Getting the news straight from Andrea Bautista

MANILA, Philippines - “News reporting is something you can learn,” says TV5 reporter Andrea Bautista, who started working for Kapatid network almost three years ago. “But I think the most important attitude of a reporter is idealism,” she adds, expounding on traits that aspiring news correspondents should have.

“I believe that to be a reporter, you have to have a good heart. It’s so easy to be corrupted. If you start with a good heart, you have good intentions. You’re not easily influenced or compromised.”

Assigned to do general and investigative reports, Andrea can be seen in Aksyon, Aksyon Primetime and Aksyon Journalismo. Her reports can also be seen on Aksyon TV. She previously appeared in the station’s newsbreaks and Dokumentado with Luchi Cruz-Valdez and later, Martin Andanar. Andrea was also part of the weeknight news show TEN: The Evening News, anchored by Cherry Mercado and Martin.

“We arranged the news to what affects the people most, the top one being the most important to the people,” she says, explaining her tenure on TEN. “Our tone was somewhat sarcastic, different from the regular newscasts now where they rattle you with issues,” she says. “I stayed there for a year, then the station reformatted.”

 Andrea, 25, took up Philippine Mass Media at the De La Salle University Manila. She took a year off to rest and recharge. “I was so engrossed in my thesis,” she recalls.

“I opted to do it myself because I didn’t want to risk any sort of complication with anyone. I heard lots of stories about thesis-mates ending their friendship all because of disagreements on how to go about their thesis topic. But it was a blessing. I was awarded Best Thesis in my batch without having to lose any of my friends. My topic was a translation process of the documentary An Inconvenient Truth for Filipino public school kids.”

A year later, she was contacted by TV5’s Ed Lingao. He and Patrick Paez became Andrea’s first mentors. She credits TV5 news desk editor Gerry Lirio for inspiring her to focus and make sense of disparate but connected story elements.

“It was an easy decision, joining a smaller network where I could really work with people I admire,” she says, adding that there have been interesting changes to the TV station’s news team.

“TV5 is aggressive now,” Andrea says. “There used to be only 10 reporters; now it’s 50. I don’t try to compete. I have my own thing; I know I have my sources. I covered the justice beat for two years. If they would send reporters to cover court stories, I’d probably be one of their choices because I can understand already. If they want to give me the story, I just take it.”

Her job requires her to be aware of different current events, so she makes it a point to watch and read newspapers before going to work. Andrea says that the network’s 30-minute newscast allows them to feature around 12 stories. She’s usually given a minute and 30 seconds for her segment.

 “I’ve been trying so hard to study writing for print,” she reveals. “Whenever I can, or whenever it’s a big story, I try to write it for our online news, InterAksyon.com And I was successful; one was an analysis story, and another was the bigger story, which became a headline. It was a really big deal that they made it a banner story. I even took a photo of it.”

Andrea adds that developing her skills will further help her expound on news items and expand her audience. “Right now, what I really want to do is study,” she says. “I want to learn more about Journalism and how to write for print. I think it’s more fulfilling to get to explain the whole issue to persons in just one sitting. A print article explains a lot more, 200 percent more than a one-minute report on TV.”

She finds her job hectic, but is grateful nonetheless for the different assignments she gets. She admits that her fast pace is balanced by her boyfriend, private chef Dino Ferrari. “He’s my stress-reliever,” she says. “He’s funny. He makes me laugh all the time. He’s half-Filipino but he can’t understand Tagalog news, which is totally fine with me. It’s in fact refreshing that from talking politics all day long, I get to hang out with Dino. We love partying with our friends during the weekends. On top of that, he cooks anything I want.”

Reporting continues to open her eyes to different realities, and Andrea hopes to realize a dream that will benefit others as well, eventually. “Every reporter dreams of becoming an anchor one day,” she says. “But more than that, I want to have my own documentary show, for Filipinos to see other cultures. I don’t want it to be just any travel show. I want to expose other cultures that we Filipinos can learn from. People are so boxed in their society; it’s sad that Filipinos accept ideas that are wrong or limiting. I want that to change. I think through that show, you’re entertaining people, showing them new things and educating them, but not in a lecturing manner. It can better peoples’ lives.”