Cheap oil prices, but no one can enjoy it
This is the week that I celebrate my 20th year in television. Actually, I officially celebrate it this coming Friday, March 27, as it was on this day in 2000 that my first-ever show on “Straight from the Sky” came out in SkyCable. My first guest was then Department of Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas. It was when he moved into his office in Makati that I was able to interview him with my first director, Ella de Leon, with a SkyCable Manila TV crew.
At that time, Mr. Angelo Verdan and Bhoybo Villanueva, manager of SkyCable, asked me to do a talk show. There were already personalities doing this like Bunny Pages, Serge Remonde, and Mayen Tan. A few months later, all these personalities stopped taping shows while I reached my first year on TV, which made history in Cebu as the first talk show to reach a year on local TV. Back then were many other TV channels doing lifestyle shows like RCTV and many others.
It was then that Villanueva told me that if I wanted to continue with my show I had to pay P20,000 per episode. It was then that I told them frankly that I wasn’t going to use this TV program for some political future preparation, and that that if they didn’t want the show anymore to give me two weeks’ notice to stop. I also told them that if I also no longer wanted to have a show, I would give them two weeks’ notice. That was the reality of those days, but SkyCable wanted me to continue. After all, I was the only one left doing it.
After my first interview with Mar Roxas I had him back three more times. My good friend Joel Mari Yu was my first guest in Cebu and he appeared so many times also. Another good friend, the late Mr. Robert “Bobby” Aboitiz, also appeared many times on my show. So too did Mr. Tourism, Bobby Joseph, and yes, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the late Renato Corona after he was removed from office. In all, we had 145 shows on “Straight from the Sky”.
So for this 20th celebration of “Straight from the Sky” we are going to do something that I have never done before; have myself interviewed on my own talk show. A first in my 20 years. Since I have been managing MyTV in the last eight years, I have created many other talk shows. So tonight, I’m having Mr. Mike Acebedo Lopez who does “Open Mike” on MyTV to interview me. Mr. Art Barritt of “My Politics” is the next fellow to interview me and finally the third person to interview me is Mr. Erik Espina of “Republika”, who was able to interview in on his talk show in Manila in 2010.
So watch this historic show tonight when three talk show hosts interview me on my 20th anniversary on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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Over the weekend, we observed that the traffic in Metro Cebu improved. Queues have disappeared and, best of all, the cost of fuel has dropped tremendously thanks to the fight between Saudi Arabia and Russia, which has now reduced the cost per barrel at US$30. It was said that Saudi Arabia must maintain an US$80 per barrel to be profitable, while Russia can go at US$40 per barrel. We expect that this would drop down to US$20 per barrel. This is great news except for the fact that the people in the world who should enjoy these greatly-reduced pump prices of fuel cannot enjoy it because of a global lockdown.
Today, fast food has been replaced by home-cooked food, the whole family is inside the house, something unseen for a long time. Best of all, people have become conscious of their health and hygiene, washing their hands every now and then. So how long are we going to continue living in this state? So far we have to continue living like this until after the Holy Week. Only then would we know whether we will continue living like this or not.
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