Gloria Arroyo[/b] every week in my Macroeconomics 101 class at ADMU when she was still a professor. Naay gamay nga istorya nga nahinumduman ko niya, which was when I was absent twice and another lady was absent by happenstance both times. During our next class, she asked both of us, to our confusion, "How was your date?" Lain baya to akong ka-date adto...
I was on the same Tagbilaran-bound plane once when she was still a senator. I met her two times in Tokyo during her state visits. One time, during the acknowledgment part of her speech at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo, she called my name and mentioned I was her student. Wa pa gyud ko kadungog, gikuhit lang ko sa akong tupad. She acknowledges me here in this photo.
I also met her predecessors
Fidel V. Ramos and
Joseph Estrada in Tokyo. In this photo during Erap's visit to Tokyo, he still enjoyed a honeymoon with the media, who found his every faux pas very endearingly
makamasa. When
Loi Estrada suggested lowering the age limit for more entertainers to be able to come to Japan, eyebrows were raised but comments where made hush-hush. Five years later and when Erap was already under house arrest, entertainers were almost completely banned from Japan.
I've met
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel on several occasions since he was still a mayor in CDO. I have interviewed Senators
Manny Villar, Mar Roxas and
Juan Flavier. I have talked with
Franklin Drilon.
In the giddy days of Japan's bubble economy, movie stars were dime a dozen in Tokyo. Some of them have even performed at my place, which has a small open space. There was some fuss when
Claudine Barretto's manager booked her at the same time at my place and at another at the far end of Japan. I was fuming mad because people were already expecting her. She apologized to me and made up for it by making a free appearance the next day, collecting only tips clipped in chopsticks from the audience. Despite the uproar that she caused because of her messed-up schedule, she more than made up for it by her sweetness and kindness.
I interviewed
Kuh Ledesma when she was invited to Tokyo by NHK in a special Earth Day program. She engaged me in a heavy discussion about the US bases, which were then in the process of pulling out of the country. She had perhaps read my column in the paper given to her earlier, and presumed I was not interested in showbiz buzz.
Joyce Gimenez sat next to me, in total silence, at my cramped office as she waited for her number to be called outside. When my daughter came in, ice was broken. Although better known as pantasya ng bayan, she was very shy and almost lacking in confidence. I could sense the pressure on her from trying to live up to such a monicker, especially since there were many Filipina entertainers more voluptuous than her in the audience.
Maria Isabel Lopez used to engage in garments business with my wife Lynne. When an X-rated video which showed her, among others, spread like wildfire in Japan, (and confirmed by my own eyes when photoshop and digital makeover was still Hollywood domain) she went back to Manila.
Priscilla Almeda was the original sex siren of Philippine cinema. She was certainly a goddess to behold when she came here with Matt Ranillo some ten years ago. But when I last interviewed her about two years ago, she has settled for an obscure life and a domestic look. Check out this interview at
http://www.philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=126.
Ariel Rivera, even in the heydey of his fame, struck me as someone not really self-absorbed. He is more impressive in person.
Sam Milby was mobbed when he and
Piolo Pascual as well as the Pinoy Dream Academy winners came to Tokyo to launch ABS-CBN's IPTV service TFCko. But at the small victory party to which I was invited afterwards, I saw Sam at one point standing in one corner awkwardly waiting for someone to talk with. A very painfully shy guy, he was only too happy to excuse himself after the obligatory kodakan and slipped unnoticed outside Roppongi's sleepless streets.
By the way, Tokyo used to be a favorite destination of movie stars who wanted to make quick bucks, especially when their stars were already waning back home. Among those who slipped in and out almost unnoticed were
Michael V, Ruffa G before Ylmaz, Osang, Julio Diaz...
WOW! You are more than as popular rather than these persons being published. Sorry, I know few of them through media. Sir Benelynne, you are the most famous person I first virtually meet and I wish to encounter you personally with my promised Donfelder German wine which I'm drinking tonight in honor of the Germany soccer team who just won against Portugal favourite team. We qualified for semi-final and hope to win that Europe Soccer Master which we got that title way back 1996.
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