More news to good news

Manila Standard (pahe 18), Saturday, June 21, 1997

The Weekend news anchors Erwin Tulfo, Pia Hontiveros and Gilbert Remulla (foreground) with their reporters and writers

NEWS programs on local commercial television have always been regarded by network managers as an inevitability rather than a responsibility to the audience. The outlook became more pronounced during the time of the late President Ferdinand Marcos when all news media assumed the role of propagandist.

The scenario slowly changed when anti-Marcos sentiments began to be more manifest and climaxed in the bloodless February 1986 revolt which forced the Marcoses out of Malacañang News on television, radio and even the controlled press began to take a more pro-people stand. The people read, listened to and watched more news programs then ever in the entire history of the nation.

However, when things began settling down with the new administration of President Corazon Aquino with three TV networks in the hands of the government, news began to take a similar stance as it did during the Marcos years. Even the revived ABS-CBN appeared to become the new administration's apologist.

And yet, as the country began to realize its new-found freedom, especially with freedom of expression. ABS-CBN became more daring in its presentation of news. TV Patrol became critical of the ineptitude of the government to curb the rising criminality and poverty in the country. The World Tonight subtly editonalized the hard news, attracting wider audiences, including those who have associated television with entertainment.

"With the unexpected ratings of our news programs, we realized that the Filipinos have become hungrier for information," Freddie Garcia, ABS-CBN's EVP said. "We decided to beef up our news and public affairs department to become the country's most reliable network."

Ten years after the network's return on the air, it is devoting more broadcast time to news and public affairs than it did during its prime years before Marcos ordered its shutdown. And its news programs continue to earn the trust of its viewers with credibility ratings zooming to its highest in years.

The news and public affairs division is the heart of any television operation. That ABS-CBN seems to have realized sooner than any of its competitors, making their news staff the most aggressive of the lot.

Heart of the matter

Most TV stations cease to broadcast news on weekends. Not ABS-CBN. Last year, it put on the air The Weekend News. Originally conceived as a round-up of the week's major events, the program has evolved into a dynamic news program that keeps its viewers updated on the developments in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.

"We have been able to score scoops like the Cotabato fire which was reported first on our program. Also, we also reported important events like the departure of Hwang Jang-yop, the North Korean defector who sough temporary shelter in the country and gruesome news like the San Pablo massacre and the dengue outbreak," Jake Maderazo, ABS-CBN's news director, said. "The Weekend News is not coming out of its own/"

The Weekend News is part of the network long-term goal to make its news and current affairs division a self-sustaining. Already earning substantial ratings share to occupy to No. 1 spot in its broadcast block, the news program aired Saturdays and Sundays at 11:30 p.m., is showing more muscle these days ready to claim its stake in the news program race. The success of this year-old newscast could be attributed partly to the youthful outlook of its new team. With the mean age of news anchors all over the world dropping to 35. ABS-CBN goes even below. News presenters Pia Hontiveros, Cathy Yang, Gilbert Remulla and Erwin Tulfo, though not exactly the news types most audiences have become used to, are proving that being young is no longer a liability in television news.

Hontiveros covered Congress for the past eight years for the network's news program. Remulla has been with ABS-CBN for four years and is currently the special reports correspondent for The World Tonight. Tulfo did the Metrowide evening shift for TV Patrol scouring the city for any police-related incidents. He is also on dzMM radio every morning. Yang is Ces Drilon's co-anchor on Usapang Business (Monday, 11:30 p.m.).

New blood

These four young faces and relatively new names in newscasting could easily become the next most important figures in broadcast journalism. (Properly molded, or course, and given enough liberty to express their own personal styles in news presenting). Remulla is taking some time off from his reporting and anchoring job to pursue a master's degree in international affairs in a US university.

"I believe in a continuous learning process," he said over lunch. "I'd like to have a well-rounded education if I have to succeed in this profession." A graduate of broadcast communication from the UP College of Mass Communication, Remulla set his mind in carving a career in broadcast journalism immediately after stepping out of the doors of his alma mater. Starting off as a production assistant in news, he moved on to become a reporter and finally a news presenter for The Weekend News on Sundays.

Tulfo had a thriving career in the US as a journalist but chose to return to his country of birth and try his metier. He landed a reporting job at a middling daily before someone told him to try his luck in the electronic medium. His pedigree (he's a brother of popular columnist-TV host Ramon Tulfo) apparently was a very helpful advantage. ABS-CBN took him in and threw him into the whirl of the graveyard police beat. But he proved his mettle far too early the network's top honchos plucked him out to be Hontiveros' co-anchor on the Saturday night newscast.

Yang has been reporting business news for the past years and is the only other business specialist in the team. With Ces Drilon comfortable ensconced on the nightly The World Tonight, she's the logical choice to anchor the weekend news' business segment on Saturdays. Although she's off camera on Sundays, she still produces the business segment of the telecast.

A round-up format is the easiest newscast to mount on TV. But ABS-CBN chose not rely on the week's news files. The Weekend News has three reporters -- Rhodora Granda, Cheri Mercado and Anne Fallorina -- who do the usual rounds of finding breaking news stories even on Sundays.

Whether The Weekend News could weather the highly volatile situation in local television where entertainment is of prime interest than news and public affairs is of great concern for Maderazo and his staff/

This far, he is confident it will continue to evolve into the newscast local viewers could look forward to on weekends. "We're determined to see this program grow into one major newscast in the next years," he added. "We've seen its potentials in the last 12 months, and that;s what;s driving us to work harder."

The success of a news team in a television network depends on the moral and logistical support of the network's executives. ABS-CBN has proven it can make something out of news and public affairs, even to the extent of making them as commercially profitable in the most unimaginable way.