CRISTINA PECZON
Broadcast Journalist Cristina Peczon has been waiting for this moment all throughout her career. Finally, starting this December 18, at 11:30 pm, Cristina will host her own public affairs telemagazine called "Public Access".
"I remember attending a career forum while I was still a Junior in Ateneo de Manila when my role model Cheche Lazaro came to our school to talk about the fulfillment of working on the Probe Team. Right there I was convinced that one day I wanted to do the same thing," she recalls. Today, almost ten years later, Cristina is now ready to make the big switch from newscasting and reporting to being the host of her own telemagazine.
Cristina has tried her hand on all aspects of media in the last ten years. Starting out in 1991 as a newscaster for the two minute "GMA NEWS LIVE" breaks with the trio of former colleagues Marga Ortigas and Patricia Evangelista, Cristina was still then a junior in college. Critics in the industry had their doubts whether the three youngsters would be able to keep up with the hectic demands of a media career, but Cristina did every thing in her power to prove them wrong.
"While in college, I used to shuffle back between the station and school just to be able to juggle both ‘Business Today" with Atty. Dong Puno in the mornings and then the newsbreaks in the evening at EDSA." As the years went by, media continued to become more of a lifestyle than a career. Cristina thinks of herself as someone who eats, sleeps, and breathes in media – but she loves every moment of it.
After graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Communications from the Ateneo de Manila, Cristina was pirated by RPN Channel 9 as a reporter/newscaster where she was immediately sent on a number of trips abroad with Radio TV Malacanang with the President. Travelling all over the country as well as abroad was exactly what Cristina wanted to do with her life. Naturally inquisitive by nature, she believes she was born to meet and talk to people, "I am the type of person that if I take a taxi cab, by the time I arrive at my destination, I already know the driver’s life story."
From there she was definitely hooked. A confessed workaholic, she wanted to try everything to make sure she knew the business inside and out. And so Cristina took on everything, from being part of the phone brigade that answered the phone for Jullie Yap Daza's "Tell the People", to being a writer for the daily newscripts, to even video editing her own stories when the need arose. This is a business Cristina has always wanted to be part of, and she was hardly afraid to try anything new. No job was too big or small for Cristina.
When the new defunct ISYU broadsheet first came out, she called up publisher Jarius Bondoc to ask if she contribute a letter to the editor about the Vizconde Massacre case that she was covering. After reading her first piece, Jarius asked her to immediately come on board. In no time at all, she was then writing a regular column that eventually settled on the paper's Money page. From there she graduated to business reporting as the anchor of "PSE LIVE : The Stockmarket Today".
Cristina also spent a few years as a co-host and reporter for the women’s show "XYZ : Young Women’s TV", covering the various issues about women that people were normally ashamed or scared to talk about on TV. "There are just so many topics that I wanted tell the world about, so every chance I got, I grabbed!." At one point she even found herself working on AM radio’s DZXL as a mid morning news commentator. The offer to work as a segment host for San Juan Mayor and Presidential Son, Jinggoy Estrada’s "SaBAYAN" came shortly after.
But, doing a once a week segment called "Special Report" on RPN Channel 9 was not enough for Cristina. When this opportunity came to host and report on her own telemagazine show, again she jumped at the chance. "Of course I wanted to work on Channel 9 again. Through the years, the network has become my home. The people are there are like family to me already," Cristina says.
"Public Access, which will be presented in Filipino, is a fast paced telemagazine that will provide our viewers just that : access to stories that they probably never would see on television. We have a very good research staff and some of the best segment producers and writers. You can expect every story to be like a mini-documentary on the topic. We have spared nothing when it comes to the production of this show!" Cristina exclaims, so excited she says that she has trouble sleeping just thinking about their future "Public Access " stories.
She admittedly has a very hectic schedule that leaves her very little time for anything else. Her social life revolves around a small circle of high school friends and a selected few from the industry like Coco Quisumbing. She is also in constant touch with her very supportive family. Cristina has also learned to live with the ups and downs on being in the limelight 24 hours a day. "I am so grateful to have a loving family and supportive select group of friends who keep me sane in this business."
But being a reporter who considers herself dedicated to the search for truth, Cristina believes that time has told her true side of any controversial stories she may have been mixed up in. "Admittedly, being a media personality tends to expose me to people more than I sometimes want," Cristina sighs. "Sometimes I want to be anonmymous where no one is watching my every move. I have nothing to hide as my life has always been an open book, but you see being so exposed also leaves room for detractors to misinterpret things about me." She admits that she is a quite outspoken, very driven and very ambitious, and sometimes this makes her understood. "All I can say is that I have definitely grown up alot over the last few years. And from what I have learned, I can now say that more than ever I want to dedicate my career to two things : reporting the ONLY the truth and helping others," Cristina smiles.
Working with the bad news day in and day out tends to wear one down and if you don’t have the proper outlet, it is easy to become burned out in this industry. So Cristina has become very focused on her growing charity projects. Last year, Cristina worked as a volunteer pre-school teacher at the White Cross orphanage in San Juan. This year her work load has given her little time to teach, but she still makes sure that she does her part. As a member of the Rotary Club of Makati : Paseo de Roxas, Cristina organized the club sponsorship of the private orphanage. Home to almost a hundred children aged 0-6 from indigent families, single mothers and abandoned children under the direct supervision of orphanage Administrator Sister Teresita Montanano, Cristina celebrates her holidays there every year as her second home.
"I’ve always loved kids and since I don’t have any of my own yet, I was sure that these kids would be able to accommodate all the extra love I have to give," Cristina smiles. From a young age her parents taught her the values of working for worthy causes and charity such as the White Cross. They taught her that more important than giving a dole out was giving the less fortunate a new lease on life. With this in mind, Cristina has facilitated a Rotary Club guided program of psychological training for the orphanage volunteers with faculty members and students from Ateneo de Manila University.
Together with other good samaritans, Cristina dreams of getting out lost youth off the streets so that they can grow up to lead productive lives. After orphans, Cristins’s next dream project is the Rotary sponsorship of the Bagong Buhay drug and substance abuse rehabilitation center for street children in Bicutan. Very active in the anti-substance abuse campaign, Cristina wants to give these lost children a second chance at life.
While at work, Cristina considers herself to be an aggressive go getter and a perfectionist. "I believe in motivating people around me to do their best," she explains, "when we work together as a team you can see the difference on air." When off camera, Cristina leads what she thinks is a simple life. If she’s not with the kids at the orphanage, she’s probably just at home taking time off. If she doesn’t have her nose buried in a book then, she’s glued to Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel. "Okay," she admits, "I am also addicted to FOX News, CNN or BBC, I can’t stop myself." If not there, can probably spot Cristina either on the golf course or off on some scuba diving spot, but mostly likely still within ear’s reach of a radio or her cellphone. "I can’t help it, media and communications are my life," smiles Cristina, "this will be my tenth year, and only just the beginning of so much more!"
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