Mel Tiangco Anchors ABS-CBN's TV Patrol in This 30-Year-Old Video Clip

Mel Tiangco is well-known to most viewers of Philippine television for anchoring GMA-7’s primetime newscast 24 Oras, which she’s been doing for 27 years. But there are those who remember her delivering the news for the rival network’s news program TV Patrol. 

Tiangco was actually an original news reader for ABS-CBN’s flagship primetime newscast since it first aired in March 1987, about a year after the network resumed broadcasting after being shuttered during Martial Law. She read the news alongside Noli De Castro, Angelique Lazo, and the late Frankie Evangelista.

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Recently, a Redditor posted a short video of Tiangco behind the desk and delivering the news on TV Patrol. It was a repost of an earlier video from the social media pages of ABS-CBN. The throwback post shows two clips of the broadcast journalist, with her trademark short hair and glasses, reading news items of the day, including one about an air traffic controllers’ strike and another on the wife of a commander of the Red Scorpion Group criminal gang for the newscast’s “Lingkod Bayan” segment.

The clip was dated April 1993, although the first part referenced then-President Corazon Aquino, whose term ended in 1992.

Tiangco is one of the country’s most respected and well-known broadcasters. Her transfer from ABS-CBN to GMA made headlines when it was announced in 1996. The network suspended the broadcaster without pay a year prior for appearing in a laundry detergent commercial. Tiangco sued ABS-CBN for illegal suspension and illegal dismissal and the case dragged on for decades. It wasn’t until 2021 that the court ruled with finality, siding with ABS-CBN and junking her appeal.

Today Tiangco is still the main anchor of 24 Oras. She also hosts the drama program Magpakailanman.

Watch the news clip here:

A young Mel Tiangco anchoring TV Patrol, April 1993
by u/TangeloFluid765 in Philippines