12 Former Reporters and Newscasters: Where Are They Now?
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Today news is delivered at a lightning-fast clip, delivered via social media channels often as they happen. But there was a time when we were all glued to our seats watching the news on TV at certain hours of the day.
Often the people delivering the news became celebrities in their own right. While some have pursued a broadcasting career until they retired, some chose to leave behind the hot studio lights in favor of other passions. Here are 12 former reporters and newscasters who graced our homes and then eventually left to lead relatively more normal lives.
1| Cristina Peczon
Cristina Peczon is a familiar name to many people who grew up in the ‘90s and early 2000s. She was a broadcast journalist who had stints in GMA Network and the former RPN-9, anchoring newscasts like GMA News Live, Business Today, PSE LIVE: The Stock Market Today, XYZ: Young Women's TV, and Interaction. She was also a field reporter who covered beats like Malacañang, Congress, Security and Defense, and Business. She most recently anchored Newswatch Now on the former RPN-9 until 2007.
Peczon graduated with a Communications degree from Ateneo De Manila University and also attended the Philippine School of Interior Design where she graduated in 2007.
After her broadcast career Peczon moved to the United States and started a family. She worked for a while with Crate & Barrel as a department manager and eventually pursued a new career as an interior designer. Today, she is a freelance interior designer and has worked on numerous residential projects both in her home in Southern California and in Manila, according to her LinkedIn page. She also used to write an interior design column for a local design publication.
2| Georgette Tengco
Georgette Tengco was a newscaster and executive producer at GMA Network where she anchored primetime newscasts from 1990 until the early 2000s. She left the network in 2003 and joined MTV Philippines as a content producer. After that she had various roles behind the camera locally and abroad, including stints at ABS-CBN as a director for music brand and development, CEO at Marianas Media in Guam, head of channel management at TV5 International, and vice president for channel management at Solar Entertainment Corp.
Tengco also served as director and business head for Sony Pictures TV Networks Asia, head of content and marketing for Philippines for the streaming company iflix, and president of Guam-based 7107 Media Inc. Today, she is Philippines country manager of Tencent-owned WeTV and iflix, according to her LinkedIn page.
3| Marga Ortigas
Marga Ortigas is a 25-year veteran of the broadcasting industry. A graduate of BA Communications from Ateneo De Manila University, she started her career in GMA Network as a reporter, producer, and newscaster. One of her first major stories was the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. She then spent time being mentored by Cheche Lazaro at Probe Productions before continuing her studies in the UK, where she completed an MA in Literature and criticism from the University of Greenwich.
Ortigas eventually joined CNN as a producer and reporter, where she spent time covering news in conflict areas, including Baghdad in Iraq. In 2005, she became a senior correspondent for Al Jazeera, where she spent the next 10 years covering news and producing stories all over the world.
Today, in addition to her broadcast work, Ortigas is also a published author, having written her first novel entitled The House on Calle Sombra, which was published by Penguin Random House Southeast Asia in December 2021. She also hosts a podcast on psychosocial issues and manages I, Migrant, “a multi-cultural online space intended to encourage conversation and a constructive exchange of ideas about the human experience,” according to her LinkedIn page.
4| Alex Alikpala
Alex Alikpala is perhaps best-known for her work anchoring the late-night newscast News Central on the defunct ABS-CBN UHF channel Studio 23. She also executive produced a reality drama program in 2009 called I Survived: Hindi Sumusuko ang Pinoy, which was hosted by Ces Drilon.
In 2016, Alikpala packed everything up and moved to Madrid, Spain after falling in love with the city on her first cross-country trip to Europe. As of 2021, she still occasionally contributes news pieces to her former network.
5| Risa Hontiveros
Risa Hontiveros is, of course, known today as a Senator, but she also spent time in front of the camera as a broadcast journalist. She anchored Headline Trese on the old IBC-13 channel before moving to GMA Network where she presented the late-night news program GMA Network News alongside Mari Kaimo and Marga Ortigas.
Hontiveros entered politics in 2004 when she became a party list representative of Akbayan. She ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Senate in 2010 and then again in 2013 before finally winning in 2016. She is up for reelection this year.
6| Gel Santos-Relos
Gel Santos-Relos is a 30-plus year veteran of the local broadcasting industry. After earning a degree in Broadcast Communication from the University of the Philippines, she joined ABS-CBN, where she became a household name. She has hosted numerous radio and TV programs for the Kapamilya Network, including Tatak Pilipino, Hoy!Gising, Compañero y Compañera, Pulso, Aksyon Balita, Headlines, TV Patrol, and Relos Reports and Dear Ate Gel for DZMM.
In 2001, she flew to the United States and was granted Permanent Resident status as an “Alien with Extraordinary Ability.” There she began a new career in real estate but also continued her broadcast work by contributing to ABS-CBN’s Balitang America newscast. Eventually she co-hosted the TV show Citizen Pinoy from 2005 to 2008 and then eventually anchored Balitang America, until the show stopped airing in 2019.
7| Gigi Grande
Gigi Grande joined ABS-CBN as a reporter in 1998. She’s been a daily beat reporter, contributing correspondent, and anchor for some of the network’s newscasts, most recently for the daily morning news program Mornings@ANC.
At the end of August 2020, she posted a tweet saying she was leaving the network after 24 years. She has since said that she has retired as a journalist.
8| Cathy Santillan
Cathy Santillan was a beauty pageant winner before venturing into broadcasting. She joined Bb. Pilipinas in 1979 and ended up placing second runner-up.
Santillan anchored RPN-9’s flagship English-language newscast NewsWatch Evening Cast in the 1990s. She has said in an interview that she didn’t consider it a career and just liked dressing up and reading the news. Not much can be found about Santillan on social media these days but she has presumably gone back to being a housewife and taking care of her family.
9| Gilbert Remulla
Gilbert Remulla is a member of the powerful Remulla clan of Cavite (His brother Jonvic is the current governor of the province). After graduating from the University of the Philippines, he joined ABS-CBN, first as a production assistant and then as a cub reporter. He occasionally anchored newscasts for the network in the 1990s until he left for New York to pursue an MA in International Affairs at Columbia University.
Remulla entered politics in 2001, running for representative of Cavite’s second district. He ran for a seat in the Senate in 2010 but lost. He ran again for the Lower House in 2013 but again lost to rival Abraham Tolentino. Today he lives a relatively quiet life with his wife and three daughters.
10| Carlos Valdes
Carlos “Itos” Valdes began his career at ABS-CBN in 1996 and spent time as a writer, reporter, newscaster, and producer before eventually taking on more roles behind the camera, including as business development officer and sales executive. In 2009, he moved to rival GMA Network where he was senior manager for operations of the Regional Network Group for about a year.
Valdes is also well-known for being the founding head of the National Cheerleading Competition. Today he runs software and systems startup BIMS Technologies Inc. as its president.
11| JV Villar
JV Villar was a reporter and news anchor for ABS-CBN in the late 1990s to mid-2000s. He filed stories for programs like Hoy Gising!, TV Patrol, The World Tonight, Pinoy Exposed, and Kakasa Ka Ba?
In 2005, Villar quietly flew to the U.S. and hasn’t looked back since. There he went back to school and studied nursing and also worked as a math and English tutor. Today he works as a medical frontliner in Houston, Texas. In an interview, he says he was married for five years but is now divorced.
12| Vivian Zalvidea
Vivian Zalvidea worked as a field reporter for ABS-CBN and occasionally sat behind the anchor’s desk for news bulletins. A graduate of the University of the Philippines, she covered everything from crime and natural disasters to diplomatic visits. Eventually she migrated to the United States, where she spent time as a producer for The Filipino Channel’s Balitang America, which was anchored by Gel Santos-Relos.
Zalvidea later left the broadcasting world and now heads a nonprofit called West Bay Pilipino Multi-Services Center, which helps Filipinos living in the Bay Area.
