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By Perry Gil S. Mallari
RUTH CABAL and Cesar Apolinario share a tie that
binds. Except for the fact that both belong to GMA 7’s stable of
elite reporters, Cabal in real-life is Apolinario’s kumare. In a
casual lunch, the two veteran broadcast journalists share their
thoughts with the Sunday Times Magazine on their ideals as media
practitioners and why, with all the hazards associated with their
job, they continue to stay put and deliver their punches.
Ruth Cabal: The lure of the sound of gunfire
With her good looks and gift of gab, Ruth Cabal
could have made it big in other fields like marketing, or even show
business yet she opted to become a television news reporter. A few
minutes after the introductory handshake, one instantly notices that
she has the charming demeanor of a free-spirited woman—she
giggles, cracks jokes, not betraying the fact that she’s in a
profession that calls for flirting with danger from time to time.
A senior correspondent at the GMA 7 News and
Public Affairs division, Cabal’s years of news reporting are
accentuated by anecdotes that range from hair-raising to hilarious.
Now 32, she’s indeed a broadcast journalist who is on top of her
game.
Cabal is living a life she envisioned long ago
when she was just a little girl. “Bata pa ako gusto ko nang maging
TV reporter [I always wanted to be a TV reporter ever since I was
young],” she reminisces, then breaks into laughter, “I used to
practice delivering the news with an improvised microphone.” In
college, Cabal’s talent proved evident when she became a news
writer for the Philippine Collegian, the school paper of the
University of the Philippines—Diliman where she took up Art
Studies. She recalls that she already had a sense of higher purpose
even during her earliest days in the industry. “When I entered the
world of the media, I realized early on that the duty to deliver
correct information is a great responsibility,” she points out.
This has been Cabal’s guiding principle while climbing the ranks
of her chosen profession—from her brief stint as a radio news
writer to her initial entry on television via ABC Channel 5 up to
her current position as a highly-respected reporter for GMA 7’s
news programs.
Cabal shares that she truly enjoys the rhythm of
the job, relating that she has finally coped with the many pressures
that go with it—the unpredictable schedule in particular. “Hindi
mo alam ang mangyayari bukas so hindi ka basta pwede mag-schedule ng
date [You do not know what will happen the next day so you cannot
just schedule a date arbitrarily,” she laments lightheartedly. She
recalls that when she was still covering the Malacañang Palace
beat, it was not unusual for her to receive short notices at night
instructing her to pack and leave for the countryside early the next
morning. “Kapag sinabi noon na pupunta si GMA sa Cebu bukas,
kailangan maghanda na agad ako [When I am told that the President
will fly to Cebu the following day, I have to get ready and fly to
Cebu as well],” she narrates. “I was always on call.”
Cabal has traveled extensively both locally and
internationally, reporting breaking news, doing investigative
reports and covering diplomatic affairs. But like most hardcore
journalists, Cabal intones that she finds the most fulfillment in
covering dangerous assignments. She had a number of scary encounters
on the job but admits that her experience while pursuing a story on
former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano is the one that
takes the cake. Garcillano, better known as Garci, was a fugitive
then for his supposed role in the “Hello Garci” controversy
involving alleged fraud in the 2004 presidential elections.
Cabal remembers that she was combing the length
of Mindanao for almost a year when she got a tip from a source on
the whereabouts of the former Comelec commissioner. She pounced on
the opportunity without knowing the harrowing experience she and her
crew will eventually undergo. “A group of armed Muslims that was
supposed to be our escorts took our mobile phones and blindfolded
us,” Cabal recollects the hair-raising moments. She moves on with
her tale, “We were then asked to board a vehicle and it just
seemed to take us to nowhere for about 30 to 45 minutes. She
estimates that the rendezvous point was not very far from the place
where the armed men picked them up. “They were frighteningly
fidgety too,” comments Cabal adding, “when they noticed that one
of my crewmembers had an MP3 player on, they hollered, “Ano yan?
Ano yan? [What’s that thing? What’s that thing?].”
She remembers nervously reprimanding her
subordinate to put off the gadget. During those moments when she
didn’t know what would transpire next, Cabal admits she felt a
tinge of guilt for bringing her crew in such a dangerous situation.
“I’m single, but most of them have families to support,” she
points out. The ordeal ended when Cabal finally heard the voice of
Garcillano and she finally bagged an exclusive interview.
Though the beautiful reporter doesn’t mind the
danger that her job entails, she stresses that journalists should
know when to draw the line. Pertaining to the recent Manila
Peninsula siege, Cabal opines that reporters should be responsible
not to obstruct police and military operations though she doesn’t
blame her colleagues who were caught up in the mess. “They say
that the atmosphere inside the hotel was relatively calm but they
couldn’t tell whether the situation outside has gone from bad to
worst,” she says.
Cabal also recalls many light moments on the
job, too, the most recent of which happened while covering the Feast
of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo. “I was preparing to report live
when suddenly the steps that supported the platform where I stood
gave in, prompting me to let go a loud shriek,” she bursts into
laughter once more. She was fortunate to have emerged from that
incident unharmed.
Having proven her mettle through the years, all
seem well and good in Cabal’s career path. Yet, there’s a part
of her that refuses to rest on the comforts that come with success.
It is quite disconcerting to think that a woman of her beauty seems
lured to the sound of gunfire. “I‘ve always wanted to cover
war,” she says with a smile.
Cesar Apolinario: The best of both worlds
Cesar Apolinario straddles himself between two
worlds: that of a broadcast journalist and recently, that of a film
director. Armed with a degree in Communication Arts from the
University of Santo Tomas, he first learned the ropes of filmmaking
as a researcher and casting director in 1998, while connected with
the Mowelfund. Apolinario’s eye for creating images on screen came
in handy when GMA 7 hired him in 1999 as a researcher and cameraman
for the weekly documentary program I-Witness.
He was part of the team that produced the
episode titled “Bubungang Pangarap [Promised Shelter]” that
bagged the silver medal for TV documentary at the 2001 New York
Festival. The following years saw Apolinario venturing into news
reporting, getting one scoop after another for his network.
Recently at the 2007 Metro Manila Film Festival
(MMFF), he was named Best Director for his debut film Banal, a story
about policemen. The 35-year-old young father is generous with
praise for other entries in the MMFF, revealing that he can really
relate to the plot of the movie Katas ng Saudi because it reminded
him of his past as an overseas Filipino worker. “Doon ko naranasan
na tumutulo ang luha habang nagluluto ng hamburger dahil sa lungkot
[Tears were running down my cheeks as I flipped hamburgers],” he
recalls his lonely days as an 18-year-old food attendant in Bahrain.
It was perhaps such experiences that explain
Apolinario’s proclivity to feature stories enveloped in human
drama. He tells us that his coverage of the Payatas dumpsite tragedy
where 200 slum dwellers were buried in an avalanche of garbage
remains his most unforgettable to date. He shares that when
interviewing victims of such mishaps, it is inevitable for the
emotional distraught to rub off on him, “There were times that I
have to get out of the scene for a few minutes just to cry,” he
discloses.
Apolinario quickly adds that humor can find its
way even in some really depressing situations. Going back to his
coverage of the Payatas tragedy, he remembers a scenario when he was
interviewing a mother of one of the victims, “I was looking at the
camera and when I looked back at the subject, she was already
sprawled on the ground, unconscious.” Shocked, Apolinario blurted
out a four-letter cussword, which was caught on camera. After his
momentary lost of composure, Apolinario nursed the woman back to
consciousness and gave her food to eat learning that she passed out
because of hunger.
Apolinario has an uncanny nose for information
as one of his anecdotes proves. “It was rumored then that a group
of rebel soldiers in a stockade sported a common tattoo just below
their armpits,” he begins his story. “That rumor has become a
sort of urban legend so I decided to find out and investigate.”
Apolinario eventually got a tip from one of his sources informing
him that the soldiers will be given a day-off to go swimming. He
wasted no time bringing his cameraman to the location. Their
strategy was simple—Apolinario will chat with the guard while his
cameraman will zoom in on the armpits of the half-naked soldiers. He
bagged the story and received commendation from superiors because of
the scoop.
There were more dangerous coverages though where
his life was put on the line. One of the most memorable happened
when he and a group of journalists were caught in a crossfire
between the government forces and members of the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front (MILF), who took with them more than a hundred
civilian hostages in Pasonanca, Zamboanga. Those were unnerving
moments for Apolinario as he shares that in addition to evading
hails of bullets, he had to divide his attention answering frantic
calls from his wife and superiors. Though having seen the end of the
barrel of a gun, he shares the same opinion with Cabal that
reporters should give their full cooperation to authorities during
police and military operations. “There’s no story worth dying
for,” stresses Apolinario, adding, “Mas marami pa akong
mahahanap na balita kung buhay ako kaysa patay [I obviously can find
better, more interesting stories being alive].” He also commended
GMA 7 for giving high premium on the safety of its human resources
rather than ratings.
Indeed, Cabal and Apolinario remain two of the
most credible reporters on TV, not to mention the other things they
could still discover that will give them career fulfillment and
personal happiness.
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