Life on the Beat: The Philippine Stock Exchange
Life on the Beat – What Journalism Students Saw
The Philippine Stock Exchange:
Rubbing elbows with the rich
By Hanna Mahalet C. Antolin
The Tektite Tower which houses the Philippine Stock Exchange Center in Ortigas has two media rooms. One is at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the other at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE).
At Tektite, there are 10 reporters from the broadsheets (two from BusinessWorld) and four from TV. Only three have their offices at the PSE media room. Elizabeth Sanchez is from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Cai Ugrino from The Manila Times, and Ruby Anne Rubrido from BusinessWorld.
The media room is a long corridor with one side made of glass overlooking the trading room. Trading schedule is from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, weekdays.
Reporters are expected to come in by 9 a.m. but this schedule is seldom followed. If the reporters are not in by 9 a.m., one can safely say they are looking for exclusive stories.
At the stockholders meeting of Ginebra San Miguel, business reporters were asking one another and the PR people if Danding Cojuangco would be attending. When Danding entered the room, some reporters said I was very lucky.
The next day, it was the turn of the PureFoods San Miguel stockholders meeting. Again, Cojuangco and Iñigo Zobel de Ayala arrived.
The following Monday, a press conference was called by the Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. at The Fort to discuss its P8-billion âcity centerâ project.
On my last day at PSE, we attended the stockholders meeting of Aboitiz Equity Ventures at Shang-ri La, Makati.
During all those events, refreshments or lunch were served afterwards. The reporters did not eat anything, they just drank water. Cojuangco asked the PR people to get the reporters names and to send each of them his latest wine product; at another time it was an ice cream product. Three reporters declined the gifts. The PR people even ran after the reporters, persuading them to accept or to at least stay and eat lunch.
Sanchez of the Inquirer says that one day, she accepted a cone of ice cream. She says she had a stomach ache after eating the ice cream. Sanchez, Ugrino, and Rubrido say they immediately leave the place after an ambush interview to write their stories.
The reporters write at least two stories per day and submit these to their offices by 4 p.m. When there is not enough time, Sanchez goes to the nearest internet café to write.
During press conferences, questions usually come from the reporters who are in front. The others in the back have no way of making their questions heard so they just push their recorders forward.
High-ranking officials of private companies are very friendly and some are even on a first-name basis with the reporters. When the executives are gone, the reporters crowd together and compare notes. Some of the reporters who were not able to raise their questions with the executives ask their fellow reporters, maybe hoping that they were able to ask the same questions and get answers. When covering the same event, the three reporters at PSE usually ask each other what angles they are pursuing.
Both Sanchez and Rubrido are pursuing their MBAs. At 28, Sanchez is the oldest in the group. It is said that business reporters do not stay long at reporting. Most of them get their MBAs so that if they do not become editors, they could join the private business sector.
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