Luisita "Luchi" Cruz-Valdes (; born December 27, 1965) is a Filipino

broadcast journalist Broadcast journalism is the field of news and journals which are broadcast by electronic methods instead of the older methods, such as printed newspapers and posters. It works on radio (via air, cable, and Internet), television (via air, cable, ...

formerly affiliated with

GMA News and Public Affairs GMA Integrated News (simply known as GMA News; formerly known as RBS News Department, GMA Radio-Television News and GMA Rainbow Satellite News; and later GMA News and Public Affairs) is the news division of the Philippine media company GMA Networ ...

and now

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 ...

and

ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, known on-air as ABS-CBN News (formerly known as ''ABS-CBN News and Public Affairs''), is the news and current affairs division of the Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation. The division is the coun ...

. She was formerly the chief of

, the

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

and public affairs department of TV5.

Life and career

Cruz-Valdes earned her degree in broadcast communication at the

University of the Philippines Diliman The University of the Philippines Diliman (also called UPD; ), also referred to as UP Diliman, is a State university and college (Philippines), public, coeducational, Research university, research university located in Diliman, Quezon City, Ph ...

(UP), and became a radio and television reporter and producer. She is married to Lito Valdes, an IT marketing manager, and has three children. Cruz-Valdes joined the

Associated Broadcasting Company TV5 Network Inc., commonly referred to as TV5, is a Philippine media company headquartered in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. It primarily operates in radio and television broadcasting and manages several subsidiaries and affiliates in various me ...

(ABC) as a field reporter when it set up a

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

bureau for the 1986 Snap Presidential Election. After her ABC stint, Cruz-Valdes was hired by

Cheche Lazaro Cecilia "Cheche" Aldaba Lim-Lázaro (born September 8, 1945, in Los Angeles, California), is a Filipino people, Filipino broadcast journalist and the founding President of Probe Productions Inc. as well as an Editor-at-Large of online news we ...

when ABS-CBN reopened after president

Corazon Aquino María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...

was sworn into position. For 10 years, she was a co-host of The Probe Team with Lazaro, founder and producer of the program, and also Cruz-Valdes' professor in UP. She proceeded to become part of the GMA News and Public Affairs for three years before accepting the offer of rival network ABS-CBN to become its vice president for news production and current affairs in 2001. Soon after leaving her post in GMA 7, the network filed cases of breach of contract and injunction against Cruz-Valdes, which prevented her from working in ABS-CBN from December 28, 2001, to August 20, 2002. In July 2008, the

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read and pronounced in Filipino language, Filipino as Kyusi), is the richest and List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 c ...

Regional Trial Court The regional trial courts (RTC; ) are the highest trial courts in the Philippines. In criminal matters, they have original jurisdiction. History It was formerly called as the Court of First Instance since the Spanish colonial period. It cont ...

judge Tita Marilyn Villordon dismissed the cases and ordered GMA Network to pay its former employee in damages equivalent to the salary that Cruz-Valdes should have earned during her eight-month "forced" vacation. Also in 2008, Cruz-Valdes was placed under preventive suspension pending the outcome of an internal matter, which ABS-CBN Corporate Communications head

Bong Osorio Ramon "Bong" Osorio (November 5, 1953 – April 30, 2020) was a Filipino media executive and communication professor at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Arts and Letters. He served as Vice President of ABS-CBN for Corporate Communications ...

described as "not merely a petty personal difference or simple administrative concern." In November of the same year, Cruz-Valdes filed her resignation. In 2010, she joined TV5 as its news chief. One of her notable roles in joining TV5 is moderating the 2nd leg of ''

PiliPinas Debates 2016 ''PiliPinas Debates 2016'' is a debate series administered by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) with the assistance of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas in preparation for the May 9, 2016, general election. In January 2016, the C ...

''. On September 27, 2024, she stepped down as

and Public Affairs department chief following her retirement after 15 years of service.

Filmography

Television

Radio

Awards and Recognitions

; Catholic Mass Media Awards * Titus Brandsma Award for Excellence in Journalism ; KBP Golden Dove (Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas) * Broadcaster of the Year (2001) * Best Female Newscaster (2015) * Ka Doroy Broadcaster of the Year Award (2015) ; New York Film and Television Festival * 3 Silver and 3 Bronze Medals for Best Documentary ; Inding-Indie Short Film Festival * Most Outstanding Broadcaster Asian Media Award (2015) * Pinakamapanuri at Pinagkakatiwalaang Brodkaster of the Year Award (2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruz-Valdes, Luchi 1965 births Living people Filipino radio journalists Filipino television journalists RPN News and Public Affairs people ABS-CBN people ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs people GMA Network (company) people GMA Integrated News and Public Affairs people TV5 Network people TV5 Network executives News5 people