Sources of Philippine News
The primary source of the latest Philippine news as well as news abroad, could be taken from any of the major daily newspapers and the local TV stations. You could also get local news from several FM stations and locally operated on-line Internet news sites as well.
All major daily Philippine newspapers are published in English and have nationwide circulation. Thus, you will have no problems in getting yourself updated from news all over the world anywhere you are in the islands.
The most popular newspapers are the Manila Bulletin, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and the Philippine Star. Complete with full featured sections and a rich diversity of opinion columns, reading one of these will let you feel the latest pulse and hypes on the happenings in the country, not to mention the latest news around the world.
All these newspapers are available on many street newstands, on malls and supermarkets.
The major cities also have newspapers of their own. If you ever visit Bacolod, Baguio, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu, Davao, Dumaguete, General Santos, Iloilo, Pampanga, Pangasinan or Zamboanga, you will find it a pleasure to read a copy of the local Sunstar. The Sunstar is a network of local newspapers in the Philippines. Usually, Philippine news at this paper is a mix of both English and the local dialect.
However, if you simply want to view the news from your favorite local daily in your own country, you will be glad to do that very easily from any Internet Cafe. Internet Cafe's in Manila usually cost 20 to 30 Philippine pesos per hour. (That's 0.40 to 0.60 US Dollars per hour.)
In other provinces outside Manila, the cost of Internet Cafes is a little bit higher. If you have a mobile device, you can even browse Philippine news from any of the Wi-Fi ready coffee shops such as Starbucks or Seattle's Best.
The headline news for the next day is usually glimpsed through Prime-time television. Prime time TV always starts with the Philippine news. Usually, all major local TV networks broadcast the news anytime between 6PM and 7PM local time.
Philippine news is a mix of English and Filipino (the official language). Filipino is actually the merge between Tagalog (the common dialect all over the country) and thousands of English words and expressions. A very good way to learn Filipino is to listen to the news. Since the Filipino language consists of a lot of English expressions, it won't be a surprise if you understand the news the first time you hear it.
On the other hand, English Philippine news is usually broadcasted on the major networks between 10PM local time and midnight. The major television networks are ABS-CBN (Channel 2), GMA (Channel 7), ABC5 (Channel 5), and RPN9 (Channel 9). All of these networks show prime time and late night news.
If you simply want news all the time, then you don't have to worry at all. Cable TV is always available on mid-range inns, major hotels and resorts all over the country. Thus, you may ask your hotel's or resort's receptionist for the schedule of programs, including Philippine news, on the cable TV network. For details on Cable TV programming in Metro Manila, you may find ClickTheCity very useful
There are around 500 FM stations all over the country and many of these stations have news updates every two to three hours.
When you are in Manila, where the traffic can sometimes be a challenging experience, you can always tune in to any of the 14 FM stations that have regular news on the traffic situation at the Metropolis. You may want to tune it to 105.9 (Crossover) or 106.7 (Dream FM) on your FM radio to get important traffic updates.
During the morning rush hour that is from 6AM to 9AM, and during the evening rush hour that is from 5PM to 8PM, you may want to tune in to these stations to get to know the traffic situation nearest you or on the place of your next appointment.
With the varied Philippine news sources, having the latest updates on local happenings or that of the world will be an easy task.
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