AFTER MAKING UST her home for the last 32 years, Tiger Media Network (TMN) founding head Asst. Prof. Faye Martel Abugan has decided to close her chapter with the University and explore newer forms of broadcast, such as digital content creation.
While the safety and comforts of the University have prolonged her stay, Abugan, who has led UST’s broadcasting arm since its establishment in 2018, believes she has “outgrown” her role on campus.
“UST has been the constant. I’m the one who got older, who outgrew [the University], who became more restless, so, UST can no longer contain me,” she told The Flame.
Abugan said she considered leaving the University as early as 2006, but she stayed after getting married and having her child, who eventually studied at UST.
“Twenty years ago, 2006, I wanted to retire because I felt like it was over, I felt like I had given a lot to UST, and I felt, honestly, because I work in production, I would earn more if I was outside of UST,” she said.
“But of course, because my daughter was enrolled in UST, so, okay, stay, and at the same time, of course, the work conditions at UST are really good.”
Abugan will officially retire after July this year.
When she was concurrently teaching at the University and working at TV5, she described a “symbiosis” between the two roles, as she brought her broadcasting experience into the classroom. She would eventually mentor students through her courses in the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) and guidance in the Tomasian Cable Television (TOMCAT) and TMN.
A 32-Year Legacy
Abugan’s journey as a Thomasian educator began when she was 22 years old. Fresh from completing the Communication Arts program in 1993, she began teaching Theater Arts at the University.
One of her students, former TV and radio host Jeffrey Bryan Espiritu, who graduated from the same program in 1999, fondly remembered Abugan’s style of teaching.
He recalled how she asked him to perform his final exam monologue in front of the Central library when he was campaigning for the Artlets Student Council presidency.
“I will not forget Ma’am Faye. I was campaigning for the ABSC elections when she asked me to play a gay character for a Theater Arts Monologue…She was confident that I could do it. Well, I passed the test with flying colors,” Espiritu told The Flame.
Abugan later became the executive producer for his first sitcom, “Everybody Hapi” on TV5.
“I always admire her dedication, creativity, and energy (It’s like [she is] always carrying a generator! It never runs out.),” Espiritu added.
ABS-CBN Malacañang reporter Katrina Domingo said that she knew Abugan through programs the educator had helped establish, which exposed her and other Thomasians to TV production and even to Communications students from Japan and Thailand through various projects.
According to Domingo, Abugan was among the “intimidating personalities” during her freshman year.
“She, too, was an irony of sorts — fun but strict, child-like but authoritative, light-hearted but imbued with depth,” Domingo told The Flame.
More than Abugan’s classroom lessons, the broadcast journalist said she looked up to her for showing that women in media can thrive “without making her career the lone title that defines her life.”
“It was her work ethic that I admired and tried to emulate most as she was then seamlessly juggling her responsibilities in the academe, in graduate school, and in raising her daughter — which in the eyes of a 16-year-old seemed like an impossible feat.”
Domingo finished UST’s Communication Arts program in 2011.
A clean exit, new plans
A year after her departure from TMN, with her daughter finally graduated and with the entry of new faculty members in the Communication department, Abugan is now ready for a “clean exit.”
“I’m no longer in broadcast, the media landscape is changing, I’m no longer an admin[istrator], I’m no longer in TMN. So, it’s nice, because it seems like such a clean exit, no attachments, so, now’s the time,” she said.
“[I] have given so much to UST, and also UST has given me so much… but there’s still so much to explore out there, I’m really choosing to just look forward… But, of course, my other foot will always be in UST, because I’m an alumna.”
The broadcast veteran said she plans to link her academic expertise with her extensive industry experience to pursue content creation post-retirement, particularly experimenting with TikTok Live and offering alternative education for production and other creative fields.
“TikTok is like it’s TV on steroids….I think of TV now as a baby, and then it’s like he looks at TikTok and says, ‘When I grow up, I want to be TikTok,” she said.
“That’s really what I’m [exploring] right now. [How could I ] bring my broadcast and also in teaching academically to the new platforms today?” Abugan added.
Abugan emphasized that despite the decline of traditional television, the core principles of broadcasting would remain unchanged.
In 2004, Abugan became the faculty advisor for TOMCAT under the Educational Technology (EdTech) Center. She served as the faculty advisor for the media network for 14 years.
She led its restructuring into TMN in 2018 under the Communications Bureau, where she became its assistant director for broadcast media.
Throughout her term, the network accumulated various local and international accolades, such as the Philippine Student Quill Awards, International Student Broadcasting Championship and Intercollegiate Broadcasting System College Media Awards in the United States.
She said her most triumphant moment at UST is reading about her mentees’ achievements and seeing them thrive in pursuing their passions.
“Whenever I read about my students who really champion outside UST, that is my biggest triumph…I always tell them, ‘I will always take my claim on you and say, ‘O, that’s my student.’”
Abugan served as assistant director of the Communications Bureau for six years but was not reappointed for the second semester of the academic year 2024-2025 and was instead assigned to be its business manager.
The Communication professor held the post for one term and resigned when she was again appointed to the same role.
After ending her over six-year stint in TMN, she taught more elective media classes to other programs while serving as the AB Alumni Coordinator. She also returned to the EdTech Center as head of media production.
As she looks to explore opportunities beyond the University, Abugan said she would like to be remembered by her personal mantra that she imparted on generations of Artlets and Thomasian student volunteers.
“I’m someone who believed in possibilities, I’m someone who made things possible… They will always remember me sa kahong, ‘Hindi puwedeng hindi puwede’ (No is not an option).” F — with reports from Nitya Aku
