Multiawarded journalist Jessica Soho pours her heart out in a sentimental tribute to Kapuso broadcaster Mike Enriquez, who died on August 29, 2023 after a long battle with heart and kidney problems.
Read: '24 Oras' pays tribute to Mike Enriquez's 54-year broadcasting career
Jessica begins her tribute-letter with a candid admission: "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."
She mentions instances from their early days in the GMA-7 news department when she would make a personal effort to be nice—volunteering to assist with his makeup and preparing for him "not-so-sweet macaroni salads for Christmas."
But Mike, she reveals, "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."
She adds, "It was mostly business as usual between us. Work always got in the way."
FINAL MOMENT TOGETHER
Then something changed.
"It felt strange," Jessica narrates, "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."
This would turn out to be their last face-to-face encounter.
Looking back, Jessica ponders whether this was Mike's way of finally leaving her with a nice memory.
BEHIND THE CAMERA
Mike was a big personality both in front of the camera and out of camera range, something that Jessica acknowledges.
"Back then, I was simply a colleague, not a newsroom boss. And he was simply Booma.
"Booma was always an interesting study, especially if you happened to work closely with him as I did from the mid-1990s.
"I had a radio show after him on DZBB, and I thought his energy level might just work for TV. So, I pitched him as one of our anchors for our election coverage in 1995.
"I witnessed his grumpy side at work as he focused on preparing the news."
FUN-LOVING GUY
Their working relationship was not without its quirks, including lighthearted disputes over such things as script revisions and the studio temperature.
Jessica notes that Mike had a grouchy persona but that this easily subsided "in the company of our camera and remote crew, where he was just one of the boys."
She reminisces: "With them, he was often lively and playful."
On another front, she says, "It drove me and our producers crazy that he was stubborn about revising his lead-ins for the newscast.
"He insisted on 'Estados Unidos' instead of the more conversational 'America,' and the years had to be spelled out as 'taong mil nuwebe syentos nubenta’y otso,' not just '1998'.
"He liked the studio at a chilly 20 degrees Celsius, perfect for his suits, but not for Mel Tiangco in her dresses. She preferred the thermostat set at 24."
It was Jessica's job as vice-president for news to accommodate both primetime anchors. "I arbitrated and set a compromise at 22," she recalls, amused.
The KMJS (Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho) host also writes, "But when the newscast was done and we did well, I'd signal the staff to cheer, 'Pizza, pizza!'
"He'd quickly pull out his wallet! Madali siyang lapitan."
LOVE FOR PEANUTS
Jessica also makes mention of Mike's unabated obsession with peanuts: "How he loved peanuts. He'd sneak them into the studio, even though I had disallowed them because they made him cough while reading the news."
She adds, "One time when he coughed badly on-air, one of our former production assistants remembered, '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 where 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."
Jessica may have policed Mike's peanut obsession in life, but she honored it through the traditional practice of pabaon in death.
In Ilocano culture, the pabaon involves sending the deceased off with their favorite things, such as cigarettes, candies, or even a beloved shirt.
At Mike's wake, Jessica knew right away she would send him off with two packs of his favorite dry roasted peanuts.
Referring to these as "sungsung," she presented them to Mike's wife, whom she fondly calls Tita Babes, with a playful, "For all the peanuts I forbade him to eat on the set and which caused him to cough kaya nagkaroon ng ‘Excuse me po.’"
HEALTH COMPLICATIONS
Getting to the last bit of her tribute, Jessica addresses one more memory of Mike that she says she will always cherish.
"It was his first day back at work after his bypass surgery before the pandemic hit," she writes.
"I dropped by his office in the old GMA building with its dark woody interiors.
"For a change, we didn't talk about work, but about life in general and his health.
"He said he felt terrible in the mornings, and every time he coughed, it felt like he was dying."
Jessica recalls reassuring Mike that he would overcome this, and then showed him a smiling photo of her own dad as proof of life after bypass surgery.
"That brought him immediate relief and hope, he said, and he thanked me for it."
And then, Jessica's parting words for Mike: "It's difficult to write about Booma in the past tense.
"I will always miss him—the grumpy, peanut-chewing, coughing Booma; our hard-headed, 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."
The full KMJS Tribute to Mike Enriquez will air tomorrow night on GMA at 8:15 PM.
READ MORE: