FMG: My boss, my friend

You have to have passion for what you do. If you want to have fun on Christmas, have fun. Don’t spend it with half the fun you want to have. That’s passion. That’s what Freddie Garcia is all about. Risqué, I would say when asked to describe his style. In this business when everything is fleeting, you have to be daring. You have to learn how to challenge and taunt your comfort zone. There’s a thin line between committing a mistake and making a brilliant move. And in that small space that separates the two lies brilliance. People like FMG always by force of gravity enjoy to navigate that narrow path!

Merry Christmas! Here is the conclusion of my special three-part tribute to FMG. Included are more quotes from the people who have worked with him.

• Cory Vidanes, Senior Vice President for Television

If you really count them, we meet only very few special people in our lifetime – people who shaped our hearts and inspired us to pursue our purpose in this world. To me, FMG counts as one of those few special people.

FMG is pure passion: passion for his career and passion for life. With this passion, he leads us as only a consummate master can: endless compassion with harsh discipline, gentle encouragement to face the toughest challenges – yes, like all geniuses, he is many forces in one, and I am lucky to be witness and student to his years of leadership.

The FMG I love is the mentor FMG, generously sharing trade secrets, and coaching us on strategies. The FMG I enjoy is the gregarious FMG, passing around red wine and risqué humor, and we are just one of the boys, chilling out after a hard day’s work as part of his beloved team. The FMG I fear is the FMG I face when I have budgets signed (he, he, he) or when ratings dip. He has an incomparable competitive spirit. The FMG I will never forget is the programming genius who also happens to be my most precious teacher and second father.

The industry will be hard put to find a person who can still fill in half of FMG’s shoes. ABS-CBN is where it is, at the center of the Filipino’s hearts, because FMG took it there. In turn, we at ABS-CBN, will keep you where you should always be, at the center of our hearts.

• Korina Sanchez, News anchor, TV Patrol and DZMM radio commentator

How do you summarize a lifetime in a few sentences? You don’t. So, I won’t. What I now say could never approximate Freddie Garcia’s achievements and contribution to the broadcast industry but rather, approximates what he has been to me and the 17 years he’d been part of my broadcast life. That period would be a fraction of his entire life. And his life is broadcast.

I first saw him walking through the makeshift halls of the newly-born ABS-CBN. Fresh from our dismal failure to "do it again" after President Cory Aquino returned the Channel 2 operating franchise to the Lopezes, word had it that he was the messiah who would resurrect us to heights of success we could only imagine – this Golden Boy of Television who rose from days of jeepney rides from Cavite, cheap thrills, maverick ways and an unusual sales charm that keep clients smitten and hooked. Freddie Garcia was certainly much more than a salesman.

Decades of genius brought him to the peak of the country’s largest and most successful network – ABS-CBN. I saw it happen. Yes, he was our messiah and everything he was reputed to be. Mr. Garcia is much more, though, than all of those programs he inspired, conceptualized and strategized to, not only win, but be part of Filipino culture. He is much more than all of us whom he plucked from obscurity, guided, molded and inspired to be the influence that we are, news and entertainment personalities alike, on society and in this country. He is much more than the pesos and centavos he brought to the company coffers and the pockets of the company’s thousands of employees.

He is Freddie – FMG to most of us. He will listen. He can’t stand tears so either he walks out of the room or cries with you. He shoots, then aims. But he makes that decision when one is called for. He makes a stand and he tries his best to be fair. With a mistake is an admission – even with an apology. He lives in mansions, rides in posh cars, wears a gold Rolex and Armani suits, but prefers to enjoy the company of down-to-earth conversation, provincial humor and the absence of pretension.

I am one of too many who may attempt with frustration to paint Mr. Garcia the way Renoir would and, still, those who don’t really know him will have only seen a silhouette. Suffice it to say that not having Freddie Garcia around and active in radio and TV is almost unimaginable – not because who he trained, molded and inspired will not be able to carry on. Simply said, they’ll never make ‘em the way he is. He will be missed and most sorely so. Surely, ABS-CBN’s loss would be some other lucky endeavor’s gain. Whoever and whatever has FMG’s attention is a happy place and a successful project. I sincerely doubt he’s about done with life and all it has to offer back to someone who has given it so much of himself.

From myself, who Freddie Garcia chose to host Magandang Umaga with Noli de Castro in the 1980’s, gave Hoy! Gising, radio, Balitang K, Morning Girls and, today, TV Patrol; who FMG personally helped at the height of my parents’ illnesses; who FMG defended and cheered up whenever a new lie was being spread about me in the papers; who to this day scolds me and praises me about work and personal decisions – what can I say, Sir, but – I thank God I was in broadcast when you were around.

• Ces Oreña-Drilon, Director, Business News, Host: Pipol (ABS-CBN) and Get Real (ANC)

FMG is a man who is not stingy with praise. One of my earliest memories of him was during my coverage of the 1989 coup, and he said, "Galing mo baby!" I would often hear the same phrase when he commends other people’s work. In news where people are always running after deadlines, chasing stories, there is often little room for praise or words of encouragement, but FMG was never too big to give them. And to a starting reporter like me, it made me beam with pride! Of course, when you do something bad, he would mince no words too but that’s another story.