Fresh as a marigold

More than a decade ago, at a slum area somewhere in Tondo, a man took a knife, held his one-year-old nephew as hostage and demanded to personally speak with then Vice President Joseph Estrada. Amidst the crowd of reporters and policemen, a woman in her early twenties — naive-looking and simple — introduced herself as Estrada’s secretary. The woman, oblivious to the danger of standing just a few feet away from the armed man, acted as a negotiator and told the hostage-taker that Estrada was on his way. The man never got to talk to Estrada, the police fired at him when he started stabbing his nephew. The young boy, luckily, survived.

The story, however, didn’t end there. The woman, in reality, was not Estrada’s secretary; neither was she speaking at that moment with him. Rather, she was a neophyte news reporter for Radio Philippines Network. She pretended to be Estrada’s secretary to help the police buy more time. Today, Marigold Haber-Dunca holds the position of news and current affairs manager for RPN-9.

“If you’re a broadcast journalist, you have to be courageous and brave to go after the stories,” Marigold says. She recalls that once while covering a Mindoro earthquake that gave way to a deadly tidal wave, she almost chickened out. “I can stand having no lunch and getting all muddied up, but when they took me to a classroom full of bloated dead bodies, I was too overwhelmed.” It took 10 more takes before Marigold completed her report, but she did, because she knew that delivering the news was far more important than the shock of seeing a pile of corpses.

“You have to be aggressive, do all you can to get to the news,” she says. More importantly, a good reporter always has a nose for news.

And Marigold has more than enough experience to assert this. Starting out as a news writer for RPN-9 right after graduating cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in Mass Communication, she later became a news reporter covering beats ranging from the Senate to Malacañang, from PNP to FBI stories.

Currently, she co-anchors Newswatch’s first edition with former Sen. Orly Mercado. As news manager, Marigold is on top of everything at the news and current affairs department, be it administrative, operations or editorial.

“My work starts at 9 a.m., that’s when we discuss which stories are to be pursued. About 2:30 p.m., I meet with producers to finalize the line-up. Newswatch is at 5:30 p.m., after which I meet with my staff. Only after that can I go home,” she narrates.

“Still, when I’m at home, they call me to check for the lineup of the second edition, which airs at 11 p.m.,” she adds.

A very hectic schedule indeed, but Marigold is only too grateful. “More than being a profession, being a broadcast journalist is also a vocation — a vocation to serve the public’s need and right to information,” she says.

However, Marigold is aware that being the face that delivers information will ultimately make one a poster girl for other people. “To convey news and information through broadcasting, you have to look presentable to hold the viewer’s attention. If people give you that second look, then you can get your message across,” she explains.

“Just look at Hollywood,” she adds. Taking Angelina Jolie as an example, Marigold states that a large part of Angelina’s dependability as an ambassador of Goodwill for the United Nations is due to the fact that she’s one of the world’s most attractive women. “When you look above-average, you have a better chance and opportunity to be heard,” she says.

Hence, Marigold is very mindful of her appearance. She chooses her beauty products the same way she chooses news for the program lineup — efficiently and carefully. That’s why she makes sure that there’s a steady supply of reliable makeup products within her reach. Staples in her purse include Ever Bilena bronzer blush on, eyeliner and the almond body lotion, which she has been using for years.

“I’m loyal when it comes to beauty products. When one thing works for me, I stick to that product,” she says.

Practical purposes also play a big part in her choice of makeup. “I’m not very particular with which ones are the expensive brands and which are not,” she says. Marigold says Ever Bilena beauty products are very affordable yet they give her the same results as the branded ones.

 Marigold believes that tools to make women feel good about themselves should be made more accessible. “I don’t think there is one person who doesn’t have a very good physical attribute, even just one trait,” she says. Thus, she thinks that emphasizing that pretty yet neglected feature could bring changes to that person.

Having an Ever Bilena product around, any woman can definitely highlight a feature that works for them.

With the hectic pace of her work and a one-year-old son to take care of, Marigold is thankful that applying Ever Bilena is effortless. Her husband, Rainner, works in the US. “Being a mom now to Zachary Andre made me all the busier,” she says. A proud mother, Marigold is all too happy to share precious moments with her son. “I’m not a braggart when it comes to my work achievements but when it comes to my son, little things are milestones for me,” she says. That’s why her weekend is pretty much spent with her son. An exception only will be when there is big news on weekends. But Marigold doesn’t mind; in fact, even after more than 10 years in the broadcast industry, she’s still thrilled to be in this profession. “If there will be golden era for broadcasting, it will be today,” she says. Marigold is positive that RPN-9’s news and current affairs “will continue doing what it has been doing throughout the years, and that is presenting the news the way it is. We don’t gloat, we don’t sensationalize; we present the news as it really is.”

With this, people can be assured that in the years to come, Marigold Haber-Dunca, together with her team at RPN-9, will still be a force to reckon with in the news industry. And she will always have the pretty face to go with it.