Luchi Cruz-Valdes News5 Chief’s dream interview, and why she never got one with PNoy

Luchi Cruz-Valdes has had the privilege of sitting down for one-on-ones with the Philippine presidents that came and went during her 43 years as a journalist. Except for one.

It wasn’t for lack of trying, but one she attributes to her “weakness” as an interviewer: the inability to put on a straight face or bite her tongue when she should have otherwise.

Listing off tips to students in “The Art of the Interview” during a forum Wednesday, September 20, at the University of the Philippines Cebu’s Performing Arts Hall, Cruz-Valdes pointed out how press folk should mind their facial expressions and body language when questioning sources.

This was one she learned the hard way, as the country’s commander-in-chief took serious slight by never once granting her an interview in his six years as president.

As the News5 Chief tells it, when news broke that then President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III was dating Grace Lee – whom he first sighted in a Cebu event that the latter hosted – journalists naturally inundated the Philippine-based Korean television host for interviews.

Lee agreed to one with Cruz-Valdes. “It was a Friday when I interviewed Grace Lee. On the following Tuesday, I was to have a one-on-one with President Noynoy. Ang ganda di ba?,” she recalls.

When she asked Lee to describe the country’s most prominent bachelor, the celebrity said, “‘You know Luchi…’ – hindi ko makalimutan yung soundbite dahil nga sobra akong nasira dito – ‘…he’s so intelligent, so smart.’ And I go, ‘Talaga?!!!’ And Grace Lee says, ‘Yeah, he’s a walking encyclopedia!’”

“Pero alam ko na kaagad na mali, bakit ako nag-‘Talaga?’ I didn’t really mean ‘Talaga??!!!’” explains Cruz-Valdes, admitting that while her reaction did sound incredulous, it wasn’t really her intention.

The interview was aired with her response edited out. Aquino saw it and he was pleased with the generous praise from the woman he was seeing.

“Humingi ng kopya…ng raw material. Sa sobrang tuwa ko na natuwa siya, umoo ako. Pinadala namin ngayon yung raw material sa Malacañang.”

“When Sunday evening came, eto na si Edwin Lacierda, his spokesperson. ‘Luchi, may nasabi ka ba ‘dun sa interview ni Grace Lee?...Kasi pinapanood niya kanina tapos sabi niya i-cancel ko daw yung interview niya sa’yo,’” says Cruz-Valdes, adding that Aquino was said to have interpreted her reaction that she was unimpressed with him.

“So the long and short of it is this: I never once got an interview with Noynoy. Never. He’s the only president in my entire journalism career that I never got to interview because I was marked. All the way to the end of his term. He never spoke to me. Every year I would send him a request. On his last year, pumayag siya sa TV5, but not with me.”

As the “Deretsahan”, “Frontline Pilipinas”, and "The Chiefs" anchor approaches retirement, her dream interview at the moment – one she’s hard-pressed to secure – is with former president Rodrigo Duterte.

“Kasi tapos na siya eh, di ba? So you want to know of Citizen Digong after his long, storied political career,” she says.

“And then you want to know what he thinks about Bongbong Marcos, his daughter being VP and sabihin na nating top runner right now for the presidency in 2028, unless somebody else comes along. You want to know about what he thinks about China in the context of the West Philippine Sea.”

“There’s so much one can ask – it’ll be a harvest of stories.”

‘Everything else is publicity’

Cruz-Valdes reminded participants in the “Reaching Out to Future Journalists” forum organized by SunStar Cebu for the 31st Cebu Press Freedom Week how journalism should “reflect the opinion, the voice, and the questions of the people.”

“So when you're doing your interviews, you’re not doing it for yourself. You’re not doing it to project how good you are,” she says. “You’re doing it on behalf of your readers or viewers.”

Quoting Jim Hall of The Telegraph, she told students that journalism is what somebody does not want you to report and that “everything else is publicity.” And so media workers must labor to sift through “reportable reality, private reality, and actual reality” – the latter being the most challenging to uncover.

“When I became a reporter, it was Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Now, I’m about to retire, it’s Ferdinand Marcos Jr,” says Cruz-Valdes, who covered the EDSA People Power Revolution from the frontlines.

She says she never thought she’d see the day when another Marcos would return to the presidency, although “I’m not saying this in distress. I don’t say this in a negative light.”

“I’m just saying this: We live in such a world where what was right is now seemingly wrong, and what was wrong is now seemingly right,” she adds.

“But for me as a journalist, I’ll tell you what they’re both saying, and you be the judge. I’ll tell you what you need to know, and you decide.”

“After all, that’s what democracy is.”