Jessica inalala huling araw na nakausap si Booma — he was often kengkoy… It drove me and our producers crazy

MA at PA
ni Rommel Placente

ISANG  open letter ang ibinahagi ni Jessica Soho sa Facebook account ng kanyang programang Kapuso Mo Jessica Soho para sa kanyang pumanaw na kaibigan at katrabaho na si Mike Enriquez.

Inalala ni Jessica ang ilan sa mga hindi malilimutang bonding moments nila ni Mike. Kalakip ang mga throwback photo nila kasama rin ang mga kasamahan sa GMA Public Affairs na sina Mel Tiangco at Arnold Clavio.

Pagbabahagi ni Jessica, “Truth be told, throughout the nearly 30 years of working with Booma or Mike Enriquez in the public eye, I wasn’t accustomed to him being nice to me.

“Even in the early days when I’d volunteer to put his makeup on kapag wala siyang makeup artist.

“Or even if I’d make him not-so-sweet macaroni salads for Christmas.

“In fact, he never smiled at me or greeted me, even though our paths crossed often in our small newsroom during the ten years when I was running it and he was our primetime news anchor.

“It was mostly business as usual between us. Work always got in the way.”

Kaya naman biglang nanibago si Jessica sa kakaibang sigla na ipinakita sa kanya ni Mike isang araw, “It felt strange when he suddenly became cheerful and bright, teasing me about wearing sneakers with my Filipiniana dress during commercial breaks for our ‘Eleksyon 2022’ hosting duties.

“He said I reminded him of the working women who wore sneakers on their way to work in New York.

“That was my last face-to-face encounter with him.

“Maybe that was his way of leaving a sweet memory – then, I was simply a colleague, not a newsroom boss. And he was simply Booma.”

Pagpapatuloy pa niya, “Booma was always an interesting study especially if you happen to work closely with him like I did from the mid 1990s.

“I had a radio show after him in DZBB and I thought then that his energy level just might work for TV and so I pitched him as one of our anchors for our election coverage in 1995.

“I was a witness to his grumpy side at work, as he was focused on preparing for the news. But all that could easily change in the company of our camera and remote crew, when he was just one of the boys.

“With them he was often kengkoy.

“It drove me and our producers crazy that he was stubborn about revising his lead-ins for the newscast. He insisted on using ‘Estados Unidos’  instead of the more conversational ‘America’ and the years just had to be spelled out as ‘taong mil nuwebe syentos nubenta’y otso’ instead of just 1998.

“He liked the studio a chilly 20 degrees centigrade which was perfect for his suits but not for Mel Tiangco in her dresses who liked the thermostat set at 24.

“I refereed and set it at a compromise of 22.

“But when the newscast is done and we did good, I’d cue the staff to cheer ‘Pizza! Pizza!’

“Mabilis siyang dumukot ng wallet!

“Madali siyang lapitan,” sabi pa niya.

Naibahagi rin ng batikang broadcast journalist ang pagkain ni Mike ng mani sa kanilang studio.

“He’d sneak those into the studio even if I had disallowed those because it caused him to cough while reading the news.

“One time that he coughed badly on-air, recalled one of our former production assistants, ‘Pinasabihan ko raw siya na uminom ng tubig,’ to which he retorted ‘Sabihin mo kay Jessica, ayoko dahil ayokong mag-CR.’

“It got to a point when I had to investigate who supplied him with the peanuts.

“The culprits: Manang Zeny, his makeup artist, Pia Guanio (our showbiz news reader at that time) and even one of our reporters- the late Cesar Apolinario.

“Perhaps, at best, what we had was tough love but there is one memory of his that I will always cherish and hold dear in my heart.

“It was his first day at work after his bypass and I dropped in on him, before the pandemic hit, in his office in the old GMA building with its dark woody interiors.

“For a change, we did not talk about work, but about life in general and his health.

“He said he felt horrible in the mornings and that every time he coughed, it felt like dying.

“I told him he’d live and showed him a smiling photo of my dad as proof of life, after a bypass! That gave him immediate relief and hope, he said and he thanked me for it,” paglalahad pa ni Jessica. 

“It is hard to write about Booma in the past tense.

“I will always miss him- the grumpy, peanut-chewing-coughing Booma, our hard-headed and set-in-his-ways news anchor, the Booma of that little newsroom that was so much a part of our lives.

“The newsroom will never be the same again,” ang panghuling mensahe ni Jessica kay Mike.