By Margarita D. De Pano
Photos by Leda A. Esguerra
Loved as much by both radio and tv, award-winning broadcast journalist Mike Enriquez shows no signs of slowing down
Inside GMA Network's modest yet well-stocked cafeteria, with his collar unbuttoned and a tray of coffee, puto (rice cake) and pancit (noodles) resting on his hands, television newscaster cum radio announcer Mike Enriquez is anything but gruff. His forceful, biting Tagalog, most manifested in "Imbestigador" and the early evening newscast "Saksi," has been toned down to smooth disk jockey levels. His hands shake, a bit of coffee spills, and the busboys freeze. He grins. Mike, hard-hitting broadcast journalist and senior vice president for GMA Network's radio division, has just done another one of his let's-pretend-I'm-going-to-fall-all-over-the-cafeteria tricks.
Mike's lunchtime humor is a breather for the staff. The boss, after all, is notorious for his moods. "Ay nako (Oh my) you won't like me," he laughs. Yet Mike dines with the rank-and-file as much as he does with company officers. "It's part of company building �- the bonding," he says. "Besides, I never looked at my staff as people to be ordered around. I look at them as people I work with to accomplish something."
And with them, he's accomplished quite a lot. Coming on board GMA in 1996 to expand and manage the network's radio business, Mike has since added 27 stations to GMA's previous four. Twenty-eight more are in various stages of completion. He admits, though, that construction slowed down a bit because of what happened with the economy. "It's harder, but we are long-term players so kahit paunti-unti tinatapos namin (we're trying to finish them bit by bit)," he says.
Mike has obviously found his niche. Yet before GMA, the fifty-year-old TV anchor has done virtually everything that one could possibly do within the media industry. "I've been a reporter, a writer, an editor, a floor director, a program director, a station manager, a general manager, a gofer, you name it. But my strongest passion," he says emphatically, "is radio."
BORN on September 29, 1951 in Sta. Ana, Manila, Miguel Castro Enriquez is the eldest in a brood of three. Curious and "destructive to a certain extent," Mike speaks of an active childhood. "I was the kind of child who tries to figure out how much pressure a phonographic record can take before it breaks," he laughs. "Every time I would visit them my relatives would shout, 'Go hide the breakables �- Miguel's here!"
Growing up, Mike divided his time between the streets and the community church. He and his barkada (gang) in Sta. Ana would play basketball in the plaza, serve Mass and sing in the choir. Sometimes they would get into fights. Mike would later dream of becoming a Franciscan priest. But when his parents refused to sign the consent sheet that would serve as his ticket to the seminary, he enrolled at De La Salle University (DLSU) as a liberal arts and commerce major instead. It was in there, during second year college, that Mike would stumble upon what was to be his life's work.
"I found radio by accident," he recalls. "Back then I wanted to be many things. I wanted to be a priest. I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to be a farmer. I wanted to be everything except a radio announcer." But "radio announcing" was exactly what he found himself doing in 1969.
A former classmate, who by then was already a junior announcer at the Manila Broadcasting Company, invited Mike to visit the station. "I visited him out of curiosity," he recalls. "And then he introduced me to their station manager as an applicant. Ako naman, sabi ko (I said) 'No -- I'm just here to visit you!'" It turns out Mike was tricked: MBC was understaffed, and unless they brought in a new guy, the employees won't get their days off. Says Mike, "My friend wasn't exactly doing me an act of kindness."
Nevertheless, he took the job. "I was 19, cocky and felt I had the whole world in front of me, so why not?," he says smiling. It took Mike a grand total of four days to realize that he was made for radio. "I did not think about whether or not I was going to make big money here, or I was going to be famous here -- no. I just said, 'Oh, I like this.'"
SINCE then, Mike Enriquez has had a long, inexorable love affair with radio. Before working for GMA Network, he served as vice president and board member of Radio Mindanao Network, general manager of FBS Radio Network, and worked intensively with the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (Association of Broadcasters in the Philippines). He taught Broadcast Management at DLSU, and currently hosts a two-hour radio program five days a week for DZBB.
When he broke into mainstream television in 1998, Mike seems to have been made for the medium as well. The Philippine Movie Press Club, the KBP and the Asian Television Awards over the years honored his gripping performance in "Saksi," and this year, the PMPC once again commended Mike and his investigative show, "Imbestigador," during the Star Awards for Movies and Television. The man has definitely arrived.
Yet like many good things, the fame and exposure have taken their toll on Mike. For in many ways, Mike remains the simple, private man that he used to be -- jarring commentary notwithstanding. He leads a quiet life in Sta. Ana with his wife, Lizabeth. He enjoys books, music, the beach and the amazing quiet of snorkeling most of all -- which he now hardly has any time for. "I stay because I love being part of people's lives," Mike concedes. "That, more than anything, keeps me going. It gives me immense fulfillment."
So how long is he going to keep doing it? "Well, I want to retire when I'm still relatively young and healthy," says Mike, who is a diabetic. "My dream is to slow down. Play more golf, read more, watch more movies, travel more, sleep more, stay home more..." Someday, instead of devoting two feet, two hands and his whole body to broadcast media, he plans to leave just one foot in. And given the kind of path he's blazed for himself all these years, Mike Enriquez won't leave feeling he hasn't given the industry his all.
"I'm lucky because I love my job, and blessed because it loves me; it has afforded me a lifestyle that isn't exactly wanting," he muses. "Since my wife and I are childless, our needs are very simple, our wants are very simple. We have a roof above our heads and a comfortable bed to sleep in. Okay na 'yon, di ba? (That's enough, right?)"
October 22, 2001
source: www.herword.com
