By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
In Philippine sports journalism, Mr. Quinito Henson is called the dean. I would like to add that in local agriculture journalism, we can also call Mr. Zac Sarian as the dean. He is an agriculture journalist non-pareil
Mr. Sarian’s love affair with agriculture started more than 60 years ago at a tender age of 16 when he published his first article in Agriculture and Industrial magazine (already defunct). His compensation? Two free copies of the magazine, with a ton of real ego-boosting feeling! Imagine a sixteen-year old publishing in a nationally-circulated magazine. It started his climb to the pinnacle of agriculture-related newspapering.
The seed however was unwittingly planted by his older brother earlier who was tasked by their father to help shoulder the schooling of the young Zac. “Enroll in steno and typing, so you can help yourself later”, his brother thundered. He took that to heart not knowing that it will lead him on a joyous journey to the agriculture dreamland.
That happened after he completed his high school at the Batac Rural High School, and immediately working in a farm of his cousin, Dr. Daniel Bolong, for a salary of one peso a day. His first published article was on ipil ipil, which was new at that time as a feed ingredient. He said, “nagkwento lang ako.” His job was to weigh the powdered leaves of the plant being sold by people to the farm. He can not help laughing as he related that some people came with their ipil ipil powder mixed with sand. It was a rude introduction of how people cheat.
He decided to enroll in U.P. Diliman, thinking that there was a journalism degree there. Only some courses were being offered. He then enrolled in Foreign Service which he completed, then passed the foreign service exams and so with the civil service.
His love for journalism was further fanned by one of his teachers who sidelined as a writer for a fee. This led him to write in the weekly magazine, Free Press, a very prestigious national magazine that time.
Upon graduation, he applied as a copy writer in an advertising company and was immediately accepted. His credentials as a writer have built him up already. He had also a sting as an assistant copy writer of an imminent educator and writer, Prof. Armando Malay, one of his professors. Few months later, he was pirated by a development company to take care of their advertising with an increase in his salary. He was not taking baby steps as a regularly salaried guy. He was having giant leaps in so short a time.
After a short while, he visited a relative at U.P.C.A. (now UPLB) when the school was still in backwater. He was asked to edit a paper, Agricultural in Los Baños which he did for 4 years. Bored of the sedate life in LB (bowling according to him was the only available recreation then), he proposed to publish and edit Farms and Gardens to the Manila Chronicle owners. The owner, Mr. Eugenio Lopez, readily said yes to the idea being himself enamored with agriculture. He was offered a P500.00/mo salary plus a percentage of circulation. The magazine became a hit, allowing him a take home pay of P800.00/mo, much higher than what the senior correspondents were getting at the time. That was already a big amount that time. And he was still single. Envy set in, but he was offered nonetheless that amount as a fixed salary.
Being a licensed career foreign service man and with relatives in position to prop up his career, he was asked to name a foreign post he wanted. He said, “I am not interested”. He was enjoying his stint as an agriculture journalist. In his work he was hobnobbing with celebrities like Divina Valencia, and many more. It was really enjoyable.
The Farms and Gardens closed down during martial law. That was just a little problem to a determined and well-motivated man like him. He was so sure of himself, he moved to Business Day to edit the agriculture section and became a columnist. While with this paper, he was given a golden opportunity to travel to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia at a time when these countries were way behind us in economic development. He would travel again to these countries when they started to boom economically and later when they were already way ahead of us in development.
Next week, we will see some of his challenging experiences and how he delved into the realm of agri-preneurship while being a journalist.**
