''Frontline'' () is a

Philippine television Television in the Philippines was introduced in October 1953 upon the first commercial broadcast made by Alto Broadcasting System (now ABS-CBN), making the Philippines the first Southeast Asian country and the second in Asia to do so. Even ...

news broadcasting show broadcast by TV5. Originally anchored by

Raffy Tulfo Rafael Teshiba Tulfo (; born March 12, 1960) is a Filipino politician, broadcast journalist, and media personality currently serving as a Senator of the Philippines since 2022. His works are focused on government and private sector issues, ...

and

Cheryl Cosim Cheryl Kathleen Cosim-Alvarez (; born February 7, 1974) is a Filipino journalist, news anchor and TV host, who has appeared on ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs and News5. Career She began her career as a journalist at ABS-CBN News and Curren ...

, it premiered on October 5, 2020, replacing ''

Aksyon Aksyon may refer to * ''Aksyon'' (TV program), a defunct Philippine news program by TV5 *Aksyon Demokratiko, a Philippine political party *''Aksyon Ngayon'', a public radio service program of DZMM *Aksyon Radyo, a Philippine radio network owned b ...

''. Cosim and

Julius Babao Julius Caesar Concepcion Babao () is a Filipino broadcast journalist, radio commentator and former talk show host for the Philippine television stations ABS-CBN and TV5. He is most notable for anchoring ''TV Patrol'' from 2003 to 2010, ''Ban ...

currently serve as the anchors.

History

2020–2021: Tulfo-Cosim era

''Frontline Pilipinas'' premiered on October 5, 2020, at 6:30 PM PHT with

and

as original anchors, along with

News5 TV5 News and Current Affairs, also known on-air as News5 (formerly ABC News and Public Affairs and TV5 News and Public Affairs and later TV5 News and Information), is the news and current affairs (news format), current affairs division of the ...

chief

Luchi Cruz-Valdes Luisita "Luchi" Cruz-Valdes (; born December 27, 1965) is a Filipino broadcast journalist formerly affiliated with GMA News and Public Affairs and now News5 and ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs. She was formerly the chief of News5, the news ...

, chief correspondent Ed Lingao, and

Lourd de Veyra Lourd Ernest Hanopol de Veyra (; born February 11, 1975) is a Filipino musician, emcee, poet, journalist, TV host, broadcast personality and activist who became famous as the vocalist of the Manila-based jazz rock band Radioactive Sago Proj ...

as segment anchors for ''Deretsahan'', ''NEWS ExplainED'', and ''Word of the Lourd'', respectively. The program serves as the replacement to TV5's longest-running flagship newscast ''

'', which ended abruptly on March 16, 2020, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the enforcement of

enhanced community quarantine in Luzon The enhanced community quarantine in Luzon was a series of stay-at-home orders and ''cordon sanitaire (medicine), cordon sanitaire'' measures implemented by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EI ...

, as well as the two One- branded newscasts which aired on TV5. The following week, the program moved to 6:00 PM timeslot to give way for the

2020 PBA Philippine Cup The 2020 Philippine Cup, also known as the 2020 Honda PBA Philippine Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the only conference or tournament of the 2020 PBA season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The 42nd PBA Philippine Cup started o ...

and new primetime programming. On February 15, 2021, athlete and TV host

Gretchen Ho Gretchen Ong Ho (; born April 19, 1990) is a Filipino broadcaster, television presenter and former volleyball player. She played collegiate volleyball for the Ateneo Lady Eagles from 2008 to 2013, where she was a member of the "fab five" who ...

joined the newscast as "Sports" segment anchor (alongside '' The Big Story'' on One News). On February 22, 2021, the program extended its running time to one hour and 15 minutes as part of TV5's programming changes.

Tulfo's departure

On October 1, 2021, Raffy Tulfo bid farewell to the newscast to run for

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

. Julius Babao was named as

's replacement, joining the newscast on February 7, 2022. In conjunction with this, ''Frontline Pilipinas'' also debuted its new opening billboard, title card, and graphics. Babao was originally to make his debut on January 17, but was postponed due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases brought by the

omicron variant Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a Variants of SARS-CoV-2, variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021. It was first detected in Botswana and has ...

. Ed Lingao took over as interim anchor of the newscast. Also on the same day, Gretchen Ho took over the anchoring duties for ''Frontline sa Umaga'' from Paolo Bediones as he left News5 on February 1 due to the issues surrounding his company, Ei2Tech. The newscast returned to the original 6:30 PM timeslot and was extended to 90 minutes on May 22, 2023. On January 8, 2024,

Jiggy Manicad Rodrigo Defeo "Jiggy" Manicad Jr. ( () ; born November 15, 1974) is a Filipino television news producer, reporter and broadcast journalist. During his stint in GMA Network, he was a presenter in '' Reporter's Notebook'', and anchored news pro ...

joined the newscast, becoming its first third main anchor. It also marked his return to journalism, after a nearly six-year hiatus. From March 8, 2025, beginning with its weekend edition, all of the newscast's edition (in exception of ''News5 Alerts'') silently dropped its original theme music and began adopting the composition used by its predecessor program ''

'' from 2010 to 2017 throughout its broadcasts for unknown reasons, sharing the music with TV5's

affiliate Affiliation or affiliate may refer to: * Affiliate (commerce), a legal form of entity relationship used in Business Law * Affiliation (family law), a legal form of family relationship * Affiliate marketing * Affiliate network or affiliation platfo ...

Zamboanga City Zamboanga City, officially the City of Zamboanga (; ; Subanen languages, Subanen: ''Bagbenwa Sembwangan''; Sama–Bajaw languages, Sama: ''Lungsud Samboangan''; ; ; ) is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, highly urbanized city i ...

for its regional newscast ''Dateline Zamboanga''. A week later, the newscast transitioned to a temporary studio set, as its current news studio underwent renovations in preparation for the ''Bilang Pilipino 2025'' mid-term election coverage. On April 29, the graphics were updated, starting with its edition of ''Frontline Express''. On May 16, Manicad made his final appearance on the newscast to become the anchor of its lead-in, ''Una sa Lahat''. On May 19, it was shortened to 45 minutes to make way for ''Una sa Lahat'' and ''Wattpad Presents:

Ang Mutya ng Section E ''Ang Mutya ng Section E'' () is a Philippine teen romantic comedy television series. It is based on the Wattpad book trilogy of the same name by the Filipino author Lara Flores, who is better known by her pseudonym Eatmore2behappy. The series s ...

''.

Newscast editions

Frontline sa Umaga (Morning edition)

''Frontline sa Umaga'' (), a morning edition of ''Frontline Pilipinas'', premiered on May 10, 2021, with

Paolo Bediones Paolo Antonio Barba Bediones (born March 17, 1974) is a Filipino television host, newscaster, Radio personality, radio commentator and occasional actor. Bediones started his career as a commercial model, and later transitioned to television s ...

and Marga Vargas as its original anchors. The morning edition ended on October 20, 2024, as part of the major changes on TV5's ''Gandang Mornings'' morning programming block. The change featured the transfer of ''Gud Morning Kapatid'' to an earlier timeslot of 5:30 AM on October 21.

Accolades

''Frontline Pilipinas'' received nominations for Best News Program and Best Female Newscaster (Cosim) at the

35th PMPC Star Awards for Television The 35th PMPC Star Awards for Television honors the best in Philippine television programming from 2020 to 2021, as chosen by the Philippine Movie Press Club. The ceremony was held at the Winford Manila Resort and Casino on January 28, 2023. Th ...

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{Hourly news bulletins in the Philippines 2020 Philippine television series debuts 2020s Philippine television series Filipino-language television shows Flagship evening news shows News5 shows Sign language television shows TV5 (Philippine TV network) news shows TV5 (Philippine TV network) original programming