Mom we Love: Luchi Cruz-Valdes

There are two incidents in Luchi Cruz-Valdes’s life which she considers an act of divine intervention.

The first was during her first few years foraying into the world of broadcast journalism, which she says had been her dream ever since she was a child. It was an unexpected encounter that would soon change her career goals. 

Back in 1982, Luchi was a news reader for then RPN9’s News Watch: Filipino Edition. She had a promising future. An excellent orator at the time, Luchi says she also had such a great voice that she could do anything with it. “I grew up as a declaimer!” she exclaims. “Sobra akong daldalera. I was even a singer at some point. I [even] joined the New Minstrels.” Then one day, a chance encounter with her boyfriend of three years at a most unexpected place and circumstance changed everything. Finding him with another woman inside the UP campus, Luchi was heartbroken.

The incident took a toll on her, and soon it began to affect her enunciation. When Luchi reported for work on the news program where she was anchoring the following day, she threw up. “Siguro ‘yung sa sobrang heartache. I couldn’t describe it. I was speechless,” Luchi relates.

“In the next few days, I began to stutter on air,” Luchi reveals. “You know how it is with stuttering - you don’t really go speechless completely; there are just certain words na you falter [on]. I’d pass it on to my co-anchor, and they knew what was happening to me.”

Luchi would go on leave for a week, with the support of her director. She was crying her heart out all the time, and eventually resigned out of embarrassment, but would later on express her intent to continue working, but as a reporter this time. "I approached Frankie Abao who was head of news at that time. 'Sir, I’d like to continue working here.' Sabi niya, 'I don’t have a budget.' 'It’s okay, Sir, I just want to learn.' 'Sige, what will you be?' 'I want to do some reporting.'"

“Sobrang ‘di ko naisip na magugustuhan ko ‘yun, from news anchor to reporter, because it was hard,” Luchi shares. Stressing the important role reporters play, Luchi says that they are the ones who really run the show when it comes to news programs. “Without the reporters, no matter how great your anchor is, if wala kang reporters, wala kang balita."