UST JOURNALISM instructor and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Manuel Mogato has launched an expanded second edition of his book about his decades-long career as a journalist.
Titled “It’s Me Bok! A Memoir of a Filipino Journalist,” the second edition of the book was launched on Aug. 21 at the Marco Polo Hotel in Ortigas, Manila.
Mogato described his self-published memoir as an update of his over 40-year journey in the field of journalism, particularly his career as a correspondent covering the extrajudicial killings under the Duterte administration.
“The second edition is an expanded version of the first, which was rushed. I had added the arrest of former president Duterte and an afterword from Secretary Teodoro. It’s a better version, including the fonts which are bigger than the first,” Mogato told The Flame.
“Some of my friends who read the first [edition] told me there were some missing details and some episodes they knew were not in the book, so I just updated the book,” he added.
Despite the difficulties he had in funding his self-published book, the veteran journalist said he was able to release 500 copies supplied by Central Books during the launch.
Mogato said he was fortunate to have experienced the transition from typewriters to computers and mobile phones. He added that writing the second edition took him one week, but the editing took longer since he never had a journal and everything was written based on his recollection.
“I hope I would inspire future journalists, learn from my mistakes and build on the best practices,” Mogato said.
Mogato started his journalism career in 1984, covering various momentous events in the country, including the People Power Revolution of 1986, which caused the downfall of late President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991 and the Marawi siege in 2017. He worked in several media entities such as the defunct Manila Chronicle and foreign news agencies Asahi Shimbun and Reuters Manila.
In his stint as a foreign correspondent for Reuters, Mogato co-wrote the investigative report “Duterte’s War: Inside the bloody drug crackdown in the Philippines” with Clare Baldwin and Andrew Marchall, which won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 2018.
He is currently working as the defense and diplomacy editor of One News and editor-at-large of News5 Digital and PressONE.ph.
Mogato joined the UST journalism department in 2021 and teaches courses on Philippine politics, media and society. F
