Balitang Balita


Balitang Balita is the second Filipino language newscast of ABC 5 from February 21, 1992 to April 7, 2004. The first one was Pangunahing Balita, anchored by Paul Lacanilao in 1962. It was replaced by Sentro.

Airing history

It was first aired on February 21, 1992, when ABC returned on-air. Its first anchors were Randy David and Chichi Fajardo-Robles, both from IBC 13. David was replaced by former IBC News anchor TG Kintanar. Fajardo-Robles then moved to PTV 4 in 1995 and was replaced by Thelma Dumpit-Murillo. In 1997, both Kintanar and Murillo left the newscast and were replaced former ABS-CBN reporter Gani Oro. During that time, Dumpit-Murillo was anchoring both Balitang Balita and the network's late-night English language newscast Big News. Dumpit-Murillo chose to focus as anchor of Big News and was replaced by Ces Datu. Datu left the newscast in 1998, leaving Oro as the sole anchor of the newscast. Oro left the newscast on May 19, 2000 and was replaced by Jay Sonza on May 22, 2000. However, Sonza has an existing contract with GMA Network in July 2, 2001 and was replaced by John Susi. Susi became its lead anchor until April 7, 2004 when it was replaced by Sentro.

Anchors