10 Things You Should Know About Dado Banatao

Where in the world is Dado Banatao?

Known as the “Father of Semi-conductor,” Dado Banatao was friends with Steve Jobs back in the day when Silicon Valley was just a “bunch of orchards.”: “In the really, really early stages of personal computers, there were a lot of tinkerers and engineers who wanted to build these computers themselves at home, so it was more like a hobby.”

In person, he is an extremely simple man, unassuming, clad in a basic button-down polo and dark trousers. With how low key he is, you would hardly be able to tell that he is a billionaire visionary based in Silicon Valley. He shies away and politely begs off talking about net worth and material assets, and instead lights up and laughs a lot when talking about his work. He is responsible for consumerizing a specific technology used exclusively back then by the US military, and today, we have it on our phones and cars and we call it GPS. According to MorphLabs CEO and co-founder Winston Damarillo, 30 percent of every computer and laptop in existence carries technology and ideas developed by this man.

Here are 10 things you should know about Dado Banatao.

1. He who is known as the “Father of the Semi-conductor” and “Filipino Bill Gates” (he is not so fond of the latter) is the son of a farmer from Iguig, Cagayan and used to walk a dirt road to school every day. He went on to study in Ateneo de Tuguegarao, Mapua, then Stanford.

His father first worked as a farmer, then left for Guam to become an OFW when Dado was around nine years old. He recalls that he was probably too young for it to affect him, and all he knew was that his father was not there all the time but that he would come home once a year. His favorite pasalubong? “Rubber shoes. That was fun!” He graduated valedictorian from elementary school. He left their barrio to go to Tuguegarao to attend high school, where he lived in a boarding house on weekdays and went home on weekends. “It was a little room with a basic bed and little table, and that’s where I studied every night. When I was done, I’d go to bed. It was such a simple life.” Dado was very driven at an early age, studying, reading, and doing his homework on his own even if nobody was watching over him. He loved and excelled in algebra, trigonometry, and physics, which prompted his dean to advise him become an engineer. He then moved to Manila and lived with his aunt and graduated cum laude with a degree in Electrical Engineering from Mapua.

“I’ve always been inclined to learn more. I felt that my training in college was not sufficient,” Dado explains. While working in the US, he was accepted in a graduate study program where he could work full time and earn a salary, but at the same time study at the University of Washington at the expense of the company. “I saved for my eventual expense when I went to Stanford,” he says. He was not on any scholarship at Stanford, instead he saved up and paid for his own master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and finished in less than two years.

Unlike the young, less fortunate Pinoys today who say they study or work hard to get themselves “out of poverty,” Dado’s motivation to excel in school was different. “We had no notion of wealth, we didn’t even know there was such a thing as a wealthy person. We studied because our parents told us it was important.”

2. Dado’s childhood wish was to become a pilot. In his early 20s, he was hired as a design engineer for the development of the Boeing 747. As fate would have it, today, he is able to fly his own plane.

“I was literally 19 years old when I got my engineering degree, and at that age, I was looking for something more interesting. I had high expectations,” Dado shares. He says he was offered a couple of jobs after college but he found them boring (“I didn’t see myself doing it every day”) and he was actually discouraged. Until he saw this advertisement for Philippine Airlines saying they were looking for pilot trainees. They were 10 in their batch at the PAL Aviation School, and after a year-long training, he was offered a job at Boeing. He took the job and moved to Seattle.

“They were in the final stage of integration and a lot of systems have already been designed, but there was quite a lot of work left,” Dado recalls. He says that there were a few other Filipinos working on the 747, but it was his team that was in charge of finalizing design, control surfaces, and engine systems indication (to name a few). There was grand event for the Boeing 747 launch and Dado shares: “To see it do its first flight was amazing. You cannot imagine such a big airplane lift up. It was very inspiring.” He says that the event was very exciting, but that he found his work there to be boring. “So I went to graduate school.”

Fast forward to when he was 53 and Dado still cannot believe he was able to buy his first plane. He begs off answering specific details, but says that they’re used for family trips and important business matters. When I asked what it felt like when he flew his own plane for the first time, he smiles from ear to ear like a child playing with his favorite toy and says, “It was awesome.”

3. He decided to base himself in Silicon Valley at a time it wasn’t even called Silicon Valley yet. That was in the early ‘70s and Dado was 26.

“It was just a bunch of orchards back then,” he recalls smiling. He says that most engineers had no idea it would explode in 30 years, the way Silicon Valley is today. He saw some established companies that were already doing the things he liked to do, plus he was very comfortable there, which is what sealed the deal for him to live in the area. “In my graduate program, I combined solid state circuits and computer architecture. What it means really is the idea of putting a computer in a chip,” he explains. He was interviewed and was offered a job at Intel, American Microsystems, and National Semiconductors (the only companies that were doing Dado’s vision of putting the knowledge of software and hardware together) and he chose National Semiconductors because he felt they had the best program.

He often says that if Silicon Valley were a country, it’d be Top 11 in the world in terms of GDP, which is why he highly encourages the Philippines to invest more in math and science in schools, and in research and technology, because he believes it is a great step towards national development.

4. Dado was friends with Steve Jobs. They were both part of a small group called the Homebrew Computer Club.

“In the really, really early stages of personal computers, there were a lot of tinkerers and engineers who wanted to build these computers themselves at home, so it was more like a hobby,” he says of their club. He says Steve Wozniak of Apple was “a true engineer, a real techie,” and that Steve Jobs’ strength was “how to apply things better, and his designs reflected that.” He shares that the company he was working with back then created their own personal computer, and that for a good three to four years in the mid ‘70s, they were outselling the Apple computer. “We had the same ideas and a lot of those, we were talking about it in the club,” he fondly recalls. “I can still imagine those evenings where one guy would bring his program and say, ‘Hey, see what I can do here’ and another would go ‘No, I can do better’ and it was that kind of club we were daring each other.”

When I joked if he considers himself more of a nerd or a geek, he says: “You start out as a nerd then you become a geek. By that time, I was already a geek,” he laughs.

5. Dado Banatao in numbers:

150: grade of his glasses for his right eye, his left eye is 20/20.

25: centavos (in pesos) it cost him to buy a small bowl of pancit for lunch back in college. To get to school, he took a bus then a jeepney to his campus in Doroteo Jose.

18: around the age he experienced celebrating his birthday for the first time. And he doesn’t really think it was a celebration, it was just a get together with friends and someone brought bibingka. “Growing up, we didn’t celebrate birthdays. The way we’d celebrate is we would go to church that day. It was so basic.” Today, he and his family never fail to celebrate a birthday, but Dado says its still a very simple celebration.

151: number of scholarships to be given away to Filipino science or engineering students this year by the SuperFund project. Each scholar gets a total of P1,000,000 for five years.

unknown: the number of cars he owns. “I like cars,” he says with a shy smile.

6. On what for him is his most significant invention: “Let’s not use the word invention, for me, innovation is more important than invention.”

“When scientists or engineers invent things, there must be millions of those around the world but we never know of them because it deals only with one little thing. Unless you mix other things to it, it is not useful,” Dado explains. He says that in innovation, you take many concepts and put them together, with a specific application and market already in mind. “What I did at Stanford became very important because I combined computer science and solid state devices,” he says. According to him, the trick was keeping the system the same but throwing away all the useless things. “I found a way and realized how it can be redesigned properly.”

7. After 10 years as an employee, he started his own companies that did very well, and eventually ended up selling some, reportedly one for a $430 million and another for over a billion dollars.

Dado went from individual contributor to first level manager to manager of an entire operation in his early years as an employee in Silicon Valley. “Those are all confidence building events that made me think I can do really challenging things and deliver the product. I think most entrepreneurs go through that process,” he shares.

His first start up company, Mostron, was put up with $500,000 pooled together from friends and founders of the group. They developed a PC motherboard that unfortunately was not so successful. “I felt really bad because that was my idea, but all the customers wanted to buy were the chips that I designed,” Dado reveals.”I learned a lot from there.”

With the same idea from his first startup, with adjustments made, and with someone investing a million dollars in his idea, Dado put up his second startup company with a former boss of his, Chips and Technology. He basically designed the very first chip set for the PC. “It enabled a lot of engineers who wanted to design the PC system to come up with their own design because we took care of the nitty-gritty for compatibility,” he shares. The company grew very, very fast and from the time they started it, they took it public in 22 months, and in four years, the revenue was $650 million.

S3 was (as the name implies) his third start up company. “I was very disappointed with the graphics performance of the PC, it was very slow,” he recalls. After setting up a meeting with Microsoft and a separate meeting with Intel to pitch his idea, he started his redesign of the chip he needed to make the computer run faster. The technical term is “bus,” borrowing from the concept of an actual bus, because it is a collection of signals and data being shipped from one place to another. “Today that bus is called PCI, and it is everywhere. Companies use it now as a standard bus.”

In 1997, he was given the Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award sponsored by Ernst and Young, Inc. magazine and Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services.

8. He met his wife Maria when he was 23 years old, and they’ve been together ever since. He is now 66.

Dado and Maria met through common friends in Seattle, and after dating for a few months, they went “exclusive.” He recalls how she asked him one day if he has a savings account, and when he said he didn’t, she actually opened an account for him which forced him to save. (That and this forced savings program at Boeing were what made him afford his tuition at Stanford.) While he was in California for his master’s, she was taking up her master’s in Education at the University of Washington. Since it was a long distance relationship, they had this strategy to save money. “Instead of calling each other, we had a code of number of rings on the phone. I had a roommate back then and I had to tell him to not pick up the phone right away. He was laughing at me.” He did get to visit her during Christmas and spring break, on which he took eight-hour drives just to see her.

They got married in 1972 and today, they are fulfilled parents to three children, and even happier grandparents to six grandchildren, with another one due in August. When I asked him what the one most important thing he wants his kids and grandkids to value, he says, “Education.”

9. The mobile phone he uses today has been his phone for the past 12 years. A (“really old”) Motorola Razr.

“There’s a new one but that’s a smart phone, I have the really old model,” he says smiling. He has no favorite gadgets, but has an iPad, a PC laptop, and a Mac laptop. “I hardly use these things frankly, apparently I stay away from them” he reveals. When I tell him how people (myself included) would think that he would have the most high-tech phones and gadgets considering he is the authority on technological advancements, all he could do was smile and shrug his elbows.

“I’m not into gadgets, the closest thing I guess, its more of what I drive and what I fly,” he then smiles that shy smile once again.

10. Today, both his business and advocacy are geared towards helping young students and entrepreneurs who are set on making their mark in the field of science and engineering.

Because he had generous teachers and investors who helped and guided his drive to reach his goals, he does the same today for others. Tallwood Venture Capital is a company Dado put up that invests exclusively in semi-conductor related technologies and products that can make a significant impact in the market. There is one story about a simple family business who gave Dado a cold call to pitch their idea, and after checking out the facts and their credibility, through Tallwood’s investment, that small business grew its worth to about a billion dollars.

Dado is also committed to helping students who want to pursue a career in science. He is the chairman of PhilDev, an organization that strives for a globally competitive Philippine economy by supporting students and programs in the field of engineering. The SuperFund provides college scholarships in the Philippines, they also support high school scholars in his hometown Cagayan, they have the Asia Pacific Fund that gives grants to Filipino college students in California pursuing degrees in science and engineering, and they regularly hold forums and camps to mentor budding entrepreneurs. On their recent forum in Cebu, he says, “I loved the energy of the young entrepreneurs, and we gave a lot of advice. They’re very undaunted, they dream.”

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/812977/where-world-dado-banatao 

10 Things You Should Know About Alex Carbonell

Hair highness: Alex Carbonell

Alex Carbonel is not only the brains behind Studio Fix, the high-end salon of the Bench Fix franchise, he is also the creative learning director of its whole training center meaning every single staff member of the 62 branches of Bench Fix in the country was trained by him.

It is said that every woman should have a trusted manicurist, waxer and hairdresser. My longest relationship ever (aside from family, of course) is the one I have had with my hairdresser, 12 years and counting! Little did I know when our relationship started that he would be named the first Filipino Sebastian Design Artist and the first Filipino ambassador of renowned brand Schwarzkopf. He is not only the brains behind Studio Fix, the high-end salon of the Bench Fix franchise, he is also the creative learning director of its whole training center meaning every single staff member of the 62 branches of Bench Fix in the country was trained by him. Here are 10 things you should know about Alex Carbonell.

1. Alex believes there is no such thing anymore as that old school rule that only certain face shapes can carry certain haircuts.

“Before, they said that inverted triangle shapes can’t wear cropped bob cuts, but look at Reese Witherspoon. Before, they said only ovals could wear bangs, but look at Sandra Bullock.” He confidently says, “Nasa nagdadala yan!” Alex is responsible for Hindy Weber-Tantoco’s matte blonde hair, Debbie Yabut’s pixie cut, Toni Gonzaga’s voluminous layers and mild streaks, Daphne Osena-Paez’s soft set curls, (all of my bangs from full to sideswept!) and many more hair styles. For Alex, hair is much more than “just hair”; he says hairdressers are somewhat like psychiatrists in that they can help a person transform. “Hair can uplift your soul because of the confidence it gives you.”

2. He says that the most fulfilling part about his being a teacher is when he sees his students go from zero to something. “I get really emotional when I see them buying their own house, out of their hard work.”

He shares that a lot of the Bench Fix trainees are not conscious of grooming when they go for their interviews, and it is so fulfilling to see them transform into good-looking, well-groomed men and women in time. He says that the numbers can explain best how the salons progress — that from salon sales of P20,000, it has gone up to P700,000. “That’s success, 700,000 means a lot of people trusted them to have their hair cut at P250!” He has grown very close to a lot of them and in fact their term of endearment for him is “Dyosa” (“Ayaw ko ng ‘nanay’ at ‘inang’ so eventually it became ‘Dyosa.’”) The most important thing he has learned from his students is “no matter how advanced the problem is, you can always go back to the basics.”

3. In his 13 years as a salon owner, he has never fired any staff member. “Teach, teach, teach pa rin ako, ipapasok ko sa isip nila.”

“Its all in the eyes, the more calm my voice is, the more sila natatakot,” he says of the unique way he reprimands his staff. When asked if he’s ever made any of them cry, he jokingly says, “Every day.” “They cry not because inapi sila, but because they feel bad that they were wrong.” He says the way to make up for it is not to just apologize but to do better, and that the worst thing anyone can do is to not improve. (“If you make the same mistake 10 times, I feel that’s disrespectful.”) He does not have the heart to fire anyone and is a teacher at heart, which is why he chooses improvement over termination. When asked if he ever cries, he says: “I never cry, even when my dad died or after a breakup. It’s really about faith. Things happen, accept it, then you have to move on.”

4. Alex Carbonell in numbers: 2,190: Total number of students he has taught in the training center of Bench Fix salon. They are currently on their 73rd batch, with 30 students per batch, and each course as long as six to 10 months.

5: Number of nieces and nephews he has from his two younger brothers. “Haven’t really thought of adopting because my love is already for them.”

3: Times he changes his haircut a year, and he changes hair color as often as six times a year.

35: Number of pesos charged for a haircut from Alex when he started his career. (Today, a haircut from Alex is P1,200.)

5. He was a part of the team behind the iconic salon Propaganda, and says this about he and former business partner Jing Monis’s parting ways: “It was one way of telling us both that we are our own brands, we’re both strong brands so why not have our own?”

His first salon experience was when he was 20 years old when he was a senior stylist at Mane Cut, where he learned the art of working fast. The salon was beside Broadway Centrum and the That’s Entertainment stars would always pass by for a cut, blow dry, or curl right before the show. Eight months after, he was pirated by Head Zone in Makati where he learned all about the paying power of the corporate world. Three years after that he decided to put up his own salon, Cutting Crew, with his banker business partner. Eight years after was when he merged with the Propaganda group, whose vision was to be the expert in both hair and make up, at a time when salons only focused on one.

Alex fondly calls the Propaganda team “unbeatable,” with partners Juan Sarte (“his forte is clean makeup that lasts”), Cristine Duque (“he creates beautiful, dramatic eyes”), Marlon Rivera (“the Jack of all trades and master of all”), Jay Lozad1a (“he has a philosophical approach to make up, everything has a reason”), and Jing Monis (“he has balanced life, after a whole day of work he still has the energy to party”). After around 10 years of Propaganda, both Alex and Jing now have their own salons (Studio Fix and Jing Monis Salon respectively) and both are doing extremely well.

6. Alex earned his degree in philosophy at UST before becoming a professional hairdresser. He discovered his passion while fixing up classmates in school productions and hanging out in salons after class.

His interest in the beauty industry began during his days in Lourdes High School. He bashfully laughs and says, “We were doing our own makeup, and that was an exclusive school for boys!” He shares that he and other gay classmates were never bullied in school because the boys were actually very fond of them. “We were 12 beckies in our batch, we made them laugh, we lent them our notebooks and gave them intermediate papers, and they took care of us,” he recalls. Thinking he wanted to become a lawyer like his dad, he took up philosophy as a pre-law course. “Every year my professors would call my attention to the violet or pink streaks in my hair,” as he was a regular client at Rading Carlos Salon (the only place that offered colored streaks then).

7. On homosexuality: “I believe it’s not behavioral or environmental, you’re born with it as a preference.”

“When you’re young, its either blue or pink, and I wanted pink. It’s either you draw a car or a flower and I drew flowers,” he explains. His parents knew of his preference at an early age because he always liked more colorful, feminine things. What about those who come out of the closet later in life? “They just hide their homosexuality because of social pressure, whether or not they’re aware of it yet.”

8. Alex strongly advocates that men must also have their own grooming routines.

1. What you wear begins with your hair, no matter how nice your tie or shoes are, if your hair is lousy, wala.

2. You have to have a range of products to achiever either spiky or flat hair: clay, wax or hairspray.

3. Please shampoo well, if you don’t, you’ll have oily scalps that’ll lead to dandruff and even baldness.

4. You can color you hair but go tonal, meaning close to your natural hair color and complements your skin tone.

5. The 9 o’clock shadow can also be sexy, you need not be clean-shaven all the time.

9. Some of the best cities in the world for unique beauty buys:

1. Tokyo: “There’s a notion na akala natin mahal, but even in their version of a sari-sari store, you’ll find good eyebrow tattoo pens or liquid eyeliners for only around P150.”

2. Paris: “In the middle of Rue La Fayette you’ll find this bronzer that looks like a loaf of bread, and its only P400.”

3. Hong Kong: “In Sasa, give yourself two hours, and tell the saleslady ‘Don’t mind me,’” he says laughing.

4. Guanzhou: “There’s a whole building there all for hair and skin, Beauty Exchange Center. But they hardly speak English so bring pictures.” 

10. On where the Philippine beauty industry is headed: “To being more professional. Now, more and more artists are becoming business-minded.”

He differentiates the notion of the parloristas of old, to salon professionals today. “In the parlor, kakalabitin mo lang yung gugupit and you’ll ask ‘Ako na ba?’ In the salon, you professionalize it and that starts from booking an appointment,” he explains. He goes on to say that in a salon, there is technical expertise, computations, and measurements. He says that before, hairstylists would just cut hair and go home at the end of the day, but now, they check on inventory and sales as well. “Now, we know our value. A lot of my trainees who grew their own client base now have their own salons,” he proudly shares.

What is his secret to sustaining a business for over a decade? “I call it the Five S’s”: Standards (“Set your standards and control the quality”), System (“You have to have an organization, there should be one leader”), Skills (“You must have the skills, technical expertise, and you must work hard”), Solution (“There will always be problems, but there will also always be solutions”), and finally the result, Success. I curiously ask him about “always” having a solution and he explains: “Kunyari nagnakaw ng maliit na treatment, the next day you do bag check. May laging nagpapaalam to attend a fiesta, then you develop a leave form.”

His ultimate dream is not to have his own line of products like other hairdressers, instead it is to put up his own training center, not just for potential employees but for anyone from housewives to college students who want to learn.

* * *

Alex may hold an “11-to-8 job,” but he says his work is anything but routine or ordinary. He once had at the same time in his salon the real wife and the mistress of one other client, but they didn’t know about each other. He once cut the hair of a gay client preparing for a special night, only to discover that right beside him was another gay client who was the other half of this set up blind date. He is known to take care of clients from grandmother to daughter to another daughter to granddaughter, and he attributes this to his salon’s high regard for quality customer service. “We want to make you happy and we won’t close the salon until we get the look that you want,” he boldly claims. I ask Alex how much longer he sees himself cutting hair, and he says “’Til I can’t bend my knee!” Referring to his personal style of cutting hair with one knee (on a pillow) on the ground. And it is also until then that Alex will continue to nurture relationships and beautiful heads of hair to give women and men confidence from generation to generation.

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/808350/hair-highness-alex-carbonell 

10 Things You Should Know About Mike Enriquez

Excuse me po, it's Mike Enriquez

On being Imbestigador ng Bayan: “Getting a ‘scoop’ is tougher these days, says Mike. “Because aside from everything being digital and electronic, we have more and more citizen journalists.”

He came to our interview on a rainy Friday afternoon with such high energy, after coming straight from raiding a gambling den. They managed to have it closed last year through his program Imbestigador, but got reports early this year saying it had reopened, and that they were even using his name to keep operations in the clear. With a no-nonsense look, he says it appears the policemen in the area are in cahoots with the illegal operations. This was my first time to meet him and I didn’t know what to expect from this award-winning broadcast journalist who works morning to evening — from radio show Saksi sa Dobol B to coverage throughout the day to primetime newscast 24 Oras. Here are 10 things you should know about Mike Enriquez.

1. His trademark line “hindi ko kayo tatantanan” was a phrase he just blurted out to his staff when they were covering the story of Kaye Lazaro, a little girl hit by a stray bullet that was later found to have been fired by a policeman on a drinking spree. The line stuck.

“I personally handled that story, and I saw Kaye’s condition. I told my staff, hindi natin ito tatantanan until we find that guy. And we did. Ever since then I said this is what Imbestigador is all about,” he recalls. If they don’t produce results then it is all for show, he says. It is a challenge to him and the whole team to have to live up to their tag line.

In real life, he doesn’t talk as fast or with that high-pitched voice you hear on radio and TV. He actually speaks in a calm but stern manner, with an excellent command of both English and Tagalog. “That’s a product of evolution, it’s not as if the first time I spoke on a microphone it was like that already,” he says of his 43-year career, having gone from sports to news to horse racing to talk shows and music shows. His DJ name was once “Baby Michael” (“That’s the name of my ex-girlfriend, now she sleeps with me every night,” he says of his wife Baby) and off-camera, he is known as “Booma” (“15 years ago I was 20 pounds heavier, and Booma was an elephant cartoon character.”)

2. On the rivalry between GMA and ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs: “I don’t want to call it dirty, I want to call it rough.”

Getting a “scoop” is tougher these days he says, because aside from everything being digital and electronic, we have more and more citizen journalists. “Now it’s a matter of cultivating and encouraging as many sources as you can,” he shares. He is personally friends with journalists from rival networks like Che Che Lazaro, Karen Davila, Abner Mercado, and Luchi Cruz-Valdez.

On the issue of journalists being killed, he says: “The rate at which journalists are being killed and the rate at which killers are being jailed are so far (apart).” He says simple law enforcement is key. And second, “There’s not enough talk about raising the future generation of Filipinos with the right values, that’s why education is such a big deal to me, that’s where it all begins.”

3. Mike Enriquez in numbers:

500-plus: Number of staff of the RGMA Network, the radio subsidiary of GMA which he heads. They have 27 stations spread across 17 cities in the country.

20: Average number of students in his class when he used to teach broadcast management in DLSU.

85: His average grade when he was in college. “I was a very ordinary student.”

28: Number of awards he has won for broadcasting.

4: Time in the morning he wakes up every day.

4. One of his most memorable assignments was when he covered the war from Kuwait. “An Iraqi shot a missile across the bay into Kuwait. I saw all these people scampering. Military helicopters and fighter jets were circling around and navy vessels were in the horizon. My God, this is war.”

The missile exploded in one of the most upscale malls in Kuwait just a few blocks from where Mike was billeted. He had to run down 11 floors with his camera. Alone on assignment, he was his own cameraman, editor, and he would have to set up his own satellite phone for live coverage. He hired a Pinoy based in Kuwait who served as his light man and driver. As he was running to the mall, something struck him for a split second: “There’s something wrong with this picture, people are running away from the mall and I’m running towards it.” As soon as he got to the mall, he was surprised by what welcomed him. “Wasak na wasak yung mall, but you know how Filipinos are, yung mga Pinoy crew ng Starbucks, Burger King, KFC, when they saw me sabi nila ‘Saksi! Saksi! Mike Enriquez! Mike Enriquez!’” as they were jumping up and down waving their hands. They told him, “Kunan mo kami, please show this on television so that the people back home know we’re okay.” “That really struck me. This is what this job is all about,” Mike shares.

He has as a souvenir six pieces of solid jagged iron bits, no one piece the same. “Up to that point I was for the war. When I saw that, I said I am not for this nor any war.”

5. On dangerous coverage, does he ever feel afraid? “Yeah! We’re human.”

He says what gets him through it is adrenaline rush: “When that starts, you’re just so focused on what you need to do.” He recalls the raid they had just covered and says aside from finding shabu paraphernalia, they also found bullets, which meant guns were somewhere in the area and someone could’ve fired anytime. He shares that even presidents, who are supposed to be the most secure people on earth, have had assassination attempts. I ask, “Pag oras mo, oras mo?” He says yes. “At the end of the day, there’s work that needs to be done, there’s a mission that needs to be accomplished.”

6. He admits to having cried after a coverage. But in private. “I would be wary of a journalist who doesn’t know how to be hurt by the news that he covers.”

He says that yes, he brings the baggage home sometimes, but silently. “This talk about journalists having to have steel characters, that’s true, but at the end of the day we’re all part of the human family,” he shares.

He recalls one specific moment that made him cry. It was during the 2000 Payatas landslide where hundreds of people got buried in the mud and trash due to heavy rains. He saw a 12-year-old girl and he asked where her family was. She said that her mother, two sisters, and brothers were buried somewhere, while pointing to a mound of garbage. He asked where they lived and she said that it was gone, it had collapsed. Then she said, “Tulungan niyo po akong hanapin sila, birthday ko po ngayon.”

“How can that not hit you?” Mike asks. When he reached home, he let it out. “How can things like this happen? But they do.” Of all the issues, he says that it is poverty and children that affect him the most, but he says he never lets his emotions affect his job: “I have no right to inflict my emotions on the viewers or listeners.”

7. He badly wanted to become a priest in his younger years. He tried twice, but his parents did not allow him.

He was an altar boy and would hear Mass at 5:30 a.m. (“Rain or shine”) in Sta. Ana every day, and would go straight to the early morning Mass in the La Salle Greenhills chapel. He asked for permission as he was entering high school but was denied, and asked again when he was entering college but was denied again. “I closeted myself in the room for two or three weeks and I refused to talk to anyone,” he recalls. He says his dream to become a priest arose because the Franciscans made a huge impact on his life while growing up.

8. His wife Baby is his staunchest critic, but it took her time before she got used to Mike’s taxing schedule. “There would be times when I would come home late in the evening and she would be seated in the room with tears in her eyes, waiting up for me.”

“In this kind of profession, or vocation, if your spouse is not supportive, it will be more difficult than it already is by nature,” Mike shares. He was 22, a college student, working part-time at a radio station when he met Baby. They were together for five years before they got married, and are now 35 years married. “I was her first and only boyfriend, will ni Lord,” he jokes. Today, it is Baby who reminds him of important announcements he needs to make and comments on his work.

They did try to have a child, but after some time, they accepted it was not meant to be. They thought of adopting, but it was at a time they were both building their careers (Baby was a banker), and it just did not happen. Their baby is their dog Booma, who was a gift to Baby, and who Mike says is “too spoiled.”

9. He loves music (Bruno Mars at that), books (“none of the heavy philosophy stuff”), and traveling (“my wife and I love to travel together”).

He always has his iPod with him wherever he goes, and his playlist includes everything from Tchaikovsky to the Beatles to Christian songs. He reads books during weekends, in the car, or when traveling, and he is currently finishing Tom Clancy’s Acts of Valor. His favorite cities in the world include New York (“Its alive!”), Hong Kong, San Francisco, Barcelona, Florence (“for the ambience, culture, and food”) and locally, privacy is of utmost importance to him so he likes going to Cebu and Palawan.

10. He believes that almost all politicians will answer and talk well, and it’s up to the listeners to listen well and judge whether what they say is true or not.

He finds it tough to answer which of his interviews was the most memorable, but he names the “Ikaw Na Ba?” series he did on Saksi Sa Dobol B (also celebrating its first anniversary on TV) where he invited all of the 2010 presidentiables to be interviewed live as his riskiest but most interesting encounters to date. When asked to comment on some political figures, he shares:

P-Noy: “He’s a glib talker, very spontaneous.”

Erap: “He’s fun!”

Binay: “Halatang Mayor at heart. Ask me about Lim, halatang pulis at heart. I’ve raided several joints with him and I’ve had to restrain him.”

CGMA: “You have to watch her moods when you’re interviewing her.”

* * *

At the start of our interview, intimidated by his fresh-from-a-raid story, I wanted to start him off on a good mood so I asked him if radio is still his first love. “Yes,” he said, and his face instantly lit up. “Love — you can call it passion, you can say radio is my life.” Throughout the interview, he kept pointing out how he does not call it “work”; that for him, it is a profession, an advocacy, a vocation. He shares that one of the books he is enjoying reading now is How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free by Ernie Zenilski. What makes it so different from other books on retiring? It doesn’t talk about finances and quantities, he says, “If you’re into something good that is your passion, don’t stop! Just keep doing it! The hell with all these definitions of retirement.” At the age of 60, having spent over 70 percent of his life as a broadcaster, Sir Mike still talks about his work with so much gusto. He is living proof of one of my favorite quotes, saying “if you have your passion as your profession, you won’t have to work a day in your life.”

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/806195/excuse-me-po-its-mike-enriquez 

10 Things You Should Know About Michael Carandang

Michael Carandang: Proud Pinoy in American TV

On the biggest struggles of young Filipinos growing up abroad: “It’s finding your own identity and being proud of your heritage, and it’s hard because all you want is for people to like you,” says Michael Carandang.

Pinoys were beaming with pride when the gorgeous designs of Dubai-based Filipino designer Michael Cinco were featured in a challenge in Cycle 16 of America’s Next Top Model (AMTM). Soon after, LA-based Pinoy designer Oliver Tolentino, retail giant Bench, and locally based Francis Libiran were also featured on the hit reality show.

The very man responsible for introducing Filipino talent to the world via Tyra Banks’ model search is an Emmy Award-winning Pinoy producer who was once an OJT in the now-defunct noontime show MTB.

Here are ten things you should know about Michael Carandang:

1. He got rejected when he initially proposed to feature the designs of Michael Cinco on ANTM, but just had to keep trying until the concept was right for Filipino talent.

“If I’m going to pitch a Filipino designer then it better be an outstanding designer,” Mike says. He started his post as a producer on Cycle 15 of ANTM (taking one step down from his show producer position to associate producer because “It was the only thing open and I wanted that job”) and when he pitched Cinco’s designs, the group said it looked good but it was not fit for the show.and Oying Carandang, holding the Emmy Award I gave them.”

“You don’t give up at the first no; as a producer, you have to think of other ways,” he shares. Until Cycle 16 came and a photo shoot at a dumpsite was lined up. The production was worried that no designer would lend their clothes for fear of smelling, staining, and getting destroyed, and that’s when Mike said, “I bet you I can get somebody who can do couture and eco-friendly or whatever we want to do for the show.” Cinco went on to do the highly anticipated finale show of the 17th Cycle for the ANTM All-Stars.

2. Mike’s first experience of production was when he was an OJT for noontime show MTB, then he went on to work his way up the ranks from production assistant to producer at The Jerry Springer Show.

His family did not have TFC (it was too expensive) but they got to watch local shows like MTB and ASAP by renting VHS tapes at the Filipino store. He came home specifically to experience TV production in Manila, having taken up Telecommunications at Indiana University. When he went back to the US, he sent his resume to The Jerry Springer show (“I would skip school to watch Jerry!”) and in a short span of time went from entry level to producing a whole episode. He says he wasn’t always good in telling stories and speaking publicly, but it was in The Jerry Springer Show that he “learned how to communicate and how to listen.” The most bizarre story they featured? “One woman was married and pregnant, and her husband was sleeping with her mother, and was also sleeping with the sister. The sister had a boyfriend and was pregnant and they didn’t know who the father is. Crazy family story!” He clarifies that none of the stories are made up, they are all real.

Mike was 13 when his family moved from Tanauan, Batangas to Indiana, USA. He says that back then his only impression of America was what he saw on TV, which for him looked like a Malibu paradise 3. On the biggest struggles of young Filipinos growing up abroad: “It’s finding your own identity and being proud of your heritage, and it’s hard because all you want is for people to like you.

where everybody was beautiful and friendly. “You get there and you forget that they don’t look like you, you think that they’re going to embrace you, they’ll welcome you but they don’t know how to react to you because you’re completely different from them,” he recalls.

He says that he would never admit it at that time, but now he openly shares, “I hated the fact that I wasn’t white, I grew up in a neighborhood where everyone was white. I was treated differently.” He would attend events of the Filipino community but would never really socialize with them, and when out in public places he would rather stand with a group of Americans rather than with a group of Asians because he “didn’t want to stand out that way.” He wanted to fit in but at the same time understand what being Filipino means, and says, “I realized you shouldn’t care what other people think.”

So when was the turning point that he became proud to be Pinoy? “You know what helped me was coming out. I felt what it feels to be loved for who I am.”

4. His advice to those who want to come out about being gay: “Don’t come out just to come out. I came out when I was ready and because I had a purpose, because I felt so complete and happy.”

As soon as he had his first relationship, he decided to tell his family he was gay. He was 17 then. His initial fear was that the only image of gays when he was growing up was that of the parlorista, and he was sure he didn’t want to dress up as a girl. He says that younger Pinoys now are lucky because they have the likes of Boy Abunda and Vice Ganda to look up to, which he didn’t have when he was growing up. He also had this fear that he would live to meet other people’s expectations of him, that he would marry a woman, have kids, but eventually cheat on his wife… with a man. He did not want that. He dated girls but never had any serious girlfriend. When he had his first boyfriend, he says, “It made my future positive, I was ecstatic, I can have a full life!”

Mike says that you need to be strong enough and prepared to “come out,” because you will need to face all the obstacles that may come your way. “The one thing you cannot have is shame. For me, to come out and for my family to accept me for who I am, hindi pwedeng may kahit isang bahid ng kahihiyan,” he opens up. He says that if the people that surround you love you, they will eventually learn to accept it and be happy for you because you are happy. “If you live in the closet and you live in fear of everyone, you’re only doing injustice to yourself.”

5. Mike Carandang in numbers:

3.08: weight in kilograms that their Emmy award weighs. Mike and his The Tyra Show colleagues won the 2008 to 2009 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Talk Show. “I felt that all the hard work, late nights in the office, and missed family events paid off.”

168: hours it takes to prepare for one episode of The Tyra Show. “And I need every minute of it.”

5: number of magazines in a collection he recently started: signed copies of covers that he values.

12: times he has been home to the Philippines since he moved to the US in 1993.

18: hours of television he watches when he has no work and is just home.

6. People have told Mike that he is an inspiration and that his family must be so proud, but the real hero for him is his brother Ace, the soldier.

Mike is the eldest of three siblings, his sister Michelle is a nurse and his brother Aurelio Jr. a Purple Heart hero. His brother went through difficult times in his life and “needed something to save him,” which was when he signed up for the military. “Obviously, we never expected that we were going to war,” he says of probably the toughest time his family had to go through. He remembers how the war brought his family closer together: praying every night, that feeling of not knowing when he was going to call, and being clueless of what was happening in Iraq. Ace was shot in his behind, but luckily he came home safe. “What’s really inspirational is what he’s done with his life. I’ve never reached the bottom, and he has. And he lived through that and survived. He’s a better person now, he’s a father and husband, and he’s the pride of our family.”

7. His secret to getting the job you want: “You have to show up. They have to fall in love with you.”

When I asked Mike what it is in his resume that gets him hired all the time, he humbly but assertively says, “It wasn’t the resume, it was my interview.” He doesn’t believe in phone interviews because he says that you have to sell your personality to the employer so that they would want to work with you. For The Tyra Show job, he flew himself to LA because as he says, “why would they fly me if they have thousands of aspiring producers in LA?” And for America’s Next Top Model, he also flew himself to New York just to do the interview. “The guy they were interviewing before me was the one they were going to hire,” he shares about his supposed five-minute interview that turned into 45 minutes. “I ended up getting the job because I showed up.”

8. On Tyra, Naomi, Andre, Nigel, and the big ANTM rumble:

Tyra Banks: “Its unfortunate that when you are a woman in power, things that you demand or things you expect out of people become a bitchy thing or become negative.” He says Tyra is genuinely nice, appreciates drive and passion, and once gave Mike a men’s jewelry case that was even personalized with his name.

Andre Leon Talley: “Andre is funny! He’s larger than life. He is full of stories. He loves fashion, he loves beauty, and always says ‘the beauty of this, the beauty of that.’”

Nigel Barker: “Aside from being a good photographer, he’s a really good family man. When he’s with his wife and kids he becomes the real Nigel.”

On the recent ANTM shocker where Barker, along with art director Jay Manuel and runway coach Jay Alexander were let go by the 18-season show: “There would be a need at some point to make the show fresh for the viewers in order for the show to keep going. One way is to bring in new people and revamp the format of the show.”

9. He believes that the Filipino TV viewing audience needs more programs like The Bottomline and that the news ought to be presented in a more empowering way, rather than the shocking, controversial manner it is presented in now.

“The media is also responsible for why the rest of the country feels handicapped when it comes to getting out of poverty, they feel afraid of their own, with so many crimes happening,” he shares. He says that if there is one thing he has learned from working in media, is that whether it is negative or positive, it is the action of the news you put out that people remember. If he were to produce a news program, he would present it from the point of view of justice or of the victim, so that it build empathy and makes the viewer feel that there is something being done to stop the crimes. “Leave people with something they can hold on to that’s going to help them deal with that situation and be better,” he points out.

He holds programs like Boy Abunda’s The Bottomline in high regard for putting both celebrities and non-celebrities into the spotlight and giving inspiration or something that will start a conversation.

10. Once he feels he has learned all he could learn in a job is when he decides to move on to the next challenge.

He plans to stay in Manila until around October (his longest stay ever since he migrated) because he felt that it was time to go for his dream. While others aspire to work in production abroad, he says, “I wanted to fulfill a dream and that is to come home.” He feels that for 10 years, he has produced for mainstream TV to connect to being Filipino, trying to put Filipinos in programs there. “But in my heart I just wanted to work here and to learn here,” he reveals. He did not resign from his producer position at ANTM, instead he said he was not available for Cycle 19. “Every job you have to have a purpose. And I feel like for now, I’ve lived my purpose there.”

* * *

Mike is home because he is working on the Basco Balikbayan Project (a documentary following the accomplished Basco family’s return home), his RSVP talk show (to be aired on GMA Pinoy TV), and the 25 Years of Bench documentary. “I always believe the reason I am where I am now is I always come into a job wanting to learn,” the 32-year-old producer shares. While most dream of making the country proud in the international scene, Mike is going the other way around, with dreams of making the country proud by working here. Winning an Oscar is one of his biggest dreams. “If ever I will have a project to be recognized, I want it to be about the Philippines. I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m sure I will find that here.”

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/803759/michael-carandang-proud-pinoy-american-tv 

10 Things You Should Know About Toni Gonzaga

Toni Gonzaga: 35 Louboutins, 8 movies and counting

TV host and actress Toni Gonzaga: “I was able to build a house for my family, I was able to invest in some properties, diba ito dream ko talaga na maging stable na lahat, siguro naman okay na ako to have a relationship.”

I first met Toni Gonzaga on the set of the show Wazzup Wazzup. I was just starting as a host and she had just transferred to ABS-CBN. We started to become close friends when I became her co-host for Pinoy Big Brother after I became a housemate. Ever since, she has never been selfish. With the limelight, with lines to say, with food, with extra clothes, with advice, she has always been so generous. And you know what they say: when you share with others, it will come back tenfold. In Toni’s case, a million-fold. When I hear a whole coliseum singing her songs or see full movie houses laughing at her punchlines, I really find it hard to believe that I am actually friends with this multi-awarded singer, host and actress. Here are 10 things you should know about Celestine Gonzaga, more commonly known as Toni Gonzaga.

1. She grew up never thinking she was beautiful, with her dad reminding her that she would go to auditions because of her talent and not her beauty.

When she would wait in line at castings, she couldn’t help but notice all the beautiful mestizas (she remembers models Cristina Garcia and Joey Mead) around her. “Okay lang yun kasi hindi naman ganda yung ibebenta mo, yung talent mo yung ibebenta mo,” she recalls her daddy Bonoy telling her. She and her younger sister Catherine were raised with their dad teaching, “Wag kayo masyado magpaganda o ma-conscious sa itsura niyo, hindi naman yun yung importante sa pagkatao niyo.”

Show business was her dream as far back as she can remember. When her mommy Pinty would bring four-year-old Tin (nickname given by Celestine) to her office, she’d request all her officemates to come hear her sing. “Kasi nga diba idol ko si Regine (Velasquez). Pag nakikita ko siya sa TV, sinasabi ko sa sarili ko na gusto ko maging singer, gusto ko nasa stage, may microphone, madaming tao,” she fondly recalls.

2. At hotel lobbies, Toni always makes it a point to listen and applaud for the lounge singers, because she started as one when she was 17.

At the age of nine, she almost became a part of Repertory Philippines’ production of The Great White Way, but because she was young, naïve, and tired from a long bus ride, by the time she was asked to perform, she didn’t put much effort into singing. “First time ko ma-experience yung ganung klaseng rejection, harapan, sabi sa akin ni Baby Barredo, ‘Thank you, you may now go home,’” she narrates. Little did she know that that meant her performance did not pass, and that served as a lesson for her that show business is a serious business.

Her second biggest rejection came when she was 13 years old. She joined the first ever Metro Pop Singing Competition (the same batch as Kyla and Faith Cuneta) but lost. “Isa yun sa biggest heartache and heartbreak ko, feeling ko yun yung big break ko sa pagkanta,” she shares. It was after this that she realized she needed to try other things. She auditioned for everything from acting to modeling to hosting, from ABS-CBN to GMA to RPN. Still, her big break did not come.

It was when she met the parents of a hotel lounge singer that she got the idea of working in a hotel when she was 16. “Nag-Hyatt hotel ako, Kalesa Bar, Casino Filipino, Shangri-la Conways, Sulu Hotel, I did five gigs in a week, I was first year college,” she recalls. From doing her homework in the free hotel room provided to enjoying the free buffetl; from doing two sets a night to being protected by hotel staff against DOMs, Toni widened her range as a singer and learned how to engage crowds with her hosting from her days as a hotel lounge singer. To this day, she holds dear a request card that a guest once sent her: “You will not just sing in hotels, you will sing in big crowds, and you will record your own songs.”

3. Her big break in show business came via her “I love you, Piolo!” softdrink commercial, but she was originally cast as the support, not the lead.

She remembers acting right behind all 10 choices for lead as the director tried them out one by one at the workshop, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., only to find out when the video was played back that she was not seen at all. “Pag sinabi ng direktor sa lead to give a different variation, give din naman ako, all-out acting, eh never pala ako nakuha sa camera,” she shares. Toni said it worked to her advantage that all the other pretty models were too preoccupied with looking pretty. The director plucked Toni out of the support lineup to try her out, was sold after her first take, and the rest is history.

The softdrink commercial paved the way for Vic Sotto to guest her on his sitcom Daddy Di Do Du, and that was when Eat Bulaga took notice and got her to host three times a week for a month. “Yung one month, nag-extend nang na-extend hanggang lumapit na ako kay Miss Malou (Choa-Fagar of Tape, Inc.) at tinanong ko kung pwede kaya ako mag-every day,” she says. They initially declined, but the persistent 17-year-old still tried, after which production said she could come every day, but they wouldn’t be able to increase her talent fee. Toni seized the opportunity.

4. Toni Gonzaga in numbers:

5: Number of studio albums released, all of which reached either Gold or Platinum status.

7110: Model number of cell phone that she bought with her first ever talent fee from Eat Bulaga.

730: Millions in pesos total estimated gross of her eight Star Cinema films (D’ Anothers, You Are The One, You Got Me, My Big Love, My Only U, Ang Tanging Pamilya, Wedding Tayo Wedding Hindi and My Amnesia Girl).

102: Average weight in pounds. She stands 5’4”.

35: Pairs in her collection of Christian Louboutin shoes.

5. After devoting 10 years of her life to show business, Toni plans to go back to school this year to finish her AB degree in English.

She was waitlisted for the fine arts program at UP Diliman, but upon her father’s advice (“Di ka pwede mag-juggle ng pag-aartista, UP yan”), she decided to enroll in a communications course in Dominican College, which is right beside the Eat Bulaga studio. She managed to balance morning classes, the noontime show, and afternoon classes for around two years. With the growing demands of her career, she switched to an English course in homeschool program AIDE (Asian Institute for Distance Education) in her third year. “Until I got an offer from ABS-CBN, dun na nabago lahat, I decided to grab the opportunity,” she says of why she had to stop studying.

She excitedly shares that she is planning to enroll in an online UP course this June. “Inaayos na namin ni Mommy, kasi nga nakakainggit si Catherine may diploma na after six years,” she reveals.

6. Some of the most important lessons she learned in show business, she learned from Sam Milby and Mariel Rodriguez.

It was in 2005 when she was suddenly in the spotlight, being the main host of the phenomenal reality show Pinoy Big Brother, with the premier season’s most handsome housemate Sam Milby showing admiration for her. “Yung feeling na overwhelmed ka kasi di mo naman ine-expect, people are so interested sa inyong dalawa, you’re young, you shoot almost every day together, so nadala ka din sa hype,” she says of how her almost-romance with Sam started. When her dad advised her that Sam was not the man for her (not because he didn’t like Sam but because parents just have that gut feel), as much as she was thinking of escaping and rebelling, she and Sam never even had the chance to go out and communicated only through text. “It pays to listen to your parents, and do not just follow your heart, use your head,” she says of her biggest lesson from that.

One of the biggest controversies in Toni’s career was when her friendship with Mariel Rodriguez was under scrutiny, with malicious reports of backbiting and bad mouthing. She says that the best lesson that experience taught her is to filter what to listen to and what to ignore. “I don’t want to invest my time and energy on issues that don’t add anything to my life but negativity. I’ve learned to become a professional ignorer. It saves me a lot of heartache and pain.” She says this of how things are now: “Everything is back to normal, forgive and forget.”

7. On Paul Soriano being her first boyfriend: “Its been almost five years, and it’s one of the best decisions of my life.”

After what could have been a relationship with Sam, Toni swore to herself to just focus on her career and put her love life in the backseat. “Ang sakit pala ng ganung feeling na akala mo yun na yun, hindi pala, clinose mo na puso mo, nilalabanan mo na, tapos biglang dumating si Paul,” she shares. “I remember praying about that: Lord, I’m 23, I was able to build a house for my family, I was able to invest in some properties, diba ito dream ko talaga na maging stable na lahat, siguro naman okay na ako to have a relationship,” she reveals. Her mom was instantly drawn to Paul and his cute face and good upbringing, but it took her dad around a year before he and Paul really got to know each other. Paul’s kind heart, patience and non-presko-ness impressed Toni. “The noise of Catherine, the stiffness of Daddy Bonoy, and the mouth of Mommy Pinty, nag-adjust siya dun, and I’m very proud,” she shares laughing.

Toni and Paul feel that their extremely busy schedules are actually a blessing in disguise, and that a big factor as to why they lasted so long is because they are always excited to see each other. “Feeling namin nagtagal kasi meron kaming time for each other and meron kaming space from each other, we grow individually and grow together,” she says.

Yes, they do talk about marriage and even if Toni once said that by the age of 30 she is ready to get married, she says it’s so hard to believe that’s in two years. “Pwede 32 na lang?” she jokes. One thing she and Paul have talked about is that Toni will not stop working even when she has her own family, but by then, family will be her top priority.

8. If you think Toni is funny, she insists her sister Catherine is much funnier, and some of Toni’s punchlines and hirits actually come from Catherine.

“Catherine is hilarious, she’s way, way funnier, outrageous, and crazy!” It was only a few years ago though when Toni and Catherine became close. Growing up, they always used to fight since their personalities are really quite opposite. Catherine is carefree, Toni is more reserved; Catherine goes out on gimmicks until late while Toni still follows her curfew even now that she’s 28 (“Actually di na siya curfew, it’s my lifestyle na talaga”); Catherine is a people person, while Toni usually prefers to stick to her friends. Now, they are each other’s strength and shoulder to cry on. Does she feel that Catherine thinks Toni is the favorite of her parents? “Feeling niya favorite ako, hindi niya alam, mabait lang kasi ako, siya kasi matigas ang ulo.”

9. Iconic people Toni has worked with:

FPJ: “Lahat tayo tingin natin sa kanya ‘The King,’ but he never acted like one. Never mo yun mararamdaman sa presence niya.”

Aiai de las Alas: “Ate Aiai is a mother in every aspect.”

Former President Erap: “Surprisingly funny! And kakaiba talaga mass appeal niya. Feeling mo you can approach him anytime.”

Vic Sotto: “Pinaka-laid back na nakilala ko na big star. Definitely one of my biggest dreams ay makatrabaho siya ulit in a project.”

Joey de Leon: “He is a legend. Actor, composer, comedian, writer, singer, dramatic actor, lahat ang galing.”

Boy Abunda: “He’s full of wisdom, he knows it all in this industry.”

Gary Valenciano: “He is the ultimate inspiration when it comes to living your life and living your dreams.”

10. At the end of the day, after all the projects, awards and material possessions, what overwhelms her most is the house she built with their very own swimming pool.

“Nung bata kami, pag nagda-drawing kami ni Catherine ng dream house namin, laging may swimming pool,” she reveals. Growing up, Toni and her family either just rented a house or lived with the grandparents. At the age of 22, after just five years in show business, she was able to build a house for her family that she eventually expanded into adjacent lots, including a swimming pool. “Every morning when I look around the house, that’s what I’m most thankful for, never kong na-imagine na makakapagpatayo ako ng bahay na may pool.”

* * *

I’ve been so blessed to know Toni for six years now, and she has grown to be like a sister to me. Any parent or sibling would feel so lucky to have Toni as a daughter or sister. There are too many stories of rebellious and independent-to-a-fault young people today, and Toni serves as a breath of fresh air and inspiration. In every step of her life, her family has been there to guide her and right the wrongs, and her beyond-wildest-dreams success today only proves that obedience, patience, and faith really pay off. “Yung itsura ko, I’m not stunning or astoundingly beautiful,” she humbly says. What makes Toni so special? “Hindi ko makakalimutan yung sinabi sa akin ng Daddy ko. That I’m really just an ordinary girl, but with extraordinary dreams.”

http://www.philstar.com/sunday-life/798942/toni-gonzaga-35-louboutins-8-movies-and-counting