For the First Time

November 22-26, 2010

For the first time, I got the chance to be on-field with another reporter from Bisdak Sir Christian Tafalla with my co-intern Malou. First time that we were permitted by Madam Elena to go on-field with two interns for one reporter. First assignment? We went to RTC Branch 10 to cover the trial of Ruben Ecleo's parricide case. I met Ador Vincent Mayol, the correspondent of Cebu Daily News. He was a simple and polite man. Anyway, Ecleo was not there during the trial because according to his lawyer, he was advised by his doctor to take a rest. Unfortunate though it was, we stayed in the court and listened to Alexander Bacolod, the defense witness. Afterwhich, we went to Consolacion. There was a report that a male Badjao was killed after being hit by a Ceres bus. We went to a police station but what we got was just the Ceres bus whose front side was broken. The arresting officer was not there. We went to another police station and good thing, we were able to interview the driver who hit the victim. We also went to Mandaue City Police Office to interview the operator of the bus but unfortunately, he already left. The blood of the victim was still there when we went to the vicinity to see it.

From that painful incident, I realized that life is indeed a very precious gift from God that we should handle it with so much care. It can easily be taken away from us in ways we don't expect them to happen. As Elisabeth Kubler-Ross puts it, "It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had."