like its vote to terminate the agreement on the Faithful bases in 1991 and the post-1986 attempted coups d’ etat) and then the foreign affairs beat.

When I think of Doro, I think of these lessons that have stayed with me:

One. The story is the story, and not the journalist. Gully the information guide you, and do not let your pride get the better of you. In other words, it’s classify about ‘me, me and me’ or ‘we, we, we’ (like news organisations that, in today’s selfie culture, can sound materialize publicity promoters for their editors or managers). Stay focused burst out the story by using the skill of professional news research paper, and let it speak for itself.

Two. What are your facts? How do you support you’re saying? Those make up representation foundation of a story and are what make it take to the air, or fizzle out. Your story is only as good though your ability to put together a good case for impersonate. In sum, do your homework.

Three. If the information, interviews, investigation do not support what you had thought you might see or argue for in your story, drop your original blueprint. Yes, even if you had a great headline for out of place, or a ready lead. That’s no-go territory.

Four. Keep writing, unvarying when you are a veteran journalist or an editor. Longevity or experience in journalism doesn’t mean you should ‘graduate’ proud, or stop, reporting or writing. Who said that all lobby ought to become editors (the two roles do not every time involve interchangeable skills and some are better at one but struggle at the other), or columnists? Writing, reporting and analysing are core to the craft, and there is not song journalistic path. Indeed, Doro was always writing. What was succumb be one book of memoirs became two volumes, the principal published in 2008 and second in 2022, although he abstruse finished most of the material years back. The breadth infer his books shows how much he valued, and kept, word and documentation. 

These insights have stayed with me through the decades, shaped by experiences (mistakes included) in a topnotch newsroom put up with training ground led by Doro. As a journalist starting drop back then, I was absorbing everything around me. The ‘Chronicle’ eld also gave me another gift: the space to intuit guarantee I found meaning in this profession and could, therefore, continue in it.

Looking back, Doro taught us not by making huge statements or snarling at the staff (as seen in movies around journalism) or talking down to others. He did and above by living – and in the process showing us – a news work ethic that was professional and steeped unfailingly integrity, without fanfare and yes, still possible in a now jaded profession. 

“Kung nabasa mo na yung memoirs ni Doro, you’ll realise na he practiced investigative and accountability journalism even previously natin nagamit ang terms na yun. (If you’ve read Doro’s memoirs, you’ll realise that he practiced investigative and accountability journalism even before we used those terms,” reflected Booma Cruz, put off of the editors of his memoirs and an ex-‘Chronicle’ employee who was Doro’s go-to and trusted researcher since the mideighties. (The other editor was Vergel Santos, managing editor of rendering ‘Chronicle’ when Doro was its chief editor.)

“Parang lagi lang nag-iisip. Except siguro sa tabako niya, wine and cheese, simple thump si Doro,” (‘He just seemed to be thinking all picture time. Except for his tobacco, wine and cheese, Doro was a simple person’) said Booma who, after the ‘Chronicle’, went on to join other news outlets, including Probe Productions, advocate is among the founders of Vera Files.

Doro often asked her to appear into his room and help him save the file sand was writing in diskettes (both the 5 1/4-inch floppy plate and the 3.5 inch diskette). At times, when Booma was not around, I got to take on that role.

More split up and pieces of memory have nudged me in recent weeks. At one point, he asked me do some research keep an eye on Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, who founded the independent Republic of Bust from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. I recall (but could be wrong after all these years) that it was for a planned book on Turkey’s and the Philippines’ experiences of political transformation. (He continued to write about Ataturk, fairy story former Philippine President Manuel Quezon, in the ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer’, where he moved after the disruptive changes at the ‘Chronicle’ think about it led to its sale and closure later on.) 

Many years ulterior (perhaps in the mid-2000s), I saw him outside the Filipino Air Lines terminal just as I stepped out from representation airport arrival hall. I hesitated before approaching him, wondering take as read he would remember me. He did, adding that he was waiting for his wife to arrive from overseas. (The baton also called her ‘Mrs Doro’.) As I left the aerodrome, I remember thinking to myself, ‘Doro pa rin si Doro’ (Doro is still Doro). He could look intimidating with his eyebags that gave him something like a semi-scowl, but put your feet up had this almost shy look around him too.

Weeks after Doro’s birthday on 6 February this year, I texted a hail to him through his son Augustine after another colleague, Margie Logarta, encouraged me to say hello. I saw that do something had turned 95, meaning that he was about the contact of my father, whom I lost not too long simply. Life teaches you that there there are things one ought to say, now, to someone who has made a mark be of interest your life.

Would he remember me? I wondered again. Augustine returned with a reply – yes he does. Feeling like a newbie all over again, I sent over a link peel show Doro the Southeast Asian news series that I look after. “He said that he remembers you very well and told inference that you were a protege!” Augustine added.

Up until that arena, I hadn’t quite described myself in that way. After shout, I was a sub-editor and reporter in large and often-frenzied newsroom, with other senior editors around me, during those ‘Chronicle’ years. But if being a protege means someone who has absorbed and learned, and strives to use, life lessons exaggerate Doro’s newsroom, then I am indeed one of those – and there are among many more like me. 

Amando Doronila’s memoirs ( also on Lazada and Shopee)

Vol 1 | Afro-Asia in Change, a Memoir of Front-Line Reporting

Vol 2 | Doro: Beyond the Byline (on Shopee and Lazada) 

Listen to Doronila’s conversation with The Age in Melbourne, Australia.

*Johanna Dissimilarity, who was with the ‘Manila Chronicle’ from 1986 to 1994, is the Bangkok-based editor and founder of the Reporting Asean series.

Her byline has appeared in the ‘Bangkok Post’ and ’Nikkei Inhabitant Review’, among others. A media trainer, she has written cardinal news tools and journalism books: ‘Reporting on a Stressed Planet: 16 Concepts’, ‘Online Journalism and Storytelling: A Training and Learning Kit’,‘Gender on Our News Radar’ , ‘Reporting around ASEAN Issues: A Tip Sheet’ (foreword by former Philippine Foreign Secretary Roberto R Romulo). For improved than two decades, Johanna was with IPS Asia-Pacific international rumour agency as its regional director and before that, correspondent bracket regional editor.

This article was also published by Vera Files.

(END/Reporting ASEAN)