Louie spoke with Deborah Heimann in Managua, Nicaragua during the VIII International Communication for Development Roundtable.

CI: Can you describe how you got involved in Communication for Development to begin with and what continues to excite you about your work?

LT: I used to be a farmer. I took up agriculture in school and I majored in the field of development communication. This was in the late 1960s. I was called to Manila to handle a farm programme for both farmers and fisherman and people living in the countryside. This programme was in a radio station called "Radio Veritas" that some people might remember as the one partly responsible for sending away the Marcos regime. Our station was bombed twice, and we were still operational. We went on a private radio we then called Radio Bandito in order to continue operating. And well, it helped a lot to drive away Marcos in 1986 in the so-called "people-powered revolution". Of course, at that time, the programming had expanded beyond farm programmes.

After some years I was designated as the station manager of Radio Veritas and I had also organised the Philippine Federation of Rural Broadcasters. I was contacted by some friends from UNESCO, and they knew what we did for the country and for well, against Marcos. And they said, with what you did, do you think there was a transformation in the media system in the Philippines? And my answer was "no - the only transformation was that some of the commercial media establishments were taken by other businessmen." But the character of the media system did not change. They are all what I call the "PPPP's". They are all motivated by Profit, Power, Propaganda, Privilege, etc. But the real "P", the People, is taken only as an alibi for securing a license. The motivating factor for programming is still the ability to bring in money through advertisement. And 90% of the 600 radio stations now in the Philippines are of that type: commercial radio stations whose only motive is power, is profit. Meantime, there are religious stations and there are government stations. The government stations are nothing because nobody believes the government. The religious stations have their own agenda - the promotion of their religious denominations.

So, with that history, and with my answer, my UNESCO friends asked me, "What would you do to change the system?" And because I had some training in broadcasting in radio and television in Holland and England with the BBC, my model was more of the western european model where the broadcasting institutions are operated by the broadcasting counsels. That was my idea, that it should not be operated by people who would like to make profit for their own selfish or sectors' interests, but more of a collective model. And I said - maybe that is what I would do, if I had my way. And they said - "Why don't you try your idea in some remote area? Since you are a farmer and you are willing to work with farmers, why don't you try it in some farming villages?" And I said - "Maybe I would like to do that. Maybe what I would like to do is put up a 25 kilowatt stations for the farmers and the fishermen - or a 50 kilowatt station." And they said - "You are not going to get the money for that." So, we parted ways, and they said they probably would find a way to help me.

I got a message after some months saying that I had a radio transmitter somewhere in Philippines customs, and it was of 10 watts. A 10 watt radio transmitter. Maybe they meant 10 kilowatts? So I checked with customs and indeed, they meant 10 watts. 2 radio transmitters, actually of 10 watts. I was surprised. I did not know what to do with them. So, the first one we used in the University, as a relay station. The second one we sent to a very remote island, and the people in the community said - "We are going to put it up and we are going to use it." And with that, with what we saw as a possibility for that small low-power transmitter to be used in a remote village, I actually prepared, upon consultation with UNESCO, a project proposal. This was in 1988 or 1989. The project was born in 1991. The money was available. It was a large amount - something like US $1 million for me to set up 6 radio stations. And this money was coming from DANIDA. But, 1 million dollars, by any standard, is a lot of money, and we actually exceeded the number of stations we were supposed to put up in the pilot phase. We put up right away 5 and we were only supposed to put up 2. With 5 we found we could actually try different types of set-ups.