JAIME PICORNELL - born on August 20, 1942 in Cebu City, Philippines. Why do I write columns on culture, travel and society? I like sharing information, doing coverages and giving vent to creativity.

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I started at it with a personality column in the school organ (yes, that was how the school journal was known) at Colegio de San Jose - Recoletos, where I obtained a degree in Commerce, major in Accounting. I also wrote some poems and several short stories.

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My public debut was a society columnist for Pedro Calomadre's Morning Times on July 1963. There I stayed until it closed in 1983.

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I was called "a juggler of sorts" in another society writer's column. Not only did I write my columns but also worked first with the Corominas Richards Shipping and later with the Swedish firm Metalock, and in the evenings taught English and Spanish at the University of the Visayas where I had obtained a degree in Liberal Arts, major in English.

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In the mid - 1960's I wrote the Cebu column  for the Manila Chronicle. In the late 1960's up to 1972 I was the only writer in Cebu writing columns in two papers, for I also contributed to the Freeman, first as a magazine and later as a daily.

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When Martial Law was declared in September 1972 and society pages were banned, the Freeman dropped me. The Morning Times just asked me to shift to art and culture which I loved doing more than the society beat.

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In the national scene I have written for People Magazine of the times Journal, Mod magazine, and an occasional article for Lifestyle Asia. When the Manila Chronicle was revived in 1988 they called me to write and I did so until the paper closed. I was features editor of the Cebu based Southern Star Magazine where I wrote many articles, some under a pen name.

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When the Morning Times closed I went to the Republic News and when that closed too, I went to the Freeman in 1986 to write about art and culture. It was a wise move in December 1998 when I went to Cebu Daily News.

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What is paramount to me is the reader, and giving him a "good read." I strive hard to do that and hope that I achieve it. Maybe I have, for Cardinal Ricardo Vidal told me that he liked what and how I write.

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Aside from my writing, I was the Honorary Consul of Spain with the consequent institutional duties. King Juan Carlos I has awarded me with a Knighthood in the Order of Isabel la Catolica, the highest an ordinary Spanish subject can aspire.

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On May 8, 2012, the King gave me another award: Spain's Order of Civil Merit whose motto includes "patriotism, abnegation, perseverance and optimism."

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