About Me
My craft is writing. I began my career in writing as a journalist for a business newspaper and migrated to writing for corporations. In “biz speak,” I’m either a Corporate Communicator, a Marketing Communications Specialist, an Editorial Consultant, a Publications Manager or an Editorial Services Provider.
I provide editorial content for traditional media and for what is now called the “new media” (the Internet).
My kind of writing is described in some quarters as “advocacy." It’s a skill markedly different from journalism. Unlike journalism, advocacy doesn’t aim to expose the whole truth and nothing but. This doesn’t mean, however, that advocacy is journalism’s evil twin. An advocate will err on the side of caution instead of going balls out for the truth like a journalist. That frame of mind makes sense when you consider that companies are always at each other’s throats, and that misplaced words can cause a world ohurt that cod lead to a loss of sales, a loss of markets and a loss of jobs—including yours.
Freedom of the press generally insulates journalists from the consequences of their mistakes. This protection does not extend to the advocate in the world of business.
I'm a freelancer or free agent. In my line of work, the competition for projects is severe—if you don’t have a project you don’t eat—but the job does have its upside. You’re your own boss (every employee’s dream, isn’t it?) and there’s no 8-5 routine. But you’re also your own worst enemy. The line between being a freelancer and being unemployed is hardly discernible. Sometimes, especially during the “downtimes,” being a freelancer and being unemployed can appear like one and the same thing.
I’ve written and been “ghost editor” to some 20 company newsletters and magazines; over half a dozen annual reports and a lot of published materials for marketing, sales and HRD. I’ve also created concepts and written copy for print ads and other promotional materials. I’m deep into Information Technology and am looking to write more for companies in this unimaginably dynamic industry.
My brass ring
Being freelance also gets you to make time for jobs really close to your heart such as my personal campaign to increase this country’s awareness of PEFTOK and what it accomplished half a century ago in the Korean War. I’m doing this through this PEFTOK website and in the stories about PEFTOK I keep sending out to the media to be published or broadcast.
If my generation hardly cares about PEFTOK and the Korean War, will my children’s’ generation give a damn? Will the generation after that care? They probably won’t if they don’t know that PEFTOK and the Korean War existed. Hence, the PEFTOK website and the awareness campaign now going on. And there’s a brass ring in this for me. It’s a comprehensive history about PEFTOK in one book or in one gigantic website. But I can’t do this alone and will need your help.
Thank you
Every one of those persons here and abroad who took the time to visit the PEFTOK website is one more person who knows more about PEFTOK than he did before. And he or she may spread the word about PEFTOK to others. It will go on from there. Hopefully, one of the coming generations will see fit to fully honor PEFTOK and the victories it achieved in defense of that ideology we call democracy.
Each of this website's visitors has done honor to the memory of the men of PEFTOK. For this I am deeply grateful.
We owe them our freedom
We must not forget the more than 7,000 Filipinos who fought in another country’s war because it was their duty as Filipinos to battle the enemies of their state, both foreign and domestic. It would probably be fair to say that the PEFTOK BCTs were the best combat units we had at the time, which is why they were sent to Korea.
Yes, the men of PEFTOK did bitch about why they had to fight communism in Korea when communism was threatening to overrun the Republic of the Philippines and turn it into the communist People’s Republic of the Philippines. But, as good Filipino soldiers, they fought the foreign war they were asked to fight . And when they returned home, the PEFTOK BCTs returned to fighting the Huks or Muslim bandits in Mindanao.
And what did the men of PEFTOK achieve? They won a double victory in the 1950s: they helped preserve South Korea’s independence and—most important of all—played a vital role in decisively defeating communism’s first and most serious bid for power in the Philippines.
The decade of the 1950s guaranteed the existence of the Philippines as the democratic state it is today.
That the Philippines and South Korea remain democracies is the fruit of the sacrifice of thousands of ordinary Filipino men and women who did their duty despite their doubts, fears, flaws and limitations. These men and women have earned the right to be honored as heroes.
REMEMBER PEFTOK.
AND HONOR THE HERO IN US ALL.
Copyright 2000 by Art Villasanta. This web site is being continuously updated.
