'Up to his last telecast, he was a real professional'

MANILA, Philippines -“Pare may pressing engagement lang ako, ikaw na bahala. Love you.”

“Kid, ikaw na muna, kaya mo yan.”

So thoughtful of Angelo to “file” a notice of his absences every now and then.

This went on for two years. I knew he was sick but never knew exactly what was the cause of his rapid weight loss.

Angelo and I read the news in ABS-CBN Channel 2 when Loren Legarda ran and won a seat in the Senate in 1997. Together, we continued The World Tonight now on ANC (ABS-CBN News Channel) until Dec. 26, 2011. A heart bypass in 2000 kept him off the air for a few months. But in 2009, lung cancer brought him to depression.

In 2011, a Filipino oncologist based in the United States told me that ACJ (Angelo Castro Jr.) was responding well to alternative medicine. Months later, ACJ was ready to do the news. And he did with no fanfare.

Weeks before, he asked that scripts be brought to his home and yes, can Darlene, the make-up artist, bring his make-up. No contours and make-up shades could hide his eyes, cheeks and mouth that cancer was slowly devouring. His good looks, the confidence that ACJ exuded all these years as the “institution, icon, veteran and fixture” of broadcast journalism was gone.

Angelo is and was to his last telecast on The World Tonight a real professional. Ready for make-up and hair one hour before airtime, going over scripts with the sharpest eye for grammar and bias. Yes, accuracy and sometimes doubtful of his own pronunciation of words that he must have read over and over again.

Off-air is when the perfectionist that he is “critiques” delivery and treatment of reporters doing live or voiced reports. He wanted to train, not all, only those he felt had a sincere intention to focus and excel in his job in broadcast journalism.

I struggled to do that interview with June Keithly Castro, embarrassed that I would cry. I held back for a full hour, listening to her. Yes, we had to “ask ACJ’s permission to talk about him.”

Call us cruel, but we were ready for an “obit” days before his death. I started recording a few lines in my usual authoritative style. I stopped and cried… ordered the technician to delete.

I saw, talked but couldn’t hug or kiss Angelo a week before he died.

“Pare, sayang, hindi ko masusuot yung pinagawang amerikana ninyo sa akin.”

I left the room, I didn’t want him to see me cry.

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The author was the co-anchor of Angelo Castro Jr. in ANC’s The World Tonight.