Excuse me po!

Many moons ago, in my Rhetoric and Communications class at university, I remember the time when one of our guest speakers in a class presentation was none other than the legendary Mike Enriquez. In those days, many of us were already regularly tuning in to the news on GMA 7 and, being young learners who were always on the lookout for catchy phrases and punchlines which we aspired to use in our class activities, we always turned to Mike for his brilliant efforts to keep the audience’s attention.

Mike explained to us the amount of time and energy he had to put in to make a telecast not only good but, more importantly, make essential information stick in the minds of millions of viewers who turned to his channel for help and truthful information on the daily events that affect our lives.

Having had the chance myself to broadcast and deliver the news nationwide many years later only made me recall that everything was easier said than done and that Sir Mike was right. It was not only important to be relevant but equally important to be heard. Needless to say, your delivery is only one thing — content is another.

Mike Enriquez was a veteran broadcast journalist who also at some point in his life became a broadcast management professor at De La Salle University. As I recall my experience during a class presentation, I clearly remember him being emphatic about how important it was for us to be consistent in creating our shows and that starting out is something we surely had to brace ourselves for, as the area of communication is serious business.

It wasn’t easy for Mike in those days; he told us about the tasks at hand and that broadcast most of all is about being absolutely prepared as people depend on the credibility of the news we bring out to the public. As young university students, one would tend to think that, for as long as you have your data on hand, everything else is easy and while that may be true up to a certain extent, our very first encounter with Mike taught us to pay good attention to the other crucial elements such as timeliness, impact and human interest – all of which make a show worth watching.

The best news stories are about people, as Mike Enriquez said way back when, as news stories dealt with real issues and problems in the world. This is where his other catch phrase comes to mind and we will never forget the words — “Hindi namin kayo tatantanan.”

Mike Enriquez was one of the most recognizable faces of Philippine broadcast media, so much so that his relevance to me (and surely many of us) in the late nineties up until now remained the same as he continued to be a dependable part of our media lives for decades. Surely, many of us can certainly agree that with more than 50 years of experience in the broadcast industry, Mike Enriquez has been to the moon and back and regardless of the pressure of the job, as he told us once, you must always be ready. It’s therefore not surprising that Mike gained the trust of Filipinos everywhere.

It truly is sad to say goodbye to such a phenomenal player in our industry, especially in the field of radio broadcasting which I believe was always his first love. As we say our good-byes to an exceptionally talented professional, we in turn thank you for the lessons, Sir. Your legacy will continue on through our journey as dutiful media practitioners in the field. May you rest in God’s peace.