The Beast

Melvin C. Gascon has been news and photo correspondent of Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the country’s leading dailies under its Northern Luzon Bureau, since 2000. He covers the four provinces comprising Cagayan Valley, which include Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, as well as the province of Ifugao in the Cordillera region.

He is also editor in-chief of the FCT Group of Publications, Inc. which owns and produces three newsweeklies in Region 2, namely City Star based in Santiago City in Isabela; Vizcaya Vanguard, based in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya; and Quirino Quest, based in Cabarroguis, Quirino.

For the past four years, he has also been an instructor of journalism at Saint Mary’s University, a Catholic-run academic institution in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. He is also a regular lecturer of journalism seminars not only in Cagayan Valley but also in other parts of the country.

Raised in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, Melvin now lives in Bayombong, the province’s capital town. He is now in his senior year at the Saint Mary’s University College of Law. He is currently the president of Vincit Omnia Veritas, the SMU law students’ society.