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Ex-seminarian is the voice of Pinoys on China radio


Ramon Escanillas Jr. is the voice behind China Radio International's Filipino Service in Beijing. Photo by Wang Haili, 2 October 2009.
BEIJING – China, the world’s second largest economy, may have one of the busiest workforces but its people certainly know how to relax. On Sundays, only green-clad security guards roam the capital, which is usually teeming with office workers on weekdays. Most of the city’s 20 million residents, including Filipinos, troop to churches and malls instead. At the 10:30 am English mass at Nantang, or the South Cathedral, a thin, middle-aged man with a mustache and a row of silver earrings on his right earlobe is often in attendance. He quietly slips in and out of church, and you would hardly guess what he does for a living. Ramon Escanillas, Jr., a native of Sta. Ana, Manila, is the voice behind China Radio International’s (CRI) Filipino Service, which produces news and feature programs in Filipino for the state broadcasting company. The 57-year-old ex-seminarian and philosophy teacher, who can be heard on shortwave radio worldwide, moved to Beijing in 1991 after Chinese cultural representatives in Manila invited him to try out radio work. The China that Ramon first encountered stood at the threshold of its battered past and its self-confident present. At the time, foreigners in Beijing could only stay in hotels and designated compounds and were not allowed to live with Chinese people or rent an apartment from locals, like they do now, says Ramon. The country had two currencies then: the Chinese money renminbi and Foreign Exchange Certificates (FEC), which were used from 1980 until 1994 and assigned only to foreigners.
Ramon Escanillas Jr. with Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng in 1998, the same year the Pinoy broadcaster was given the China Friendship Award.
Back then, Ramon says only hotels and the state-run Friendship Store sold imported goods, which could be purchased only with FEC. “Chinese people who worked at the radio station and our other Chinese friends asked us to buy stuff for them," he recalls. It has been almost 20 years since Ramon first went to China, and the broadcaster says he intends to stay in the country much longer even though he has no relatives here. He has never married and has devoted most of his time and energy to his job. “When I came in 1991, foremost on my mind was to boost the Filipino Service. All I did was read letters from listeners, reply to letters from listeners … I wrote them all by hand," says Ramon, the lone Pinoy on the team. “Do you see the questions?" he remembers telling his Chinese colleagues, teaching them the proper way to respond to fan mail. “Answer the questions and give letters and listeners individual treatment." This personal touch has endeared Ramon to Filipino listeners around the globe – in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Western Europe, and Scandinavia. “When I wake up, there are already tons of (cell phone messages from) listeners," he says. “Once you reply, that will go on all day." The affection is mutual: Ramon considers his listeners “family." When asked about the changes he has seen in his almost 20 years with the Chinese state-run media, Ramon says previously taboo topics such as sex, homosexuality, illicit relationships, and government corruption are now openly discussed. After having lived in China all this time, however, Ramon’s Chinese-speaking skills remain at the elementary level – just enough to get around Beijing and buy daily necessities.
Ramon Escanillas Jr. at the CRI Filipino Service office in Beijing. The computer screen beside him shows their website. Photo by Jade Xian, 11 November 2009.
He admits his neglect of the language was partly due to work, including helping his Chinese co-workers improve their spoken Filipino, instead of him practicing his Mandarin with them. Most of CRI Filipino Service’s staff majored in Philippine studies at the Peking University and know how to read, write, and speak Filipino. Ramon is a “treasure," says Jade Xian, director of the service. “We treat him like a member of the family," she says. In 1998, Ramon received the China Friendship Award, the country’s highest recognition given to foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to its economic and social progress. By the looks of it, Ramon will be staying in China for a long time, as he enjoys his work and is loved by his listeners in return. - VVP/YA, GMANews.TV
Tags: china
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