Round 2: Korina vs Mel

Manila Standard (page 32), Saturday, July 6, 1996

Korina Sanchez: Just a job

THE battle between ABS-CBN and GMA shifts to another gear beginning Monday with Korina Sanchez and her new half-hour news magazine show debuting on the 5:30 p.m. slot, the same time Mel Tiangco faces the GMA cameras for Saksi, the quarter-of-an-hour Hard Copy-type newscast in Filipino.

Tiangco joined the tandem of Mike Enriquez and Karen Davila immediately after a Quezon City RTC judge lifted the temporary restraining order that had the former ABS-CBN public affairs personality and her partner Jay Sonza lingering in limbo for a while.

Saksi, which Enriquez conceived as vice-president of News and Public Affairs has, in a way, set a new trend in the early evening newscast. Its improved ratings since it premiered several months ago has ABS-CBN scrounging for formats that could stave off the programs's rising viewership.

It was really a shot in the dark when GMA EVP Tony Seva and Enriquez decided to replace the station's rather staid GMA Balita with something novel like Saksi. Although at the beginning, there was a perceivable resistance to an abbreviated newscast, Enriquez would later be proven right.

Now, TV Patrol anchored solely by Noli de Castro, has been downsized giving way to Sanchez's Balitang K, half an hour earlier and the top-rating daily soap Mara Clara after.

It is very evident that this programming decision is a reaction to the changing viewing patterns manifest in the success of RPN 9's successful soap Marimar and Saksi. It may be difficult for the bright boys and girls at ABS-CBN to admit that for the first time their moves are more reactive than aggressive. There is a growing consensus that the current reformatting of programs, most specially in the news and public affairs, is due largely to the imminent success of other shows in other networks.

Saksi, for one, even before the entry of Tiangco, relies heavily on GMA's SNG (satellite news gathering) capability which gives the viewer an on-the-spot view of the even before other newscasts can even edit their materials. It is also a very good test for field journalists doing on-the-spot reporting which has been ruled for the past half decade by Jessica Soho.

Arnold Cladio's experience as a radio field reporter is really an advantage even if most of the time he still thinks he is reporting for an audial medium.

Now, what is Balitang K? The K stands primarily for K-orina. But according to the show's merchandising blurbs it will tackle issues on Katarungan (judicial), Katatawanan (entertainment), Kawanggawa (public service), Kababalanghan (puzzling situations(, Kakurakutan (corruption) and many more like consumer action, political and social issues.

It is an ambitious project, reason enough to put together the minds of the network's news and public affairs and local production divisions in bringing Balitang K to the small screen.

Mel Tiangco: Enough (of) K?

Korina is not edgy about a head-on collision with former colleague Mel for ratings. During the launch at Annabel's Thursday, she said: "This is a job."

Who's gonna make it to the top of the ratings? Sanchez or Tiangco? ABS-CBN is betting on Korina, while GMA has cast its lot for Tiangco. Ultimately, it will be the audience who will be the saksi if indeed Korina's balita has the K to stay.