I have now left a place I considered my second home for almost five years. A few weeks ago, I received a phone call informing me that I have been fired. I was no longer required to report for work the next day for the morning newscast, News to Go. A few days later, my contract with the afternoon newscast GMA News TV Quick Response Team had also expired.

It was time to leave GMA.

My contracts weren’t renewed possibly because I am one of the case filers against GMA Network. I wouldn’t know the definite answer. I never imagined this journey would end this way. It was April 2010 when I first entered the doors of the GMA Newsroom as a fresh graduate of BA Journalism from UST. I didn’t know how to write news television scripts since my training was to write newspaper articles. I had to shift from lengthy narrations to concise and visual scripts.

It was also more difficult since I was a journalism student who didn’t have an interest in news then. But when I got immersed in GMA News, everything changed. News became my life. I woke up, ate and breathed it. Following every news story was no longer a job for me. It was a way of living. Everyday, I was thankful that I got to be part of the daily grind.

I had bosses who trusted me with important stories, multimedia segments and interviews. I couldn’t thank them enough for giving me the chance and liberty to be of service to the public by doing the thing I love. They always believed in me even when I made mistakes.

The newsroom was my second home because I got friends who eventually became family. They are why I stayed there for five years. They were there to guide me during my baby steps at work, to listen and give hugs when life became tough, to spend sleepless nights with me with a couple of beers and endless rants and to become my reliable source of sanity.

But I owe most of what I know to the people I consider my mentors. They pushed me to work beyond my limits and to shed off the insecurities that I have. They have molded me to love and learn from every experience at work and they have passed on to me their personal stories and experiences that have given direction to my life as a producer.

And as one of my mentors said, instead of wallowing in bitterness, I should take with me the great things as I exit the doors of GMA for one last time.

I am leaving not because I am giving up. I am leaving because together with more than a hundred talents, I chose to fight for rights that should have been given to us from the very beginning. These rights are well deserved by the talents who worked for GMA even before us. We choose to soldier on not just for our own rights, but for the rights of the next generations that I hope would not have to go through this battle.

[Entry 61, The SubSelfie Blog]

About the Author:

Apple Gamboa was an interview and field producer for GMA News, particularly the newscasts Quick Response Team and News to Go. She is currently a producer for lifestyle TV shows and documentaries. Travelling and music is her passion and she takes risks as her personal reality medicine. Journalism 2010, UST. Read more of her articles here.