By Ailene dela Rosa

Documentaries are not exactly people’s idea of entertainment, but on Monday nights, at an ungodly hour nonetheless, millions of Filipinos here and abroad are tuned in to I-Witness on GMA-7. Howie Severino, who is undeniably one of the most admired journalists in the country today, hosts the program along with equally brilliant Kara David, Jay Taruc, and Sandra Aguinaldo.

Insightful yet entertaining—this is how viewers describe Howie’s work. Topics range from the eye-opening, exposing the harsh realities that some of us Filipinos are unaware of or just choose to ignore. From poverty and the deteriorating level of education to socio-political issues, his compelling stories drive you to listen, to reflect, and to act.

He also tackles stories that inspire and uplift the spirit, which make one discover the beauty of the Philippines and its people, encouraging us to be prouder of our country and heritage.

At present, more and more viewers, particularly the youth, are drawn to watching his documentaries on TV. Aside from Monday-night airings, I-Witness episodes are shown in schools and cinemas and are sold as DVDs at Powerbooks. In addition, his viewers themselves patiently record his documentaries and share snippets on YouTube.

Howie now also hosts Sine Totoo, which showcases award-winning stories made by GMA journalists.

A fan since I was in college, I admire the manner in which he conveys his message: simple yet deeply affecting, making us see the importance and value of things and issues we mostly take for granted.

Despite his busy schedule, he took time to be the interviewee for PinoyCentric. At a café in the heart of Ortigas, we talked about his career as a journalist and his role of husband, father, and educator.

What are your views on the last elections?

Well, you want to start off on a negative note! [Laughter] Generally, it depresses the hell out of me, as a Filipino and as a human being, because a process that is meant to enable people to transfer power and to acquire power peacefully has become so violent, that’s number one. Number two, it goes to show that Filipinos, for all our good qualities, have not learned how to count properly. Number three, the whole event, the situation we are in now, doesn’t speak well of our national integrity and our culture.

So the more I think about it, the more depressed I get because it is so hard to make any other conclusion but negative ones about our character. I know based on my experience that 99 percent of Filipinos are good people, so how could this be? It’s so hard for me to figure out. And if you think about something so much and you still can’t understand it, then it becomes very frustrating and ultimately, it becomes depressing. And eventually you want to start thinking about something else. That’s probably why I am happy that I do a documentary show and don’t have to cover Comelec every day. Thinking about other topics balances things in my head so I don’t go crazy.

How do you balance doing documentaries about big issues, national concerns, and lighter topics?

That’s a good question. I don’t think that what I do is necessarily lighter. Sometimes they’re not directly related to specific events that are going on in the news or on the front pages every day, but I like to think that the topics I choose to tackle, particularly on I-Witness, have very much to do with the big-picture issues in our country.

In fact, I like to think that they’re about larger truths, larger than elections even, because I like to think, I’m basically tooting my own horn here, that my show tries to go deeper.

I have read several blogs, mostly of young adults, and they say that they like watching your documentaries because these make them think. They said they like it that you start off on a light note but after they watch, they get inspired. How do you do that? Where do you get inspiration? Where do you get your material?

Well, first of all, I find what you said a great compliment. Thank you because that’s exactly my goal. If people react that way to what I do, I feel I have accomplished part of my mission, which is try to hook you, try to hook viewers onto a subject because it’s interesting, it’s entertaining but in the end they realize, “Hey, this is also educational” without making it feel like homework.

Okay, where do I get inspiration? Well, personally, I want to learn. I love to learn, so I try to think of ways to make learning fun. I’m trying to use a very powerful medium called television to convey a message that will make people think, make people reflect. And hopefully, down the line, it can help people improve their lives. And if it will be able to help people improve their lives, maybe it will have impact on a wide scale and, ultimately, help the country.

What are you most proud of in your career?

Well, one, I think I’ve helped create an awareness for the documentary format. It used to be almost an unknown genre of storytelling in the Philippines. But now, almost everywhere I go, there is a very high awareness of documentaries, even among people who never went to college because TV is for everybody, not just for educated people. Then you basically know what a documentary is if you’re able to watch the show. So that’s one, I am very proud of that.

Number two, I am proud of whatever contribution I’ve given to the field of public explaining. That to me is mass media, public explaining. I’m trying to pass on a high respect for fact, devotion to truth-telling, and a healthy skepticism of anyone or anything in power.

What is the most important thing that you’ve learned in your 20 years as a journalist?

The most important thing that I’ve learned is that there is so much I don’t know. Therefore, I have to try keep improving, try to learn new things every day, and learn things that will improve my craft, not just pick up new facts. It’s also a humbling reminder on my part that nothing I ever do will be perfect, that I will make mistakes and that the best that I can do is to learn from my mistakes and try not to repeat them. Everyone makes mistakes and I guess, the older I get, the more humble I become, because the more I realize that I don’t know very much.

When I was young, I guess it was more of a yabang factor, you want to take over the world, seize the day, and then you realize, 25 years later, that there are a whole lot of things to learn, more important things.

What do you dislike about being a journalist?

Not having enough time to perfect [my work]. We have deadlines. I have a deadline facing me right now. I have something that will air on Monday and I know that I’m not going to have enough time to make it perfect. I know that once it airs, there’s going to be something I will not like. But then again, it’s one of those humbling experiences. You learn to adjust.

In your opinion, how can our country improve?

In my opinion, the way our country can improve is to have a mutual concern for each other. Just the other day, I had this argument with a taxi driver. The driver of the taxi I was in, he sped up while an old woman was crossing the road, so basically the old woman had to run across the street. Alam mo yung ganun? Hindi na bumagal, lalo pang binilisan. Bumisina pa siya, tapos nung tumakbo, tumawa pa siya. Sabi ko, “Manong, pa’no kung nanay mo yun, kapatid o asawa mo yun, gaganunin mo ba?” Because that is somebody’s mother, somebody’s wife, lola or whatever. But to the driver, she was just a stranger in his way. We have to start to get over that. We have to start looking at ourselves as part of a national family. We’re often described as family-oriented people, but it only extends as far as our biological family. As a nation, we have to feel an affinity with each other.

In that example, the taxi driver could have slowed down and allowed the stranger to cross. But no, he just looked at her like an object in an obstacle course, and if he had to, he would force her out of the way. He acted as though he’s in a dog-eats-dog society. If I don’t eat you, you’ll eat me. If I don’t kill you, you’ll kill me. If I don’t threaten to run you over, I’m not gonna get to where I need to go. I think we need to overcome that. It’s frustrating because it’s as basic as that.

The irony is, we’re also often described as being the only Catholic country in Asia. But tell me, if we’re so religious and spiritual and God-fearing, why do we have to kill each other during elections? Why do we have to cheat? Di ba? Why do we have to burn down a schoolhouse to make somebody’s votes disappear? I mean, that’s a big irony there. I think we have to start acting more like a national community, a national family, because if we’re brother and sister, it would be against our nature to kill each other. Although that would also be a possibility, it’s not very likely because there’s trust. We have to extend that kind of trust to other people, even though we’re not related by blood. I mean, that’s the meaning of being a real nation. That feeling of security that you have with somebody, that really is the basis of trust.

If there is no genuine trust among Filipinos, it’s really a formula for anarchy, a formula for violence. You don’t trust anybody. You hire security guards, you take a lot of security measures. You have to have all kinds of precautions because you can’t trust anybody.

If you belong to a dysfunctional family, you have two basic options: one is to abandon them, and then the other option is not to abandon them and help them instead. What we have is a dysfunctional national family. We have two options, one is to abandon this national family by migrating or forgetting about it or being totally indifferent about what happens to our fellow Filipinos. Or number two, we can remain engaged within this family and try to help it, try to improve it so it becomes functional.

You wouldn’t abandon your family, right? Pamilya mo yan eh, a part of you. Some people may abandon their families, but again, that’s a choice that a lot of Filipinos normally would not make about their biological families. But many of them make that choice with their national family. We have to overcome that.

Can you describe the side of you that people don’t know?

I’m really a homebody. Some people think that I’m always traveling, that I’m always out of the house. I do spend a lot of time traveling, but I also like staying at home. I have a four-year-old son that I like hanging out with. He’s getting to be that age when he wants to do lots of physical activity. He’s a very physical kid. We go swimming a lot. Just last night, we played soccer in the living room. We go snorkeling. We go out. I take him to ride the MRT because he wants to ride the train.

I am a homebody, I like being a parent. I’m not doing journalism all the time. I’m not a full-time adventurer. I just don’t go around telling everyone that I’m a homebody, that I’m a family man, because as a journalist, my public identity is more of someone who spends a lot of time on the road, spends a lot of time outdoors. But that’s not all of what I am.

How do you balance your life as a journalist and as a family man?

I’m not really sure it’s balanced. My wife tells me I work too hard, I work too much, although I’m quick to remind her that I probably don’t work as hard as some of my colleagues in television. How do I balance? Well, maybe there is just a constant awareness that I have to make time for my family.

What prompted you to start a blog?

I’ve been reading other people’s blogs for a long time and when GMA-7 started developing a Web platform meant to appeal to the overseas Filipino community, I was asked to start a blog. I get technical backup from the network and all that. Also, it coincided with my interest in the online world, in online reading. I’m very interested in the cyber world, because it’s the future of media. It’s the present and future of media.

How do you relax?

I relax by spending time with my family. Last weekend, I was in Batangas with my wife and son. We went to Island last week. I relax by biking, swimming, something physical. I don’t go out a lot, like drinking. I don’t go to a lot of parties. When I go out, it’s usually a working dinner with my colleagues. I don’t really have time for a lot of hobbies. I don’t do the videoke thing. I don’t get to watch movies even. Between work and family, it doesn’t give you much time for other things.

What are your latest reads?

Can I show you? [Looks for the book inside his bag.] I’m currently reading Po-on by F. Sionil Jose. I also read local papers, the International Herald Tribune, the latest Time magazine. Here it is. Po-on is the first novel of the Rosales saga. It’s kind of a historical novel, not a happy book.

Who are your favorite authors?

Two of my favorite writers died recently: David Halberstam and Kurt Vonnegut, two authors whom I grew up reading. I was a much wider reader when I was younger. Now I read a lot of stuff online and I do a lot of writing. I don’t have much time for reading, but I do read a lot of magazines and newspapers.

What are your future plans? Do you see yourself being in journalism for the rest of your life?

Yeah, I can’t think of doing anything else. Journalism is such a big field where there’s so much going on, there’s so much to do. I don’t think I will run out of things to do. Even when television does not want me anymore, I know I’d still be able to do something related to journalism even if it’s just writing or even just maintaining my blog, because I think that my blog is a form of journalism.

I can try teaching journalism, something that’s probably in my future. I’ll always want to have something to do with journalism. You know, I can’t play music, I can’t coach sports. I can’t work in a call center. And luckily, I’m in a profession that is hospitable to older people. I know lots of older people who are still very active in journalism, who are still writing columns and working as editors.

I really love what I’m doing now, which is spending a lot of time in the field, interviewing people from many walks of life all over the country, and that is very physical and demanding work. It demands a lot of travel, demands a lot of things from my body. So I’m trying to keep fit, stay young at heart and supple of mind and body so that I can keep doing what I’m doing now because I love what I’m doing.

Making documentaries, shooting, interviewing people, traveling, trying out new things, going to places I’ve never been before, introducing new information to viewers–all of these things I love doing. I really think I’m at the prime of my career and I want to extend it as long as I can. I’m really lucky. I’m proud to say that I’m turning 46 this year but I’m in the prime of my career. I mean, in professional basketball or ballet, for example, at 36, you’re already old. But not in journalism. I’m turning 46 this year, but I’m still learning, I’m still improving.

So, you’ve no plans of retiring yet?

Well, I can’t because I have a family to feed, I have a soul to nourish. I also have a mind to feed. I have to keep working.

What can you advice to aspiring journalists, especially those who want make documentaries like you?

My advice is to be curious about as many things as possible. If you have an intense curiosity, you will be driven to do things to satisfy that curiosity. Good things, mostly, like reading a lot, talking to different kinds of people, observing a lot. Because that is how you really satisfy curiosity: reading, talking to people with wisdom and knowledge, and observing, sharply, things that are going on around you. Curiosity is a good trait to have. You should always want to learn. I’m very grateful that I have parents who cultivated that in me and enabled me to satisfy a big part of that curiosity when I was younger.

Among the many documentaries you have made, which ones are your favorites?

Gosh, ang dami eh. You know, each one is so difficult to make and I think making documentaries for television is among the hardest things I’ve done in journalism. I guess, that’s probably why I keep doing it because it’s so challenging, it’s so hard. It’s hard to gather enough information, synthesize it, and write it to fill 30 to 40 minutes of airtime. Once you go through that process, you start thinking about your output as your creative offspring. You wouldn’t want to call any of your children your favorite.

But if you’re talking about the more memorable ones, I did one last year about this old man and his dog. They went in search of his young son. Then, we also did a documentary profile on Pepe Smith, in which I learned where the sadness in his signature song came from. It was about his father. His father left him when he was just a teenager and it left him with a lifelong residue of sadness. That’s what he tapped into when he wrote “Himig Natin,” the rock ’n roll anthem.

I’m still very fond of “Little Brown Man in San Francisco,” a documentary I did for The Probe Team years ago about a Filipino World War II veteran who moved to the United States and worked on the streets. I followed him around for months just to make this documentary about him. I’ve done documentaries I really like about Batanes, the Babuyan Islands, Jolo. Earlier this year, I did a documentary about Muslim gays, which surprised lots of people.

For my most recent docu, I biked around Bohol. I love biking and I love Bohol and I love documentaries and interviewing, so I was able to combine all those things that I love. I ended up with something I am proud of.

I mean, not everything that I’ve done is a rater, not all are memorable for other people. But I am not ashamed of anything I’ve done because I give my 100 percent in all the documentaries I’ve done, no matter how it ends. Hindi naman lahat maganda, pero hindi ko pa rin ikinakahiya yun eh. Kasi ibinuhos ko yung sarili ko sa trabahong yun. I’ve done a lot of things in journalism, I’ve been a copy editor, editorial writer, producer. I think making documentaries is what I’d like to do until I get old.

Why are you proud to be a Filipino?

Speaking about that makes tears well up in my eyes because we’re like the ultimate underdog. I’m proud to be Filipino because everywhere I go in this country, almost everyone I meet is really friendly and wants to get to know me. And it’s not just because I work in TV. That was my experience even before TV. People want to welcome you and make you feel part of their lives. We laugh easily; we’re easy to please. There’s something lovable about Filipinos.

It’s one of those contradictions. I’ve had so many experiences of having fellow Filipinos being nice to me, Filipinos being kind to one another and yet, there are also instances when Filipinos are so unkind to each other. I can say that 99 percent are really nice people. The 1 percent makes life miserable for the rest of us, and they are the ones in power. Just joking. [Laughter]

Visit Howie Severino’s blog.

Photo credits: Top: In Baghdad, Iraq on the eve of the US bombing by Jiggy Manicad. Middle-left: Aceh, Indonesia during coverage of the Asian tsunami by Aye Navarro. Middle-right: posed portraits by Wyg Tysman. Bottom left: With GMA Network chair Felipe Gozon and colleague Kara David when Howie was named to the Journalism Hall of Fame by the Rotary Club of Manila. Photo by Ipat Luna.

This article was amended July 5, 10:39 p.m.