Arnold Clavio: A dangerous life

The death threats are common, so common he doesn’t feel the need to have bodyguards to protect himself. But the threats on his children’s safety are something he doesn’t take lightly.

That’s why Arnold Clavio is mum about where his children go to school. It’s the price he must pay for blowing the whistle on former NBI Assistant Director Samuel Ong, who revealed last year that he has the so-called "mother of all tapes" with purported conversations between President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and an election official.

That story opened a Pandora’s box for the Arroyo government, and spawned the Hello Garci controversy.

Danger is something he has accepted as part of his job. Arnold knew Basilan was home to the Abu Sayyaf. But, like a good soldier obeying his commander (GMA 7), he went there to cover the hostage taking of several teachers by the Abu Sayyaf. Arnold got the scoop of a lifetime, gaining entry into the bandits’ lair and interviewing the captive teachers.

At that time, the network had yet to send a single journalist to the place where bombings are as common as its lush forests.

The scoop turned Arnold’s career around.

"I began being treated as a serious journalist. I began taking a new career path," he says.

There have been other exclusives since then. Arnold was the only news anchor to report live from the site of the Valentine’s Day bombing in 2005 that killed six people and injured many others in an instant.

This guy is no armchair journalist, no mere newsreader.

This, the Manila Rotary Club noticed and appreciated. Thus, they named Arnold Broadcast Journalist of the Year for Television, with GMA Network as TV Station of the Year and Howie Severino as Investigative Journalist of the Year for Television.

Does the award put pressure on the workaholic anchor of the long-running Saksi Liga ng Katotohanan?

Arnold shakes his head.

"Instead of pressuring me, it serves as an inspiration. The achievement is not just mine but the entire department’s. It makes everyone happy," he answers.

The glistening trophy is not the main come-on for him, Arnold adds. The respect of his colleagues is.

Arnold also happens to be one of the few broadcast journalists who can shed his serious persona and go light and easy on air. He sings and sways in a TV commercial and even cracks jokes with his co-anchors.

No need to put up a front. What you see is what you get.

"I’m just being myself," he says.

He even has a lookalike mascot, Igan, who lightens things up in his daily segment on the morning show Unang Hirit.

Igan is short for kaibigan. Arnold adopted the name from a real-life person whom he met in the province. The guy is distinguished in his hometown, and oh yes, a friend to all.

"Igan has no political affiliations. He is even a friend to his enemies," observes Arnold.

Thus, he adopted the name himself to show what he stands for in his job.

Thus, he has no political plans whatsoever. Arnold would rather roll his sleeves up and help people through his Igan ng Pilipinas Foundation, a non-profit group which helps sick and differently-abled children. The foundation also aids socio-civic organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Haribon Foundation.

Arnold holds golf and badminton tournaments to raise funds for the foundation’s projects.

The foundation is Arnold’s way of paying it forward. After all, not everyone who gets rejected by the seminary ("I can’t distinguish weeds from bermuda grass back then") gets a career he loves, and excels in, the way Arnold Clavio does.