Oh, how time flies!

I was just 21 years old when I first saw my byline on the Sports page of the DAILY TRIBUNE.

Actually, it wasn’t even supposed to happen. When I was about to enter the media industry after earning my Journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas (UST), my goal was to cover the hard news beat after getting inspired by the veterans who reported on the historic impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada.

But fate had other plans.

Instead of chasing that political beat, I found myself sitting inside the old office of the DAILY TRIBUNE along T.M. Kalaw Street in Ermita. There, the assistant Sports editor, Jon Hernandez, did a quick scan of my one-page resume before saying: "Sa UST ka din pala galing? Athlete ka pala dati? Okay, tanggap ka na."

Then, he turned back to his desk and handed me a piece of paper freshly pulled from the office fax machine. It was an invitation to a 3x3 basketball press conference somewhere in Ortigas.

"Puntahan mo ito. Kapag hindi mo mahanap ang building, tawagan mo yung contact person. Sabihin mo nawawala ka. Magpatulong ka."

Surprisingly, I didn’t get lost.

And 22 years later, I’m still here, waking up early to read, write, and decide which stories to pursue to keep our readers informed. I am no longer that greenhorn reporter whom my editor didn’t trust for directions. Somewhere along the way, I had some character development; my DAILY TRIBUNE bosses now trust me to handle the pages and spearhead some of the organization’s biggest projects.

But, to be quite honest, getting here wasn’t just hard—it was grueling.

I also suffered a lot of miscues from missed deadlines to botched coverage, ruined friendships over a story, and that annoying source going on record in a tell-all interview only to call very early in the morning to claim that he got misquoted.

Still, nothing beats my biggest misadventure on a lazy afternoon of 31 October 2007. It was lazy in the sense that it was a slow day on the beat, with everybody at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex preparing to attend Halloween parties.

Trying to be resourceful, I interviewed a veteran sports official who told me that their skipper would be excluded from the lineup for the 24th Southeast Asian Games to give way to a new breed of stars. His statement lit a fire under me. Aside from being the team captain, the athlete was also a multi-medalist in the SEA Games, and the federation’s decision to drop her with barely a few months before the competition carried solid news value.

Later on, I learned that the official and the star athlete had been bickering over her attitude and poor attendance in training, which ultimately led to her sacking. Given that she was already 41 years old, the federation found it easy to let her go as they transitioned into a new era.

Two years later, she filed a libel case against that sports official. And you know who was listed as one of the co-accused? Me. Yes, I was dragged into their ugly mess for writing the story about her expulsion and for calling her “dowdy”—whatever that means—in my 10-paragraph article. Wow!

I paid a dear price for that carelessness. The case dragged on for 13 long years before it was finally dismissed. The trial started when I was a young sportswriter at 26, but ended when I was already a Sports editor with two beautiful kids at 39.

The source of my story? He passed away two years into the trial. So eventually, it was just me and my former Sports editor, Aldrin Cardona, who were left banging our heads on our car windows while desperately looking for a parking spot at SM Manila just to make it to the 8 a.m. hearing at the Manila City Hall.

Looking back, I have to be very honest: I have some regrets. Part of me felt I never should have written what sportswriters brand as a routine "attendance story." This legal nightmare felt like it wasn't worth my time, my effort, my stress, or even my freedom.

But eventually, I realized that those brutal hours spent sitting in an empty courtroom while waiting for my chance to clear my name made me stronger. It shaped me into the kind of person I am today. I realized that I had to go through that harrowing experience just to learn to be more precise, more careful, and more mature in handling a story.

And through all of it, DAILY TRIBUNE never left my side. It became my comfort zone, my safe space, as I delivered the stories about the heartbreaks and triumphs of Filipino athletes.

To me, this is not just a news organization—it is my family, the sanctuary where I have felt loved, trusted, and appreciated despite all my miscues.

So cheers to my DAILY TRIBUNE family, cheers to our 26th anniversary. Thank you for all the support and keeping up with this deadline-beater who once got sued for being too lazy to check the meaning of “dowdy” in the dictionary.