[Inside the Newsroom] Looking for the Lola Bebangs, Rons, Jayboys, and everyday heroes

You, of course, immediately remember Rappler for our investigative reports, especially on flood control corruption and big-time rent-seeking:  

• Former House speaker Martin Romualdez’s network of businesses and his mansions here and abroad, check!
• Ex-Ako Bicol congressman Zaldy Co’s scandal-plagued business fortunes, check!  
• Justice Undersecretary Jose Cadiz Jr.’s son bagging P251 million in government infrastructure contracts over two years since he was 19 years old, check!   
• The empire of former Senate president Manny Villar getting huge contracts under ex-president Duterte, and now facing sanctions for possible insider trading, check!  
• How Batangas congressman Leandro Leviste monetized clean energy for political gains, check! 

Readers, however, have also come to know ordinary people with extraordinary, or simply interesting, stories through Rappler: 

• Genoveva “Lola Bebang” Ferma Garcia of Mendez Nuñez, Cavite, who could be the oldest living Filipino at 110 years old. 
• Ron Magsakay, whose tragedy of losing his family in a car crash became his drive to be an inspirational speaker using humor.
• Grade 9 student Jayboy Magdadaro of Liloan, Cebu, who stared down danger to rescue 50 neighbors during the onslaught of Typhoon Tino. 
• Artist Edmon Fuerte, who casually joined a logo-making contest, but whose design the Japanese embassy in Manila said best captured the 70 years of friendship between our two countries.  
• Young Filipino scientists Michael Rivera, Angelo Velasco, Sheena Garcia, and Ayisha Ong, who made their mark in an elite global forum in Hong Kong. 

Hi, I’m Miriam Grace A. Go, Rappler’s managing editor, and I’d like to introduce you to PEOPLE. 

As an official section, People is just months old. As a conscious effort to see what’s inspiring about humanity in the noise, grimness, even monotony of news, People is something Rappler has pursued over the years. (In fact, I realize that, six years ago, in this same month and under a different newsletter, I wrote about our intention to “tell more people stories.”) 

People is where you will read about the more personal side of officials and public figures in the news, and the tributes to persons who became part of our own lives when they were living. Check out the Newsmakers and Obituary subsections. 

People is also where we have transitioned our old “soft” sections on Entertainment, Lifestyle & Culture, and Sports. So, we are trading concert schedules, movie reviews, and game results for more unique features and thoughtful conversations with Actors, Artists, and Athletes. 

The old travelogues will now give way to stories of how people in particular communities live their lives. What used to be occasional contributed opinion pieces now take the form of essays on personal experiences under the series called “Neighbors.” All these new takes on old forms of articles are nestled in the subsection called Human Interest. 

The People section also has a regular “Tambay.” Actually, it’s a column by veteran journalist Chito de la Vega that talks about current issues from the point of view of neighborhood folks gathered in a backyard, a sari-sari store, or a barangay bench on a lazy Sunday morning. 

Soon, we might even have a subsection on Crimes — not the analyses and investigations that our justice reporters do, but about incidents that show the frailty and vulnerability of men. Perhaps there will someday be a separate space for readers who want to tell their own stories and can tell them well. 

There are three things I hope the People coverage will do: 

• Show our audience that not all news is bad and grim — at the very least, realize that sometimes life is not always just black and white.  
• Make the stories a mirror that we can hold up and see the part that our own interests, values, choices, and dreams play in where our society is heading. 
• Give the young people the right kinds of role models to emulate. 

One of the best writers about ordinary people, Rick Bragg, once talked about how he honored his hometown with how he wrote about it: “I have always tried to write of this south beyond clichés and that is why, most often, I have pulled my writing from the memories and stories of my own blood.” 

Help us tell more stories about us Filipinos — about the kind of people we are, and the kind of people we want to be. 

You send us tips on corruption to investigate, don’t you? Why not point us, too, to inspiring people you know? You can always reach out to us via feedback@rappler.com.

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– Rappler.com