What if we weren't in media?

Landing a job in media, more so in television, is a long shot. With so many Filipinos, and only a number of TV stations, the opportunities on cam or off cam are very limited. It is a coveted post, but something I did not really dare aspire for. I was more of a fan of the Manilyn Reyneses and Keempee de Leons of my generation

From being a fan from Fairview, it is almost hard to believe that I now deliver the news, and that I have my own fan — my Mama Elaine who watches every show and every newscast that I appear in. Call it luck, a blessing or a product of one’s hard work.

Most of my peers in media have never fathomed that they would be in broadcast. Anchor/commentator Anthony Taberna grew up in a farm in Nueva Ecija. Alex Santos worked as busboy and collector in Davao. Julius Babao used to be a production assistant and driver in a rival network.

If we were not as “lucky,” I asked them what would they be doing? Or if we didn’t get an education or had limited opportunities, what blue-collared job would we actually consider doing?

Tita Winnie Cordero, our consumer expert in Umagang Kay Ganda, says that she would still be in her corporate job. She has always been active in theater, but corporate life gave her financial stability. “Can you imagine yourself working in a market and get dirty?” I asked Tita Winnie. She revealed that she used to drive an owner-type jeep, wearing a shirt splat with blood, to collect payment for their meat business. “I didn’t care how I looked!” she says. That’s Tita Winnie, always ready to get down and dirty.

“I would probably be a farmer or a minister,” says Anthony. Tunying connects well with the masses because he is “masa.” During commercial breaks, he would share the days when he used to ride the carabao in Nueva Ecija. He comes from a family of farmers. Their family did not even have their own land. Despite being poor, Tunying excelled in school. His experience in the grassroots has given him much depth as a person. He still loves the farm, and does not mind going back to farming someday.

If Donita Rose did not end up in showbiz and was among the masang Pilipino, she would be your perfect cleaning lady. You can eat off her bathroom floor because she disinfects it twice a day! Her refrigerator is so clean and organized, all neatly stacked in see-through glass containers. Donita says she would probably be a cook. She recently went back to school to take up culinary arts, something that she wished she had done sooner.

It was also fun talking about the what-ifs-we-had-not-been-in-media with Alex and Vic Lima of DZMM.

“I’d probably be in the Libingan ng mga Bayani by now,” says Vic, adding that he would have gone to the Philippine Military Academy.

Alex, on the other hand, said he would be doing corporate work because his first job was a collector for an aluminum company owned by a friend.

As for myself, I would probably be a flight attendant and perhaps laid off in 1998 during the Philippine Airlines-PALEA crisis. Even before my media career, I already figured that I was not cut out for office work. Alex and Vic also want to be flight attendants.

If it were a blue-collared job, however, both men could see themselves waiting on tables. Vic, with his booming voice would be the perfect barker, calling passengers for jeepneys! I can see myself as an alalay, or a driver to a diplomat. I don’t mind waiting as long as I have something to read.

Being on TV is very much coveted, but so is finding something you truly enjoy. Often, this does not entail you to search at the highest of places, but in the simplest things.

(E-mail me at [email protected] or follow me on Twitter via @Bernadette_ABS.)