Soliven returns to ABS-CBN

A homecoming is usually a happy occasion of reminiscing and renewing old ties. It’s no different in the case of Max Soliven, who returns to his mother studio, ABS-CBN, as host of ANC’s newest talk show, "Impact 2004," which will air 8 to 9 p.m. every Friday starting Feb. 27, with replays five times a week.

Facing media yesterday at the Garden Café of EDSA Shangri-la Hotel, Soliven described his comeback to the station that aired his show, cut short by the declaration of martial law in 1972, as just that: a homecoming. This time the backdrop could be just as tumultuous: the coming elections.

After covering eight presidents and ten elections as a political expert and columnist, Soliven has a working knowledge of the main characters involved in the coming elections, which is the crux of Impact 2004.

For instance, he has known presidentiable Fernando Poe Jr., the guest on the show’s pilot episode, for years. They are, in fact, old buddies. This will make it easier for FPJ to open up during the show.

Another presidentiable, Raul Roco, has committed to be interviewed in a no-holds-barred episode.

As for President Arroyo, Soliven has known her since she was nine. Her father, former President Diosdado Macapagal, even offered Soliven a Cabinet position.

"I hope — in fact, I’m sure — they’ll open up to me when I talk to them, as an old friend, or even as an old adversary," says Soliven. ABS-CBN says that Soliven himself will have a "round robin" of popular TV co-hosts and anchors, like Pia Hontiveros, Pinky Webb, Ces Drilon, Karen Davila, and David Celdran, Impact supervising director and ANC director for current affairs.

"We hope to ask the questions and the guest will reveal themselves by the way they answer, the way they look, their body language. The show will strive to look into the soul of its guests," the STAR publisher added.

Soliven was wearing a yellow shirt underneath his tie and dark suit. When asked about it, he said he wanted to wear yellow that day in memory of his friend and cellmate, Ninoy Aquino.

"I prayed to him awhile ago," Soliven says. "He will always be my brother and hero!"

It was the national hero who gave Impact its defining moment 30 years ago — on Sept. 18, 1972 – when Ninoy, rushing to the studio shortly before the camera lights went on, revealed "Oplan Sagittarius," former President Ferdinand Marcos’ plan to declare martial law.

Four days later, the host and his guest were imprisoned and ABS-CBN was padlocked. That jarring exposé on Impact, Soliven recalled, must have hastened the martial law crackdown by two weeks to one month.

"When we were brought to Fort Bonifacio, they were not ready for us. There were no cots, no beds. They were not ready for us," recalls Soliven. "This led me to the impression that the discovery of the martial law plans (on the show) accelerated the imposition of martial law."

Today, with elections coming up and the need for the public to be informed about issues getting stronger than ever, ABS-CBN is banking on what Celdran describes as Soliven’s "original, irreverent, humorous, sharp and biting style" to deliver a round-table discussion on politics via Impact.

Dong Puno, ABS-CBN senior vice-president for news and current affairs, expressed high expectations for the show.

"Talk shows that came later were patterned in many ways after Impact," Puno says. "I remember how people would storm into the studio and start arguing with guests..."

As for the host’s dream subject, if he had a choice, it would be the late President Ramon Magsaysay, hands down. Soliven had idolized "The Guy," Monching Magsaysay, and had covered him in the anti-Huk campaign.

"I would ask him what the secret of his leadership was," says Soliven, and he would in turn say he got his inspiration from the late Don Benito Soliven, the former’s late father, who had been congressman from Ilocos Sur, then assemblyman. In fact, Magsaysay even went all the way from his native Zambales to visit Major Soliven when he lay dying in the PGH hospital, RM had recalled. Assemblyman Soliven, a reserved officer, had fought in Bataan, survived the Death March, spent five months in a prisoner-of-war camp in Capas, before being released by the Japanese from Old Bilibid when he was already dying of malaria.

Magsaysay had told Max: "I am trying to pattern my life after your father." On leadership, RM had emotionally spoken "about how the battle cannot be won by one person alone. How we all have to be together, fighting side by side."

Magsaysay’s words for the Filipinos still ring loud and clear for Soliven.

Soliven said Magsaysay called on the Filipino to do his best, and the nation rallied around him to give their best, as he had challenged.

"This is the magic of leadership that we sorely need today, as we move towards these turbulent elections."

Soliven hopes his ANC television show could contribute to helping enlighten our people to vote wisely and bravely, and choose the right men and women to take the lead.