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A Veteran Broadcast Journalist I've Just Known Recently

   Last April 5, Maundy Thursday, I found out a breaking news on the Internet. It was shocking enough, unexpected.Angelo Castro Jr., one of the Philippines' well-known news anchors, died of lung cancer. He was 67. Wow, I thought. It was sad news for the people in broadcast journalism,especially his fellow broadcasters in ABS-CBN.
 
   Angelo Castro Jr., known to many as ACJ, was known as a great newscaster. As spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said, he was "a calm and reassuring presence in the late evening news". He anchored The World Tonight long before I was born. He is very known in the late night newscast, which was transferred to ABS-CBN News Channel(ANC) in 1999.
 
   Yes. I haven't watched him since he anchored the show in the 80's. But just this year, he returned hosting the newscast after he left the news desk since 2009. And so I finally saw the man. It was nice to see the ACJ who first worked as a film actor, then as ABS-CBN's news manager when it reopened after Marcos' regime. He created the longest-running Filipino newscast in the country, TV Patrol(Ti-veeeey....Patrooool), now on it's 25th year. It's good to see the broadcaster who pioneered on "gentlemanly broadcasting", delivering the news to the viewers in a smooth and cool way; the broadcaster that was watched by lots of viewers on The World Tonight when I wasn't yet conceived. I think I saw him in just one newscast. Then, when I watched the program after many days, it seemed that ACJ is not present.
 
   So that was he, I thought, one of the greatest anchors of The World Tonight. Old, yet resilient.
 
   Then at that calm Thursday, where there were ample newscasts(only short-time news updates) on ANC and even on other channels,I came to know that he succumbed to his long-time complication--lung cancer. I came to know it through reading a news report I've found on Facebook. It was a Filipino news report from the website of ABS-CBN's AM radio station, DZMM, which was off-air during the next 3 days of Holy Week. Then, I also sought articles from abs-cbnnews.com and interaksyon.com. And I watched the video clip from ANC. A man on the desk, telling the sad news in a soft and serious tone. Clips of him appearing as the news anchor continued speaking what looks to be a eulogy. It was sad news.
 
   Nevertheless, it was good to know an anchorman like ACJ. I have neither known him for a lot, nor seen him as a young newscaster. But at that time I saw a video on FB of his comeback on The World Tonight, and when I saw him in the newscast on ANC, I was informed. It was good to know that he came back. I thought before that he was really gone in the wind.

   As a man who likes journalism and broadcast journalism, I admire ACJ. I read articles on newspapers giving their thoughts, praises, and thanks to him; and they told me of how great he was.

   And all I could say is that I appreciate a man like him.A man with "class". A man with expertise on his field.I hope the "era of gentlemanly broadcasting" doesn't end here.May it be a reminder for other anchormen to remain credible in their newscasts, to deliver the news to the people in a well-mannered and gentlemanly way.

   He'll be truly missed.
"Move on.It is just a chapter in the past.But don't close the book.Just turn the page."--ACJ's "final word" in his last appearance on The World Tonight

Learn more in the life of ACJ in this video narrated by his friend and co-anchor in The World Tonight,Tina Monzon-Palma:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbbVjtpDSQg&feature=share

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