Gene on (the) line

It takes one to know one.

Having been a print journalist himself, Gene Orejana, host and executive producer of the ANC news talkshow On Line (7:10 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday), confessed to being "very nervous" when he faced a dozen movie reporters in his first presscon ever since he quit newspapering for television.

As a journalist, Gene is used to asking the questions, but now the table had been turned.

Was Gene fidgety because the nosey movie writers might dig into his personal life?

"There’s nothing to dig up," Gene smiled nervously, glancing at his wife, fellow broadcast journalist (also of ABS-CBN, ANC’s sister company), who was seated two tables away, by her lonesome, at the Alex III Restaurant (Tomas Morato Avenue, Quezon City) where the lunch chit-chat was held. "My personal life is not interesting at all; hindi news material."

On his show (On Line, that is), Gene asks his guests all the questions, no matter if some of them hurt, about the issue at hand. Correction, please: Gene doesn’t just ask questions, he "grills" his guests, most of whom come out "crispy" and "well-done" when the show is over. These past six years, Gene has propelled On Line to the top of the ratings with his no-nonsense, no-holds-barred, hard-hitting and incisive hosting style, dissecting the issues without offending his guests.

Asked if he had received death threats, Gene said, "A few." Detractors (yes, he also has some) said that Gene had been bribed by influential figures with a house and lot, and/or a Benz, but Gene’s wife jokingly dismissed those mud-slingings by asking Gene, "O, kailan mo ako pasasakayin sa Benz mo? When will you invite me to your new house?"

On Line is practically a one-man show. Besides producing and hosting it, Gene does the dirty work himself, from deciding what issues to tackle to doing the research to inviting guests and resource persons. In short, Gene is ever on line.

Being in the thick of things, where the action is, is not new to Gene who saw (with his own eyes) and experienced the horrors of war during his growing-up years in Mindanao.

"Our family and those of many others were caught in the war between Muslims and Christians," recalled Gene who was born (July 17, 1962) and grew up in Iligan City. "I saw innocent people die, get killed. I experienced how it was to be on the run. Our family was among those being constantly evacuated; we lived in constant fear day and night. That’s why I hate war, I’m anti-war."

That kind of background has amply prepared Gene (Generoso Dacanay Orejana) for the diurnal pressure and demands when he worked first as a reporter-deskman for the Journal Group of Companies (1983), as stringer for the Philippine News Agency (1984), correspondent for Meutsche Presse Agentur (German Press Agency) also in 1984 while moonlighting as researcher-writer for Leverage International Consultants, Inc., reporter for Malaya (1985 to 1989), senior reporter for The Manila Times (1989 to 1992), senior news correspondent of ABC-Channel 5 (January 1992 to July 1992) and as reporter (for Hoy! Gising!) in December 1992 at ABS-CBN where he has stayed since then.

Gene studied grade school (1971 to 1975) at the Tibanga Seventh-Day Adventist School in Iligan City, elementary at St. Michael’s College (also in Iligan City) and high school at the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology. He tucked up a Masscom degree (1983) at the UP where he was sports reporter for the campus paper, The Collegian (1982-1983).

Currently the director of the ABS-CBN Integrated News and Current Affairs, Gene has garnered various awards and citations which have been a source of pride to both his family and fellow Mindanao residents, showing all and sundry that a small-town boy could succeed in the highly-competitive big city.

"There was a sudden turn in my family’s financial situation," admitted Gene, the fifth son of a lawyer (Silvestre Orejana and housewife Rosalina Orejana), "and I almost didn’t finish school. But through sheer determination and hard work, I managed to earn scholarships."

The values (honesty, hardwork, etc.) Gene learned from his parents are the same ones he and wife Rowena (who, like Gene, started as a printjournalist and ended up as a TV reporter) are instilling in their children (Josephine Rose, Juan Rafael, Julian Russell and Joshua Ryan).

As a journalist, especially in such a very visible medium as television, Gene knows that he can never, never please everybody, so he doesn’t try to.

"I must stand only for what is right, moral and legal," said Gene, "I must uphold press freedom at all times and what I believe is legally and morally right. Sorry na lang dun sa mga masasaktan in the process."

That’s Gene Orejana for you, always on (the) line.