Reunion with my original #TeamTVPatrol

Meeting again recently my colleagues from ABS-CBN was a blast.

It all started when I called up Myrna Castro-de la Torre, a fellow University of Santo Tomas (UST) Faculty of Arts and Letters (Artlets) alumni who graduated with a degree in Journalism in 1974 while I majored and finished Literature in 1975.

Myrna began her media work with hard news writing for the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

I might have seen Myrna during college not often but I knew her as an Artlets.

Our paths crossed again when we did media works in 1986 for press fighter Joe Burgos’ Tinig ng Masa, a broadsheet in Filipino which was the sister publication of Malaya and Midday.

Castro-de la Torre was editing foreign news while I was handling entertainment news for the paper.

At the time, ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation was recaptured by the Lopezes from the dictatorship and it revived its broadcast operations.

Myrna, as editor of a newspaper was moonlighting as a writer for the News and Current Affairs of ABS-CBN where the late Butch Raquel and Becky Cabral, her erstwhile colleagues at the PNA were top brass of the network’s newsroom.

It was then that Myrna asked me to submit entertainment stories for “Balita Ngayon,”  the primetime newscast precursor of “TV Patrol.”

During my stint with the news program that was anchored by Mel Tiangco, Angelique Lazo and the late Robert Arevalo, I was already covering showbiz news in the field with a cameraman and a recordist.

Until Channel 2 was relaunched in 1987 as Star Network and I was the star reporter for entertainment news of the reformatted news show “TV Patrol” billed as tabloid-on-air.

Myrna was officially one of the writers of “TV Patrol” and I was the segment producer, reporter and Voice-Over of “Star News” after we left Malaya publications.

But we were in need of other showbiz field reporters and writers so I recommended the late Mario V. Dumaual and now multimedia artist Joel Saracho.

Together with magazine writer and now filmmaker Francis Villacorta who was recruited by Angelique, we were the “Star News” team who supplied news to our producer-anchor Lazo.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Myrna and I were always in touch in the newsroom.

We were in the company of the late Angelo Castro, Jr. who was the News Director of the station with newscasters Mel, Angelique, Noli de Castro, Frankie Evangelista, Loren Legarda, Gel Santos-Relos, Korina Sanchez, Bill Velasco etc.

Reporters who would become big names in the news broadcast like Doris Bigornia, Pia Hontiveros, Jing Magsaysay, Apa Ongpin, Manny Ayala, Ces Drilon, Henry Omaga-Diaz etc.

Producers like Jake Maderazo, Jay Sonza, Claud Vitug etc. were backbones of the news media.

Until the ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs was expanding and new talents, on and off-cam were hired like Ted Failon, Amy Godinez etc.

At the time Carmelita Valdez, better known as Twinkle Valdez was just starting her communications career until she jumped the gun in broadcast news reporting.

Other News and Current Affairs staff at the time were top of the heap like Ging Reyes who would rise to become its News Director in 2009 until her retirement 2022.

Castro-de la Torre became a big boss in the newsroom when she was the Executive Producer (EP) of “TV Patrol” and other current affairs programs of the station until her retirement a couple of years ago.

Once in a while I would bump into my former colleagues at ABS-CBN long after I left Kapamilya for independent media work even when I also had years of doing news and public affairs shows at Radio Philippines Network (RPN) Channel 9.

My reunion with myrna et al last week was memorable.

Myrna and I agreed to meet up for a commom meeting with mediaman Ricky Rivera who would produce a talk show for Twinkle, Maan Macapagal and Atty. Fred Mison.

Castro-de la Torre would be the consultant for the show.

The venue of iur meeting was Heat Restaurant of EDSA Shangrila Hotel.

And guess who I would reunite with at the time, former ABS-CBN news reporter Joe Zaldarriaga, now spokesperson of Meralco, Jake, Twinkle (however I saw her at the 174th birth anniversary of Marcelo H. del Pilar) and a few more.

It was such heartwarming to see old friends and co-workers at ABS-CBN.

Even if we already have configurated, it is still awesome to catch up with a lot of things that bring back memories and give inspiration to all. Boy Villasanta