TED FAILON, who was recently included by deposed President Joseph Estrada in the opposition?s list of possible senatorial candidates in 2010, is a broadcaster of television giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and its sister radio station dzMM.
He is also a former representative of Leyte.
Failon was born on March 29, 1962, in Tacloban City. He grew up there and in Parańaque City, where his father Jose worked as a jeepney driver and his mother Josefina worked as a market vendor.
To support his studies, Failon worked as a waiter, construction worker and disc jockey, among others.
He took up economics at the Colegio de San Juan de Letran in Manila but transferred to the Divine Word University in Tacloban, where he took up mass communication.
While studying in 1982, he worked as a driver and a reporter of local radio station dyMM.
Failon quit school after getting married in 1983. He continued working at dyMM, where he eventually became an announcer, until 1988. That year, he started working as program director of dwGU-FM in Angeles City, Pampanga.
His career at ABS-CBN started in 1990, when he was hired as a desk editor. He rose from the ranks, becoming a segment reporter of the news program ?TV Patrol,? a reliever-anchor, and eventually a news anchor. He also became news manager of dzMM.
Failon gained popularity for co-hosting the award-winning TV show ?Hoy! Gising,? which exposed the inefficiency and abuses of government officials and private individuals.
He returned to school in 1994 and received a broadcast communication degree from the Polytechnic University of the Philippines two years later. He later took up law at Arellano University, but did not finish the course.
Failon entered politics in 2001, running for representative of the first district of Leyte. He beat reelectionist Alfred Romualdez, a nephew of former first lady Imelda Marcos.
When his term ended in 2004, he returned to broadcasting.
Failon is currently an anchor of ?TV Patrol World? and a co-host of the radio program ?Tambalang Failon at Sanchez.?
He has received awards for his work, among them the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas? Golden Dove Awards, Catholic Mass Media Awards and Star Awards for Television. Cyril L. Bonabente, Inquirer Research
Sources: Inquirer Research Archives; dzMM website
