Everyone knows Mario Dumaual from his reportage on ABS-CBN’s flagship news program, TV Patrol, where he was seen delivering news about celebrities, their highs, lows, and everything about them in between. But only a few know about Mario the online journalist. 

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I had the pleasure – and honor – of working with Mario up close after he opted for early retirement from ABS-CBN in 2015, but continued as a Star Patroller on consultancy status until his contract was not renewed in 2020. As editor-in-chief of ABS-CBN’s general news website at that time, I feared lower page views and social engagement for the website due to the loss of Mario’s stories about celebrities and entertainment.

So, I talked to then-head of ABS-CBN Integrated News Ging Reyes about taking in Mario as a stringer (a person who contributes stories regularly) for ABS-CBN News online, and it would be the online unit who would pay Mario for his stories. 

Fortunately, Ging said yes, and thus began my working relationship with Mario for around two-and-a-half years until I retired from ABS-CBN in December 2022. 

Initially, the agreement with Mario, as with many stringers of news organizations, was that he would be paid per story. The more stories the stringer submits, the higher the stringer’s income and vice-versa. As with many stringers, especially for magazines, submitted stories would amount to around once or twice a week. 

Not so with Mario. He was an old-school newspaper journalist, having worked with the broadsheet, Malaya, and the Journal Group early in his career. In those days, most reporters had a quota of two stories a day, regardless of quality, of course. This ensured that newspapers would be able to fill up their pages, with the unused stories (for lack of space) for the weekend editions. 

“Noong college, ang section ko ay Sports. So, lahat dinaanan ko, through agricultural writing to technical writing, kahit educational writing. Until mapadpad ako sa Times Journal sa showbiz,” he said on the ABS-CBN morning talk-show Magandang Buhay in 2016.

(In college, I was in the Sports section. So I experienced all of it, through agricultural writing to technical writing, and even education writing. Until I got into the Times Journal’s showbiz section.)

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Already a senior citizen, Mario, who died at 64, was able to submit an average of one to two stories a day for the website, and he went on to become ABS-CBN’s News online’s highest paid stringer that year with an output of at least 30 to 40 stories per month.  

And Mario knew the difference between writing for television and writing for newspapers and online websites. While most other TV journalists who submitted articles to the website sent scripts which had to be cleaned up and turned into a story format for the website, Mario sent stories the old newspaper way. 

He sent crisp, well-written pieces that needed almost no editing, making my work and the other editors’ so easy. No recordings had to be transcribed – his story already had quotes in the right places. The only drawback of his articles was the lack of links to related stories. But otherwise, they could be uploaded quickly, perfect for breaking news. 

Work ethic

Mario was also an old-school journalist when it came to work ethic. For many in our generation, a journalist was on call 24/7. I could call him any time of the day and get a quick response. He submitted all the stories I assigned to him, and he produced them quickly. No work-life balance because work was life. An editor had the privilege of waking up a reporter any time of the day for breaking news. No pause in notifications; no issue about working hours. A journalist who couldn’t be reached to do a breaking news story would be subjected to a tongue-lashing and get a demerit.

On several occasions, I got calls from Mario in the wee hours to inform me about the death of a celebrity. No need to call him about it, he was one step ahead of most everyone else. As with a number of news organizations, ABS-CBN’s policy is that it should be a family member of the deceased who should confirm the death. While this could be a problem for many young journalists, not so with Mario, given the relationships he built through his over 30-year experience as a Star Patroller. He already had – or easily got – the confirmation. 

His stint with ABS-CBN News online was during the pandemic, and his connections with celebrities were very useful as a number of them got COVID-19 and passed on. 

At that time, Mario was exclusively working for ABS-CBN News online. He was not reporting for television, but as a result of his online stories, the television unit heads eventually realized that they still needed Mario’s services. After his contract with the website expired, he returned to being a Star Patroller, reporting again for TV Patrol as a consultant. He continued, however, to alert me at any time of the day to inform me about breaking news. 

It was during his exclusive stint with the website that I got to know Mario the loving husband, father, and grandfather, the family provider. He was thankful that he was still able to continue his services for ABS-CBN, and hoped his contract could be amended so he would have another opportunity of reporting for television. 

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“For now, I’m just grateful that the company gave me a new one-year contract; maliit lang (small pay) yes, but it was my choice to stay when I could have moved elsewhere. Loyalty lang talaga (It’s really out of loyalty),” he said. “I still believe news value and content is still paramount, and many like you still recognize that (hindi yung nangangahoy sa social media). I am still willing to deliver in any platform.” 

His family wrote on his Instagram account: “Papa was strong, he kept fighting on, overcoming the heart attack then a cardiac arrest. He would always say he wanted to go home because he missed us, his family. But the infection overwhelmed his body’s ability to recover.”

“What comforts us is he knew that we were always with him, waiting for him, and that home was wherever he felt our love. We also made it a point to let him know how loved he was by his friends in the industry and even kind strangers who have been offering prayers and help for his recovery….Papa was our rock, we depended much on him. But he also nurtured us to become strong and able and to be the best version of ourselves,” the Dumaual family added.

My last interaction with Mario was on June 2, 2023, days before he suffered a heart attack and got confined at the Philippine Heart Center. I was already with Rappler and I talked to him about Tito Sotto, Vic Sotto, and Joey de Leon’s decision to leave Television and Production Exponents Incorporated (TAPE), and that I was doing a story on whether they would join Net25, where they already had separate shows, or TV5, whose parent, MediaQuest Holdings Incorporated, has a wide array of media assets. Five days before TVJ announced they would join TV5, Mario already had the right guess. 

ABS-CBN Integrated News Head Francis Toral said it best when she described their star Star Patroller: “Mario is one of a kind. We know how much he loves his work, how he maintains good ties with everyone, and how he writes entertainment stories with much passion and zeal.” 

Similarly, former ABS-CBN News head Reyes described Mario’s legacy in these words: “Mario Dumaual is synonymous with entertainment news. No one covered show business like he did for TV Patrol and ABS-CBN News. He was the entertainment journalist that others wanted to emulate. I remember interviewing a young applicant who said, ‘I want to be the next Mario Dumaual.'”

“If we needed someone to get access to a hard-to-reach actor or movie star, we’d have Mario do the work. Whenever we wanted an exclusive story or needed a veteran to handle a sensitive topic, Mario was the man. He wrote and covered every aspect, knew every nuance of Philippine show business, including its intersection with politics. He embraced its glamour and glitter, but wasn’t blind to its mess and imperfections,” Reyes told ABS-CBN News. 

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Thank you for the friendship, Mario.

Mario’s wake will start on Friday, July 7, 2 pm, at the Loyola Memorial Chapels in Commonwealth, Quezon City. Interment will be on Sunday at the Loyola Memorial Park. – Rappler.com

(Disclosure: The author is former editor-in-chief of ABS-CBN’s general news website, news.abs-cbn.com)