This week was different.

It started out with the usual Monday meet at the office. Come to think of it, this has been the “usual” for the last twenty years. Monday meets have become a “tradition” with Probe. We do Monday morning quarterbacking on the stories done the week before. At today’s feedback session, we had a lot of comments about the Aleli and Iggy Arroyo story. The ProbeTV site had many viewings of the piece which was uploaded the day after its airing on Wednesday.

ProbeTV is one of the newer items on our Monday meets…what goes up, who views it, and comments to the pieces we have been uploading for the last six months. It’s interesting how Mark (our webmaster) gives us profiles of our viewers…quite a number are from overseas (our relatives maybe?) with specific areas they are located in.

Today, I also added something else….

After the regular items in the agenda were done with, I thanked the team for trooping to Cine Adarna at UP for the Gawad Plaridel that was given to me on Wednesday. It was so heartwarming to see all of them at the theater even while they were still beating the Probe deadline that same night… but what else is new? The team has been trying (and trying is the word) to beat that deadline forever! Try asking any Prober… so it meant much more than just going there. It meant losing precious edit minutes!

In fact, the whole Gawad Plaridel event was so overwhelming. It felt like a tribute (like when you are passing on to another life?) They prepared a whole program starting with a UP Rayadillo escort service including two women, that escorted Del and I from the back of the theater to the front row seat. I could hardly see in that blaze of lights, I almost tripped over some video cables from some cameras taking video in that darkened theater as Mario Garcia and Pinky Aseron called out my name. Saw familiar faces as I found my way to the front. Former co-faculty at UP, ABS-CBN colleagues, classmates, and students from different schools that I heard later on, found themselves sitting on the aisles.

The program was opened with the remarks of Neni Pernia, UP-CMC Dean. That was followed by an AVP done by the College. So generous and kind were the remarks, it made me feel close to embarrassed. That was followed by the awarding by UP Pres. Emer Roman and Diliman Chancellor Cao. The Abueva trophy was heavy and I kept hoping I wouldn’t drop it!

The lecture—which kept me on pins and needles a whole month before, went well and as soon as that was done, I heaved a sigh of relief leaving all my anxieties for the week behind. …for the moment…. ?

Couldn’t get out of the mob of students that thrust their recorders, pens and sheets of paper, and hand held cameras after the lecture. Found it so refreshing to see them doing their jobs as “reporters” whom I credited in my talk as the ones who have the real and most fun jobs in the newsroom. I thought to myself with great satisfaction that I was facing the future crop of reporters. That they are interested and enthusiastic, is good news.