JOURNAL | Cheche Lazaro as Inspiration

Cheche Lazaro as Inspiration

In our everyday search for that one person who may lead us to believe that there is still hope for a brighter future, we often fail. When we finally meet one, no matter how rare the case may be, the spark comes alive again and the embers start to burn. We find ourselves looking up and striving to reach the ideals set by that person who inspired us to hope and dream once more.

Che-Che Lazaro


Cheche Lazaro, just like the Transformers and Bioman, has been a part of my childhood. I don’t really remember how it all began but whenever I hear Che-Che’s voice, I feel nostalgic. The world around me changes, I’m a child again. It has been twenty years since Che-Che’s Probe conquered the air and it continues to shape minds. People now see that television is not just a tube for cheap dramas showing love as the be and all of everything; not just about trivial news that makes you wonder why snakes on the loose would make it on the headlines or the Ruffa-Ylmas saga that has run like the archetypical tele/Korean/Mexican/Taiwanese/fanta/sine-serye would be given such prominence. 


Unconsciously, people have become aware that the boob tube does more than making someone’s life look fine when in reality it’s not (ask Willie). Now, television has become a threat to wayward government officials and even vile individuals since they can be busted in a matter of in-depth reporting and investigation. Seconds on air would be like eternity to the audience who sees the exposés and I don’t think the guilty would have this as a reason to rejoice.



But more than the talk itself is the admiration for a person who embodies the ideal example of a media practitioner with a high work ethics. This is very timely when people working on the industry are more interested with the ratings game rather than educating the people. 

Sure, this is the hype of the time (the ratings) for no rating equals no money and no money means no job. So unfortunate. Since people have become used to this setting, we have passively accepted the situation and refused to have a say on it albeit knowledge that this may lead to the idiotization of the public (ask Willie again). The only difference now is that people are more aware and relatively refuse to be influence by canned ideas watched and heard. 

If there is one thing that we should thank Che-Che for, that’s the inspiration to make our simple yet overly complicated life better.

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Cheche Lázaro (born Cecilia Aldaba-Lim in 1945 in Los Angeles, California), is an acclaimed Filipino broadcast journalist and the founding President of Probe Productions Inc. as well as an Editor-at-Large of online news website Rappler.

Photo inset from:
http://www.rappler.com/bulletin-board/61701-broadcast-journalist-cheche-lazaro-mcluhan-fellow