The journos made their way back to the halls of the network.
On Monday, August 4, News5 chief Patrick Paez, anchor Ed Lingao, veteran doumentarian-reporter Abner Mercado, along with One News personality Gretchen Ho were spotted at the ABS-CBN compound after a long time.
They were warmly greeted by people at the newsroom, with Chief of Reporters Jeff Canoy posing for a picture with them.
“Three docu legends I look up to. So much history between these three (both covered and shared). THE Correspondents. Salamat sa pagbisita sa newsroom sir Ed Lingao, boss Abner P. Mercado and sir Patrick Paez,” Canoy’s post read.
‘The Correspondents’ was the long-running current affairs show of ABS-CBN News, which aired from 1998 until 2010.
Aside from paying a visit to the hub, Paez, Lingao, and Mercado went up the historic Broadcasting Center building and took another snapshot with the iconic Millennium Transmitter serving as the backdrop.
In his own page, Abner Mercado shared their photos with a lengthy caption reminiscing his time at the network, specifically their work together for ‘The Correspondents’.
“Marami kaming pinagsamahang kuwento mula sa mga pangkaraniwang mamamayan hanggang sa yumanig at nagpaguho sa nakaupo noon sa pamahalaan,” part of his post read.
He added, “Itinuturing kong ginintuang panahon ng aking naging paglalakbay sa paglikha ng dokumentaryo at pamamahayag sa telebisyon nang makasama ko sila Correspondent Patrick Paez at Ed Lingao.“
The journo also shared that while their paths diverged long time ago, they all remained good friends.
“Sa mahigit isang dekada ng programa maikling panahon man ang aming pinagsama nina Ed at Patrick at iba pang kasama namin noong huling taon ng dekada 90s hanggang unang mga taon ng 2000. Nagkahiwa hiwalay man kami pero hindi naputol ang pagkakaibigan at higit sa lahat ang mga alaala ng bawat kuwentong aming pinagsaluhan.”
Their homecoming to what they called as the “base” comes after ABS-CBN announced that they are letting go of the Broadcasting Center, which houses the newsroom, and the transmitter after the plot of land where both sit on was sold to the Ayala group in February.
Last July 9, a major event took place to commemorate the symbolic shutdown of the Millennium Tower that beamed the network’s signals for over five decades.