‘Beauty under fire’
Newsroom tales
‘Beauty under fire’
Sept. 20,2012 ( CJJ7 )
YEARS before Ryan Borinaga became entertainment editor of Banat News, he was a hard-news reporter covering police and military.
Gay and proud, Ryan wants to look his loveliest when he steps out. Before going to bed, he is fastidious in his beauty routine.
One night, he was about to doze off when his newsroom alerted him about a fire that struck the old high school building of University of Cebu along Sanciangko St., Cebu City.
He jumped out of bed and, with a bag that contained notebook, pen and recorder, he rushed to join other reporters at the fire scene.
And they stared and stared at him as he went about his work.
Back in the boarding house, he knew why he grabbed their attention: his face was still covered with the white bleaching cream he had put on before going to bed.
Tsunami false alarm
Immediately after Guam Logronio, dySS radio news reporter and Sun.Star Superbalita [Cebu] correspondent, learned about the 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Cebu and Negros about 11:49 a.m. last Feb. 6, he went the usual round to check on death, injuries or damage to properties.
First, he went to the Bureau of Fire Protection Services. There was no report yet of any damage or destruction.
Then he went to the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) office for a report of unusual traffic clogging after the temblor. There he overheard a radio message telling Citom personnel to verify the report of seawater rising in Barangay Pasil and residents in a panic.
He tried to call his radio station to file a report but couldn’t get through.
It was when he went outside Citom, seeing agitated people running on the streets, that he realized the panic was serious.
Then, Guam’s his wife called to say she and her daughter had fled to a pedestrian overpass near the city hospital. He rushed to the location and was eventually reunited with his family on the Cebu City Medical Center roof deck. Like most other people who panicked, Guam’s family sought higher ground.
After no tsunami materialized, Guam realized that as a broadcaster,
(1) he didn’t listen to the radio for information on what was going on; and
(2) he didn’t get on time details of the story that ironically he was covering, which could’ve added to his news material and could’ve also helped his family cope with the panic.
‘Katobas sab si sir’
Minerva Gerodias was covering an incident at the Cebu City jail with other beat reporters, one of whom was a gay close friend.
Using gay language, she and her gay friend griped about how lousy the police officers were.
One officer butted in—in gay lingo.
Were they embarrassed: “Katobas sab diay si sir.” -Kevin A. Lagunda, Jovy T. Gerodias 
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