clearly not pro

it was a very loooong wait and when the cbcp statement was read, not a few were disappointed. when i staked out at the pope pius catholic center yesterday, there were only a handful of news teams there. the bigger group - mostly focap people - were waiting for the release of the statement at the cbcp office. there were a number of false alarms saturday.

when the cbcp didnt release any statement saturday, i was very disappointed. that would mean "giving" the story to another team. not that i'm selfish about sharing stories - i'm not. (ask my boss, grace.) but sunday was supposed to be my rest day. (saturday is too but we are on crisis coverage so that means, at least one day-off cancelled. so i chose saturday to go on duty. better saturday than sunday.) i waited for the cbcp statement from 7am saturday til my live report for the special edition of 24Oras past 8pm. got to the office late and left around 1030.

but i guess God interfered. maybe He wanted me to do the story. grace asked me to go on duty again on sunday. calltime was supposed to be 12noon (she knew my team and i were beat) but bishop bacani had told someone at the office that the statement would be released around 9am.

sunday, our duty starts at 8am. off to the cbcp office we go. gates are padlocked. the guard says there's no advise yet for the media to enter. the gates open at 12nn. we're given time to set up. like sardines, we crammed ourselves into the small presscon room.

first advise: from msgr. coronel: pls inform the media that we may not be able to issue any statement today. we are still deliberating. sorry. will update you.

groans, complaints, mumbles, grumbles. or was that my stomach? my body's soooo tired that it doesnt want to take in food. felt like puking when i forced myself to eat lunch.

still we wait. then comes the next advise. cbcp to issue statement in pope pius. we all hit the road. (need i mention how hard this situation is for the van people? do you know how long it takes for the van to set up? and to make baklas? baklas as in the verb and not plural of you-know-what-word.)

pope pius - we're blocked by the guard. no advise was given to them that the media can enter. (is this de javu or did i actually travel back in time?) the focap people ask a passing nun if the tv people could at least set up our tripods in the presscon area. smiling, she says to wait but in a tone that seems to convey impatience at the focap's insistence.

so we wait. we're used to this already. then at 330pm, the time the presscon is scheduled to start, we make our way to the next building where the presscon would be held. the guards couldnt stop us this time because of the sheer number of the media people marching past them. but we couldnt do anything about the locked doors of the building. wait... wait... pass the time by listening to "real" and "out of reach" on my xda.

fast forward: presscon proper. well, we somehow expected the cbcp to issue such a statement. haven't we heard people say time and again that the church must not interfere in anything political? but contrary to what a station reported, the cbcp didnt side with the president. they drew the line at resignation but favored constitutional processes in removing the president such as impeachment and the setting up of a truth commission.

cory is set to hear mass today (it's already 2am of monday while i write this at the office) with former dti sec cesar purisima. i wonder what she has to say.