Tracing back the level of commitment to duty and leadership through compassion and dedication as former president of the Bulacan Press Club in 2015-2017, the stewardship of another, a larger media group, the Central Luzon Media Association (CLMA) has not been that onerous.
Four years later, in 2021, Gumamela was given the task to head the CLMA Region for two years embracing the different media landscape and cultures of fellow practitioners in the region, the provinces of Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Zambales, Bulacan, Aurora and Bataan.
The first unwritten goal and agenda was to relive, revive and restrengthen CLMA which was then moving towards its 45th foundation anniversary as one of the very few surviving regional media groups in the country. To achieve these, it necessitated for a regular conduct of monthly meeting where each and every member from their respective provinces and cities gathered, bond and share their chapter’s concerns, successes and the issues needed to be addressed and resolved.
Through Gumamela’s initiatives, CLMA partnered with friends in the community including in the government which had helped funded the constant assembly, not only mastering and appreciating the different ideal locations, tourism destinations and the whole beauty of Central Luzon, but more so, in deepening the connection between and among each member. After all, CLMA’s major foundation core when it was established in 1978 by region’s media stalwarts was to become a melting point for camaraderie.
The decisive efforts behind the frequent connections held in one province to another had undoubtedly showed and proved that CLMA is once again back in action and back in the limelight.
CLMA since then has been a regular active strong media group participant to the annual Aug. 30 birth anniversary celebration of Marcelo H. del Pilar, the Father of Journalism in the Philippines which was also declared as National Press Freedom Day in his native place in Bulakan town, had consistently manifested care for the environment through various tree planting activities in the mountains, schools, rivers in different provinces in the region, boost the morales of each chapter through awards and recognitions and had celebrated Christmas in 2022 in one of the most blissful ways.
Out of the very meager funds, immediate concerns and support for health and medication requirement and other welfare needs of some of the members were provided including burial assistance and support to the kin of members who already write 30 due to ailment.
To keep the name untarnished, Gumamela’s leadership had enforced a stiff action against scrupulous activities and true enough, CLMA had helped innovate and bring to a notch higher the media practice in the region by raising ethical standards in the profession.
The rest of the other officers and all the members consistently manifested their support to the leadership’s projects and programs as they themselves felt, experienced and witnessed how CLMA has again shine in the spotlight. Without their genuine, active and vibrant participation for the love of CLMA, our now 47 year-old media organization could have not redeemed its glorious days the way it remarkably did.
Further, Gumamela’s leadership was called into a broader spectrum, this time, the coming together into one group of media members and other sectors of the community in the region in pursuit of media freedom, responsibility and accountability—the Central Luzon Media Citizen-Council (CLMCC).
Being the same steward of leadership, service, commitment, dedication and duty, Gumamela with the support of the other officers of the CLMCC managed to lead the new group and continue to address press freedom and accountability concerns of media members in the region.
Today, filled with that strong spirit of compassion and unity among each and every member of the two organizations, this humble representation is up front in ensuring the stability and integrity not only of the media groups but of its members.
With the current leadership of Deng Pangilinan, CLMA Region and every chapter under his wing exemplify the ideals of the group—professionalism, camaraderie, unity and brotherhood.
The ability to lead, serve and care to one’s people or group is a God-given flair, a wisdom to carry decisive actions for the greater good and a pure heart to feel and provide for the needs of others, but all these must be discovered, learned, mastered and properly executed.