I paid a ransom of P1,000 last week but it was worth it.

Finally, I have in my hands the incriminating documents that could ruin my “standing” in the college. Had these documents been leaked to other people, my students and friends would definitely know some of the things that happened to me a little more than 20 years ago.

In case you don’t know what I’m writing about, the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) now allows alumni like me to buy their “student jackets” which contain the registration forms (i.e., Form 5s), grade point average (GPA) per semester and other related files during their stay in the college.

One only needs to shell out P1,000 to get the “incriminating” files inside the “jacket” (though it’s more like a small folder with the student’s name on it.)

I’m sure you understand if I choose not to photograph and share with you even the cover of my student jacket. You don’t understand? Why?

As may be gleaned from my main website, you can say that I was an “A” student in college. But behind the medals and membership in honor societies is a dirty little secret that you shouldn’t know. And I’m only too happy to keep it buried!

Sifting through the incriminating files, I cannot help but share some “not-so-incriminating” aspects of my past and, in the process, clarify a few points about my student days at UP CMC in the late 1980s and early 1990s:

• Inside my student jacket there is a photo of an unsmiling, dark-complexioned, thin young man with long, wavy hair (wait, that’s me!).
• Strictly, I am not a journalism graduate even if I now teach and practice it. The baccalaureate degree I earned in 1991 is Bachelor of Arts in Communication (major in Journalism). That makes me a communication graduate, right?
• If you may notice, I graduated in 1991 (a palindromic year). Coincidentally, I earned my master’s degree (from another university) in 2002, another palindrome!. Does this mean I should finish a doctoral degree in the next palindromic year which is 2112?
• In the first semester of my first year at UP, my tuition and other fees amounted to only P957.50. (I only got to enjoy free tuition when I was awarded a scholarship from a private foundation.)
• My highest GPAs were in my first and fourth years.
• Aside from the internship course offered only during summer, I consistently took one course every summer. (If I remember right, I had wanted to take two courses every summer but I always ran out of slots for my preferred courses.)
• The age difference notwithstanding, I eventually became friends with my former professors in Communication and Journalism, among them Luis Teodoro, Georgina Encanto, Rolando Fernandez, Violeda Umali, Raul Ingles and Elena Pernia. The latter who is the current dean was my professor in Research in Communication (Communication 199) and Thesis (Communication 199.1).
• The late Antonio Nieva, founder of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) and the UP CMC-based Union of Journalists of the Philippines (UJP-UP), also became my professor. (If he were alive today, I’m sure he will be happy to know that I am a member of NUJP and a faculty adviser of UJP-UP.)
• Among the regrets I had while a student was not being taught by Pete Lacaba and the late Luis Beltran. The courses they were supposed to handle got dissolved for some strange reason. I find it hard to believe that the dissolution was because of low enrollment.
• In the past, I never bought any UP memorabilia. (Recently though, I bought centennial shirts and other souvenir items for friends and in-laws who asked me to buy for them.)

Allow me at this point to share with you some photographs.

Yes, I used to wear glasses. If I remember right, I was covering a forum for the Philippine Collegian and I felt the need to ask a question to the resource person whose name I cannot recall.

If you’ve visited the Photos > Vintage Shots > College page of my main website, you should’ve seen this already. Notice how young Profs. Luis Teodoro and Georgina Encanto looked then?

Quoting from the caption I wrote on my main website, “Representatives of the Marsman Foundation turn over the check for the Pedro Teodoro Journalism Scholarship to then Institute of Mass Communication Dean Georgina Encanto (2nd from left) and Prof. Luis Teodoro (1st from left) who was, at that time, the chair of the Journalism Department. This happened on 22 September 1988, a day after my 20th birthday.”

In other words, the awarding of my scholarship happened exactly 20 years ago today. If memory serves, the current room of the Office of Research and Publication (ORP) where I serve as director had been the venue for the check turnover ceremony!

Of course, I cannot end this post without showing you my graduation picture, even if I am somewhat embarassed to show my long hair.

In case you don’t know, there were some “anti-communist” individuals who tried to discredit me using this picture when my radio program was cancelled in February 2006. Aside from being accused as a top propaganda officer of the communists, I was branded as “gay” because of the way I posed or smiled in front of the camera.

Yes, it’s seldom that I smile on camera, but there is obviously something to be happy about graduation (at a palindromic year at that!).

If you’re a UP CMC alumnus, do you have any experience worth sharing?