VETERAN Cebuano broadcaster and Superbalita Cebu columnist Emmanuel “Manny” Delos Santos Rabacal passed away on Friday, May 31, 2024. He was 81.
Fellow broadcaster Dante Luzon, former ABS-CBN station manager, confirmed Rabacal’s death in a Facebook post on Friday.
Rabacal’s cause of death has not yet been confirmed by his family as of press time; however, the veteran anchor reportedly suffered from an eye complication in the past two weeks.
For five decades, Rabacal has been an icon of Cebu broadcasting. Among his notable roles was being one of the anchors of ABS-CBN Cebu before martial law. He was also part of the “big four” at a now-defunct dyDY 570 of Banahaw Broadcasting Corp. during the martial law years.
Rabacal also served as anchor and station manager of dyMF-Bombo Radyo Cebu, news anchor of RPN 9-Cebu, and talk show host and news anchor of Cebu Catholic Television Network, also known as the CCTN Channel 47.
Rabacal had also written opinion pieces as a columnist for Superbalita Cebu.
His career in the media started with Visayan Broadcasting Network in 1961, and later on he became a music and commentary show host with the Northern Broadcasting Network (NBN).
Rabacal resigned from NBN in late 1989 but was retained as a consultant until his retirement in 2005.
Among his notable and controversial works was his exclusive coverage in 1985 of Rudy Maneja, an engineer-cult leader, who doused himself with gasoline, ignited it, and burned himself to death at Plaza Independencia while a crowd of 3,000 people watched. / EHP