Gretchen Ho: No to government work

MANILA, Philippines — Light years ago, Gretchen Ho seemed to be the last person you’d see on TV, day in and day out.

The newly-minted TV5 anchor-producer loved – and still loves – walking around in white or black tees and jeans. She’d go to the mall on her own and avoided crowds. Her idea of a great way to start the day is having coffee with her mom at home and playing with her pet dog.

After college, she was about to don a corporate suit as a management trainee for Nestle. But broadcasting beckoned.

Gretchen had to dump her dressed-down ways and glammed up before the camera.

“My weakness is hindi ako maarte,” she tells Philstar.com in an exclusive Zoom interview from her home. She was unmade-up in her royal blue halter blouse.

Good thing Gretchen’s style and glam team comes to the rescue. The team knows Gretchen won’t show up in the latest fashion craze just because everyone else wears it.

She prefers the simple, classy and sophisticated, not trendy look, thank you. After all, she’s a news personality, not an actress. Her role models are public service icons who wear formal, buttoned-up clothes, like the late Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, former US First Lady Michelle Obama and New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

Gretchen is most vocal about her admiration for Lopez. Although Gretchen finds it hard to get a role model in (local) government, Lopez is an exception.

“Her words match her actions,” observed Gretchen.

She recalls touring towns as an ABS-CBN talent and learning from ordinary folk that their income rose, thanks to Lopez’s programs.

“They talked about tourist sites that gave them livelihood. Ma’m Gina’s body of work is so impactful,” gushed Gretchen.

The influencer who gave away over a thousand bikes in Manila, Naga, Tuguegarao and Cagayan watches female public servants closely.

That’s because Gretchen would have worked for an NGO (non-government organization) if she didn’t end up in broadcasting. She believes she has a calling for public service. But never public service for government.

“I want to do it my own way,” Gretchen said, proving that under that sweet façade is someone with a mind of her own.

You see an idealism that won’t allow hanky panky, a sincerity to help without strings attached.

Gretchen saw the tears in a street sweeper’s eyes after he got a free bike which, attached to a side car filled with goods for sale, allowed him to watch over his children. He used to leave alone while they studied under a lamppost because the family had no money for electricity.

Gretchen felt those tears piercing her heart again when her team gave a bike to a jobless construction worker who now sells barbecue to help his domestic helper-wife earn more.

The dole-out style of helping is not Gretchen’s. She wants something sustainable, something more lasting.

The “Donate a Bike, Save a Job” campaign not only transformed other people’s lives. It also worked wonders for Gretchen. She learned how to lead again after being a follower on the TV set.

“The bike donation campaign is one of my biggest achievements and challenges,” she pointed out.

Her last leadership post before that was back in school (Ateneo de Manila) when she was volleyball team captain. The bike campaign, which took off after Gretchen turned jobless when ABS-CBN shut down, put her back in the captain‘s seat.

“I had to step up and be a leader again. If not, the blessings and donation will be wasted. I formed a team and devised a system. My biggest challenge was keeping people committed (to the campaign) for more than 10 weeks,” recalled Gretchen, who promises “bigger things” for others next time.

Bigger things also describe her goals five years hence. Gretchen wants a much firmer foothold on the broadcasting scene by creating her own signature style. On TV5, she co-anchors "The Big Story" with Roby Alampay from Monday to Friday at 8 p.m. on One News, where she showcases her versatility as a news presenter. She is part of the primetime newscast “Frontline Pilipinas" and produces and stars in "Woman in Action," TV counterpart of her advocacy of the same name.

Gretchen wants a body of work so powerful, viewers will tell themselves, “We’re seeing one committed news journalist here.”

Gretchen knows it’s not easy. It requires serious effort. But she’s no stranger to hard work, even brickbats.

As a student, her parents raised her and her brothers (she’s the only girl) to believe “we’re not very rich.” Gretchen junks popular notions that just because she looks glamorous and sports a Chinese surname, she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

She and her brothers didn’t get what they want, like a new cellphone, in an instant. They got them as rewards for studying well and graduating from school.

Her parents warned their brood against engaging in business the way they did. Mom and dad want them to have a profession instead. According to Gretchen, that’s because her parents found it hard to shift to another business after they lost money on the previous one.

That’s how Gretchen and her brothers learned to work hard instead of letting mom and dad provide for them.

Now that she’s financially blessed, Gretchen sticks to the frugal ways of her childhood. Her big buys are career-oriented, like on-cam clothes. She steers clear of Chanel, Louis Vuitton and other signature items since “I don’t see any sense in leveling up because you want to show something.”

Talk about believing in your inner voice. That inner voice also tells her to count, not just up to 10, but more than 10, before airing her feelings toward disrespectful people -- her pet peeves.

“I’m frank. I tell people why I’m sore at them. But I wait until after I’ve calmed down. I shun shouting matches. I know how bad it feels when someone says hurtful things. It robs your self-confidence.”

Gretchen would much rather be a “life giver with my words."

Those words can only come from someone who starts her day with a prayer the way Gretchen does.

“Nothing is certain, especially in this pandemic. I leave it all up to the Lord. I trust in His plan,” Gretchen revealed her best motto.

That plan has been working wonders for her so far.