There was a year in grade school when my father promised me a bicycle if I topped my class. I studied like that bicycle was already mine. I never got it. What I remember, decades later, is that the promise itself — made by a
- June 21, 2026 · 5 min read
- September 10, 2026 · 4 min read · Campaign Chronicles
Key Takeways: Content is King, Distribution is Queen, Engagement builds the Kingdom — the architecture of every campaign I’ve run Good content evokes emotion or prompts action; format matters far less than the message Filipino cultural shorthand — hugot, kilig, pride — is what makes
- September 8, 2026 · 4 min read · Campaign Chronicles
The Democratization of Media in the Philippines: How Social Media Changed Narrative Making Series: Inside the Campaign Eighth of Ten Parts Key Takeaways Before social media, narrative making was controlled by big media companies — we were just the audience Social media made every Filipino
- September 3, 2026 · 4 min read · Life & Times
Key Takeaways: I was appointed Head of Sales and Marketing at ABS-CBN in February 1997–straight into an advertiser and ad agency boycott Lesson 1: understand what the aggrieved side actually needs before you defend or counter Lesson 2: trust is rebuilt through behavior, not statements
- September 1, 2026 · 4 min read · Campaign Chronicles
Series: Inside the Campaign Seventh of Ten Parts Key Takeaways Our first TV buy was ₱8M — used to test four regional cities, not flood national airwaves The leading spender spent ₱500M+ on advocacy ads. Our official spend was ₱371M — and our real media
- August 27, 2026 · 4 min read · Life & Times
Key Takeways: I enrolled in BS Chemistry; two professors talked me into Management Engineering — the first serendipitous turn of many From activist detention in Davao to economics at CRC to Media Pulse to ABS-CBN: none of it was planned When Freddie Garcia handed me
- August 25, 2026 · 5 min read · Campaign Chronicles
Series: Inside the Campaign Sixth of 10 Parts Key Takeaways Engagement metrics are not the same as real-world impact — this distinction cost other campaigns dearly We used a three-stage framework: Arouse (emotion), Organize (structure), Mobilize (action) Online groups were aligned into four clusters: OFWs,
- August 20, 2026 · 6 min read · Life & Times
I still remember the first time someone told me, without a trace of irony, that horses had once settled a blood debt between two families in the uplands of Mindanao. Not a payment of cash. Not a formal apology delivered by elders. Horses — walked
- August 18, 2026 · 4 min read · Campaign Chronicles
Series: Inside the Campaign Fifth of 10 Parts Key Takeaways Our best campaign content came from volunteers, not professionals Digital natives from each region created content that was believed because it was true Our central role was direction-setter and curator — not creator The result