Bye TFC, Hello GMA Pinoy TV

A little over a month ago, me and my colleague stopped our  TFC (The Filipino Channel) satellite subscription and decided to shift to OSN (Orbit Showtime Network) which beams the GMA Pinoy TV, an international Filipino channel which is owned by GMA Network in the Philippines and a direct competitor of  TFC which caters mostly to Filipinos around the world.

And just few weeks ago, we received a call from a person who said that he's working for ABS-CBN (a company that owns TFC), and mind you, I thought its a little creepy because he was calling from the Philippines. He was asking why we haven't renewed our subscription and when are we going to renew it. My colleague just gave him the classic OFW alibi that we were busy with work, hence we haven't got time to watch TV especially during the Ramadan. It ended up with a confirmation that we might renew it after Ramadan or when our workloads lighten up, though at the back of our minds, we really don't have any intentions of renewing it ever again. 

One of the reasons why we shifted to OSN, is that most of the programs on TFC in my opinion have lost their  appeal to keep me jumping for excitement every time I come home from work. It's only their news and current affairs programs especially TV Patrol that I was really anticipating for, but ever since they replaced Karen Davila and Julius Babao with Korina Sanchez and Noli de Castro as news anchor, that's the time it 'jumped the shark'. I just lost interest in the program and with TFC as a whole.

It bugs me every time I see Korina Sanchez' eyebrows arched high on her forehead  like a belligerent wild feline ready to pounce on her poor unsuspecting prey at the opening of the news program (in the video above), it makes me want to turn off the television right away and turn it on again after that unsightly portion had passed. Not that I hate Korina Sanchez, it's just that I don't really think she has the integrity and the credibility to be a news anchor. It doesn't feel right seeing her standing there in front of the camera after that spectacle she made years ago. She was in the news herself accused of beating her 2 house maids with the help of her then boyfriend Paul Aquino. I honestly believe that those poor victims were telling the truth.  By the way, she's the wife of Mar Roxas, a former senator and the current Secretary of Transportation and Communications of the Philippines. But that doesn't help her regain her integrity, to say the least, in my opinion.

I have noticed (and perhaps all of you do too) that when she interviews people especially the poor, old and miserable, she doesn't show them respect by using "po" or "ho" which is obviously a big NO and rather rude or arrogant when  aired on television. Whereas, when she interviews prominent people, or those who can fill her eyes, you can see the glaring difference in the level of treatment she gives them by showering them with incessant superficial po and ho. Well, that just pisses me off.

And what about the former vice president of the Philippines Noli de Castro, who was accused of graft and corruption for entering in an alleged midnight deal for the controversial 6 billion pesos 'Smokey Mountain project', and not to mention the current Pag-Ibig Fund controversy where he was again accused of graft and corruption? Talking about integrity huh! There was a rumor last year that Maria Ressa, the now former ABS-CBN's head of the News and Current Affairs, resigned because she strongly disagreed with the management's decision to replace those TV Patrol news anchors with Sanchez and de Castro. And if there's any truth about the rumor and the way the news program turned out,  I believe that she's already been vindicated.

Anyway, it's nice to see new programs with new faces on GMA. So far I like 24 Oras, Imbestigador, Reporter's Notebook, and Eat Bulaga. And what's good with OSN is that, if we get tired watching GMA, we could just change the channel and watch other channels like MGM, Animal Planet (my favorite), or Discovery Science perhaps. And we were also amazed to learn that TV5 in the Philippines have an international channel called Aksyon TV International which we can also watch through OSN. OSN cost 90 Rials per month, it's a little costly compared to TFC (sr14 difference for very educational and entertaining channels wouldn't make us bleed, lol!). By the way, all OSN's 26 channels are really worth watching including 2 channels for GMA TV, 2 channels for GMA radio and Aksyon TV International.  I think this is one of the best decisions we've ever made.

Believe me, if you are tired to record everyday your favorite TFC programs because you will not be able to watch them due to conflict with work schedule, and all that welcomes you when you get home is your most dreaded toilet-humor, corny and predictable scripts like Banana Split, then joining aboard would be a little smarter thing to do, lol! Sounds like promoting OSN, am I, right? Or perhaps you think I'm getting a month gratis for promoting the company? No, this is enough of a proof that I enjoy all the channels that my Eid holiday is spent almost entirely watching really nice programs.