August 13, 2006 – (Manila) – In this country, where we often read stories that a journalist was ambushed in some remote part of the country, covering it and writing about it in the last three years is no longer an eye opener.
Often, when a journalist gets brutally killed in the Philippines, it usually comes with the questions; Who has done it this time? And, what did he say on-air to make him the next person in a long line of unsolved killings of journalists.
Late Sunday afternoon of this date, here comes a story where another group of journalist gets killed, not in the hands of a killer but an incident that makes no sense at all.
A television crew composed of three people from the Associated Broadcasting Company deployed from its national broadcast center in Metro Manila died while they were on their way home from a week-long provincial coverage.
Young reporter Hazel Richeta, along with cameraman Arnel Guiao and their driver Ishmael Cabugayan smashed into a bus head-on in the town of Pamplona (some 500 km southeast of Manila) in the province of Camarines Sur.
Some witnesses reported that the crew cab lost control and skidded, smashing to a south bound bus and cutting the smaller vehicle into two before it slid beneath the passenger bus.
Police operatives who rushed to the scene reported that the death was instant for Richeta and others and no one from the passengers of the bus got hurt.
This may seem to be a case of a typical road accident except in this case, the fatalities are colleagues from a television station but nonetheless, losing fellow journalists is such a distressing news.
Richeta has been in the broadcast news industry a little less than a decade or so and she gained her own level of recognition for reporting for ABC Channel 5 within that period of time that she has been on the limelight.
The ABC-5 crew was on their way home after doing a week long stake out on the possible eruption of Mount Mayon in Albay province.
We’ve covered similar events and situations before and the story is the same.
The wait for an eruption is often very long and the story gets depressing as the lens of the camera pans across hundreds of people cramped in evacuation centers, with their faces bearing the look of being lost and displaced.
Like anywhere else, the imminent occurrence of a disaster demands a lot for a TV crew who must come out with unique stories and accompanying video to provide the real drama that is actually happening, moving images and a good narration that goes beyond the usual statistics and pronouncements that “everything is under control.”
The death of the crew of ABC-5 brought a great concern to us, Nona Cueva, my boss-producer-friend in the last 15 years once worked for ABC-5 many years ago and together we were there when it was being brought back into operation after it was shut down during Martial Law in the 70s.
I started my career in broadcast news with ABC-5 and Nona was my immediate superior back then and little did I know, the two of us would become part of several efforts later in a similar situation setting-up operations for other news gathering projects, the same way we did start with ABC-5.
Upon receiving the report of the death of an ABC-5 crew, we were worried that it might have been one of our colleagues whom we worked with or trained before.
There was a sigh of relief that none of our old close friends were involved in the accident and it did not include the network’s News Director, Ed Lingao whom we consider a very dear friend to us, a fellow warrior in the trenches of Novaliches back then, where the ABC-5 studios are located.
Throughout the years, Nona, Ed and the others who started with ABC-5 stayed in close contact and we are in way, have been able to form our own set of relations and values so that we could actually call ourselves a “family.”
Hazel Richeta, Arnel Guiao and Ishmael Cabugayan may not have been part of the original crew of the ABC-5 News and Public Affairs, but nonetheless, they followed the footsteps we've left behind, and they are part of the “family” of journalists, esteemed colleagues who would be surely missed.
Often, when a journalist gets brutally killed in the Philippines, it usually comes with the questions; Who has done it this time? And, what did he say on-air to make him the next person in a long line of unsolved killings of journalists.
Late Sunday afternoon of this date, here comes a story where another group of journalist gets killed, not in the hands of a killer but an incident that makes no sense at all.
A television crew composed of three people from the Associated Broadcasting Company deployed from its national broadcast center in Metro Manila died while they were on their way home from a week-long provincial coverage.
Young reporter Hazel Richeta, along with cameraman Arnel Guiao and their driver Ishmael Cabugayan smashed into a bus head-on in the town of Pamplona (some 500 km southeast of Manila) in the province of Camarines Sur.
Some witnesses reported that the crew cab lost control and skidded, smashing to a south bound bus and cutting the smaller vehicle into two before it slid beneath the passenger bus.
Police operatives who rushed to the scene reported that the death was instant for Richeta and others and no one from the passengers of the bus got hurt.
This may seem to be a case of a typical road accident except in this case, the fatalities are colleagues from a television station but nonetheless, losing fellow journalists is such a distressing news.
Richeta has been in the broadcast news industry a little less than a decade or so and she gained her own level of recognition for reporting for ABC Channel 5 within that period of time that she has been on the limelight.
The ABC-5 crew was on their way home after doing a week long stake out on the possible eruption of Mount Mayon in Albay province.
We’ve covered similar events and situations before and the story is the same.
The wait for an eruption is often very long and the story gets depressing as the lens of the camera pans across hundreds of people cramped in evacuation centers, with their faces bearing the look of being lost and displaced.
Like anywhere else, the imminent occurrence of a disaster demands a lot for a TV crew who must come out with unique stories and accompanying video to provide the real drama that is actually happening, moving images and a good narration that goes beyond the usual statistics and pronouncements that “everything is under control.”
The death of the crew of ABC-5 brought a great concern to us, Nona Cueva, my boss-producer-friend in the last 15 years once worked for ABC-5 many years ago and together we were there when it was being brought back into operation after it was shut down during Martial Law in the 70s.
I started my career in broadcast news with ABC-5 and Nona was my immediate superior back then and little did I know, the two of us would become part of several efforts later in a similar situation setting-up operations for other news gathering projects, the same way we did start with ABC-5.
Upon receiving the report of the death of an ABC-5 crew, we were worried that it might have been one of our colleagues whom we worked with or trained before.
There was a sigh of relief that none of our old close friends were involved in the accident and it did not include the network’s News Director, Ed Lingao whom we consider a very dear friend to us, a fellow warrior in the trenches of Novaliches back then, where the ABC-5 studios are located.
Throughout the years, Nona, Ed and the others who started with ABC-5 stayed in close contact and we are in way, have been able to form our own set of relations and values so that we could actually call ourselves a “family.”
Hazel Richeta, Arnel Guiao and Ishmael Cabugayan may not have been part of the original crew of the ABC-5 News and Public Affairs, but nonetheless, they followed the footsteps we've left behind, and they are part of the “family” of journalists, esteemed colleagues who would be surely missed.
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