My part-time work experience at Radio Veritas began with Sr. Paola Kim's recommendation when I came to the Philippines in the middle of 1988.
At the radio station, I was assigned to the World Catholic News program, which deals with various issues and events of the world’s Catholics. I spend a day working to get my 15-minute broadcast ready: I have to read, select, summarize, and translate English news materials into Korean. I work at Radio Veritas for about three hours a week. With my translation, I, with a religious brother, work to broadcast the Korean news program. It has been on the air for over one year. Even though I have to budget my precious time for this part-time job, I’m glad to have an opportunity to experience something new, different, interesting, meaningful, and fruitful, in the sense that I’m a part of the Catholic Church’s mission to proclaim the Good News and to improve human development.
Probably by this time your curiosity about Radio Veritas has been aroused. Radio Veritas, which celebrated its 20th-anniversary last year, means “the voice of truth.” (You will know the truth and the truth will make you free. – John 8:32) Radio Veritas is the only non-profit and non-commercial Asian Catholic radio station located in Quezon City, Philippines, mainly sponsored by German and several other Catholic organizations. It is not only the voice of Christianity in Asia where Christians comprise only about 6 percent, others being 12 percent Hindu, 28 percent Moslem, 17 percent Buddhist, and 10 percent Confucian, but also the voice of everybody’s conscience.
Radio Veritas is committed “to proclaim the message of God’s love to the peoples of Asia by producing human developmental and Catholic evangelization programs in cooperation with recognized production centers and by transmitting these programs via short wave and medium wave radio and other related means of electronic media.” In short, Radio Veritas has two aspiring tasks or missions: proclaiming the message of evangelization and establishing total human development.
With special target areas on the silent churches in Mainland China, Vietnam, North Korea, Burma, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, 16 languages are used in broadcasting throughout the Radio Veritas short wave programs: Bahasa Indonesian, Bengali, Burmese, Filipino, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Kachin, Karen, Mandarin, Russian, Sinhala, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Its personnel is, of course, from the representative countries and they usually stay in the Philippines for about two years by rotation.
The history of Radio Veritas goes back to Pope Pius XII who had the idea of building an Asian Catholic church radio station. Inspired by the Pope, several bishops from Southeast Asia met in Manila in 1958 with building construction starting in 1965 with help from Germany. Filipino domestic programs first went on the air in 1967, followed by overseas broadcasts in 1969. It was stopped in 1973 but was back on the air in 1976. It has flourished and has had fruitful results in broadcasting 16 languages including Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, since then.
Radio Veritas established its reputation as “the voice of truth” and as “voiceless opposition” especially during the period following Ninoy Aquino’s assassination, surviving Marcos’ martial law. It was only Radio Veritas that broadcast the event when it was in the midst of Marcos’ threat at that time. During the 1986 Philippines presidential election, it was through Radio Veritas that the so-called “People Power” was organized during the EDSA revolution, which put an end to Marcos’ 20-year dictatorship. Almost everybody remembers what Radio Veritas did to proclaim the truth and freedom to depose an oppressive and corrupt Marcos regime.
Korean programs have been broadcast since 1980 and will celebrate their 10th anniversary on July 1, 1990. All six staff, two sisters, two brothers, and two part-timers like me, are doing their best to meet the sublime goal of Radio Veritas. You may listen to the Korean program from Radio Veritas if you are willing to move your cycle to 9.710 MHz from 6:00-6:25 a.m. and 9.555 MHz from 10:00-10:25 p.m. every day. Why don’t you try? I am sure you’ll find something new and interesting, whether you are Christian or not. If you are interested, why don’t you send a letter to be a friend of the Korean program? The address is Radio Veritas Asia, P. O. Box 939, Manila, Philippines. Or you can also receive more information by contacting the Catholic Mass Communication Committee in Seoul (Tel. 756-7921).
Since my program is the World Catholic news, I try to read to keep abreast of the various news from all over the world so that I can digest the issues and problems that this bustling globe has. News materials I broadcast are mainly drawn from “Asia Focus” (a weekly from the Union of Catholic Asian News: UCAN), but I also consult with the “Church in the World” and Associated Press items as well as several Filipino newspapers such as “The Daily Globe,” “Philippines Daily Inquirer,” “The Manila Times,” and “Manila Bulletin.” I sometimes feel sorry because I do not have enough time to put more energy into my part-time job and to help the Korean service more due to my busy and pressing studies. Working at Radio Veritas, however, has gotten rid of my tension and stress replacing it with friendship and relaxation. Going to Radio Veritas and meeting Korean brothers and sisters once a week surely relieve my loneliness and pressure in studying abroad. The tension I have from my work is productive because it makes me work harder and because it keeps me awake all the time. It doesn’t really matter how meager money I get from it because I am proud of helping the church and of belonging to its mission. Imagine that North Koreans listen to this program!
I wasn’t, in fact, a good translator from the beginning but am happy to realize that I am improving moment by moment. The most encouraging experience or advantage I have through my part-time job is that I can relate to various kinds of serious issues in the world. It is not confined to Catholics only. Through the Catholic moral point of view, it tries to reveal the problems we have such as human rights violations, the gap between the poor, weak, or marginalized and the rich or strong, labor issues, ecumenical movements, silent church activity, democratic movement, etc., along with Catholic Church movements.
As I work in Radio Veritas, I’m always happy to think that my prejudiced eyes widen and my microcosm is inspired by knowing the world: its people and its problems. Shedding my limitations and weaknesses through understanding the world, I aspire to be a better person who can do something good and helpful to the world not because it is good to me but because it is good in itself.
The Korea Times/ Thoughts of the Times/ Feb 9, 1990
(Eddie M. Mananghaya, "Divine intervention is always at work," Thoughts of the Times, Aug. 2, 2003)
ReplyDeleteSeventeen years ago, the whole world witnessed in amazement Filipinos' peaceful uprising against the Marcos dictatorship --- the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) revolution of 9=1986. What could have become a bloody confrontation between the military loyalists and civilians evolved into a spiritual unification among people of all faiths.
Filipinos' devotion to the Virgin Mary played a significant role in the historic event. Hence, a church, now known as the EDSA shrine, was built at the corner of the Ortigas and Epifanio de los Santos avenues. We believe there was divine intervention, through Mary's intercession, when the former dictator, the late Ferdinand E. Marcos, softened his heart to avoid bloodshed.
But what was too prominent an event to prove God's miracle. Oh, yes, Sister Kim Ae-ran is right. "Miracles really happen in our lives." When divine intervention is at work, I call it a miracle of coincidence. And I prau the teacher in Kohung Elementary School who claims to be an atheist will begin to believe that God works wonders for him too.......