I’ve known entertainment journalist Nestor Cuartero since our college days at the Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets) of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) where he majored in Journalism while I was into Literature. He was one year ahead of me.
Nestor was a regular staffer of the UST school paper, The Varsitarian where he wrote arts and culture.
After graduating from college, I would still see Cuartero in the campus where he was paying his former colleagues at the school organ a visit and following up his academic records for employment.
Later, I would see his bylines on his stories in Mr. & Ms. Magazine at the same time, he was working in Broadcast City as a writer together with actress-screenwriter Bibeth Orteza.
I generally knew Nestor as a Batangueño but I would just specifically familiarize later that he’s from Rosario, Batangas where he was born. I thought he was from Lipa City.
According to veteran entertainment writer and newspaper editor Ronald K. Constantino, when he was offered to edit the showbiz pages of Tempo tabloid, he begged off and instead recommended Nestor for the position.
From then on, Cuartero had the upper hand of the entertainment portion of the paper.
As a member of the working press, Nestor is an active, resourceful and hardworking media person even if he has already retired from his post a couple of years ago and just writes a regular column for Manila Bulletin.
With all his valuable experiences and information about Filipino entertainers and other artists, Cuartero has written books on them but his recent project, “PH Movie Confidential” will soon be off-the-press so his fellow Batangueños and Batangueñas must be truly proud of him.