A day in the life of a star TV reporter - STARBYTES by Butch Francisco

Aside from Jessica Soho, Channel 7 has another star female reporter in its news and public affairs department. She is Susan Enriquez who is in a general assignment beat, which means she can be made to cover any event — at any time of the day.

A journalism graduate of Lyceum, Susan has been with Channel 7 since 1989. At the height of the crisis in Mindanao last year, she was sent down south and lived like a hostage for a couple of days in an Abu Sayyaf lair along with other mediamen (one of them was Noli de Castro of ABS-CBN).

Food was scarce in the Abu Sayyaf camp. Initially, they were served sardines with rice — until they had to subsist on just soy sauce with rice. The situation got so bad that — one time — they had to snatch away a small can of sardines (with only the sauce left) from a helpless domestic cat.

When the media-men were finally allowed to leave the camp, Susan initially was asked to stay behind. One of the Abu Sayyaf leaders was said to have taken a fancy on her and wanted to make her an Abu Sayyaf bride. It was only through the intercession of Noli de Castro (bless him) that Susan was allowed to return home.

Today, Susan is one of the five reporters from Channel 7 being made to cover the impeachment trial against the President at the Senate.

One of the hassles of her job is the fact that she has to travel everyday to Manila from her house in Cabuyao, Laguna where she lives with her husband, Roy Enriquez (no – contrary to popular notion – she is not married to Mike Enriquez) and their eight-year-old daughter, Carla.

Below, we’ll follow a day in the life of Susan as she covers the impeachment trial against the President for Channel 7.

Susan normally wakes up at 7 a.m. As soon as she’s out of bed, she thanks the Lord for giving her another day. She also adds in her prayers "na sana maganda ang araw — at sana may magandang istorya na puedeng i-report."

Usually, it’s the househelp who cooks breakfast. But when she’s in the mood, she prepares the meal herself. And when she cooks, breakfast is always rice and scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes which is washed down with either calamansi or pineapple juice.

After breakfast, Susan takes a bath with her daughter and, later sees her husband off to work. Roy is with the PLDT in Calamba.

Susan leaves the house between 8 to 8:30 a.m. in her blue-green Toyota. When she’s not in the mood to drive, she parks the car at the bus terminal and commutes all the way to Buendia where she is fetched by the GMA-7 vehicle bound for the Senate.

The Channel 7 van also serves as a closet for the clothes she uses every time she has to face the camera. Actually, her clothes don’t really take up that much space in the GMA-7 vehicle since she only has two blazers there (a black one and a maroon one) and a bush jacket which she uses when she has to cover rallies. The two blazers stay in the van until these are good and ready for dry cleaning.

She gets to the Senate building between 10 and 10:30 a.m. (it’s really a long trip from Cabuyao). When she gets there, she proceeds to the press area where she goes over the morning papers.

As a reporter, she is supposed to go over at least five dailies. But she finds it sufficient enough to read just two (The Philippine STAR and another daily).

After she’s done with the papers, she checks on the day’s activities. Is the prosecution bringing in a new witness? Are there going to be rallies outside of the Senate?

By 11:30, lunch is served by Channel 7’s official caterer. Since the impeachment trial began last December, Channel 7 has been hiring a caterer to feed its more than 50 people (reporters, cameramen, audiomen, etc.) stationed at the Senate. (ABS-CBN served packed lunches to its crew.)

The GMA-7 catere sets up two long tables outside the Senate building. Lunch is always with sabaw — "kasi yun ang laging request namin."

Usually, they have sinigang na baboy or isda or sinampalukang manok. But once, they all had a grand feast when they were served blue marlin steak with steamed vegetables.

After lunch, she brushes her teeth, retouches her makeup and prepares for the 2 p.m. trial. According to Susan, the senators prefer to walk together to the Senate Hall.

Susan hardly enters the Senate Hall – "dahil hindi naman lahat ay pwedeng papasukin. " She waits outside "at baka may rally." One time, she had to elbow her way through the crowd just to be able to get statements from Dante Jimenez, Rosanna Fores and Bettina Aboitiz after they were sent out of the hall by Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago.

By 3:45, the Senate calls for a break and Susan uses this time to interview the senator-judges. Senator Raul Roco is her favorite because he is always very accommodating. After she’s done with her interviews, Susan runs down to where the caterer is for merienda — usually spaghetti, sotanghon or sandwiches.

At 5:45, the Senate calls for another break. She then grabs one of the senators for on-cam interviews.

But once the hearings resume, she sits down to write her story for the 8 p.m. broadcast of Saksi. Her stories are handwritten – "kasi mahirap sa laptop dahil nauubusan ng baterya." She has her story checked by one of the two GMA desk editors assigned at the Senate and then proceeds to do the voice-over at the Channel 7 OB van. After putting her story in the can, she still looks for other possible news stories within the vicinity of the Senate. Then it is time to go live on Saksi.

The minute she’s done with Saksi, she begins writing another story for Front Page.

If she has to go live on Front Page — like if the rallyists are holding a vigil outside of the Senate building — then she stays behind until way past 11 p.m.

After Front Page, she calls it a day and starts on her long trip back home to Cabuyao.

By the time she gets to their house at way past midnight, her daughter is already past asleep — "kaya breakfast na lang kami kung magkita." But such is the life of a broadcast journalist like Susan Enriquez.

And now that the impeachment trial is still ongoing, no one is allowed to take a leave or go on vacation.

On the part of Susan, she can’t wait for the impeachment trial to finish — no, not because she wants to take a vacation but so that the entire nation may finally move on.