Star witness Edgar Matobato was the center of attention in last Thursday’s Senate hearings on extrajudicial killings. Live coverage on TV and radio was provided by a majority of outlets, save for News5. (Photo credit: The Philippine Star)
It was a busy three days for the Philippines’ top news outfits.
On September 20 and 21, the House of Representative conducted a nine-to-ten hour hearing regarding the drug trade inside the New Bilibid Prisons. Then on September 22, the Senate conducted two hearings, one involving the use of emergency powers to combat traffic, and the other the continuation of the hearings on extrajudicial killings.
In between, President Rodrigo Duterte appeared on live television to address his own concerns regarding the presence of American troops in Mindanao, and the United Nations’ continued intervention in his war against drugs. The President gave his speech in front of the country’s hard-working soldiers in Mindanao.
Then there is the urgent coverage of an apparent hijack inside a Saudia Airlines place at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, which turned out to be a false alarm. Finally, a press conference involving Lt. Col. Ferdinand Marcelino was also aired live.
In those three days, the usual suspects were there to cover them all: the ABS-CBN News Channel, DZMM TeleRadyo, CNN Philippines, and the government-owned PTV-4. Surprisingly, the oft-criticized GMA News TV, infamous for their apparent unwillingness to cover various live events, joined in the act as well, alongside DZBB.
The same cannot be said for News5, however. Although they managed to broadcast the live feed of the said events online, TV coverage proved to be mostly non-existent.
Though AksyonTV, now more known for sports coverage than news, covered the first day of the NBP probe, they failed to do so on the second day, in large part to their own sports programming. The network also failed to air the live coverage of the two Senate hearings as well, also for the love of sports.
Which leads to the worst culprit of them all: Radyo5 92.3 News FM. While a majority of the AM radio stations covered the three-day live-a-thon, Radyo5 chose to air their regular programming instead of following the action (Wednesday’s events was excusable because of the PBA).
This act of reprehensible proportions only served to add insult to injury to News5. If losing some of their top personalities is not enough, what more is their increasing unwillingness to cover important live events as it happens.
As it stands now, it is clear that the ship TV5 is steering continues to sink further and further. There is nothing more to say about this, other than the hope that they can start over anew.
To Luchi Cruz-Valdes and Gladys Lana-Lucas, perhaps it’s time for an explanation. This has gone too far, and Kapatid followers deserve better than this.
The House and Senate hearings are expected to continue this week. Still, it remains to be seen whether or not News5 can finally commit themselves to a multi-platform broadcast of these events.
From the Tube 
So far today, no word from News5 of who will replace Ma’am Luchi Cruz-Valdez as she will resign as News5 Chief this month, coincident with the resignation of Mr. Neil Lorenzana as TV5 President and CEO.
Will the incoming OIC President Chot Reyes act upon the loss of the head of the TV5 news department (as well as the entertainment department, which will have their possibility of revival coming New Year 2017 according to the recent news post from PEP)?
I don’t think Chot Reyes is competent enough. He is a basketball coach, not a media guru. He is no Gabby Lopez in our book. Also, TV5 should let go of Gladys Lana-Lucas. She hasn’t done a great job maintaining Radyo5, with so many vacant slots and her inability to replace those who left the station.
Correct, as it is.
Since May, Radyo5 has lost the following hosts:
Martin Andanar
Cherie Mercado
Anthony Pangilinan
Benjie Felipe
Even Ben Tulfo could leave the station as he is set to host a public service show on UNTV this October. Clearly, Gladys is in the hot seat for her lack of urgency. I had high hopes for Radyo5 when they started, but now, it is obvious that they won’t be a match to either DZMM or DZBB even though they’re in the FM band.
Let me get some puntos de vista (points of view) over what happened last week:
It was full of drama with a thickening plot, more realistic than those in teleseryes you promoted.
* Sept 19: Sen Cayetano’s privilege speech triggers Sen. Leila de Lima’s walkout, Sen. Manny Pacquiao’s successful motion to vacate her as the chair.
* Sept 20: GMA News TV juggled the most hours of live coverage with split screens. From Sen. LDL’s response to the ongoing House probe, Du30’s consistent firing against her and the world with profanity and the Saudia plane incident. It was a miracle for Channel 11.
* Sept 21: House probe continues. News TV did it again. In print, Manila Standard gets a new low for the headline.
* Sept 22: Media briefing of Sen. LDL in the AM, calls it a zarzuela. Matobato came back to clear his mind under the new chair, Sen. Dick Gordon and layout as Trillanes and de Lima continued to stay in hearing. Ch. 11, again, was on the scene. It was good.
That all being said, Direk Joey indeed coined it as a Gobyernobela.
Indeed, it’s a CHEERS to News TV for this lucid coverage. JEERS to Aksyon TV. Thank God for the former that they sacrificed Koreanovelas in the midafternoon. The latter should’ve quit airing home shopping at the moment.
Ugh, Kevin Trinidad was right all along, MVP’s MediaQuest is MediaMessed; TV5 is TV-Dived.
On a personal note: It’s a good thing you’re not an escapist over the nation’s issues but you prefer not to share your opinion over it and publish it immediately or it can lure the lynch mob. If you haven’t published this article, you would’ve published the entry of the One Year Club of Ang Probinsyano. Well, more on that tomorrow (well, hopefully 😉 ).
News TV sort of rebounded after their no-show of the SONA last July and the various other events that they failed to cover live. In the meantime, AksyonTV is just a shell of its former self because of their increased emphasis in sports. Had there been a News5Network on Cignal, News5 would have committed to this slew of live events.
Alas, the blame is on Luchi and Gladys. It’s a bad decision on their part to keep Relasyon on air instead of giving way to said coverage. Such a shame.
Please also don’t notice that. This is AJ Sillo, a Kapuso fantard
I see.
Hahaha, First, after Luchi’s resignation, now Chot Reyes is taking over, and he might keep PBA, and ruin TV5’s entertainment, the sporting events, particularly the lower-scale ones, resisted their coverage of the Senate Hearings.
His background as a basketball coach won’t help TV5 save itself. They could suffer the same fate as IBC-13 if they keep this up.
MVP should just not acquire sports, and maybe let go of the PBA, or PBA should let go of the VHF-only airing, instead, what TV5 should do is to enhance signals.
Why don’t you go to TV5’s Mandaluyong station and list down your suggestions. Maybe you can be a worthy asset to them.
Well for me TV5 just f themselves with this palpak nga talaga nasa school ako nun inahantay coverage ng hearings sa 92.3 eh wala meron lng sa 102.7 indeed kaynanan talaga dito ibenta na ng TV5 baka masave pa sila.
Being the only news station on FM, Radyo5 should’ve done the right thing in airing this coverage live, especially for those who are using mobile devices. Kaso, Gladys proved to be a very foolish leader by airing regular shows in the said station. It’s a shame that Radyo5 fell so flat the same way TV5 did, all because of this non-commitment.
TV5 started it’s problems since June 2013 on entertainement when AKTV was withdrawn, causing them to be tagalizing US series, now the News caught up last May, when they lost anchors, and prioritized low-scale sports over this news coverage.
Not to mention, EZ Shop started airing in the 3-5 afternoon slot on AksyonTV, replacing the last hour of WSR and the first hour of Cristy Per Minute. It is also the reason why some of the matches in the recently-held Asian Women’s Volleyball Cup were aired in progress after that
Talk about a bad situation. News5, in particular AksyonTV and Radyo5, had a lot of promise a few years ago. Now they’re a shell of their former self. We’ll not be surprised if Gladys and even Cherry Bayle are fired and Luchi finally quits the network.
Yes they had been promising from 2011-13, but went down after AKTV ended, causing sporting events and shopping to take over.
Paulit-ulit ka naman. Pumunta ka na nga sa TV5 Media Center and submit your proposals, kung papayagan ka ni MVP, Luchi or si Chot Reyes.
Seriously, the problems keeps on coming for TV5. If they can’t find a good or great TV executive, they may not make a breakthrough as MVP predicted since acquiring the network 6 or 7 years ago.
I’ve already given up on them, to be honest. There’s just no hope.
After reading articles about TV5 here’s what the articles have said:
1) They’ll likely focus on the news and sports division next year.
2) And will likely be an alternative channel as they have fired VIVA as their entertainment head and won’t likely take big stars
On a side note, why don’t they take a chance on former ABS-CBN news exec Charie Villa (as of this writing I don’t know if she took the PTV4 post) as Luchi is about to resign maybe she will be what Armie is to CNN?
IDK if Charie will be of good use to TV5. Honestly, their news programming is pathetic. If they want to be an alternative channel, it’s best for them to stop copying the style of ABS and GMA.
I’d rather want to see purely all-English newscasts on the network, as well as the gradual elimination of the sensationalized news, just to keep with the ‘alternative’ theme.
@Jason: Charie Villa won’t sit on PTV and their news department due to her stance against extrajudicial killings and Marcos burial. She may take News5 but it will be dirty and difficult to handle, especially the notional bias in favor of the administration.
In any event, they need a fresh face to handle News5. Perhaps someone from their team of anchors not named Luchi will do.
Looks like Aksyon TV is now a useless news channel this year. No wonder.
About Radyo5, they’re nowhere close to DZBB, DZMM or DZRH on any time possible. They’re like the softer version of Brigada News FM (which long deserve a full-powered frequency in the Metro) music-wise but in terms of reach, Radyo5 is not even close to what Brigada has achieved.
Radyo5 would be better off as a traditional FM station. And since Slowdown is their typical filler show, they can just turn themselves into an adult contemporary station in the mold of Easy Rock or RJ 100. Gladys is simply a liability to the station.
Brigada deserves to be in a better frequency. But it won’t be easy, because everyone else will fight for their rights.
Reblogged this on Driven To Distraction and commented:
Well, that’s weird.
Another News5 correspondent joins the President’s herd of
spin doctorsas an assistant secretary for media relations (assistant ng spin doctors):http://www.medianewser.com/2016/10/mia-reyes-leaves-tv5-joins-duterte.html
More on that tomorrow, because the discussion will also involve Luchi’s decision to stay.