A rush of events

It has been a whirlwind of events since my last blog entry, that of PGMA's speech made Thursday night, which I posted Friday morning, along with a commentary (see past two entries).

The chain of events alone on Friday was enough material to fire up any blogger but then there's my day job (or in this case, my night job, since I'm usually on board the newsdesk from 4pm until 12midnight, or until morning lately, what with the current situation).

Just before I slept at lunchtime, I got a text from our English language newcast producer Kuya R. saying we were already on war alert and that we would be the standby crew (in case a newscast is mounted anywhere after the last main newscast at night and the next which is the following day's news bulletin).

I managed to sleep for 4 hours and immediately rushed back to the newsroom. The moment I stepped inside, the adrenaline was palpable, the situation energized. The newsroom has indeed changed into a war room, on a scale similar to last year's election.

As expected the main newscast stretched to one hour and a half, what with the live interviews in the studio and the remote sites of the reporters. For the first time too in many months, I got a long shopping list of things to do for the next main newscast, the late night one; we were airing a full hour newscast, unlike the usual compact 30 minutes edition.

i just noticed though that it got harder for us to get the concerned cast of characters for the latest political crisis right after the newscast. Most if not all either turned off their cellphones or diverted calls where they won't be bothered. It seemed too that Metro Manila was a beehive of meetings Friday night.

Because of the red alert situation, two dinners that the newsdesk personnel were supposed to attend Friday night were cancelled.

Now you would think our job would be downhill from there after the late newscast huh?

On the contrary, we were all the more on standby mode in case anything happens anywhere & anytime.

It was a good thing that management stocked up on food for the newsroom (they always do on red alert days like these; the difference being the improvement of food choices. I got to taste real pesto this time and other choice pasta dishes, not just the usual Jollibee or Carlos Pizza fare that we usually have).

We were monitoring a lot of things Friday night until Saturday dawn. Chief of these were PGMA's movements (rumors were rife she was leaving for Cebu), the opposition, the resigned officials, Noli, Susan, Erap, the AFP/PNP (we were especially on the alert for troop movements)

Just before daybreak, our cable connection was cut-off as the AFP chief was set to deliver a statement on its radio station. But the AFP Chief's statement turned out just to be a reiteration to their duties amd responibilities to the President in these time of crisis.

Everybody's defintiely on a wait and see attitude, espcially the President. Everything now depends on what the CBCP Bishops will say Sunday after lunch.

God help the country and its people!