Ging Reyes, from the 14th floor

Manila, Philippines - On a clear day and if you look hard enough, from the 14th floor of the Eugenio Lopez Communications Center building on Mother Ignacia you can perhaps see the nearby Channel 4, where 25 years ago just after the first EDSA revolution, the reconstructed ABS-CBN had shared office and Regina “Ging” Reyes learned the ropes of the broadcasting trade as a production assistant.

Those were heady days, says Ging, who is now news and current affairs division (NCAD) head of ABS-CBN since last October, though she’s not sure if they were the good old as opposed to the bad old days, as they had only “squatted” in the government station’s compound. Her official designation was PA but eventually she became all around – revising and editing scripts, reporting, buying the afternoon tabloids at a corner of Quezon Avenue for her boss Butch Raquel.

“I applied at the old Chronicle building in Ortigas with a friend,” she says over lunch at a restaurant on the 14th floor. She was asked to apply by Angelo Castro, whom she worked with in Radyo Bandido. The broadcasting giant that had long lay dormant during the martial law years was rebuilding the empire, and Ging, broadcast com major from the UP College of Mass Communications, was to be part of it.

The big break came in 2002 when ABS-CBN decided to set up its North America bureau, and Ging was tapped to head it. The bureau focused on issues of Filipinos in America, as far as Canada up north, recruiting reporters in the cities. To date the bureau has some 70 reporters and correspondents, but actually only three full-time employees operating out of the strategic cities San Francisco (base), Los Angeles and New York. The bureau is now led by former reporter Nadia Trinidad, recently graduated from a fellowship at Stanford University.

ABS-CBN’s news and current affairs division head Ging Reyes at work.

“Marami (Many),” Ging says, when asked what were the interesting stories she covered during her eight years in America. She mentions in particular her interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington just after the death of former President Cory Aquino in 2009, the elections in 2004 and 2008, and of course the veterans issues. She describes President Barack Obama as “charismatic,” though she notes wryly that Filipinos arrive in America as Democrats, and settle in the country as Republicans.

Now with her return of a homegrown kapamilya, Ging says she still has to adjust to a new environment, to “the bigness of the ABS-CBN” compound housing call centers and restaurants and security conscious turnstiles, as a number of the regular programs when she left in 2002 are no longer around – “People,” “Magandang Gabi Bayan,” “Inside Story.”

A lot of her friends, she says, left in 2005.

As NCAD head, she’s in charge of all the news that’s fit to broadcast or put online. From the different news programs on ANC, Studio 23, Channel 2 to the breaking ABS-CBN news online.

“ANC is a multi-platform environment,” she says. And though she embraces the new technology, Ging admits to not being a techie. “News media have to adjust to technology or be left behind.”

She says that whereas before breaking news was saved for “TV Patrol,” now it is put online, especially if it’s a constantly moving and developing story.

Ging also placed a noontime news program on Studio 23, to get a share of the audience with similar programs on GMA News TV and Channel 5’s Aksyon TV.

“Personal transition was not too difficult,” she says of her return to the Philippines. “Anyway, I am from here.”

The news and current affairs head leads a meeting

The conversation turns to journalism ethics and the hostage crisis situation last August that put media on the spot.

The general policy, she says, is to hold off for a day, if there are “security and life concerns” and after thorough consultation with the reporter, desk editor and head of production.

“Think 10 times before covering a hostage situation live,” she says, because there are things that cannot be controlled.

They’ve drafted some social media guidelines to keep the public reasonably informed without getting carried away by the scoop mentality, and which she describes as useful, powerful, but full of landmines.

She recalls a gas explosion once in the Bay Area, where the police line was extended meters away from the blast site, unlike the curious (usiosero) culture we’ve fostered here.

Ging is in favor of coverage of the Ampatuan and Ombudsman trials, recognizing the fact that media could influence public opinion, and help process the news by presenting different sides of the issue through talk shows where political analysts and representatives from opposing camps are invited.

She says people have very little say except for that one vote every so many years, that it becomes a duty to encourage the interactive partnership between the public and media.

“I saw the turnout in the last elections, people seemed to be getting involved,” she says.

On the recent pirating of their ranks by rival stations, Ging says, “Of course I’m trying to keep my people. I value them a lot, they’re my friends, but that’s the reality of the business.

Reyes with TV Patrol anchors Noli de Castro and Korina Sanchez

“I can’t stop the others from pirating my people. But I tell them they have opportunities here.”

Bong Osorio, who is sitting in, says the new kid on the block is on “investment mode.”

Ging says she reminds those who think of leaving of the values of the company, of the wide reach and impact to audience.

She says she herself came back to help, “part of service.”

“I’m still idealistic, tama ba yon? It may sound cliché and trite, but it’s still commitment to service.”

She says that before accepting the job to replace Maria Ressa, she had asked the big boss, “Will I have the same independence as Maria had?”

So no, she has never been told to go easy on a story, but just make sure to balance the story, ayusin ang pagbalanse. And not just alak, babae, sugal, cabaret, babae na naman.

And how do the administration and opposition react to the news from their corner?

“Sa awa ng Diyos, pareho silang galit sa amin,” she says – by God’s grace they’re both upset with ABS-CBN – the Palace thinks the station is too critical, while the others, few as they are, can’t help but be the usual fault finders.

But she says it’s a good time to be with the station, what with the developments in various parts of the world involving overseas Filipino workers, earthquakes and tsunamis, wars and rumors of wars, and invitations to a beheading or lethal injection.

“We want the OFWs’ story told from their perspective, invest our resources on global bureaus,” she says.

From the 14th floor of a building on Mother Ignacia, that vision is not too far-fetched, neither this late lunch with the news live, another page of history that has passed, bahagi na ng kasaysayan.