Remembering Ricky Poca

Ricky Poca

RICKY Poca emerged in the public eye in the mid-80s when he joined the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship. Together with his uncle, the late Cebu City councilor Clemente Rama, they helped the late Inday Nita Cortes Daluz organize peaceful rallies against the Marcos regime.

At that time, Inday Nita was lording it over the airlanes and I recall her sometimes mentioning Ricky’s name when giving updates about a mass demonstration that was to happen.

I think the broadcast media bug bit him through his regular interaction with the freedom fighter, Inday Nita.

The first time I met Ricky personally was sometime in the early 90’s when Inday Nita anchored a program over DYKC. As radio production manager, I had the pleasure of meeting all of Inday’s associates including Ricky.

When I quit DYKC in 1995, I accepted the offer of DYLA Station Manager Cerge Remonde to anchor a public affairs program. Ricky was already on board DYLA at that time.

Later, the station created a program which Ricky and I co-hosted. I think we hit it off well together. But unfortunately, the program was preemptec for reasons we both didn’t know.

In 2006, I was appointed Officer-in-Charge of Station DYRF which was then under an affiliate agreement with Lacto PAFI.

I invited Ricky to be part of the station’s news & public affairs line up, an offer he gladly accepted. In tandem with Divine Marcial Flores, they both spiced up the morning news and commentary program.

Around this time, my friend and former Cebu Daily News publisher and editor-in-chief Eileen Mangubat introduced me to tourism advocate and entrepreneur Jenny Franco.

When I raised the idea of a tourism forum to be broadcast over DYRF, Jenny got very excited and it didn’t take long for her to mobilize the federation of independent travel agencies called NAITAS led by Consul Bobby Joseph.

We later invited Ricky to our planning sessions and we agreed that we co-host the show. I could not forget our planning sessions because Ricky always teased us and called us “hungry detergents,” referring to our status as widows. This was the genesis of the 888 News Forum.

In February 2013, I joined Ricky in accepting an award extended by the Cebu City government citing the news forum as an outstanding institution during the city’s 74th Charter Day anniversary.

Ricky had stints as well with CCTN Channel 47 and MYTV from 2012 to 2017.

The last time I saw Ricky was in December 09, during a Christmas luncheon hosted by former Ambassador Frank Benedicto for media friends. We had a brief conversation and I asked him how he was doing.

“Dia day, buhi pa (I’m here, still alive),” he replied.

I told him that we all take it one day at a time.

Last Sunday, at around 4 p.m., I sent Ricky a note via messenger asking him if he was open to spiritual healing. I told him that I had been hearing masses at the Mary’s Little Children Community in Tabunok, Talisay City.

The masses are often presided by the congregation’s founder, Monsignor Fred Kriekenbeek, who is known for his spiritual gifts of healing.

Ricky responded that he would like a healing session with Monsignor Fred very much.

I said that actually it was difficult to get an appointment with the good monsignor because he kept a very busy schedule.

I suggested that he take his chances by showing up at the center after the 8 a.m. mass. Ricky did not respond to my messages anymore.