For anyone young who wants to get into content creation, GMA Public Affairs first vice president and GMA Pictures senior vice president Nessa Valdellon has this to say: “It’s not just about studying. I’ve worked with brilliant people who didn’t have the funds to finish college and they were still successful. The important thing is that you read whatever you can get your hands on, watch the classic films, listen to podcasts, and also get yourself a TikTok account or whatever is the social media platform of choice at the moment so you have a clear understanding of pop culture and what’s trending.”
She then adds an oft-given yet always relevant advice, stating, “Find the courage to dream. That you might win an Oscar someday. Or change the world. Or at least change the country for the better and leave a lasting cultural legacy through your work.”
True to her word, Valdellon has been steadfastly trying to change the country for the better and leave a lasting cultural legacy through the countless episodes she’s produced for public affairs programs and most recently for the movies Iti Mapukpukaw and Firefly.
The first movie, which tackles childhood sexual abuse and trauma, won Best Film in the full-length category at the 2023 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. The second one is about a young boy who finds courage and closure while on a journey to fulfill his promise to his recently deceased mother. It was named Best Picture at the Metro Manila Film Festival in December 2023 and, just a little over a month later, at the 2024 Manila International Film Festival that was held on 2 February in Los Angeles, California.
On the right track
“It’s ironic I ended up thriving in a broadcast network job,” Valdellon tells DAILY TRIBUNE in an email interview. “I entered college majoring in Communications because I wanted to be a writer. After just a year, I decided to shift to Interdisciplinary Studies and take more History courses, realizing I was a fish out of water in Comm.”
Imagine her as a “very shy and socially anxious” in a sea of generally “loud and gregarious and had a flair for the dramatic” personalities back in college and now at work. Then again, she noted that “despite sticking out like a sore thumb, I’m still here!”
Maybe she just can’t escape her true calling. That’s because after college, she couldn’t continue the writing gig she had started at the Sunday Inquirer Magazine. Her editor, Lorna Kalaw-Tirol recommended that the fresh graduate apply instead at Probe Productions, owned and run by fellow esteemed journalist Cheche Lazaro.
And that’s how Valdellon got into TV production and public affairs. She was hired in 1996 as a producer in The Probe Team, a weekly show notable for in-depth stories. She had multiple functions as a personal assistant, transcriber, field director, scriptwriter and editor. Thus, nothing glamorous.
“We had to do everything and we always lacked sleep,” she recalls. “But I learned from the best there and I learned to love my work. My Probe days were some of the happiest of my life. Imagine Monday meetings where Cheche Lazaro, Luchi Cruz-Valdes and Maria Ressa might all be in attendance critiquing the past week’s programs, it was amazing. I stayed for more than eight years.”
She adds, in reflection, “Journalism pushed me to go out into the world and experience new, sometimes shocking things. As a Probe producer I did everything from bungee jumping to climbing mountains in Kalinga while documenting marijuana plantations to applying as a GRO in nightclubs carrying a hidden camera. It was a crazy time. But the stories closest to my heart were about child labor and indigenous peoples: I felt so strongly that journalists should serve as the voice of the voiceless. I still do.”
While in Probe, Valdellon also worked as executive producer of Lazaro’s episodes for I-Witness, GMA’s weekly broadcast of documentaries, so she also reported to Marissa Flores, then head of the GMA News and Public Affairs department.
Valdellon fondly remembers her former boss as “quiet, stayed away from the limelight, always thought carefully before she spoke” and “a joy to work with, providing guidance while allowing me creative freedom.” That’s why when Probe “started experiencing financial problems,” she didn’t hesitate to ask Flores if there was a job opening, and she got it.
In 2004, Valdellon was promoted to assistant vice president when GMA Public Affairs was going heavily into reality TV programming. She launched a string of reality shows, such as Wish Ko Lang and Extra Challenge, which proved to be very popular among viewers. Suddenly, the network shot to the number one spot in national ratings.
Five years later, when she had just wrapped production work on the second season of Survivor Philippines, she decided to resign. It’s been a solid and rewarding 13 years on TV, but she felt “exhausted and worried that I’d spent my entire life working and hadn’t had the chance to experience life or see the world.” So, she packed her bags and set out for an adventure overseas, where she “got lost” in Venice, Siem Reap, New Orleans and in so many places.
“The sabbatical year was incredible,” she says. “I was incredibly happy seeing the world.”
Then she got a call at 3 a.m. while she’s on the Spanish leg of her adventure, staying in the city of Barcelona. The caller was Jimmy Duavit, now GMA Network’s chief executive officer, who said she’s needed to run a news channel.
Back to where she belongs
Valdellon admits that the “idea of programming an entire channel grid from scratch was too fascinating” for her to turn down Duavit’s offer. Ergo, she once again packed her bags, but this time to return home for good. She immediately got to work, starting with hiring the core GMA News TV team and setting up the channel. They went on producing “landmark shows,” including Bawal ang Pasaway kay Mareng Winnie, Investigative Documentaries with Malou Mangahas, Motorcycle Diaries with Jay Taruc and the Peabody award-winning Reel Time.
Knowing that the audience wanted fictional series, she decided to produce her first drama series in 2012. She co-wrote the storyline for what turned out to be Bayan Ko, with the screenplay completed by Rody Vera and the series shot by director Adolf Alix. She followed it with Titser, as written by Alemberg Ang and directed by Alvin Yapan. Then her GNTV team continued the legacy with the similarly exceptional and substantial series Katipunan and Ilustrado, plus other historical dramas and, later on, the anthology programs Wagas and Karelasyon.
Sadly, financial challenges forced GNTV to cease operations in 2020. Valdellon focused on GMA Public Affairs, which eventually gave her current position, first vice president. Just July last year, she was appointed senior vice president at GMA Pictures. This new role excites her no end because she’s a self-confessed movie fan, saying, “My entire adult life, I would go to the cinemas at least once every couple of weeks and in a sense, escape my reality. It was my portal to other worlds, to the other lives I’d chosen not to lead.”
She’s been with GMA for a total of 22 years, and she feels she’s doing “not really work” as she loves creating content. She then muses, “So much has changed over the past decades — but good content still makes its mark: whether you produce it for the big screen, for TV, for social, for streaming platforms. I still get goosebumps when I read a great concept or a beautiful script.
“I see myself producing content till the end of my days, in whatever form. And I love the challenge of creating a little startup and watching it grow — which GMA has given me the opportunity to do within the network several times over. And right now, it’s by creating a new team for GMA Pictures.”
At the same time, Valdellon is a firm believer in work-life balance. She makes it a point to have time for herself, her health and her sanity. How? “Early morning, I walk for half an hour around the neighborhood. Then I meditate. I started this routine more than a year ago and it’s changed me in a big way. I see everything more clearly now. I can visualize what will happen in the coming days and how I’ll react.”
As for her secret talent: “I trade whenever the Philippine market is good. I took trading courses some years back and have been able to use my stock market gains to fund personal projects and a few vacations. I’m very big on fiscal management. Decades ago, I realized I’d die poor if I depended solely on my day job — so I started investing, slowly buying property, trading — and now I have a system where my money makes money on its own while I go out and do the things I really want to do.”