ABS-CBN Entertainment Bureau Chief Mario V. Dumaual wins Best Entertainment Field Anchor

It paid off for Mario V. Dumaual’s hardworking and innovative vision that brought “Star News” of “TV Patrol” to its iconic place in the entertainment industry.

I vividly remember when I started with ABS-CBN in mid-1986 right after the EDSA Revolution when the Lopezes had recaptured its communications empire from the tyrannical Marcos rule.

I was doing entertainment beat and later editing the show biz pages of press freedom fighter Joe Burgos, Jr.’s “Masa,” a broadsheet in Filipino, when foreign news editor Myrna Castro-de la Torre asked me to cover show biz stories for ABS-CBN’s earlier news on primetime, “Balita Ngayon,” anchored by Angelique Lazo, Mel Tiangco and Robert Aravelo post-EDSA Revolt.

Castro-de la Torre, a former Philippine News Agency staff was moonlighting for ABS-CBN with ex-PNA colleagues Becky Cabral and Butch Raquel.

I was doing field reporting for Channel 2 while doing some production work for Boy C. de Guia and Lolit Solis’ “Scoop” in rival station Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation Channel 13 with Lhar Santiago, Pilar Mateo, Danny Vibas, Josie Mañago, Rino Fernan Silverio and Ronald Mendoza.

When ABS-CBN was repackaged and the broadcast marketing and trade team of Freddie Garcia and Rollie Cruz was employed by the Star Network, I was advised by Angelique to gather two more movie writers who could do TV news.

I immediately invited Mario and Joel Saracho to join in the new avenue since Dumaual was a graduate of Development Communication from UP Los Baños while Saracho was deskman for Burgos’ chain of newspapers.

We were met by then News and Current Affairs head Angelo Castro, Jr.

We were briefed of the reformat of “Balita Ngayon,” from the traditional news program to tabloid on air presentation with star news as one of the highlighted features.

So Mario and I, together with writer Francis Villacorta were assigned field reporters for “Star News” in an invigorated “TV Patrol” news organization. Saracho became our head writer.

Our team contributed immensely to the success of the new concept in newscasting.

I introduced a lot of new look to “Star News” aside from the hot stories we came out nightly. I did for the first time “ambush interview” when the reporting style was predominantly political and applied it to entertainment news gathering. I also pioneered in “stand upper,” a kind of reporting where the reporter intros and extros an item on cam right where the action is. I combined socio-political stories with entertainment news like the massive rally of progressive left-wing proponents against the Alsa Masa group of Mohammad Faizal, an action star who starred in the film “Alsa Masa,” a film which is anti-red.

Until I left ABS-CBN to put up a theater group in Quezon Province while doing print media, Mario was still keeping up with new techniques in TV reporting.

I am happy Mario was given the Best Entertainment Field Anchor by Gawad Tanglaw para sa Sining at Kultura to be bestowed on him on March 3, 2010 at the Jose Rizal University.

I feel I am part of his victory.

Cheers!