Boo ChancoBoo Chanco joined ABS-CBN at 19 as a foreign affairs reporter. He went on to play a key role in the organization of the ABS-CBN News Channel in the mid-1990s, among other assignments. He was also active in the Public Relations Society of the Philippines, serving as a member of the board of directors in the 1970s. He retired as Lopez Holdings SVP for corporate communications in 2010. He writes a business column for the Philippine Star in addition to acting as consultant for Lopez Holdings PR.

I saw a spark and heard an explosion. At first I thought it was just some of our lights bursting as a slight drizzle fell on Plaza Miranda. Then there were more explosions and I saw people falling… many more scampering in all directions… and the stage collapsing with all the people on it. There was blood on the street… there were loud cries. The opposition rally was being bombed.

A momentary fear streaked across my mind as I thought that whoever is bombing the miting de avance wouldn’t want a television camera recording it. I was one of two anchors assigned to cover that night and I was right next to one of three or four cameras being used. I was on top of the roof of the Quiapo underpass. I was vulnerable. I was a sitting duck.

Should I run for safety or should I continue annotating the chaotic situation at the plaza? Tony Lozano, the other reporter situated at the stage, could no longer be reached. He was safe, we later found out, but at that very moment I had to make a decision, I was the only one left to continue with the live report.

I opted to stay. It was my voice that brought the carnage live to a shocked and horrified nation. Bahala na, I told myself. Running away to safety was out of the question. Danger, after all, was part of our job as field reporters for ABS-CBN News.

‘Just a day in our lives’
And after we wrapped up the live coverage at Plaza Miranda, we combed the hospitals for reports on the dead and wounded. When I finally got home towards dawn, my mother embraced me and said that when she heard my voice on the air, she thanked God I was alive. It was just a day in our lives, not that typical but not that unusual either. We routinely faced danger. Reporting on violent student demonstrations or riding on rickety air force helicopters at treetop level in Mindanao conflict zones could be pretty dangerous too.

I Plaza Mirandarealize that the work life of the typical Lopez Group employee is not as exciting and dangerous as the lives of the news reporters. But exciting or not, all of us have to approach each work day with a sense of duty. We are there for a reason… we signed up for the job to deliver something of value to the organization and to the people our organizations serve. And we are all given enough opportunity each work day to display our sense of duty. Often enough, we are called upon to put our jobs on the line in order to do what is right. It happened to me one afternoon many years after Plaza Miranda.

I was back at ABS-CBN News no longer as a news correspondent but as the vice president for news and public affairs and news director. I was summoned to the Benpres office of Geny Lopez because a management meeting was going on. Two of my subordinates were being accused of partiality to one of the presidential candidates. I knew they liked that candidate but I also knew they were professional enough to put personal preference aside when doing their work.

Never unfair to employees
I rushed to Benpres and on the way up to Geny’s office, I chanced on him in the elevator. In my eagerness to defend my subordinates, I said it is not fair to suspend them based on anonymous accusations. Geny looked at me and sternly said: “A Lopez is never unfair to his employee. If you will take responsibility for them, they don’t have to be suspended.” It was clear he was not pleased with me that afternoon. It didn’t occur to me that I accused him of being unfair. Long silence... the elevator door opens and I still didn’t know what hit me.

Wow. I thought my career with the Lopez Group was ended. I could have taken the easy way out and let my subordinates hang in the wind. But it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. We are after all a team and we swim or sink together. Sometimes, the sense of duty comes in the form of new assignments. In my case, the only thing constant was my employment with the Lopez Group. I had been assigned to the Manila Chronicle, ABS-CBN, SKYCable and the main holding company at various times.

I guess we all experienced being given new assignments we don’t particularly like. But bear in mind that your senior managers always know better. They know your skills and capabilities and they know the needs of the organizations.

Pioneering
I found the assignment to set up an all-news cable channel at SKYCable to be a waste of time. I didn’t see the point of going through all the trouble and expense of producing newscasts that could only be potentially seen by a handful of viewers. But Geny told me we must be pioneering and he was ready to invest big bucks in it. One day, the ABS-CBN News Channel was born.

The same thing is true with the assignment to handle corporate communications at the Benpres level. It was a time of exciting change and the Group was fast expanding to new areas in telecoms, tollways, water, property and even a hospital. We needed to deliver the message of the Lopez Group investing in businesses that improved the quality of lives of Filipinos. It just so happened that among the senior executives, it was just I who had previous experience in communicating a conglomerate’s message.

A sense of duty means you accept the challenge thrown at you and give it your best. There is no such thing as being beyond the call of duty. Duty is duty and it means getting the job done, even it means staying right where you are in the midst of a bloody carnage in a public plaza.