Remembering Bobby Nalzaro, Anol Mongaya
Passage
Remembering Bobby Nalzaro, Anol Mongaya
BY KEVIN A. LAGUNDA
September 2022
THE Cebu media community lost two prominent journalists in the year 2022. Pablito “Bobby” Nalzaro and Emmanuel “Anol” Mongaya.
Nalzaro passed away on March 17. He was 58. Mongaya’s death came three months later, on July 8. He was 61.
BOBBY NALZARO was primarily a broadcaster, news anchor and commentator on dySS radio t and GMA-7 television news personality. . He also wrote an opinion column in SunStar Cebu and SunStar Superbalita [Cebu].
Super Bobby — as he was was called by his colleagues and radio-TV and newspaper fans (to his enemies, he was simply Nalzaro) — was widely regarded as one of the most hard-hitting media personalities in Cebu. His stinging commentaries endeared him to most of his his listeners, especially the voiceless and the weak — taxi drivers, sidewalk vendors, the jobless – who cheer when Bobby thrashed the persons in power, said a feature in CJJ Magazine about the media celebrity. .
The Zamboanga native started as a print and radio reporter in the 1980s in his home province. He then transferred to Cebu where he bested other Bombo Radyo anchors nationwide when the network named him as its “best anchorman.”
ANOL MONGAYA began his exposure to the world of journalism in Cebu when his father, Eleodoro “Doroy” Mongaya (1931-1994), Philippines News Agency correspondent and f Cebu Daily Times editor, would take him to the paper’s newsroom and some news coverage. His father Doroy started as a reporter and soon became the editor of the Times during the Martial Law years. Because of the newsroom’s lack of manpower, Anol found himself helping out in some tasks, such as taking notes during basketball games and submitting the reports to his father, CJJ reported.
Anol was also a political activist during the waning years of the Marcos dictatorship. He was also a correspondent for the Union of Catholic Asian News and the Philippine News and Features while working as a writer for the social action office of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer or the Redemptorists Order in Cebu in the late 1980s. He joined Newstime Daily (now defunct) as a reporter in 1989, and he was later promoted as the newspaper’s managing editor.. In 1993, SunStar Cebu (then SunStar Daily) hired him as regions editor and later as one of the paper’s city editors. In 1994, he moved to the sister paper Superbalita [Cebu] as news editor, then as managing editor, until his retirement in 2010. Despite retiring early, Mongaya still wrote a regular column for Superbalita [Cebu].. His last column for the Cebuano-language paper came out July 3. It was titled, “Sayop sa Sotto report.” Mongaya had written columns for SunStar Cebu.
With his wife Doris, Mongaya co-founded PRWorks Inc., a public relations firm. Mongaya and SunStar Cebu opinion editor ter Candido “Bong” Wenceslo co-authored an investigative report, “Cebu City’s Sex Industry: Looking into a boom city’s ‘underside.’” The report was published in book form by Barefoot Media Initiative in 1997. Mongaya also wrote the history of Minglanilla town and Naga City, two local government units in southern Cebu, for the Cebu Provincial Government’s town history project.
Here are some of what their colleagues and friends remember of the two journalists.
Bobby Nalzaro
Bobby’s questions
Atty. Frank Malilong
It was a meeting that the SunStar general manager called to, among others, announce the paper’s policy directions. I was seated beside Bobby at a table around which Cheking Seares, Eddie Barrita, Michelle So, Ellie Espinosa, Nini Cabaero and other heavy hitters of SunStar Cebu also gathered.
As usually happens at the end of every GM speech, we were asked if we had any questions. We looked at each other, hoping that one would be brazen enough to raise his hand and ask the question that, I was sure, all of us wanted to ask but were too timid to do.
In the midst of the uneasy silence, Bobby rose, approached the microphone and said: “This question is from Atty. Malilong. Is there going to be a pay raise anytime soon for columnists?”
I nearly fell off my chair.
Bobby on a carabao’s back
Atty. Eddie Barrita
Our paths met because we were both columnists for Superbalita and SunStar..
What I will never forget is that, once in a lazy conversation, Bobby told me he’d like to go to Cabadiangan, the place [in Liloan, northern Cebu] where I was born.
When he finally had the chance to visit Cabadiangan, it wasn’t like he was dressed for a sortie in farm country. He was wearing white clothes and shoes and he looked exteremely white compared to my relatives who were constantly, as farm workers, exposed to the sun.
But he behaved as if he were also one of those living in the countryside. My father smiled when Super Bob said that at first, in his hometown in Barangay Olingan, Dipolog City [in Zamboanga del Norte], he would also ride a carabao.
I wanted him to try riding our carabao but the animal was coated with mud to prevent the flies from coming near it. Bobby’s white pants and T-shirt would get muddy. There was also the risk of him being gored by an animal not used to being near to a man in all white.
Unfiltered Bobby
Michelle P. So
Bobby wrote his column in SunStar Cebu and Superbalita [Cebu] lthe same way he would commentate in his radio program: unfiltered. Because of this, I was his frequent caller to feed him back with what we could print and what we had to edit out.
They wanted shots with him
Bong Wenceslao
I used to edit Nalzaro’s columns in English in SunStar. I should say he was a broadcaster first and foremost and was forced to write only by circumstance.
But what mattered was his popularity and insights, and his columns were thus accepted by Cebu readers. The time that I edited his columns was also the time that our paths intersected. It was when his popularity was at its peak.
He was what one would call an influencer way before influencers sprouted in social media. Sometime ago, I was invited to my friend Yody Sanchez’s birthday celebration in Barangay Busay.. Yody is a broadcaster himself and former chief of the barangay. The GMA station is in the barangay, so Bobby showed up. While we were downing beer in bottles, some of Yody’s neighbors approached us, asking to have themselves photographed with Bobby. Bobby obliged and posed with them. In settings like that, one would know who’s a celebrity and who’s not.
He called me ‘Miss Marey!’
Marit Stinus-Cabugon
“Miss Marey!” With stress on the last syllable to make my name sound French and thus exotic. That’s what Bobby Nalzaro called me, on air and face-to-face. Bobby had picked it up from former KBP Cebu chairperson Atty. Cynthia Barte. “Miss Marey” it was.
Bobby never failed to greet me on air if I sent him a text during his popular morning program on dySS. No matter how many text messages he received – it must have been quite a bunch – Bobby always read my messages and greeted me good morning.
The most memorable of greetings was during the 2014 Sinulog Grand Parade when I was in Ilocos Norte, celebrating my husband Francis’s birthday. Bobby was hosting GMA’s live coverage on TV. My father-in-law, a simple Ilocano farmer, was watching the coverage when Francis and I dropped by his house in the barrio. I sent Bobby a text not expecting that he would read it but lo and behold: He read it and greeted my father-in-law on live national television. My father-in-law was awestruck.
Silencing the garrulous wife
Atty. Deolito Alvarez
Two slaughterers were having conversation early morning in the abattoir in Barangay Lorega-San Miguel, Cebu City as they started the day sharpening their knives.
Butcher # 1 complained about his wife who each morning nags him over anything with which she can badger him. He said, “Pre, unsa man imong ikatambag ining akong asawa, Pre, nga pwerte ka yawyawan. Walay buntag nga dili mag sigi’g yawyaw og pangasaba nako.”
Butcher # 2 said, “Ang akong asawa, Pre, in-ana pod pwerte ka yawyawan. Ang akong buhaton kon mosugod na gani siya’g yawyaw, ako dayon ablihan ang radyo sa programa ni Super Bobby. Inig kabati sa akong asawa ni Super Bobby, mapugwat ang mata ug kalit mahilom – aron maminaw sa banat ni Super Bobby.”
He started young
Gloria Nalzaro-Ocho
Bobby showed passion for public speaking while still young. Not yet heavy enough to crash the dining table down, he’d stand on it and give a speech. I thought then that my younger brother would have a career using his speech skill and courage. We’re all glad it was media, not politics..
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Anol Mongaya
Student activist Anol
Bong Wenceslao
My friendship with Anol started when we both were swept by the second wave of student activism that hit the country in the late seventies and early eighties. I say it was the second wave because the first one happened in the late sixties and early seventies. In Cebu, the names associated with that wave were now retired judge Meinrado Paredes and lawyer Democrito Barcenas.
Anol was then a student of the University of San Carlos and I was with Southwestern University. I had organized then the campus group called Positive Thinkers Society or Posts, and formed a core group of five schoolmates, mostly from Mindanao. They got so aggressive that their talk eventually revolved around procuring firearms. In one indoor activity we attended, the speaker was the late lawyer Jose W. Diokno. Our group decided to have an audience with him.
After his speech, I wrote him a note asking if he would have an audience with us in the retreat house where he was staying. He agreed and so our group got onboard the car of one of our members. Anol insisted on joining us even if we barely knew him. Days after, we heard stories about our group being monitored. By whom, we didn’t have any knowledge about. We eventually got suspicious of Anol.
In return, we tried to get more information about him. It was then that I found out that we were virtually neighbors because we both lived on B. Rodriguez St. (our house was on B. Rodriguez Extension.) Our suspicions were eventually replaced by a friendship that, for me, extended even to when I worked in the media. Anol was among those who were behind my transfer to SunStar Cebu from The Freeman.
Anol was the first to plunge into traditional politics and build connections that I never could have. I only did so after I retired from my journalism work and I naturally sought his guidance by collaborating with him in some engagements. It’s sad that he passed away early.
Why we picked Anol
https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/371560/ang-pagsulpot-sa-superbalita
Sleeping spell
Michelle P. So
When Anol was managing editor of Superbalita Cebu, I sometimes caught him snoozing at work. When I took over the helm of Superbalita after he retired, I found myself snoozing at work just like him, and it embarrassed me. I began to think that some sleeping spell had been cast over the position of editor of Superbalita.
Books Anol Mongaya wrote for the Cebu Province project on histories of
towns and, with colleague Bong Wenceslao, on the sex trade in Cebu City.
Anol’s ringtone
Rogelio “Roger” Vallena
One evening, Sir Anol was obviously so tired while editing the main news stories. He dozed off and loudly snored. I took my phone, recorded his snore and I went to the comfort room. When I went back inside the newsroom, I took my phone and told him, “Sir Anol, nindot kaayo kog ringtone.” I played the recorded snore. He said, “Buang jud ka, Do!” And we both laughed.
Picking the right lead
Dr. Joseph Elvir Tubilan
I learned a lot from Sir Anol, especially on writing the news. Every time he read the story I submitted, he’d tell me which would be the better lead or “angle.” He’d explain why the lead he picked could grab people’s interest at once, high up in the story..
Changing the focus of the story could raise its value in relation to other stories of the day. Often, my story would be the Page 1 banner because of that. 