46 less-known facts about Loren

Award-winning broadcast journalist and former senator Loren Legarda turns 46 on Saturday, Jan. 28. At 46, it is safe to say that she has accomplished a lot, lot more than other women her age – or even older – here in this part of the world or even abroad.

I don’t know what it is about this woman, but she excels at anything she does. Her documentary program on ABC-5, Real Stories ni Loren, may just be new on the air, but it has already been sweeping recognition in various award-giving bodies for television. The electoral protest she filed (in the vice presidential race) is turning bloody, but given her luck, we may all just be surprised with the outcome.

But Loren doesn’t want to talk about politics on her birthday. All she wants is for us to accompany her down memory lane and recall some 46 little-known facts about her life. She jotted them down below:

1) I enjoyed playing pitiw, a native outdoor game using sticks, my favorite pastime as a child growing up in Malabon.

2) I used to daydream a lot atop a makeshift tree house in our Malabon compound.

3) I remember selling Royal True Orange and Chocnuts to the compound helpers and household staff as a child, earning a few centavos every day during the summer.

4) I enjoyed playing with my pet chickens in our backyard.

5) I cried when I received a grade lower than 90 during my grade school years. I always wanted to excel.

6) I loved playing with my Barbie dolls and tea sets as a child and always dreamt of having a playhouse.

7) I was so excited when my parents bought the first family encyclopedia, Colliers. That means I did not have to go to our neighbor to do research.

8) I was so nervous when I joined my first ballet and Hawaiian recitals under Ms. Terry and Laly Aldegeur. I was never gifted in dance but they were so supportive and understanding.

9) I was inspired when I received my first elocution medal at grade three which led me to join elocution contests every year.

10) I was so insecure as a child because I thought my cousins were brighter and prettier. That made me strive harder.

11) I always had this feeling of compassion whenever I would pass by the slum areas of Tondo on the way to Assumption Herran as a child. As early as then, I felt the need to do something.

12) I tried playing the guitar at 10 years old and attempted to compose love songs.

13) I wondered why my Mama, the late Bessie Legarda, would always go to Mang Enteng Manansala’s house in Binangonan, Rizal to purchase his paintings. Now I know. Her love for art rubbed off on me.

14) I remember my mama buying me a red camisa tsino in Shoe Mart as a child. I loved wearing it.

15) I remember my mama taking me to Sta. Mesa Market to go window shopping but couldn’t buy the accessories I liked because they were too expensive.

16) I remember inquiring in various foreign embassies for possible scholarships abroad when I was a teenager. I aspired to study abroad but my parents could not afford it then.

17) I felt good giving joy to my parents whenever they would pin a medal on me for academic excellence.

18) I remember playing with salagubang in our garden under the sampaloc tree and keeping them in a bottle with leaves to eat.

19) I remember lining up for class registration at the UP Diliman campus at dawn just to get enrolled.

20) I recall applying for a job as a newscaster at RPN-9 in 1981 and delivering my first newscast in December 1981.

21) I recall doing a one-on-one interview with Nelson Mandela during his visit to the Philippines in the mid-90s.

22) I remember my first trip abroad at 18 years old to Singapore.

23) I remember how fascinated I was with the sights in Europe during my first visit in 1981.

24) I cannot forget the first time I received the Catholic Mass Media Award for Pep Talk in 1986. I aspired for at least one television award in my lifetime. I never thought I would get more than three dozens for 20 years of television work.

25) I remember praying the Angelus with the Assumption Herran nuns at 6 p.m. because I would be fetched late everyday.

26) I appreciate my nanay’s (yaya Fely) sacrifice for me, my brothers and my sons.

27) I remember my Papa and Mama driving me home from my parties on certain occasions and I would stay up the whole night looking back at the evening.

28) I will never forget Lanz’s first step and Lean’s first utterance.

29) I relish my days at UP and the independence and diligence it instilled in me.

30) I know that my Mama thought of my nickname Loren while she was taking a shower. My Mama was so fascinated with the name of my cousin, Miren, and she wanted a name for her daughter that sounded like that. That’s how I became Loren.

31) My cousins began calling me Moonie-Moonie when I was a child because my face was round.

32) I remember how my grandfather, the late great newspaperman Jose Bautista, got so frustrated with me because I rarely smiled as a kid.

33) I remember how Mama used to scold me as a child because I studied too much. She also wanted me to have a life outside of the academics.

34) I remember how Mama would cry if she didn’t get to see for a day her first grandchild, my first-born Lanz.

35) I remember the name of my gang in Assumption in high school. We were called D’ Groovy Chicks.

36) I recall with fondness the meals I would eat after each coverage with the Pep Talk and later, Inside Story crew as a reward for working so hard. We really pigged out.

37) I recall how I craved for lychees when I was conceiving Lanz.

38) I recall how I had so much salt intake when I was conceiving my second child, Lean. I would dip green mangoes into a tiny bowl of bagoong Balayan. When I had consumed all the mangoes, I would slurp all the bagoong Balayan that was left in the dipping bowl.

39) I remember how happy I was going to the local market of the province of our destination and finding clothing material woven by the people of that place. Ever since, I preferred local materials to imported.

40) I recall how I would get so upset every time my show was criticized (but in a constructive way) by Butch Francisco in his column. Even when we were already friends, he described one Pep Talk episode "like bland cafeteria food."

41) I remember feeling bad because when I won in the 1998 senatorial race, Butch Francisco didn’t even send me a congratulatory telegram or anything. It turned out he was studying abroad and was so hard-up he didn’t have money for postage.

42) I remember all those yummy yema rolls Butch Francisco would send me. I wonder why he doesn’t send me anymore. (I had a falling out with the Shoppersville bakeshop after they screwed up my order once. – Butch)

43) I remember my Michael Jackson interview in 1996. No journalist – local or foreign – was allowed to interview him. But in one function where he was, I just went straight to him, he said yes and I got my interview.

44) I remember how during the presidential campaign, FPJ had our motorcade make a U-turn because he wanted to buy pan de coco for everyone.

45) I remember FPJ and how I miss him badly.

46) I value the triumphs, successes and joys my 46 years have brought me as well as tears, failures, and scars that have made me more grounded and steeled my character.