Hosted by ViBryant Voice, PapaLem, The Golden Voice, and Voicerana, Voice Of The Youth Network’s Segment “Bilib Kami Sa’yo” featured another special guest, Mark Villaluna, a teacher and a journalist. If you take a look at the story behind Mark’s successes, there are lots of inspirational and motivational messages that we can use as encouragement in our daily life
As the segment started, Mark Villaluna shared his experiences and journey towards being a journalist and doing the things he is passionate about. He was once an ordinary guy who loves to tell stories. He grew up in a family that values the culture of reading. Moreover, he started writing when he was in grade school, where his teacher discovered his talent in writing. He also became a campus journalist for the official school publication of the Rizal High School in Pasig City where his love for press work grew.
Before graduating with his degree, Mark Villaluna started teaching in the PAREF school system, one of the affiliate schools of his university, the UA&P. There he was asked to put up a school paper organization, Fortebus, which is one of the multi-awarded high school papers in the Philippines. After 5 years of teaching, Mark Villaluna decided to pursue his other passion, becoming a journalist.
Halfway through the segment, Mark shared the beginning of his career in journalism. He started as an editorial production assistant at Philippine Daily Inquirer, where he executed layout designs and proofread.
Later on, he was asked to write a piece by one of his editors in the business section, and there he wrote business feature articles.
He added that he is not into writing about the economy, but he learned a lot in the process “There are times that you really have to do something that you don’t exactly like, but as you go through the process you get to learn more things,” he said.
After his journey at the PH Daily Inquirer, Mark began to work as a producer for documentaries at ABS-CBN where he gets to enjoy and pursue his love for telling stories. When the ABS-CBN shutdown happened along with the global health crisis, Mark and thousands of employees at ABS-CBN lost their jobs.
But then, a new opportunity opened for Mark to continue telling stories. After the shutdown, the Manila Bulletin offered him a job as a multimedia journalist and soon became an executive producer of MB DigiDocs, which is the newest documentary series of Manila Bulletin.
Before ending the “Bilib Kami Sayo” segment of VOTY Live, Mark shared his best practices in Journalism.
As a journalist, you tell stories of people, and not yours. It’s a public service which is also a principle to live by.
As a journalist, you bring people closer to the truth.
Polish your skills and craft
As a journalist, it is a responsibility to flood stories that unite us more.
Mark became an inspiration to many aspiring journalists and the public was amazed by his ability to empathize with other people and lend ears to hear stories to empower and motivate people with the lessons they need in everyday life. And as VOTY people always say, “Bilib Kami Sayo”.
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