Daily morning show Ano Sa Palagay Nyo? Enters its second year

Combining information and public service is the wont of female commentators Ali Sotto and Pat-P Daza, who dauntlessly entered a male-dominated timeslot in the daily morning show, Ano Sa Palagay Nyo? (ASPN). To date, the program has successfully survived a year on the air and recently entered its second year on NET25.

“Aside from the program being informative and good vibes, we want it to be meaty and substantial,” offered Pat-P. “Hindi parang ampao na only on outside maganda, pero walang laman sa loob.”

“We hope that viewers can get information about the hottest issues,” she added. “Para mas maintindihan ng typical taxi driver or ni Aling Bebang or whoever is listening to us. You have to keep watching us, so that the show starts your day or your week right.”

Meanwhile, Ali insisted viewers need to watch ASPN because the time and work that they spent to present one show is no joke. “We devote two hours every morning, 8 to 10 a.m. to every show,” Ali granted. “The team of ASPN, how many meetings do we spend in a day?”

“We meet after the show, again at 4 p.m. Then, we will meet again before the show in the morning. We do three meetings for every show,” Ali continued. “We only rest on weekends. Even then, we monitor everything that has been happening around. For us, it’s a huge privilege that viewers watch us every morning. There are so many choices around, even on social media, the digital platforms.”

“Kailangan sulitin namin ang two hours that our audience spends with us. For those of you who listen to us, monitor us or watch us, we tackle all the pressing issues. We bring it down to the level that when I get home, I will ask my yaya if she watched the show and understood what we tackled. Para sa akin, kapag naintindihan ng kasambahay at taxi driver, masaya na ako. Because the issues can be so complicated sometimes.”

ASPN recently marked its first anniversary on air. The hosts have discussed controversial, sensitive and relevant topics, like rice and sugar shortage.

“A few months ago, we tackled the West Philippine Sea, that’s all ongoing,” Pat-P said. “Patuloy lahat ng problema sa bansa. Anything outstanding, it’s still a work in progress. Hindi natatapos. Most memorable, because of the pandemic, we rarely have studio guests. So, when it happens, we are both very happy. Nakikita mo ang guest mo. You see the nuances and expressions. Even if you say it’s on Zoom, it’s different when you can touch your guest.”

“When off-cam, you can still talk. We had Sec. Harry Roque, Sen. Imee Marcos, Loren Legarda. To me, when there’s a live studio guest, masaya ‘yun,” Pat-P further shared. “Aside from them being controversial or in the news, they also have topics that we can importantly tackle.”

The two hosts try to make each interview in-depth and worth listening to. “Top of mind is the chance to interview now-President Bongbong Marcos,” recalled Ali. “That, for me, was outstanding. Start of the interview pa lang, I honestly told him isa ako sa nag-march sa EDSA Revolution.”

“I said, like many of us who were there, I am willing to listen,” she added. “So, at that time Bongbong was our guest, nagtanong ako at nagtanong. Eventually, he was elected by 31 million Filipinos. Today, he is the leader of our country.”

Not surprisingly, Ali and Pat-P hardly clash in their opinions and in their working dynamics, despite the countless topics they tackled every day for the past one year.

“Buti na lang, hindi pa kami nagka-clash,” Pat-P allowed. “Si Ali, mahilig lang siyang magtanong, then, I’m caught off-guard. But more often, she’s the one who gets surprised by my answers. She never rattles me off. Instead, she’s the one who gets rattled when I answer her questions.”

Admittedly, Ali and Pat-P encountered topics that were very sensitive and divisive. “We always try to soften it, so more people can understand it. The sensitivity, more of educating people,” Pat-P explained.

There were topics that they found hard to discuss. “We work within a framework,” informed Ali. “We start and end the shows with a prayer and there are core values that we all adhere to. Sometimes, there are topics that we need to fight for, so it will be discussed.”

“Like if we talk about divorce or abortion. Kahit na ano ang faith mo, divorce is not allowed here in our country. The direction to us, when we tackle such sensitive issues, very strict ang mandate to us, which we all agree to,” Ali said.

“We don’t have difficulty at all going to the core values. I will not argue with that. So even if we discuss divorce, in the end, we still need to go back to the sanctity and unity of the family as a social unit. I don’t have problems with that. There are really issues that need to be discussed because we need guidance about how to tackle the topic at hand.”

What the management of NET25 appreciates about Ali and Pat-P, they are very easy to work with. “They communicate with us and even the production team,” said NET25 director of sales and marketing Caesar Vallejos. “They adhere to the policies. They are very open with us and they respect the values that we have.

“With the NET25 management, we are confident to say that we are giving Ali and Pat-P both creative and editorial freedom as much as possible. For a year that they have stayed with us, there were only about a maximum of three issues that we discussed,” he added.

“I appreciate both of them because of their openness to adhere to our values. We also want to cater to the sensibilities of our audience, regardless of religion or faith. Even if we are not a religious station, the people here at NET25 are very spiritual, because we want to respect the sensitivity of our audience.”