As a trainee cameraman I accompanied the senior cameraman and news director to an all important conference in Mindanao where a senator was arriving from Manila, Philippines.

There was an issue about the peace and order situation in the province of Cotabato so this senator was given the task to make speeches in behalf of the President. As locals we knew this hotshot senator through pictures and TV appearances but never meeting him personally. This was the first time.

We were running late having come from a province two hour-drive away from the location so hurriedly we entered the posh hotel where the press conference was being held with our director giving out instructions along the way. We were 15 minutes late! We asked for directions from the front desk and were ushered by a receptionist to the hallway where she pointed to a door which, busy with changing the batteries of the camera, both me and the senior cameraman didn't notice.

When we looked up our director had disappeared into one of the double doors so we entered the one in front of us and hurriedly set up the camera together with the other reporters and cameramen from other networks. Our camera was rolling for about 10min when the conference ended. We then followed the surge of media men as the senator started to make his leave and as they bombarded him with questions. I noticed that the senator was a lot younger than his pictures and what was that about planting trees? There was so many people I couldn't understand much of what he was saying. After another 5 minutes of fighting our way for a good shot we finally had our story!

Emerging from the crowd of people we suddenly noticed our director was missing all the action! Where had he gone to? Thinking he just went to the comfort room we sat down on the carpet floor of the hallway and waited.

As a trainee it was my responsibility to label the tapes which was at that moment handed to me as the reel had run out. I stood up and asked one of the photographers what the exact spelling of the senators middle name.
"Is that Ybanez with a Y or an I"? I asked.
The man replied "Huh? I didn't know his middle name was Ybanez. I thought it was Hernandez."
It was my turn to looked confused.
"No, I positively know it to be Ybanez, I'm just not sure if it starts with the letter Y or I."
The photographer turned to a colleague and asked the first letter to the senators middle name?
"It's G for Gernandez which is pronounced as Hernandez." She answered.
So I said "Oh so you mean It's Sen. Micheal Gernandez Defensor?" The lady looked at me oddly. "Are we talking of the same person? She said, cause the senator with the middle name Gernandez of the ECO-Gulf has just gone but the senator Michele Defensor is in the next room giving a press conference on peace."

By Anonymous