For years, she was a constant guest in various public affairs programs on TV. She spoke her mind, even during the height of martial law. Then came a day in 1992 when she was asked to co-host Firing Line, GMA Network’s late night public affairs talk show. “Teddy Benigno came to me after mass in Manila Cathedral and asked me if I can pitch in for Oscar Orbos. I said sure,” she recalls. Orbos left the program to run for public office. The rest, as they say, is history. For two decades now, Prof. Solita “Mareng Winnie” Monsod has been part of GMA News and Public Affairs, breaking down complex issues and presenting analyses to the public. She has become a regular part of the Filipino household. Consider this: you wake up to her analyzing the latest noteworthy event or interviewing hard-to-corner personalities on Unang Hirit, GMA 7’s very early morning program. Later in the day, you may find her being interviewed in one of the newscasts when there are complex economic or political issues that need to be explained. Monday nights at 10 PM, she hosts Bawal ang Pasaway on GMA News TV Channel 11. Initially, she thought the gig would be “a three-month thing.” “TV was not part of my horizon at the time,” she says. But television has become part of her life, and she has become known from the power brokers to the man on the street as Mareng Winnie. Part of her charm is that she always appears comfortable in front of the camera. Nothing is put on, even when grilling an evasive interviewee. She credits this to her being a lecturer to hundreds of Economics students at the University of the Philippines several times a week. “How can I be camera shy? I lecture. I don’t notice the cameras,” she says. The past two decades, Mareng Winnie has had various news and public affairs programs. For years, she co-hosted "Debate" with Oscar Orbos. This was followed by another late-night talk program “Palaban” with investigative journalist Malou Mangahas and beauty queen Miriam Quiambao. But no matter what she does, she never takes off her teacher’s hat. Production staff at “Pasaway” usually laugh at the stress they feel when presenting research work to the one they fondly call Tita Winnie or “Lola Natin (Our grandma).” “It’s like thesis defense every time we talk to her,” said one. Mareng Winnie’s thorough and objective approach to research is a discipline she tries to instill in every member of the staff. “I enjoy what I'm doing. I always want to be in communication with the people. I want to explain issues to them. That's the teacher in me,” she says.
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