Ryan Gamboa had to duck the DNX door’s steel frame as he made his way inside Studio A for the afternoon interview.
“It usually happens,” he says in the local language of Hiligaynon absent of any twang or affectation of those guys and gals from kolseners or the colegiala types.
There are many stereotypes that could fit Ryan with his towering frame (6’4″, he says), tisoy looks (born to Romeo, a Filipino engineer dad and Ruska, a Yugoslavian nurse mom), and political pedigree (dad Romeo rose post EDSA 1 from punong barangay to Negros Occidental Vice Governor then Governor) – fasion or commercial model, basketball player, politician at an early age.
“Many have been urging me to go into politics even before I became a newscaster,” he tells DNX in a belated interview for this year’s World Radio Day.
Ryan, however then son of a provincial official then, never had a liking for politics at an early age.
He first found fame as a Palarong Pambansa standout who became one of the homegrown draft of the RCPI-Negros Slashers team founded by businessmen Babes Alvarez and Dodong Bascon as the local team for the now defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association.
When the MBA closed in 2002 during which the Slashers won the championship, Ryan sailed almost easily into journalism, as if the umiverse had laid out his entry into the newsroom.
“Carmela was asked by then station manager Leilani Salem-Alba if I wanted to apply as a newscaster,” he said
He did and in no time, Ryan was anchoring the late afternoon newscast with Barbara Mijares, one that dominated its slot for years, a dominance cut short only by the closing of ABS CBN in 2020..
It was then that Ryan finally entered politics, becoming councilor of his homecity and was voted president of the Philippine Councilors League-Negros Occidental chapter, making him an ex-officio member of the Provincial Board.
Watch ful interview with Silay City Councilor Ryan Gamboa who is running for the vice mayoral position of Silay City in the 2025 polls.
(insert interview here)
