SAKSI: Huling Gabi ni Rico Yan (Arnold Clavio Special Report) [01-APR-2002] | ORIGINAL UPLOADER 

ORIGINAL UPLOADER: ‪@JACOBSHLTR‬
"[Arnold] Clavio's and [Rico] Yan's groups were having a merriment session that consisted of singing, bantering, eating, and drinking. Since there were children present, it was all nice, clean fun. That was during the eve of Rico Yan's death, on Maundy Thursday. When the young star was rushed to the hospital early the following day and was subsequently pronounced dead on arrival, Clavio was able to transmit the tragic news to his network studio. Thus, GMA-7 outscooped its rival. ABS-CBN 2 followed very soon thereafter (in Julie Yap-Daza's Friday-night program, Tell the People Now).
Thereafter, the two channels sent posthaste their news-and-public- affairs teams headed by Karen Davila for Channel 2 and Jessica Soho for Channel 7, to give the latest report in situ for their respective newsbreak interjections. Initial reports were filed by both teams the late afternoon of the actor's death, at about the same time that the body was being brought home by his father and his brother, both of whom flew to Palawan from Manila. Between tears and polite pleas to respect the privacy of their grief, father and brother and best friend Dominic Ochoa would nonetheless try to answer questions asked by the two reporters, who in turn claimed to have experienced great difficulty in balancing their duty as broadcast journalists to a public that wants to be informed and their deference to the feelings of the beleaguered family members. Although the more sensitive sectors of the audience would squirm in their seats over the discomfort that the bereaved were being subjected to, they nevertheless remained glued to their TV sets. It was true-to-life drama unfolding right before their eyes, a tragedy similar to those concocted for soap-opera serials that propel programs to the heights of the ratings game. Even in death, Rico Yan was a commodity to be sold in the market of the local entertainment industry, like all stars are meant to be. And the marketing of this particular star, we would later realize, was never as frantic and brisk in his lifetime as it was after his death.
Meanwhile, the rival channel contributed its bit, mostly with clips from Yan's movies and nonshowbiz activities that were previously covered for news programs. Of course, some materials were borrowed from Yan's home network and were properly acknowledged, but still, overall, their coverage of the late actor was a poor second to that made by the latter's network studio. Except for one case: GMA-7's Arnold Clavio was able to take a video recording of the partying that happened at Dos Palmas the eve of Yan's death. The event was the last covered with Rico Yan alive, a precious piece of property and it was not even ABS-CBN's. And clips were shown on Channel 7's daybreaker, Unang Hirit, aired 5:00-8:30 a.m., along with subsequent interviews with select people who were fortunate enough to be in Yan's company several hours before his death the resort's in-house physician (who subsequently first attended to the body of the expired actor), the nurse and innkeepers, and the children over whom the young actor was solicitous, including one whose birthday celebration a few days after Yan had promised to grace."
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