MANILA, Philippines – After being meted a one-month suspension, ABS-CBN top executive Luchi Cruz-Valdez has opted to resign from her post at the Lopez-owned TV/radio network effective immediately.
Valdez quit as vice-president for news production and current affairs for ABS-CBN following internal management conflict with her fellow network executives.
ABS-CBN corporate communications head Bong Osorio confirmed the departure of Valdez from their network.
“She (Valdez) is no longer coming back and the company has accepted her decision,” Osorio told The STAR.
Osorio said Valdez communicated her decision in a resignation letter addressed to ABS-CBN president Charo Santos. He, however, is not privy to its content.
But Osorio confirmed that Valdez decided to quit even while her suspension was still being deliberated by an ex-com created by the ABS-CBN board to look into claims and counter-claims of alleged violations of company rules.
Valdez was among those “pirated” by ABS-CBN from rival network GMA-7. She was previously a top news executive at GMA Channel 7. After her transfer to ABS-CBN in 2002, the GMA-7 management sued her for breach of contract before a Quezon City regional trial court. She won the case in July this year.
She was part of the triumvirate tagged as “3 divas” as they were called among their circles at the ABS-CBN
The two others are her immediate superior, Maria Ressa who is the vice president of news and current affairs and concurrently the managing director of ANC, and Chari Villa who is the head of the news gathering team of ABS-CBN
The exit of Valdez from ABS-CBN came after a bitterly fought intramural reportedly with one of her fellow “divas” at the radio/TV giant network.