IBC Express Balita was the flagship program of IBC 13 in the Philippines. It is one of 3 news programs produced by the network's News and Public Affairs Division and used to air 5:00pm on weekdays. Its reportorial teams are tasked to gather news from every major beat in the Greater Manila Area as well as nearby provinces.
Airing history
1998–2001: Soriano era
The newscast premiered on July 13, 1998, replacing Headline Trese. It was first anchored by Anne Marie Soriano and Alice Noel. A few months later, Noel left the newscast, leaving Soriano as the sole anchor of the newscast. In 1999, the newscast had several changes to the opening billboard. On February 21, 2000, returning media personalitySnooky Serna joined Soriano as its new anchor, with a brandnew opening billboard, graphics, soundtrack and stand-up news delivery.
2001–2009: Castelo era
On January 8, 2001, both Soriano and Serna were replaced by former teen star Precious Hipolito-Castelo and Malacañang correspondent Ron Gagalac as its new anchors maintaining the same title card, soundtrack, and graphics. On February 11, 2002, Noli Eala became Castelo's new co-anchor replacing Gagalac, which he transferred to ABS-CBN as a news reporter years later. By that time, the newscast expanded its broadcasting time to 60 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and had several changes later on. Several months later on the same year, Eala was replaced by Adrian Ayalin as the former was appointed to anchor IBC News Tonight. In 2004, after IBC relaunched its slogan and station ID on December 2003, the newscast also done changes on its studios, opening billboard and graphics; and its also reused its first soundtrack theme of the newscast for follow-details before and after news reports. A year later, Ali Atienza replaced Ayalin, which he transferred to ABS-CBN as a news reporter. However, Atienza left the newscast in 2007 in order to run for mayor of Manila. He was temporarily replaced by Errol Dacame. In 2008, DZRH radio anchor Bing Formento became Castelo's new co-anchor replacing Dacame. The team-up continued until 2009, when Castelo decided to run for Councilor of Quezon City.
2009–2011: Morales era
On November 9, 2009, Jake Morales replaced Hipolito-Castelo and Formento as its new anchor; the newscast relaunched to their graphics, soundtrack and opening billboard. For several weeks, Morales was joined by Toni Marcelo, then later on, Karen Padilla-Tulfo finally took the anchor's chair replacing the former. However, Tulfo, being the wife of Erwin Tulfo, left the newscast in early 2011 to be acquired by TV5 to anchor for Aksyon Breaking on AksyonTV, leaving Morales as the sole anchor of the program, he was joined by Cathy Eigenmann as his new co-anchor on May 16, 2011.
2011: Lontoc and Valencia era
On June 20, 2011, Chal Lontoc took over the anchor chair as its new anchor. The newscast introduced its simpler studio set the same day. However, Lontoc was replaced by Zyrene Parsad-Valencia a month later as its new and final anchor. The newscast ceased airing on August 5, 2011 to make way for the afternoon edition of News Team 13.