Korina Sanchez on Erap, GMA, her pet gorilla & tsinelas

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. — Helen Keller

One of the country’s topnotch broadcast journalists,  ABS-CBN 2, ANC and DZMM radio host Korina Sanchez, is also the wife of Liberal Party leader and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas. Her Rated K is the top-rating magazine TV show on Sundays, and Korina is also the prime mover behind the unique socio-civic Tsinelas project which gives away free slippers to poor children nationwide.

A graduate of St. Theresa’s College in Quezon City and with a Communication Arts degree from Maryknoll College (now Miriam College), Korina has won numerous honors here and abroad such as the Gawad CCP Para sa Telebisyon, Community Outstanding Young Achievers Awards, Catholic Mass Media Awards, KBP Golden Dove Awards, PMPC Star Awards, ANAK TV Awards, UPLB Gandingan Awards, USTv Awards, and Ateneo de Davao Awards. The most notable was the Silver Medal from the New York World Festivals for Television in 2008 for her series of investigative reports.

Korina Sanchez recently gave STAR an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

PHILIPPINE STAR: Senator Grace Poe at a recent dinner told me that you are a very devoted wife, like hosting a small yet important dinner for your husband’s friends at the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). How is married life for a successful TV and radio journalist whose husband is now a top Cabinet secretary?

KORINA SANCHEZ: Well, first of all I appreciate Sen. Grace for thinking as much (laughs), but maybe we should ask my husband if he agrees that I am as virtuous!

It is a wonderful thing Mar and I met each other at middle age. We are whole in ourselves and, suddenly, a partner to share a life with is like icing on the cake... Like having a best friend, even when you don’t see each other for years, the connection is never lost. So, even if we are each immersed in separate worlds by day, when we get home at night, we are genuinely ordinary husband and wife. One hug and the time and distance apart is made up for, parang hindi naghiwalay.

You’re a journalist and your husband is a political leader. Do you often discuss the news or political issues over dinner?

We hardly ever talk shop. In our house, we both hardly look or act like a news anchor or a Cabinet secretary.

How do you and your husband manage your super-busy schedules and your many responsibilities? Do you at least get to rest on weekends?

We recently agreed to plan our weekends well. Like most people he wants personal me-time; so do I. Both our worlds are C-R-A-Z-Y. I think we deliberately and consciously make an effort to seek peace and balance. I see my life with Mar like a Woody Allen movie. Somewhat bizarre, but real. Often funny. Well, you really must have a sense of humor to survive it all.

Do you both have time for vacations?

Before I met Mar, I made sure to try to visit a country I’ve never been to every year on my birthday. Well, not anymore (laughs). I thrive on unfamiliar stimuli. My husband, in contrast, goes for the old reliable. So even in destinations, he prefers not to be frazzled by needing to see this or go there or buy that. His idea of a vacation is downtime, relaxing.

Where are your favorite vacation places in the past?

Mar’s family was forced to relocate to New York during martial law and he studied and worked there for a while. New York will always be his choice if he had time — which he doesn’t have much of anymore. He is mostly in disaster-prone areas since DILG. He hasn’t come home for days, still in Zamboanga now.

He is fortunate I’m the type who can and enjoys traveling alone. I travel a lot for work — so that helps take care of the itch. I found Prague beautiful. South Africa is a must for those who want to be excited about something other than eating and shopping — watching the animals is a different high. Dubai is just more, more. Amazing what money can make happen even in a desert.  Australia offers a surprisingly wide variety of food, music, vintage, sites — it is quaint and enormous all at once.

Mar and I love Japan and its small restaurants. He is amazed at the discipline of the Japanese.  We have also been to Idaho a few times where we did a nature trip in biking clothes.  

What are your dream vacation places for the future? Why?

I plan to get Mar into an African safari by hook or by crook. And before my knees conk out on me, the Holy Land. Dream vacation? Maybe anywhere — for at least three months? (laughs) 

You seemed to have become healthier and younger? Why and how did you change your looks?

Why, thank you! I set targets every year.  One of my projects for 2013 is really to lose weight. I avoided weighing for too long.  I was shocked to discover my weight when I accidentally stepped on a scale because I was estimating my luggage in a hotel room earlier this year.  I tried to “diet” for two weeks and lost only two pounds. My metabolism was dying. I needed something severe to shock my system.

I went straight to Cohen (diet) and enrolled in their program. I’ve lost 15 pounds so far and that is a big deal, considering I’m a small creature. After stabilizing this weight I’ll be going back to doing the gym, 45 minutes on the treadmill, 45 minutes of weights. You know, there’s no shortcut.

What are your other targets?

I love targets as much as I love lists! It’s about purpose, and I like living purpose-driven. For this year it is to take my French language classes seriously. I’m on that now. I am also, finally, taking up my masters in November — better late than never. That means I’ll have to go easier on my work schedule.

All these years, work had been the obstacle to furthering my studies as I’ve always been frontline. Ive spoken to the dean at the Ateneo and wala nang urungan ito (there’s really no turning back on this).  

I’m making a very important trip to India for a longtime planned project. Let’s see... I am also archiving all the old photos of my family and making an album copy for each member...  I’ve started fixing my will with my lawyer. I want to be prepared. Everything I own goes to someone... With the permission of my husband, of course. I’m wiping out my personal savings for either investment or to help with urgent necessities. I don’t see the point of leaving money to just sit somewhere when it should be growing... Or I can help someone or something with it. Fortunately, Mar has committed to never let me go hungry no matter what (laughs).

Who are your top five or 10 most unforgettable interview subjects and why?

That’s tough. So many of my interviews are with small people, unknowns.  But, their  stories are so amazing. Our magazine show on ABS CBN, Rated K, has been on air for eight years and we’ve not run out of material because of the wealth of stories of these “ordinary” people.  Truly, the big news is in small lives. There are some big names I can mention now, equally memorable.

To name 10:

1.” Alyas Nestor” — After the Hello Garci wiretap leaks against President Arroyo, he started giving me information about what he knew “about who was behind the leak, people who work within the walls of Malacañang.”  

In my last interview with him he said he had to get on tape, through me, “everything he knew”  because he was, by then, receiving threats to his life. Weeks later Alyas Nestor was dead — supposedly a vehicular accident while he was driving along the North Expressway.  I still doubt his cause of death. He was, at last, silenced.

2.  Cheche Geraldino — She was a housemaid since she was 20, born with only one leg and no hands.  She took her chances sending us a letter to tell her story. We helped Cheche get artificial limbs just so she could at least be more mobile. Well, she has since joined a mountaineers’ group and, today at 36,  Cheche has climbed several mountains, including Mt. Pulag in Benguet, the highest peak in Luzon.

3.  George and Giovanni Rubio — Two brothers from Lazi, Siquijor. George is a polio victim and could not walk on his own since he was three years old. So for all his life Giovanni, his younger brother, has carried George on his back — wherever his brother needs to go — all through school, their daily lives and now to work as adults. I have never seen this level of devotion between siblings. 

4.  Dr. Mahathir Mohammad — After his 20-year rule as Malaysia’s Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir mandated an interview show aired on Malaysian TV composed of journalists only from Asia. He wanted “world news from the Asian eye.”  I represented the Philippines in this limited engagement.  I could not forget him saying, “I wonder how you intend to do it for the Philippines? I saw only the beginnings of the fruits of what I planted after six years in office. In your country, you change Presidents every six years…”

5. East Timor President Xanana Gusmao — In  2002, East Timor had just survived a violent, armed revolution. President Gusmao had just been newly installed.  When we arrived at the city, almost all of the buildings were bullet-riddled, there was no currency to speak of — so you could not buy anything. We were billeted in a boat.  At that point you wonder how a country so small and so battered can hope to flourish in their newfound independence and infant democracy from Ground Zero. Gusmao said as much: “When there is nothing else, there is hope.” 

6.   Thalia and Fernando Carillo — It was a double-whammy prize-winning catch. I was then President Estrada’s State Visit to the US. And my staff and I thought to interview Thalia and Fernando; at the time they were the hottest stars on television because of the phenomenal showing of Rosalinda the Mexican telenovela. It was a long shot. Lo and behold, their publicists agreed to the interview! I flew to New York for Thalia and flew to Miami for Fernando.  Tiring, but, wow! That week Balitang K rated almost 40 percent every day.

7. President Gloria Arroyo after the Hello, Garci scandal — That particular interview in Malacañang was the only one she was giving at the height of that scandal. She was nervous. She looked vulnerable. She whispered something to me, a request. The only response I could give her was: “Mrs. President,  just smile.”

8.  President Erap Estrada in Malacañang shortly before he left the Palace — Angelo Castro, Jr. and I went to Malacañang to try to interview President Estrada after the “exodus” of valued Cabinet members following the commencement of the impeachment trial. He sat beside us and received a call from yet another Cabinet member who was explaining to him why he was tendering his resignation. It sounded like Erap graciously accepted the explanation. He smiled at us and said, “These are the realities of politics which I have to respect. They have to survive this and I understand...”.  He didn’t grant an interview for airing.  But witnessing that dark moment in the Estrada presidency is something both Angelo and I never forgot.

9.  MILF chairman Al Haj Murad in Camp Darapanan at the height  of tension during a peace negotiation standoff — I have friends who are close with the MILF leadership. I asked for the interview but didn’t think they would agree. Then they did. I went to Jolo without telling my then fiance Mar — and he was livid! Ces Drilon’s kidnapping by the Abu Sayyaf was still fresh in my mind and that thought certainly didn’t help when we were traveling from the hotel to the main camp for the interview.

Upon entering with armed soldiers and greeted by a coterie of equally armed soldiers, the smile on the face of Al Haj Murad emerging from his quarters afforded me a sigh of relief. He was friendly, fatherly, open, firm but, most importantly at the time, hopeful about a workable peace agreement. A few years later, when Al Haj Murad and the legitimate MILF stepped on the premises of Malacañang for the first time in history to meet with P-Noy, tears welled in my eyes.

10. Michael Cinco — Gay actors, gay designers, they are always so much fun to talk with. I was a bit intimidated by the hype about Michael Cinco, this big-shot Pinoy designer who made it huge in Dubai catering to royalty, no less. And when I saw his creations on mannequins on our interview set I told myself,  this guy’s the real thing. How refreshing that even while his clothes are worn by Hollywood superstars he remains a true Waray at heart.

Who are the three people on earth whom you want to interview for your TV show Rated K?

I would want Pope Francis, the late Osama bin Laden’s successor terrorist leader of the Al Quaeda and American TV comedienne Tina Fey conversing with each other --- after downing a bottle of champagne each (laughs). I won’t have to ask a thing. I would just eavesdrop and get everything on tape.

How is your tsinelas or slippers advocacy, which you started in 2004?

Can you imagine children having to walk kilometers, even miles, of dirt road to school barefoot?  I know a family of nine siblings taking turns wearing the one pair of slippers they have in the family.  Our year’s target in the Handog Tsinelas campaign in ABS-CBN is to raise one million pairs by the end of 2013. So far we have less than half a million pairs already.

Civic organizations help us distribute and ordinary people call in to donate 10 pairs up to 10,000 pairs. People can call 0905-275-0220 for their donations and we will pick up.

What are your other advocacies?

I continue to work on Patients’ Rights and Responsibilities. Pending an over delay in legislation, I was working with the leadership of the Philippine Medical Association for a Memorandum of Agreement on how we could, together, promote safety in hospitals and against irresponsible medical practitioners or abusive patients. That was stalled for a while, but I have recently reconnected with the PMA and hoping to work with them again.

I am an advocate as well of disease prevention and natural remedies. Generally, I am very pro-charity. If everyone could channel their time and energy towards helping others, what a much better place this country would be to live in.

What are the reasons for the success of your longest-running primetime TV news show TV Patrol?

TV Patrol is iconic. It was born at a time when people were hungry for uncensored news reports after 20 years of controlled media. And in this fresh format post-Edsa Revolution, the anchors were given time at the end of every newscast to banter an editorial. People used to question the daily lineup. What, they asked, is the relevance of a story on a small prison brawl over who gets to use the last bar of soap first? TV Patrol is the mirror of the real Filipino and his real, daily life.

From Angelo Castro, Jr. and now to Ging Reyes at the helm of News and Current Affairs today, we carry on these traditions. As far as our network bosses — chairman Gabby Lopez and president Charo Santos Concio — are concerned, whoever are the people of TV Patrol there should always be the elements of genuineness, impartiality, urgency, accuracy, thoroughness, courage and love for country.

Please describe Noli de Castro? Also Ted Failon? How are they without the TV cameras?

The three of us have been friends for more than 20 years. I remember our younger days when ABS-CBN had just reopened.  I remember Ted sleeping in the drivers’ quarters at night, because he used to live all the way in Pampanga.  I remember Noli’s very first car, a light-colored Celeste. I remember those days when we were hungry and brazen and a bit arrogant.

Journalists then were like demi-gods of a sort and there was a tendency to believe the hype about it all. Since then there’ve been checks and balances. And with age, the three of us have considerably mellowed.

I heard that your first love was creative writing.

My creative writing is constantly in a state of arrested development. Nasisingit ko pa rin (I’m still able to squeeze it in) but it takes a lot for me to compose because, as my editor Joanne Ramirez once said to me, I give my writing a lot.  Still a work in progress.

I love language and its intricacies.  My mom and I used to do verbal exercises with synonyms just to broaden our vocabulary. I aim to be as proficient in French as I am in English or Tagalog. Good luck to me!

Of all your many awards and accomplishments, what are you most proud of?

I am always especially elated whenever there is a Catholic Mass Media Award; I am proud of my KBP Ka Doroy Broadcaster of the Year Award and from the Manila Rotary. I was particularly very encouraged by my wins in the New York Festival World Awards where, the first time I submitted works, all four entries won awards. I was 4th Best Field Correspondent and my investigative piece on substandard whitening pills flooding the Philippine market won the Silver.

Of my TV shows, I am quite proud of our Balitang K which ran five years and then Rated K which is now in its 8th year, leading the ratings consistently.  

What are your hobbies, or how do you relax or unwind?  

I do yoga, I go scuba diving, I love the beach.  I am a constant gardener — literally and figuratively, meaning I choose the plants in my garden and plant them myself if I have to.  I am also always busy de-cluttering.  I’ve also recently been collaborating with my nephew Bobby Ruiz who is a whiz in origami.  

I’m a late bloomer animal lover.  Mar and I now have a chocolate brown labrador named Goya. She has green eyes. And a brown toy schnauzer, Kolette, who everyone at home is crazy about.  They bring us so much joy.  I am planning to actively help support animal shelters like PAWS. My ambition is to put one up in Cebu.

I’m finding myself loving all animals. I even adopted a gorilla from Zimbabwe online.  I send funds regularly for her upkeep.

What was the worst crisis in your life, if any, and how did you overcome it?

Nothing is as seemingly insurmountable, painful and debilitating as illness and death in the family.  I’ve had three of those so far — my younger brother had leukemia when he was 19 and he died two years after the diagnosis.  My mother and father both died just months apart in 2004. My mother was too young at 64.  

What are the most unfair criticisms or accusations by critics? How do you answer them or react?

I make myself deliberately unaware of criticism that is ill-motivated, baseless or whimsical.   There’s too much of that out there where everyone has an opinion — and opinions can be planted, manufactured, orchestrated or even funded.  I never wanted to have X-ray vision or the ability to read minds. I can’t imagine peace that way.  

My work output is guided by company standards as it is regulated by law. My aired material goes through a whole step- by-step process that is approved by two or three people above me. Because I am married to a government official, my topics are limited.  But there is nothing partisan about good governance.

Why don’t you have Twitter or Instagram? Not even Facebook?

They do ask me that!  I tell them I would end up in jail! Honestly, I am fiercely private.

How is your DILG Secretary Mar Roxas as a husband? Any anecdotes or information that most people do not know about him?

He is the type to say: “Don’t answer that question, honey, you are a polluted source...of course you’re going to say nice things about me...”. 

Are you religious? Any thoughts about faith and God?

I’ve always been close to God in that I am constantly in conversation with Him. I will suddenly speak or think of Him in my thoughts, just to wonder or to complain or to ask or to thank. I try to listen to the answers which are, happily, many times revealed for me to understand my journey better. Sometimes the answers take a while. It’s a long journey in a very short life is what we all have.  

I am open to any faith that promotes love, peace, goodwill, discipline and charity. I don’t subscribe to exclusions. I believe in a Truth that encompasses all, is applicable to all.

* * *

Thanks for your feedback, all letters will be answered.  Send to willsoonflourish@gmail.com, follow on Twitter, Instagram and my Facebook page.