Martin Andanar a former stutterer

ONE OF THE busiest news persons on TV 5 and Aksyon TV Channel 41 is Martin Andanar. Very articulate when he’s on screen, you’d never suspect that Martin can identify with Colin Firth in his recent Oscar-winning performance in “The King’s Speech”. Like Colin, Martin used to stutter and this made him shy. “I was a nerd,” he says. “I also wore thick glasses. But I was able to conquer my stuttering later and I gained more self confidence.” He studied film and media at the Ballarat University in Australia and joined GMA-7 upon his return here before moving to ABC-5 that later became TV5.

Martin starts his work at 4 AM with the news program “Andar ng mga Balita” on Radyo Singko 92.3 FM, then he segues to TV5’s “Sapul Sa Singko” from 5 to 8 AM with Erwin Tulfo, Amy Perez, and other co-hosts. He’s glad to do the news with Erwin, who was his senior when he started as a police reporter for the Western Police District. “He’s then with ABS and he’s really my idol,” he says. “It’s an honor to work with him now.”

Martin also anchors “Andar ng mga Balita”, the flagship newscast on Aksyon TV at 6:30 PM. He also hosts “Dokumentado” aired Wednesdays at 9 PM. He always tries to find time to spend with his two kids before they go to bed. And he continues to study. He has a master’s degree in entrepreneurship from Asian Institute of Management and also took studies in non-profit management at Georgetown University in Washington DC, governance at the Harvard School of Government and social entrepreneurship at Northern Illinois University.