Part 1 of 2
Greg Gasataya used to anchor an evening primetime in the 1990s, a flagship program of dyWB Bombo Radyo Bacolod known for its commentators who could make the blood of politicians curdle or make the numbers rise on sphygmomanometers (long for BP apparatus).
He knows how to commentate, to find issues and deliver bombastic commentaries.
He is just a ‘taga-radyo.’
A few fellow broadcasters had a disdain for him then, mainly because of the competition among big radio networks, especially Bombo and RMN whose people then will maim or kill, figuratively that is, to top the surveys.
But Greg Gasataya, young, tall, dark, and (as women broadcasters then told me) handsome, never made time to answer the issues against him.
He chose to top the surveys, leading Zona Libre (already at the top under Alex Paglomutan) to more successes in the survey of the Radio Research Council – then the bible for advertisers who used it to decide where to buy spots.
He was just a “taga radyo.”
I, young at 19 and working for dyAF Radio Veritas that languished in the basement of those surveys, was naturally envious of him.
But he never said something to us, always mostly silent during social gatherings of reporters, seemingly unnatural for a commentator who, to my ignorant mind then, did not sound sharp and incisive in person.
That was the first mistake for me, also a “taga radyo.”
While I, also a commentator, rained fire and brimstone on the perceived class enemies of the “oppressed and exploited,” Greg Gasataya did not pander to the crowd, anchoring his ratings on solid reporting, research provided by the Bombo team, and careful commentaries.
Yet it seems he knew nothing.
He was just a “taga radyo.”
Not a few eyebrows were raised when Greg Gasataya ran for a city council seat. Some even those in the broadcast industry, said he will win only because he was from Bombo Radyo.
Before him, his Zona Libre predecessor Alex Paglomutan topped the polls for councilor. Yet Greg did not mind the naysayers.
He was then “just a taga radyo.”
He ran and won in 2001, placing ninth among a diverse field of candidates vying for the 10 elective council seats. He then went on to top the next polls in 2004 and 2007.
It was the turn of the century politics in Bacolod marked by the traditional politics of the original blocs of the Montelibanos and the Guanzons and the emergence of the Leinardia and Puentevella ones.
Amidst it all was a young Greg Gasataya who kept afloat in the Bacolod political maelstrom with no prominent surname.
He was “just a taga radyo.”
If the first mission of a politician is to win elections, Greg Gasataya did so with flying colors.
No one knows why, no one bothered to know why.
After all, he was “just a taga radyo.”
But when Greg Gasataya was already a mid level politician, observers started to notice him, some pointing out that he flitted from one political master to the next, as if Greg Gasataya, one of many politicians in Bacolod City, was the only one guilty of changing loyalties or political blocs.
Yet Greg Gasataya chose to keep silent.
He was “just a taga radyo.”
Through it all he continued to win elections after taking a one season break and returned in 2013 to win the vice mayoral polls among a field of four hopefuls.
He became acting mayor in 2015 with the preventive suspension of then Mayor Monico Puentevella over a graft case.
By the time he ran for the Lone District congressional seat, Greg Gasataya “just a taga radyo,” the son of a jeepney driver and Churchworker, had already logged a record of successive poll victories from 2001 to 2016 with no defeats.
Some people started to notice, he was no longer just Greg Gasataya, “just a taga radyo.”
In the next part: A look at the rrcord of Greg Gasataya from konseho to Kongreso
