Filipino Scholar Conquers South Korean Airwaves

September 11, 2008: SEOUL, South Korea-”Ang programang ito ay para sa ating lahat!” (This program is for all of us) DJ Regina greets her listeners to inspire and brighten up the Filipino community on her daily radio program for the multicultural family broadcast in South Korea.

Sponsored by Woongjin foundation in partnership with Digital Radio Kiss and Digital Skynet, this radio program is the first to showcase Filipino OPM songs with current news and information related to labor, tourism and the daily lives of Filipino expatriates in the Korean peninsula.

DJ Regina or Maria Regina Panol Arquiza said that it was the Philippine Embassy that informed her organization, Pinoy Iskolar in Korea (PIKO), about the urgent need for a radio broadcaster to address Filipino women married to Koreans.

Before she started to start conquering the Korean airwaves, it took a few months of advertisements in different Filipino communities in metropolitan Seoul and nearby provinces and even an announcement by Philippine Ambassador Luis Cruz in Catholic churches for the long search to finally discover Regina, a scholar of Media Studies, Advertising and Public Relations in Ewah Womans University.

St. Scholastica’s College graduate

Regina earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications, minor in Print Journalism in 2005.

“There is one very important quote that my favorite professor in St. Scho was always telling us,” she says, “‘If you educate a man, you educate an individual but if you educate a woman, you educate a community” and I won’t forget it,” said DJ Regina.

The radio program is a way for her to entertain and educate her fellow women. “It isn’t just about knowing the issues, it’s more on understanding the heart of the issues,” she added.

Born in Camarines Norte

The 24 year-old Bicolana, now the first Filipino radio broadcaster in South Korea, was born on Feb. 1, 1984 in Daet, Camarines Norte where her parents Reynaldo and Julieta Arquiza ran an agriculture business.

As the youngest in the family, she has fond memories of sharing dreams about working for the Filipino community outside the Philippines with her sister Maria Soledad and brother Rey Franco. Regina shared the early achievements of her siblings but added that she’s proud to be the most diligent and hardworking.

“ I really feel so blessed for having such a supportive and loving family – they inspired me the most to conquer my dreams through God-given talents and share the passion in this kind of endeavor,” she added.

Work and Studies in South Korea

Regina needed to make adjustments in her daily routine because she now needs to prepare her scripts for the program as she keeps her scholarship in one of the top universities in Seoul.

She has also become an instant public figure among the various Filipino communities, featured in leading national broadsheets like The Chosun Ilbo and JoongAng Daily, and TV programs like MBC, SBS and KBS of South Korea.

“Before the program started, I read a lot of articles about migrant women in Korea and other parts of the world for I‘ve learned that there are so many issues and problems that make me value my worth as a woman and take the opportunity to become an instrument in touching the lives of other migrants, especially women,” Regina said.

There are two difficult things that challenge her. “The first is understanding deeply the issues related to Filipina migrants with Korean spouses in Korea. It has been said that there will always be two sides in a coin. In this case I have to understand both sides of the issues, and that requires patience and deep analysis of the problems at hand.

“The second thing I consider difficult in this is the Korean language. Proficiency in it is very important to fully understand the existing issues written or even broadcast in this country,” she continued.

Regina’s program, aired at 3 am, 9am, 3 pm and 9 pm, is broadcast in four languages, with Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai also part of the multicultural Family Broadcast on Skylife Channel 855, Cable TV thru C&M Channel 312 and websites thru Woongjin Foundation: www.wjfoundation.or.kr and Digital Radio KISS.

“I am expecting that this multilingual radio broadcasting program is going to serve as a bridge to the gap between Koreans and Filipinos. It’s about time for both sides to understand each other’s cultures and thoughts more deeply. And then, I do have great hope that this program will help Filipino migrants enhance their cultural identity and it will serve as a channel to disseminate relevant information in empowering the people with information,” said DJ Regina. - Elizer Peñaranda, INQUIRER.net