10 Things You Should Know About Jeric & Paul Soriano

Jeric & Paul Soriano on Nestor de Villa, advertising, film, love & faith

Jeric Soriano (center), flanked by his father Nestor de Villa and son Paul Soriano: Jeric says of his dad, “He would look at us always and say, ‘Smile, everybody, smile!’” While Paul, a director for film and advertising, says, “People say, kasi anak ni Jeric, apo ni Nestor. To be honest, I think it got me the meetings. But to get the job, I needed to be talented.”

Both father and son are notable directors in the world of advertising, popular for their striking mestizo looks, and known for their strong faith in God. Both may be very private individuals, but they’ve had to adjust to being in the public eye as one is often seen praying by the side of Manny Pacquiao, and the other, attending events by the side of Toni Gonzaga. Here are 10 things you should know about Jeric and Paul Soriano.

1. Jeric, on growing up with Nestor de Villa as his father: “He would look at us always and say, ‘Smile, everybody, smile!’”

Growing up with a matinee idol father, Jeric says that as much as they didn’t want to be in the limelight, they had to adapt and grow up in the showbiz world. (“The Nida-Nestor Show, we all grew up on that set.”) He shares that, because tinted car windows didn’t exist back then, when they were stuck in traffic, the passengers in the cars and jeepneys right beside them would recognize his father, a frenzy would erupt and his dad would just say, “Smile, everyone! Wave!” “I think I carried over that personality, until now. Even if I don’t know the person, I’ll greet them and be friendly,” Jeric says.

2. Jeric directed the iconic “I can feel it!” commercial with Alice Dixon. He directed only one movie, Hotshots, which starred Aga Muhlach and Gary Valenciano.

Before he became a director, Jeric was working behind the scenes alongside directors like Lino Brocka. (“I loved the way he handled people. No one was too small or too great on his set, everyone had value.”) He got the idea to make movie trailers for different directors, and did that for films like Bernal’s Himala and Brocka’s Kontrobersyal, all free of charge. His name started to spread through the industry until one day, he got a phone call from Vic del Rosario of Viva Films. “My knees were shaking, I was trying to keep my voice from shaking,” the 57-year-old pastor recalls. A meeting was set up, he was given a story, a cast of actors, music, and he had to think of a treatment. Hotshots was the product. “The movie was actually my ticket into the advertising world, it was my demo reel!” he reveals.

3. Paul lived alone in the US to study college, and took jobs at the Gap, in a golf country club, and at Blockbuster Video

Paul was born and raised in the US, went back to the Philippines and graduated high school from International School Manila, then went back to the US, attending De Anza College then Sta. Clara University. “That was how my parents disciplined me. They said, ‘We can only support you with this much, and if you want to do your hobbies, then you have to work,’” Paul recalls. Knowing he wanted to be in film (“I wasn’t really the school type”), he worked as a production assistant for a while, before coming home to the Manila for good in 2006.

4. Paul, on making it in the industry: “People say, kasi anak ni Jeric, apo ni Nestor. To be honest, I think it got me the meetings. But to get the job, I needed to be talented.”

He says that getting into advertising was probably harder for him because he had his dad’s big shoes to fill. His first official TV ad was for Jollibee, and after that, he ended up making two more consecutive ads for them. “To get the next job, I had to do something right,” Paul says. He recently won Best Director and Best Screenplay awards in the 2012 FAP Awards for his movie Thelma. “It had a great message and I feel people really needed to see it. I don’t make films to get awards. I guess the awards just tell me that I did something good,” he shares. Thelma was a film two years in the making, but was an idea he had way back in college. “In my computer I have an ‘Imaginations’ folder, whatever I think of, I put it there. Thelma was that.”

5. Jeric and Paul Soriano in numbers:

3: Number of Soriano siblings after Paul. Patrick, 23, Philip, 19, and Parker, 17. Paul says he’s the strictest. “O.C.,” Jeric whispers.

500: Estimated number of TVCs Jeric made in his 25-year career. “There was a time I was doing 10 commercials a month, hopping from one service vehicle to another!”

50: Estimated number of TVCs Paul has done, since he started in 2007.

2: Number of weeks it took to plan and finish the “Palit” TVC, the 2010 presidential campaign ad of Bro. Eddie Villianueva that Paul and Jeric collaborated on.

100: Number of caps in Paul’s collection. “I love wearing hats cause I don’t like fixing my hair.”

25: Number of utility knives in Jeric’s collection. “I’m just fascinated with how they put all these tools in there!”

Pastor Jeric on Pacman: “He is sincere, honest, and passionate about this new life he is experiencing.”

6. Both Jeric and Paul were brought up with the freedom to pursue their passion. Jeric’s father (Paul’s grandfather) did not enjoy the same privilege and was actually cut off from the family.

Before getting into film, Paul wanted to become a professional golfer, and his dad Jeric supported him. “Whatever we wanted to do, he would support us. I think that’s what allowed us to really open up our mind and imagination,” Paul shares.

“My dad would say, ‘Whatever your craft or your gift is, I’m right behind you,’” Jeric shares. But he reveals that his father was told by his grandfather that he could just be either a lawyer or a doctor. And when he chose to become an actor, his father was told: “You are not my son, I don’t know any actor son.” But as the years passed, it all worked out. “When my dad made it in the industry, he gifted my grandfather who was a haciendero with a brand-new tractor. Tied a big yellow ribbon around it. That was the big peace offering.”

7. On being a spiritual adviser to Manny Pacquiao and Pacman’s newfound faith: “If it was fake or false, I would’ve left day one. I’m not wasting my time if it’s just for politics and showbiz. Honestly, from what I’m seeing, it is the real thing.”

The story goes, one random afternoon, Dyan Castillejo called him up and asked if he was available for Bible study that night. About to decline because the call came so late, Dyan mentioned it would be in Brentville, very near where Jeric lives. “It’s in the house of Manny Pacquiao,” Jeric recalls Dyan saying. “Are you sure you want me? Okay,” Jeric answered. He told his wife Marissa: “When we go to Pacman’s house, we will not do that one thing that everybody does. We will not ask for one autograph, we will not ask for one picture. Because we’re there for the Bible study.” A week after, Jeric was requested to return for a Bible study, and two days after that, Pacman asked for his cell phone number. “Pastor, kung okay ka, yung tinuro mo sa akin, kailangan marinig nung pamilya ko sa Gensan,” Pacman told him. “O, sige, kailan?” Jeric asked. “Uh, Pastor, pwede bukas? Yung first flight out?” Pacman replied.

“You know where I think I connected with him? You will see that when I speak, I use visuals. I use slides, pictures, sound effects, it’s the filmmaker in me. And when you begin to know the man, he has a childlike heart. And he appreciates it when you bring it as simple as, say, Sesame Street,” Jeric reveals. He goes on to share that in the Bible studies they did in Gensan, the most excited was actually Pacman. “He was the one fixing the chairs and the tables, and would say, ‘Ay teka, bibili muna ako ng merienda!’” Jeric says Pacman is very passionate about The Word, looking at it as good news that he wants to share with all.

“There are a lot of people around him,” Jeric says. “I don’t come with an agenda, because it’s important for me to be able to pull him aside and tell him the truth.” He reveals he is able to be as blunt to Manny as possible, like the times he’d tell Manny that he should apologize to Jinkee for something he said or did, and Manny would instantly realize it and go back by Jinkee’s side. “I truly believe it’s a husband and wife team, you cannot be the Lone Ranger. And for many years that was his life.” To those skeptical about Pacman’s faith, he says: “We are all a work in progress. From my perspective, he is sincere, honest, and passionate about this new life he is experiencing.”

8. On lessons learned from courtship to relationship with Toni Gonzaga: “Before I could fall in love with her, I had to fall in love with her family. Fall in love with everything about her.”

Toni talks with fondness about how Paul is so patient with her situation of having a curfew and not being able to go on trips alone with him, even if they have been together for around five years. “I guess that was the way to her heart, to show her even though her parents had all these strict rules, I had to respect that. And if I wanted to be in a relationship with her, those were some of the things I had to understand,” Paul shares.

He said he is honestly not pressured by people asking them about marriage (“My mom asks me also,”); instead he sees it as a positive question. Rather than people wanting them to break up, he appreciates that people seem to want them to end up together. “I think I’m ready,” the 30-year-old director reveals. “But we both just like to pray and when God says we’re both ready, then that’s really the best time.”

9. Paul was already seven years old when he first met his dad Jeric.

“You’re not kidding me,” Jeric quips when asked to share his love story with wife Marissa. “Actually, their love story is fantastic,” Paul smiles.

They were high school prom dates. She was the kind of woman who was looking to get married, and Jeric was not ready to offer that. Marissa met someone else, got married, and moved to the US. Years passed and Marissa and her husband separated, and she and Jeric met again in the US, and fell in love all over again.

“The only reason why I looked for her was because when Christ came into my life and forgave me for all my kalokohans, I knew I must also forgive those who hurt me. One of those people was Marissa. I thought she had done a number on me, I thought she got pregnant with Paul to hook me, when in fact that wasn’t true. I asked for forgiveness, and in the process, fell in love with her again,” Jeric reveals.

“I met you when I was seven, in a Denny’s restaurant in LA,” Paul says, looking at his dad. “My mom told me I was going to meet my father. Honestly, I was looking for that. I love my mom so much, she took care of me as a child. And when I met my dad, we pretty much hit it off right away.” Six months after that, they all moved back to the Philippines.

“I had to reconcile with Marissa and we had to take Paul back to the Philippines. Because he was destined to do a film called A Journey Home. And that film has blessed so many churches, because it is about forgiveness,” Jeric reveals. “That was my first film. It was about a father who left his family and came back after so many years. The story was just actually given to me by Star Cinema. I read it, I related to it right away. It was a very personal film,” Paul shares.

10. Both Jeric and Paul strongly believe everything that happens is part of a bigger plan, part of something we are being prepared for.

“What happened to Marissa and me, you know today, we are helping people who have the same situation,” Jeric says. “We are counseling people, because we went through it. I had no idea I was going to be in this preaching thing. But what He does is He prepares you, trains you, equips you, building you for such a time.”

“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” Paul shares on what he learned from his parent’s love story and from life. “There’s this passage, ‘Many are the plans of a man’s heart, but it is God’s plan that prevails.’”

* * *

Neither Jeric nor Paul are closing doors to anything. Jeric is willing to direct, Paul is willing to preach, and so many other possibilities, but they both say those will happen in His time. Unafraid to show their human sides, and that of others, they are both natural storytellers, whether through films, 30-seconders or lectures. And you will find that, directly or indirectly, all the stories they tell are about faith. And that includes their movie-like real life story — a story of love, mistakes, forgiveness, and faith that we can all learn from and be inspired by.

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/2012-09-30/854253/jeric-paul-soriano-nestor-de-villa-advertising-film-love-faith 

10 Things You Should Know About Gang Badoy

Gang Badoy rocks the talk

Gang Badoy has an advocacy—alternative education for prisoners: “Society can also be judged by how we treat the ‘least’ important of us all.”

She is one of the founders of Rock Ed Philippines, an organization known for spreading awareness on social issues through and with the help of local music and artists. In 2010, she became the only Filipino to have been awarded The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) and the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) within the same year. One of the most influential people in the country when it comes to volunteerism, here are 10 things you should know about Gang Badoy.

1. Gang is the youngest child of two widowers, growing up with 14 older siblings.

Her dad Anacleto was a justice for the Sandiganbayan. His wife died of cancer. They had five children. Her mom Pura was a teacher. Her husband died in a plane crash. They had eight children. When her parents married, they had her brother Nuch (“If there is one person in the world I fear will die before me, it’s him. I don’t think I’ll survive if he goes ahead of me”) and finally, Therese, a.k.a. Gang, the bunso. Gang says she was neither bullied nor babied; instead, she considered herself a bystander just watching everybody. “The magnificent part of growing up with a lot of siblings is the expanse of the literature and music that you’re aware of,” she shares. If it’s a certain brother who would bring her to school, the playlist would be Steely Dan or Led Zeppelin, and if it was a certain sister who would pick her up, it would be The Carpenters. “Even sense of privilege and entitlement? Wala ako nun, ang dami namin eh,” she adds.

Gang was raised to become a lawyer. (“I’m the madaldal kid, and no one else was in law.”) From industrial engineering to education courses, she took many electives in fine arts (“so I could be classmates with my barkada”) and got really good grades, eventually shifting to art history. “I think I’m one of those rare students who didn’t take a course for a job in the future,” she recalls. Even if she never took up law, she says, “I realized I was really a student of civil and government history, but I viewed it from the reaction of songs and art.”

Gang adds: “From my mom I learned how to talk. From my dad I learned how to shut up.”

2. As a student, she never admitted it back then, but she was affected by people bullying her because of her last name, “Badoy.” Until she realized the best way to handle it was to proudly post her name on her back.

“I’m baduy, and Badoy,” Gang candidly recalls how she was teased. It even came to a point wherein she purposely made herself lose in an interschool spelling competition because she felt like the other students were laughing at her. “How silly is that? Of course I’m a fantastic speller, mommy ko English teacher!” She went to St. Scholastica for grade school, and made a life-changing decision upon entering high school at Assumption. “I could base my movement because I didn’t want to be teased. It was my f***ing last name, what could I do? So I joined the varsity volleyball team, because my last name was going to be on my back. And I said I’m gonna be so good at this sport that they cannot help but equate me with being an excellent volleyball player!” And she did just that. She admits she was not a natural volleyball player, but she worked very hard at it. She eventually ended up on the RP Youth Volleyball Team, and was a college scholar for excelling in the sport.

3. Gang took her time and got married at the age of 39. She asked her then-fiancé Jay Capati for a computer instead of an engagement ring.

“Jay asked me if I was sure I didn’t want an engagement ring, and I said I wanted a computer. ‘Oh no, it’s so unromantic!’ But I needed a really powerful desktop to edit, and he was really cool about it,” Gang reveals. Even the manner in which they got engaged was unconventional. They had been living together for five years (“We had my mom and dad over and I had to pretend it was just my apartment, I think my mom knew, she just never asked because she didn’t want me to lie”) and during one phone conversation when Jay was in the US, before putting down the phone, he just casually said, “Oh, by the way, I told my parents that we might get married na.” Gang and Jay also decided to not have children. “I think parenthood is not for everyone. Of course I’d make a good mom, I love my nephews and nieces, but if you know yourself, you can tell if you want it or not,” she explains.

“I think that’s what the RH bill is about,” she adds. “It’s not even the sex or the population issue, it’s really about wanting a child; the deal is the loved child.”

4. She is convinced that she was probably the only virgin in the world who took an AIDS test.

She was a junior in college when she was part of an AIDS conference, wherein she was very vocal and very graphic in describing how to use a condom and how to prevent STDs. Somebody from the audience asked if she herself used condoms when she had sex, to which she paused and answered: “You know, actually, I’ve never had sex.” She and the crowd started laughing. “I guess I represent the virgins? And even virgins have an opinion on AIDS!”

While living in the States, Gang had a roommate who noticed that she was really boyish, and thinking Gang might have been a lesbian, he set her up with a lesbian friend. So she did try to go out on that date, felt awkward that her date had bigger breasts than her, and as soon as they sat in the restaurant, a laughing Gang said, “I really think this is a mistake.” They became friends instead.

One time, her roommate asked her to accompany him to take an AIDS test. At the clinic, her friend asked her to have a test as well. “Eh, never kong in-admit na virgin pa ako,” Gang says. “So while the nurse was taking my blood I was really giggling and thinking, ‘Alam ko na yan!’” Gang reveals she lost her virginity at the age of 28.

5. One important life lesson for Gang: “Very few things are solved by hiding or not looking at something.” She learned that because she once did it herself. “I left in a hurry, running away.”

“I was going through my 20s existential angst, I was an awful human being,” Gang shares. “I started an ad agency with a group of friends, Indio Communications. My partners were the smartest people I know. Halfway through I felt, ‘Is this it? I thought I was destined for greatness.’” Gang just left, disappeared, no despedida, and admittedly kept them hanging, even financially. She left for the US when she was 24, and came back to Manila 10 years later. “That’s why you can’t judge people who were bad before but are doing good things now, they balance things out for themselves,” she says.

She took on jobs from being a barista to a saleslady to a journalist for ABS-CBN’s TFC. “Sometimes while serving coffee, half of me wanted to say, “Nag-graduate ako sa UP,” she recalls. She then realized that she needed to be valued, even if it was for the manner in which she served coffee, how she spoke, or even how witty she was. After a decade of living in San Francisco, Indianapolis and New York, she thought about going home. She was living a good life, had a great apartment, drove a nice BMW, had a fine-looking Italian boyfriend. “Every night I kept thinking, ‘eto na yun?’ This is the American dream? Pakadali naman. I realized the American dream is easy if you’re masipag. It’s the Philippine dream that’s big. It’s the Philippine dream that needs your brains and your physical presence.”

When asked what finally made her decide to go back home, Gang says: “The truth? Because Gloria Arroyo became President.” She had interviewed then-VP Arroyo for ABS-CBN news and was immensely impressed by her grasp of economics, and Gang felt hopeful. Ironically, years later, Gang became very vocal during the “Hello Garci” issue, and to this day, still fights for good governance.

When she broke up with her fiancé, she had to tell his parents, “My country needs me.” She understood how stupid that might’ve sounded, but five years later, she e-mailed them the website of Rock Ed with a note that said: “I wasn’t sure at that time, but I think this is what I was talking about.” Even the money for parking tickets Gang owed them, they told her to donate to Rock Ed.

6. On why she does Rock Ed: “I feel like it’s my grand apology to people I’ve offended. A thank you to everyone I want to thank. That their children will grow up with a better, cooler Philippines.”

Rock Ed was founded as a 10-year campaign set to end in 2015. The concerts and events may end then, but programs like “Book Bigayan” and “Rehas Project” will go on. “Rock Ed will have completed its mission if every teenager already takes it upon him or herself to do volunteer work as part of their schedule, because we tried to make it normal for the teenager to volunteer, to make it cooler that they’re involved in socio-civic issues,” Gang explains. She says that before this decade, young people who volunteered were either just really religious or children born into politics. That was when she realized there was no venue for regular kids to feel comfortable about volunteering, and she chose music and art to be the medium for that. She and her husband Jay set up Samarami Asia, an events and ad agency business, to be able to fund the projects of Rock Ed.

“I wanted the role model of the teenager to look more like them. Our role models were always the awesome ones. But when they see someone like me or Lourd (de Veyra), they’d say, ‘Parang ako lang yun ah, kaya ko rin!’  It’s a reshaping of definitions.”

7. Gang’s list of important Filipino artists:

1. Radioactive Sago Project, musicians: “Biases aside, all of them are formally trained, they studied it, they don’t wing it. It really is poetry set to the beat of swing or jazz. Whether you like them or hate them, they stretch people’s lines.”

2. Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, writer: “Other than the fact that she was my creative writing teacher, I like her because she can optimize creativity within the lines of classic grammar and classic forms.”

3. MM Yu, Poklong Anading, and Louie Cordero, visual artists: “Because they are so brave about their art, there is no hesitation. You don’t have to like them. They have roots of real studies and then they venture out, which makes the venturing out not bull.

“I think an important artist isn’t someone we all love. I think an important artist is someone who stretched our notions of art, stretched our idea of what can be produced or done. Once a teenager in their mind says ‘pwede pala to,’ that’s a gift to the next generation,” Gang says.

8. Gang has an advocacy unique to her: alternative education for prisoners. “Society can also be judged by how we treat the ‘least’ important of us all.”

Gang has been teaching a creative writing class in the New Bilibid Prison for six years now, with six other volunteer teachers part of the program. “I want that a story someday will be that we were kind to the worst of us all, allegedly. If you treat the ‘wrong’ of society with respectful regard, that they deserve education too, that they’re worth your time, then hopefully the bar is raised. Then we will have to treat children better, women better, unemployed better.” It was not part of Gang’s original plan. They were asked to do a series of documentaries called “Rock The Rehas,” and when the project was done, she says it didn’t feel right for them to just leave the inmates. “I was never a victim of any criminal, and so since I can afford to do this emotionally, sige, toka ko na to, I’ll take this.”

Until that fateful night in September 2009. One of Gang’s best friends, Alexis Tioseco, along with his girlfriend Nika Bohinc, were murdered in their home in Quezon City. Gang had to pretend to be their lawyer to be able to get in the house, as one of the first to arrive on the crime scene. She took a leave from teaching in Bilibid. “I realized my students have hurt people the way the murderers of Alexis hurt me. Am I not excused now? Pwede na ba to? Can I walk away from it? I didn’t go back for three months. I was angry. And then I realized, that wasn’t them. It taught me you cannot get mad without aiming,” she says.

“I just want it told that there was this group that didn’t stop, because they really believed that human rights is human rights.”

9. Gang Badoy in numbers:

1997: Year she started blogging. “Geocities pa yun!” Up until 2008, she had the habit of deleting all her blog posts every New Year’s Day. “It would push me to write new stories.”

5: Time in the morning she usually sleeps, then she gets up at 11 a.m.

8: Most number of gigs she has been to in one day. “Rock The Riles!” (an annual Rock Ed project with a mini concert happening at every MRT stop.)

4: Number of languages/dialects she speaks. English, Tagalog, Bisaya, German.

1,000-plus: Number of books in her collection. She reads multiple books at the same time, some more than once.

10. On why she will never join politics: “Because I’m not awake in the morning.”

“The propriety required of a government official, I don’t have! It’s not my expertise, and it doesn’t interest me. I feel utterly satisfied being a non-government official,” Gang explains. She says her standards for politicians are so high that she cannot bear the thought that she would be mayor of a certain city but she has tried smoking weed. (“Will I be arrested for saying that?”) Word has it that some public officials, including President Noynoy Aquino who she is quite close to, have asked her to run for office. “I want to be President of the Philippines from 12 midnight to 6 a.m., then I’ll turn it over to Noynoy Aquino,” she says in jest.

* * *

One conversation with Gang can convince anyone to do their part for society the very moment the conversation is done. Sure enough, as we’ve seen the past few years, volunteering and being aware of social issues have become the norm. It is no longer baduy. The concept of “bayanihan” intrinsic to us Filipinos has been reinvented and revived, thanks to this woman and all those who believe in the same cause. If Rock Ed is her collective “thank you” to everyone, this article is a simple collective thank you to Gang from every single life she has touched.

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/2012-09-23/851791/gang-badoy-rocks-talk 

10 Things You Should Know About Gloria Diaz & Isabelle Daza

Gloria Diaz & Isabelle Daza: Don't hate them because they're beautiful... and funny

She was the country’s first-ever Miss Universe titleholder in 1969, and has then been a household name and icon.

She was the country’s first-ever Miss Universe titleholder in 1969, and has then been a household name and icon. She is one of today’s most idolized young models, who recently started a career in showbiz. Both known for their exceptional beauty, enviable bodies, standout style, and witty comments, here are 10 things you should know about mother and daughter duo Gloria Diaz and Isabelle Daza.

1. More than bringing home good grades, what was most important to Gloria as a mother was that her kids were good, that they traveled, and that they knew how to relate to all kinds of people.

“She just always gave me advice. Too much advice,” says Isabelle when asked what Gloria is like as a mother. “Agree, agree,” Gloria chimes in. Belle shares that her mom was quite the hands-on mom, with her planning and cooking their meals, checking on what the yaya feeds the kids (too much sugar and MSG was not allowed, “but they don’t obey right away, they hide it,” Gloria says) and even reaching her finger into the backside of their mouths to check if they brushed their teeth well enough. “But when they grew older and I had a boyfriend, I had a little bit less time for them,” Gloria shares. “Her boyfriend, Tito Mike (de Jesus), he’s been with us so long. Fourteen years. He’s like a stepdad,” Belle shares. She was seven when her mom and her dad Bong Diaz separated, but shares: “My dad and mom are still good friends now, we all have dinner together with their respective partners.”

Belle says that growing up, she, her older brother Rafael, and younger sister Ava (all three years apart in age) were never pressured about grades. But Gloria says “some teachers, a little problem (with grades), they make it humongous like the earth is going to collapse!”

Giving her kids the opportunity to see the world was important for Gloria. “They would be absent for as long as one month so we could travel. I remember I would go to each teacher personally and make sure they had pasalubong,” she reveals. She figured it was easier for them to catch up with schoolwork than to miss the chance to learn about different cultures. When Belle was eight, she lived in her yaya’s hometown of Kabangkalan for a short time, so that she would learn the meaning of simple living. “It’s important to me that they don’t think they’re ‘up there.’ I don’t want them to just live in San Lorenzo or the supermarket,” Gloria says. To which Belle quips, “As we have our interview now in Polo Club?” We all laugh. (The interview was held by the polo field, both wearing workout gear. Gloria had just finished tennis and Belle was off to bike after the interview.)

2. On where Gloria’s very vocal nature comes from: “I think you have to live life without thinking all the time what would people say.”

“My mother was the same way, she didn’t care,” Gloria shares. “My mother always felt you have to do what you think, say what you think. It’s just the way we were raised.” Gloria claims she has mellowed a lot since Belle started a career in showbiz, because she didn’t want whatever comments she may make to reflect badly on Belle. Gloria says being conscious of her actions because she is “the” beauty queen is the last thing on her mind. “You always have to look decent to a certain extent, that’s the only thing that makes a difference to me, being a beauty queen.”

On being declared persona non grata in Cebu (after her comment that beauty queens should be allowed to speak in whatever language they choose): “I’m too small and unimportant to make a big difference, whether I said it or not. It was really a misunderstanding.” She says maybe some people might’ve wanted to get fame out of that issue, “and they did, for 15 seconds. Afterwards it was dropped.”

3. Gloria says the biggest effect on her of her sister Rio’s passing is that you should appreciate life and “never do something just because other people will feel something, just do it for yourself and be positive.”

“I realized if you want to buy something, buy it now!” Gloria quips in a lighthearted moment. “Live your life to the fullest, almost indifferent to what people will say.” Her sister Rio passed away seven years ago, after having battled colon cancer for six years. Belle remembers how both major TV networks were at their home the day her Tita Rio passed, trying to get an exclusive, but that her mom was just in her room wanting to be alone. “For me, both prayer and mourning is a private thing,” Gloria says.

“I remember when she was still trying very hard to be well, we would sit in her room and she would look off very far, and without saying anything a tear would drop. And you cannot do anything for her. You have everything and nothing. You realize how important life is.”

4. Belle was quite the tomboy growing up; in fact the only time she wore a dress was during prom, and she only started wearing dresses when she began modeling at 16.

Belle shares that her dad and brother were her “super” idols and learned a lot of things from them, like sports. (Her biggest love is football, but she has tried almost every sport, and is now training for triathlons.) “There was a point where I was dressing like a guy, baggy everything,” Belle says. Her mom answers: “Ask Belle, I said, ‘Please don’t be a lesbian, I want to have grandchildren! Don’t get me wrong, I love lesbians, I’m just saying I want grandchildren!” Belle smiles and shakes her head.

Her love for (feminine) fashion started when she did her first ad campaign for Human. “My mom came to the shoot, and kulang na lang champagne. She was clapping at every layout. I was so humiliated!”

5. Both Gloria and Belle are actresses but neither dreamed of being one. Belle’s original dream was to be a doctor, and Gloria’s original dream was: “Nothing! Get married and have lots of children!”

Belle took up Early Childhood Education in De La Salle University, and it was her mom who helped her choose that course when she didn’t know exactly what to take up. She went on to take pre-med and finished two years of human biology. “I just wanted to try to take up medicine. It’s always been my dream because it seems so noble… and impossible,” she laughs. “We were dissecting cats,” Belle says. To which Gloria reacts: “Yeah, she would take it home, in the dining room pa, the cat was there, all open!” Gloria shares that she remembers Belle saying she wanted to be a doctor so she could help the poor. Gloria then told her, “Listen. Be an artista and you can hire people to help the poor.” Belle eventually stopped medicine because she realized the lifestyle wasn’t for her; she was getting sick often, and her mom says Belle was getting acidic and “mainitin ang ulo.”

Gloria never thought of being in showbiz. Even her parents never knew she joined and won the Bb. Pilipinas contest and only realized it was a big deal when she already had won the Miss Universe crown in Miami and the late President Marcos was excited about it. Belle shares, “My lola is super traditional. For her, a woman stays home and produces kids and takes care of her husband.” Gloria traveled a lot as an Ambassador of Good Will after winning the title, and was only home a total of four months within the four years of her duties. She was offered films left and right, though she’d never seen a Tagalog film in her life (the first Tagalog movie she saw was Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara and after the film she wondered why she never even saw Barbara get hit) and back then, she didn’t speak Tagalog at all. She had no idea what an actor was supposed to do, so much so that she came to the out of town set of her film Ang Pinakamagandang Babae Sa Balat Ng Lupa with just the clothes she was wearing, one more outfit, and a sabila plant for her hair. No costume, no makeup, not even a chair, and she says, “I wasn’t told anything!” Production then had costumes made for her by a local sewer, and when she tried it on and showed them, they whispered to her, “Um, Miss Diaz, can you put on a bra?” And she said, “You didn’t tell me to bring a bra!” Belle says, “And that’s why you were riding a horse without a bra, people thought that was sadya.”

6. One of the most important things Gloria has taught Belle: Save your money.

“The most important thing is you save. So you will not be pressured to do (your work) because you have no money,” Gloria says. She says she advises Belle to keep working only as long as she enjoys it. “It’s easy to know when you’re bored: if you’re not looking forward to waking up in the morning cause you have to go to a shoot, it means you’re bored.”

When Belle started doing commercials, her mom would keep her earnings to force her to save. “Ninety percent saved, 10 percent for travel. That was the only thing I was allowed to spend on,” Belle shares. “I had P700 allowance a week when I was 18, until I was 21.” She says because of her mom’s advice, she was able to buy her first apartment on her own when she was 22.

7. Gloria and Belle in numbers:

5’7 1/2”: Belle’s height.

5’5”: Gloria’s height.

37: Number of years Gloria has been in the industry.

34-24-34: Vital statistics of Gloria when she won Miss Universe at the age of 18.

2-45: Number in hours and minutes respectively that Belle finished her first ever duathlon. (7km run, 30km bike, 3.5k run).

8. Both Gloria and Belle say their big beauty secret is simply a healthy lifestyle.

Neither will go to bed without removing their makeup and they regularly use sunblock. “But beauty rituals aren’t only physical, it’s really everything you do. If you drink a lot, even if you remove your makeup at night, your skin will still get bad. Or if you eat a lot of fat, even if mag-sunblock ka, it has an effect. It’s really a lifestyle,” Gloria says. Belle, 24, and Gloria, 61, are still very active in sports and work out for an hour or two almost every day. Gloria adds: “My number one beauty secret? Don’t have utang.” (Belle says her mom got a credit card only two years ago.)

On aging, Gloria shares: “I always say I’m not afraid to age, I just don’t want to be fat.” Belle laughs and says she also wants to stay fit as she grows older.

9. Like other mothers and daughters, Gloria and Belle argue about decisions made. The biggest of which was when Gloria stormed into the Rogue magazine pictorial of Belle to scold her for fear that she was going to be labeled “bomba.”

“It’s usually me who reaches out first when it’s a little thing, but that was a major thing for me,” Gloria reveals. In fact, a few days after that confrontation, they had to shoot a TV commercial together and they had to have separate dressing rooms. The director even had to tell them: “Can you look sincere? Like you miss her and you care?” After days of not speaking to each other, Gloria says Belle sent her a text message: “I know you’re crazy, blah blah blah.” Then they reconciled. The conversation on the magazine during this interview goes:

Gloria: It’s okay, the article is okay. There’s so many other things she can do.

Belle: I liked it.

Gloria: I’m glad one of us did. I’m not sexy, if you see my movies.

Belle: Um, I saw Ginoo magazine, okay?

Gloria: I had my back turned, and I had a dress on!

On how sex sells, Gloria says: “Before, it just left things to the imagination, “Oh my baka walang suot ito.” Now kasi, it’s too trying hard to be sexy. Because in my mind, of course I’m not always right, being sexy is just titillating. You don’t have to show the actual skin.”

10. Gloria and Belle’s answers to memorable beauty queen questions.

Question: If a man from the moon landed in your hometown, what would you do to entertain him?

Gloria’s actual answer when she won: I think if he has been on the moon for so long, I think when he comes over he wants a change, I guess.

Belle’s answer: I’d take him for kamayan dinner in my house and I’d introduce him to all my cute friends.

Q: Would you rather be beautiful but not too smart, or very smart but not too beautiful?

Gloria: I’ll say beautiful. Better to be beautiful kasi it’s easy to pretend to be smart but you cannot pretend to be beautiful.

Belle: Probably the same. I guess it’s easier to learn to become smart. And it’s a fact that life is just a little bit easier when you’re more on the attractive side, which is honestly kind of vain to say.

Q: What is one big mistake in your life and what did you do to make it right?

Gloria: I wish I took tennis as a kid because by now I’d be a champ! Tennis is my passion.

Belle: It was when my Tita Rio was really sick and my mom asked me if I wanted to go to visit her, and I said no because it was my exams. You just realize, yes, school is part of your life but this is life.

Q: How would you tell a girl with low self-esteem to feel better about herself?

Gloria: I don’t think you can tell them anything that’s going to change their lives. But you can give them the time of day, like when you talk to them, you’re kind to them, you give them importance. Make them feel that they are not different from any beauty queen.

Belle: If they’re not happy with who they are maybe they should make a small change, like lifestyle or whatever it may be. I have friends with low self-esteem and I help them for example to have a better lifestyle.

Q: What is the essence of a woman?

Gloria: Lifestyle, living, loving, caring, that’s the essence of being a woman.

Belle: Being caring, especially a Filipina woman, we’re naturally maalaga. Being loving. And not allowing people to underestimate you because you are a woman.

Belle is often asked if she plans to join Bb. Pilipinas, but actually, Gloria will never allow it. “I will never want her to get into this, kasi there’s no need to be pressured like that, like how it is now.”

“Pageants are so difficult, the questions they ask, and you’re, like, in a bikini, on a stage,” Belle adds. Gloria quips: “While holding your stomach in!”

* * *

You cannot help but smile, watching Gloria and Belle together. Not only because they are beautiful but because of their wit. When asked what their dream for each other is, Gloria laughs and says, “To have a one-night stand?” To which Belle screams, “Eew, I wanna barf!” Their wish for each other is “happiness and contentment” but since they both admit they are happy and content, their wish for each other is an apartment in Europe. “With an extra room for the mama! And a husband that will welcome me,” adds Gloria. Don’t hate them because they’re beautiful. And funny. And smart. They may not know what their goals in life are, but they know exactly what they want out of life and they are getting it.

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/2012-09-09/846836/gloria-diaz-isabelle-daza-dont-hate-them-because-theyre-beautiful-and 

10 Things You Should Know About Angel Aquino

Angel Aquino on life, love and lessons

Angel Aquino — undoubtedly one of the most beautiful Filipinas ever — has been a lifestyle show host for 13 years now. From F to Us Girls, to Tablescapes, and now Interior Motives

Always barefaced with just-brushed eyebrows and a bit of blush on her cheeks, this model, host, and actress instantly commands attention in whatever room she enters. With no loud presence or entourage to merit this attention, it’s because of her beauty alone that people cannot help but look. Undoubtedly one of the most beautiful Filipinas ever, a single mother of two with an extremely colorful story to share in life and love, here are 10 things you should know about Angel Aquino.

1. She grew up in a lower-middle-class household where she saw her mom get hit by her dad. But it wasn’t all dark days; Angel recalls a happy childhood.

“Maybe because we were still looking at it through young eyes. You know, sometimes kids cry, but then you give them candy and they forget all about it,” Angel recalls. The eldest of five children, she smiles as she shares how they would go to the store, buy Chippy and 75-centavo Coke, have no clothes on, just pulbos, and be home by 6 p.m. to make mano. She says that they never really saw their parents act affectionate towards each other, and that her dad was the more cariñoso parent, while her mom was the strict one. One of her fondest memories was that of her dad cooking a feast for them when he would be home (“just on weekends, and not every weekend”) with all of them going to the market together (both parents are Kapampangan and love to cook).

On the other hand, because they lived in such a small home, they were always witnesses to domestic violence. “It happens, you cry a bit, then days go by and you forget about it again.” She shares that as they grew older and her mom learned how to fight back and make a bit of money on her own, that’s when the beatings lessened. “She somehow empowered herself and my tatay couldn’t hurt her anymore,” reveals Angel.

“Now I try for everyone to be in the know, we don’t keep secrets, we don’t tell lies, yun yung pact namin,” Angel says of what she learned from her childhood. She considers her two daughters Iana and Athea her best friends, saying, “They know everything that I go through. They see me as their human mom, not someone who is a super mom na kaya yung lahat.”

2. Angel became an activist during her college days in UP Baguio. “I’ve always known there was something weird about me. I may have been very timid and shy, but something inside me was itching to say something.”

She went to grade school in Barangka Elementary School in Marikina, and because of her mother’s determination for them to value education, Angel studied hard and became a Tulong Dunong scholar at St. Bridget’s high school. For college, she went to UP (“I’ve always wanted to be in UP, and I just thought of placing Baguio because I’ve always wanted to go to Baguio”), and though she entered as a Math major, (“I loved Algebra but didn’t realize there would be higher maths!”) she started to fail some subjects so she shifted to a Mass Communications course.

She became a member of the League of Filipino Students (LFS), and though she was never the speaker at rallies (“At that time, the thing we were most passionate about were the bases. We wanted them to leave”), she would be part of lightning rallies, carrying placards, writing and distributing statements, and orienting newcomers. As she was growing up, Angel says that when there would be situations she wasn’t comfortable with, as much as she wanted to say something, she didn’t have the courage. “So when I discovered activism, I realized I had a venue. There were other people speaking up for me and I could just be part of a group that share the same sentiments.” She says she was never a public speaker back then, and even to this day, she gets the jitters before hosting live events.

3. On the day of her 19th birthday, she was discovered by director Jeffrey Jeturian in the mall and was first offered to become a beauty contestant or actress.

Angel was brought by direk Jeffrey to different agencies, castings, and go-sees for commercials. “In high school I really thought I was ugly,” she says. She recalls how frizzy her hair was (“parang walis”) and that it was in third-year high school when she decided to grow it out from the boy cut her mom would always give her. She recalls soaking her hair in oil every single night, and though she isn’t sure that that’s what improved the quality of her hair, she says, “When people would say, ‘Uy, pwede to sa shampoo commercial,’ I thought they were making fun of me.”

When she was 23, Angel finally decided to take the plunge into acting when director Butch Perez searched for her in Baguio to offer her the role of a Banaue princess in the film Mumbaki.

4. Nineteen was the age Angel was forced to grow up fast, because aside from starting to work, she got pregnant with her first child.

“It was New Year’s Day, and (my mom) asked me if I was pregnant. She probably noticed changes in my body. I didn’t even know, I just noticed that I wasn’t getting my period, so I answered, ‘Hindi ko po alam,’” Angel recalls. When the pregnancy test turned positive, her mom went up to Baguio to find and talk to her boyfriend Ian. “She was very calm but very angry, disappointed at the same time. I couldn’t believe it was happening to me, I was so scared.” He was scheduled to leave for the US, so when Iana was born, he did just that, and Angel went back to modeling fulltime. Two years later, Ian came home; they got married, had their second daughter Thea, and eventually got a legal annulment. “We were both very young, we really grew apart,” Angel says.

Thea was born with hydrocephalus and was operated on when she was three weeks old. “We didn’t have the luxury of time, it was very urgent that she be operated on, so we just faced the problem, went back to work immediately, I had to lose weight so dramatically, I stopped eating, I couldn’t breastfeed,” Angel reveals. She shares that Thea has been living with her condition for 17 years now, and though there have been complications, she attends school and is currently in Grade 8.

“When I saw her after the operation, this little kid on a big hospital bed, I asked, ‘Why her?’ Not so much why did it happen to us, family, or me, but why her,” Angel admits. She recalls how she couldn’t help but blame herself for not taking care of herself better, how she was so depressed because things were not going well with her then-husband, how she was angry, and even in denial that she was pregnant.

At the end of the day, she says: “My kids are the best things that came out of that trying period, if you may call it that; I would not have it another way.”

5. There came a point when Angel seriously wanted to have cosmetic surgery to get bigger breasts.

“That was the time that I was recovering from my two pregnancies and I didn’t feel too good about myself. From perky breasts they became *wenk* sad,” Angel laughs. She says she went as far as going to the doctor, being measured, and seeing “the things.” “I couldn’t do it!” she says, still laughing.

6. She has been a lifestyle show host for 13 years now. From F to Us Girls, to Tablescapes, and now Interior Motives.

Her favorite lifestyle features ever:

• Lei’s Lumpia: “It’s in the Xavierville, Katipunan area. I go there till now, it’s all vegetables, has this garlicky sauce, it’s just so good.”

• Buenavista Island Resort: “It’s this private resort on an island off Davao … it’s beautiful!”

• Lemon: “We had all these beauty tips using lemon! Like if you put it in water, the water turns alkaline. Or when you rub it on the creases of your skin to whiten, or you add a bit of vodka to lemon juice, you can use it as a foot spray.”

7. Angel Aquino in numbers:

25-plus: Films she has done, both commercial and independent. She has done over 15 television shows, winning one best supporting actress award for Laro Sa Baga and one best actress award for Donsola.

35,000: Amount in pesos she got as her first paycheck for a soap commercial that never aired. “I gave it to my nanay. Sabi nila your first paycheck you give to your parents so it’ll grow.”

1: Times a week she goes to church in Baclaran. “I’m not even aware of wishes that have been granted, I just know that the energy there is different.”

10: Pesos a day, which was her allowance in school. It’d buy her a soft drink and chichiria.

4: The longest span of time in years that a guy was trying to court her. “I don’t know if it was courting, but he was present for that long!”

8. On love and failed relationships: “You know there’s no such thing as ‘hindi ka nagtira para sa sarili mo.’ When you’re there, you find yourself lost in the sea of romance, love, happiness, sometimes turbulence.”

“In the beginning I was too reckless, I would trust myself too much when falling in love. I wouldn’t give it much thought, but when you’re at this age, you have to,” the 39-year old mother of two shares. After her early marriage, two long-term relationships (one with musician Norby David and another with actor Lui Villaruz), and meeting and dating people, she says her priority for now is no longer a romantic relationship just full of kilig, but more of a lasting friendship.

On issues thrown at her about her being gay, she reveals: “I’ve been there. And I’ve always been open-minded. No judgment, UP-ian ako.”

On great love, she shares: “If you ask me if I’ve ever experienced greatest love from someone the way I know great love to be, then yes.” She is currently not in a relationship but says she is waiting to give that love its time again. For now she is enjoying the happiness of just being with herself. “You know, after a relationship, you just pick yourself up.”

9. Her love life is an open book to her daughters, and they are the first ones who comfort her when she’s heartbroken.

“There was one time I was so hurt because my boyfriend broke up with me, Iana sat on her kahon, and she started playing With A Smile by the Eraserheads. I found that so sweet,” Angel shares. During another time when Angel was going through something, she found her daughter Thea by the bed, asking her to lean on her, as she tapped her mom’s side to sleep. “My kids are amazing,” Angel says.

On the other side of the coin, Angel says her daughter Iana’s boyfriend is very close to the family and they’d often go on dinner dates for four. “Thea would tell me, ‘Mom, pag magka-boyfriend ako you’ll also be his friend, ha?’ I’d answer, ‘I’ll be his best friend,’” Angel shares.

10. After almost 20 years as an actress, Angel finally landed her first starring role in the film Amorosa.

She says she has gotten so used to playing supporting roles that she immediately assumed she was not the lead role for this movie, until she realized her character’s name, Rosa, is the title of the film. “I’m always used to just being there for the bida, like in Magkaribal, I was just there for Bea Alonzo and Gretchen Barretto,” she says humbly of her memorable role as the antagonist Vera. In fact, on her third shooting day, she was pulled aside by her director and was told that she should act more like the bida. “I didn’t even know what that meant!” she says laughing.

She shares that looking long-term, she is also trying to get into a business. “I want to still be a part of this industry because I love doing it. I love it when a role challenges me, but I will not be there ’cause I need to be. I want it to remain a passion.”

It surprises me every time I talk to Angel how low-key she is in everything. Low-maintenance when it comes to her beauty regimen, never flashy when it comes to fashion, just taking her time when it comes to her career, not even rushing when it comes to love. Almost everything in showbiz now is about rising, going, getting, a nd here is a woman just gliding through it all with such grace. Despite having gone through a life so dramatic, just like the roles she plays on MMK, you will never feel any heaviness around her because, true to her real name, Angelita, her presence instantly creates a light.

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/2012-09-02/844409/angel-aquino-life-love-and-lessons