Forever Kamag-aral: Para sa ABS-CBN University

Graduating. (Photo from ABS-CBN University)

Dati, may cadetship program ang ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs para sa mga naghahangad maging reporter sa isa sa pinakaprestihiyosong newsroom sa Pilipinas.

Wala na nito noong pumasok ako sa ABS. Pero tila nagkaroon din kami ng kahalintulad dahil sa ABS-CBN University.

Anim na taon mula nang magbukas ito para sa mga empleyado ng ABS-CBN, kasama ang Univ sa hinintong sangay ng kompanya ngayong Agosto dahil sa shutdown ng network at pagpatay sa franchise application nito.

Nagpapasalamat pa rin ako at ikinararangal na isa ako sa mga naging mag-aaral nito.

Hindi rin siguro nadagdagan ang munti kong kahandaan sa pagre-reporter kung wala ang University.

Bawat Pinoy, Kapamilya.

It wasn’t even a crow of victory back in 2005.

This was from a network which just months before had practically admitted defeat in the Mega Manila ratings. It overhauled its shows yet whatever premiered still found itself no match against the competition. Its news division struggled to regain trust.

But here came a slogan that put in 3 words a vow, that it would press on. That ABS-CBN would serve all, including those who had already switched channels and those who were not even tuned in.

“Bawat Pinoy, Kapamilya.”

Every Filipino, part of the family.

It was as inclusive as it could get. It may have lasted no longer than a year but to me, it struck and stuck.

And from across the TV screen, I realized I wanted to be part of that.

There’s something about that Radyo Patrol number

By Anjo Bagaoisan

Getting their numbers. (Shot by Sofia Monica Regalado)

Zandro and Zhander were both outside the room when it happened.

It was a party—the 30^th anniversary bash of DZMM last October 4 to be exact—and yet Zandro was working the remote TeleRadyo booth outside the ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Pasay, interviewing Radyo Patrol veterans for a live broadcast.

“Bigla akong pinabalik ng PA [program associate], sabi kailangan ako sa loob. E hindi naman ako sasayaw! (A PA suddenly called me back to the ballroom, saying I was needed inside. But I wasn’t scheduled to dance!)” he said.

Inside, Zandro saw ABS-CBN Integrated News head Ging Reyes and his boss, DZMM news gathering chief Edwin Sevidal, standing on the stage. Knowing what it meant, he fought tears as he walked towards them.

He and Zhander already had an inkling of this early in the night, but decided not to expect much. They even thought it might not happen since the program was already ending then.

Zhander was taking pictures with work mates then. Someone opened the ballroom door and called out to him: “Hoy pumunta ka ng stage (Hey, go up the stage)!”

“Noong nakita ko na naglalakad si Zandro on stage, alam ko na (When I saw Zandro also going up, I knew).”

Zandro Ochona, Radyo Patrol 48, and Zhander Cayabyab, Radyo Patrol 49, finally got the numbers they’ve been waiting and working for for 5 years.

Manila Night Prowl: Shadowing the ‘ronda’

By Anjo Bagaoisan

(Shot by Mike Navallo)

The shift starts at 9 p.m. On paper, it ends at 5 a.m. but actually does when the story does. Usually, it’s way beyond 5. 

This is the graveyard shift. It’s more popularly the domain of security guards, call center agents, and resident doctors. In news, it’s the lull between the often more significant events of one day and the next. Here, crime and vehicular accidents take center stage and make the headlines.

In ABS-CBN, we call it the ronda, a.k.a. “Ronda Patrol” to audiences of our primetime newscast. Because in between the adrenaline of shootouts and crashes, the shift is largely time spent staying awake and driving around the metro, looking for something to report.

And where ghosts figuratively tread, so do shadows. It’s as one where my breaking in as a reporter begins.

(Warning: Some pictures here are graphic.)

Tricycle driver killed by a group of unidentified men in a convoy of motorcycles. Caloocan City, August 22. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Almost all Philippine reporters, especially on television, cut their teeth in the graveyard. The ronda is a rite of passage that only ends when you’re deemed to have proved yourself, when a new reporter comes in, or when another in the day shift leaves. For some, the period takes years. For the lucky few, a few months to a year.

The ronda is often the source for part of the news content in the mainstream morning shows. It also provides attention-getters during the so-called tabloid newscasts. Some agenda-setting events also strike during the overnight. On lean days, though, there are hardly crimes to report.

Construction worker killed in police buy-bust. Binangonan, Rizal, August 3. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

But never has there been a more crucial and interesting time to be a graveyard reporter than now. 

I shifted career gears at the beginning of the Duterte administration. Where our predecessors largely dealt with vehicular accidents, my batch is contending with a nightly reality of deaths—either through police anti-drug operations gone sour or by unidentified killers.

A tip to police leads to alleged shootout. Tondo, Manila, August 8. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

* * *

I didn’t see one on my first night though. 

I piggybacked with reporter Kevin Manalo, who I was assigned to for my entry week beginning August 1. He had just turned a year old as a reporter and had just also been bequeathed a major beat or area of coverage.

New reporters aren’t usually sent to the field on their own at once. Shadowing allows them to get a feel of their new environment and the people they would meet. It also lets them get to know how things work and see a fellow reporter in action.

Kevin Manalo caught interviewing on CCTV. Caloocan City, August 22. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

In police beats like the QCPD, reporters often tip off each other when they get wind of breaking news. With today’s technology, a chat group allows them to do that quickly.

At late night on a Sunday, there wasn’t much happening. Until the reporters learned of a VA, a vehicular accident, past 12:30 a.m.

Motorcycle crash. Philcoa, Quezon City. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

We drove to Philcoa along Commonwealth Avenue and found an injured man stiffly lying on the pavement beside a closed truck. A downed motorcycle lay a few meters ahead.

Our team got off the cab. Kevin approached the pack of people circling the man and took pictures as emergency rescuers hauled him to a stretcher. He then joined other reporters talking to and then interviewing the injured man’s companion, the driver of the truck and his assistants, and the traffic investigator.

In 30 minutes, Kevin gathered a picture of how the incident (we refrain from calling them “accidents” in reports) occured.

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

As a shadow I was also expected to gather the details, join in the interviews and write my own story. Another learning curve of the graveyard shift is the discipline of being accurate with facts and meeting deadlines.

By 3, Kevin voiced his approved report for our main show Umagang Kay Ganda. I was tapped to do phone reports for the Gising Pilipinas newscast on DZMM and for the 5 a.m. news roundup of UKG –a rare instance for a reporter just on his first day.

Only the next night did I see my first dead body since becoming a reporter—the result of a buy-bust operation in a quiet but allegedly drug-infested barangay in Bocaue, Bulacan.

AWOL police officer killed in buy-bust. Bocaue, Bulacan, August 2. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

* * *

Buy-busts-turned-alleged-shootouts were the nightly norm when I shadowed Kevin’s batch mate Miguel Dumaual the following week, this time in Manila. In his one year on the field, he was already shadowed by three newbies before me.

Miguel among pack interviewing a Manila Police station commander. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The Manila PD press corps is a bigger than that in QC, with many print reporters and photographers adding to their broadcast counterparts. The number of those who stay the night at the MPD press corps lounge has also grown since the government escalated its war on drugs. Many of the ops tipped to the media are usually in the capital.

The tips are usually one-liners sent through text and then passed via chat: “DOS (for “dead on the spot”) street so-and-so”. Sometimes, a police officer calls the press corps lounge.

Press and onlookers at a bridge over shanties where a suspected pusher and shooting suspect was killed by police. Manila, August 8. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The pack rushes in convoy to the site, hoping to reach the body before the scene of the crime operatives or SOCO arrive and clean up the scene. 

Police are usually the first sources of details. Lower-ranked officers answer the initial questions, but it is the station or precinct commander who allows himself to be interviewed.

Police op kills 2 in run-down apartment. Pasay City, August 9. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The media usually waits until the crime scene is cleaned up before leaving. But on some days, another death turns up in another area of Manila in the middle of a coverage. Those who don’t have a tag team on hand have no choice but to leave.

Filing all of that information for the morning newscasts is all on the reporter. Miguel and his team once covered up to 10 deaths in separate locations in just one night. In the few hours before 4 a.m. he has to quickly process and write up to 2 reports per coverage.

3 deaths, one night. Top: 2 drug suspects killed in buy-bust in Sta. Cruz, Manila. Bottom: Bloodied body found in Baseco. August 10. (Shots By Anjo Bagaoisan)

Manning the beat can give a long-term view of seemingly isolated incidents. Like the night police in Tondo connected a buy-bust kill to the hunt for suspects in a shooting incident a week earlier. Miguel had covered the incident and later looked for the family of the victim to get their reaction on the death.

Of course, not all the stories in the graveyard are morbid. But there were hardly any of them during my introduction to the shift.

The ronda supposedly ends when the morning show ends at 8 a.m. There are days, though, when a call or message comes in with an additional assignment before then. 

The night prowl extends to day.

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Why journalists’ jobs continue to matter

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

“A doctor pronounces her dead, not the news.”
– Don Keefer, HBO’s The Newsroom

ABS-CBN’s Jeck Batallones (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Near the 10-wheeler truck that rammed a row of stalls in the New Taytay Public Market in Rizal on June 14, one of the sellers who escaped the accident was telling her companion:

“Sabi sa TV, isa lang patay. Pa’no mo paniniwalaan yun e andaming nakabulagta rito kanina?”

(On TV they said only one died. How can you believe that when there were many bodies lying around here earlier?)

It was on Facebook that the first images and details of the noontime crash broke and spread. The accident was in a public place and people with cellphones swarmed the site. The dozen-plus vehicles dented and crumpled by the truck and the bloodied bodies of victims lying on the ground led witnesses to believe the crash was way deadly.

Their hasty conclusions spread fast online. As many as 16 were reportedly killed. Even a popular motoring issues social media account parroted the info (They later corrected the post). Because there were pictures and they were being shared quickly, the shocking details were passed on too without being verified.

Core Evolution: Journey of an undaunted core

The JFCM Youth Camp core and staff, 2012-2016

As part of the tag of the revived JFCM general youth camps, the phrase “our camp” holds a more personal meaning for those of us who have lived and breathed it way beyond the three days and two nights.

From thinking about what theme to pursue and what name to call it, up to which portions of the program need to be bumped off or will wake-up call be moved, we’ve seen it all, zoomed in and zoomed out.

Countdown to the end game in Duterte-land

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

DAVAO CITY— In the city of pomelos and durians, it’s business as usual under the scorching sun.

The streets bustle only with the rush-hour jams of vehicles driving under the mandatory 30-kph speed limit. Pedestrians shy away from the elements at high noon, except for the occasional street hawker peddling beads.

If not for the campaign posters that sparsely dot this city, you would hardly notice that it’s election season.

It still qualifies as quiet here, much as it was in the days that led to an election that has elevated Davao City and its most famous resident to national and international prominence.

(Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The quiet is also characteristic. This city has gained a reputation as a blueprint for where 16 million Filipinos think the Philippines should be.

But the tranquility masks the mix of anxiety and excitement here, as it did during the countdown to the May 9 vote.

‘A newsman’s newsman’: Colleagues pay tribute to Rod T. Reyes

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

Rod T. Reyes (Grab from TV Patrol)

Down-to-earth. Cool-headed. Simple. Soft-spoken. A coach. Role model. Inspiration. A newsman’s newsman.

These were how journalists and former co-workers saluted veteran reporter, editor, news director and press secretary Rodolfo “Rod” T. Reyes, who died on April 14 at the age of 80.

People who knew him in various capacities throughout a five-decade career that spanned print, broadcast and public media honored his impact as a daring investigative journalist.

But more so, they reminisced about Reyes’s unassuming and laid-back qualities in a relentless and tough profession.

Coach leadership

At ABS-CBN, where Rod Reyes headed its news and public affairs division both before and after Martial Law, his former employees recalled how “RTR” (their monicker for him based on his initials) embodied the news organization’s slogan “malasakit”.

“Here was a small man with a soft voice who told us, ‘Good morning guys, I’m your new coach!’ I won’t forget that because it embodied RTR’s style of leadership,” recalled current ABS-CBN News chief Ging Reyes of their first time meeting her predecessor when he took over the reins of the  back in 1990.

The 3 stages of falling in love with your job according to Charo Santos

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

My moment with the execs. (Shot by Joseph Jacob)

In the time of “walang forever”, staying in the same company or line of work for more than 5 years is already a prize.

It may be due to the scarcity of tenured posts, the allure of shifting workplaces for better offers or simply the impatience often ascribed to today’s Millennials.

Whatever the reason, loyalty to a job or an organization these days remains the unheeded advice from the older generation. Many of them grew up seeing ascent in the corporate ladder as the main evidence of success.

But there are professions like journalism and media whose hold on their practitioners is for more than bread and butter. And there are companies whose opportunities can span a spectrum of careers one could explore without leaving their backyard.

Getting to last long in these places is encouraged and in some, rewarded.

At ABS-CBN, they call it the “Kapamilya Awards”, a gala to recognize employees who reached 5-year milestones in their service with the company. They are treated to dinner, performances by ABS-CBN artists and receive a personalized token along with a moment with the executives.

All ABS-CBN Newsers want for Christmas

By Andrew Jonathan S. Bagaoisan

Covering the biggest events of 2015 did not keep the men and women of ABS-CBN News from spreading some Christmas cheer with a little fun and lip-syncing.

The assignment: a simple music video to cap the 2015 Integrated News Christmas party.

The outcome: a happy project that went beyond the journalists behind it.

News logistics head Mitchelle Tan recruited reporter Jeff Canoy to direct. Jeff then drafted me to the team to help shoot and form the final cut. We wanted to deliver a piece that would represent all departments in the news division.

Jeff–along with fellow reporters Jenny Reyes and Chiara Zambrano—had also directed the 2012 viral video of Kapamilya anchors and reporters singing along to the Backstreet Boys tune “I Want It That Way”.

(READ: The story and bigger picture behind that video)

A sequel to the “I Want It” video was hinted at back then–long before Dubsmash trended among Filipinos. But none came through until now.

Tina Monzon-Palma with ANC’s The World Tonight team. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

This time, American pop diva Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” was the dubbing pick. And it would not just be the on-air personalities singing, but also the drivers, technicians, cameramen, production assistants, researchers, writers, editors, producers, bosses and support employees who keep ABS-CBN’s news platforms up and running.

‘Energy! Energy!’

Jeff wanted to up the ante. The iPad he used to shoot in 2012 now became just the music player. We had a DSLR and a laptop for the rest.

There were only a few days before the division party. So, in between coverages of the worsening holiday traffic (one of which included a bike ride along EDSA), Jeff and I shot the takes at the broadcast center with Mitchelle and some co-workers who tagged along.

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We hauled any reporter who was around, picked their lines and paired them with the available members of a news department. We also visited the anchors of our main platforms TV Patrol, Bandila, ANC and DZMM in their studios and convinced them to sing.

Jeff lugged the camera. I borrowed his to shoot when he was preparing reports. News courier Michael Bagtas at times brought his own cam. Fellow field producers July Cruz, Rommel Manimbo acted as “audio people” with me to play music from the iPad.

Reporters Francis Faulve and Jobert Navallo joined us in pitching in lights from our phones, while Mitchelle, July and reporters Zen Hernandez and Chiara Zambrano became floor directors, motivating the “talents” with their own gyrations and shouts of “Energy! Energy!”

Carolyn Bonquin’s take with the field ops team. (Shot by Bernie Mallari)

Many took heartily to the shoot, like the Field Operations boys who even brought out their LED lights to the ENG truck parking area at dusk. Illuminated by the lights, no less than our big boss Ging Reyes kicked off the video from there.

There were the current affairs staff and make-up artists who dusted off Christmas decorations to use for their parts. Employees who grabbed—wait, borrowed—actual corporate gifts as props. And execs like Futures, Investigative and Research Group head Chi Almario who choreographed steps for her team.

Previewing the shoot at Studio 7. (Shot by Anjo Bagaoisan)

The units’ names can be a mouthful, like News Systems and Technology Management (a.k.a. our studio, field, editing, graphics and technical operations), and they aren’t all identified in the video. But they along with others like the Central News Desk, News Library, Human Resources and Business Development provide the fuel for what you see on the air and online.

Across the globe

The video gradually took shape, but we felt it could grow in scope and tuck in some surprises.

Jeff chatted up our bureaus and reporters overseas if they could send videos. Locally, we also tried getting shots from a station in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao to stand for the over 20 affiliates making up our regional team all over the Philippines.

(Shot from ABS-CBN North America)

And those who sent theirs in the limited time did not disappoint. One even uploaded a well produced shot just a couple of hours before the music video was finished.

The unexpected appearance of the North America news team led by bureau chief Paul Henson drew the biggest cheers when the video finally premiered at the middle of the News Christmas Party.

Jeff and I were still editing and exporting the video even as the party program had already begun. Hearing the final piece on loudspeakers amid the cheers and laughs of our colleagues gave us a sigh of relief.

Anchors Karen Davila and Ces Drilon lead in laughter at the Bandila set (Shots by Anjo Bagaoisan)

Delighted with the video, Ms. Ging also had it shown to Kapamilya employees at the corporate Christmas party the following week, and then cleared it for sharing on social media after.

It took three years, but “ain’t nothing but a heartache” finally found a happier Christmas sequel.

The sight of our icons jamming with our behind-the-scenes personnel expressed the spirit of what our news organization has faced and overcome together in 2015.

It’s our way of sharing the unity and hope that we pray for our country in the coming crucial year.

Aren’t those what we all want this Christmas?

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