Throughout her stellar career as one of the most respected broadcast journalists in the country, Mel Tiangco has probably delivered some of the most heartbreaking and sometimes upsetting stories on her primetime news program 24 Oras.

Yet no matter how unsettling the story is, Tita Mel has managed to deliver the news in a way that is as poignant as it is professional and unbiased.

Thus it came as such as surprise when the multi-awarded broadcaster became teary-eyed during the re-launch of her come backing drama anthology series Mag-pakailanman.

As clips from past episodes were shown to the audience, Tita Mel became quite emotional, prompting reporters to ask why she was in tears.

She initially explained that those were tears of happiness saying she was happy to be hosting the show once again. She later confessed, however, that those were also tears of hurt, from the pain she felt when the show was axed five years ago.

“I was living in denial, trying to hide the hurt,” she told The Manila Times in an interview after the press conference. “Parang, I had long denied the hurt inside, I refused to accept the fact that I was hurting all those years,” she began to explain.

“You know, everything that comes into my life, I try to condition my mind na lahat kaya ko. That everything was just mind over matter; na it was just a show, para nga when its gone I won’t get too affected. I thought I had put up my defenses but when it [AVP] was shown, the emotions just all came back, and I realized just how much it meant to me.”

The first Magpakailanman ended its run in December 2007 with reruns until January of the following year. For its whole run, it aired more than 200 episodes about the different lives of celebrities and was reported to have amassed TV ratings that was said to have bested its competitor Maalaala Mo Kaya. Along the way, it earned various awards like Best Drama Series from the Catholic Mass Media Awards and Anak TV; and acting awards for the likes of Noni Buencamino who won the Best Actor at the 2005 Asian Television Awards, and Best Actress for Sunshine Dizon at the 2004 PMPC Star Awards for TV. Despite all the recognition, the show was canceled to Tita Mel’s surprise.

As to what made her accept the job again, she revealed that she had set certain conditions for GMA Entertainment TV Group. In fact, she said “No” when Magpakailanman was first offered to her again since she had gotten used to life without the show and had moved on.

However, the network asked her what her conditions were and she and she gave the following: “I wanted to see new elements, which were very important for me. I wanted to see more of Mel Tiangco—my persona on the show. First and foremost as a news personality I want elements of news. As a public servant, I want that element also. Ito ang mga pagbabagong pagsisikapan namin na incorporate sa Magpakailanman.”

Her goal too is to make the show more dynamic and informative. Besides interviewing the episode’s subject, the show will have resource persons relevant to respective topics for their viewers to learn.

On Wednesday night, 24 Oras reported that YouTube sensation Zendee, who was recently featured in the US talk show Ellen, will be the subject of the pilot episode.

Magpakailanman premieres tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. on GMA 7.

WITH A REPORT FROM W.M. BELEN