My memorable celebrity interviews in 2018

CEBU, Philippines — It’s the time of the year between Christmas and New Year when you’re kind of in holiday purgatory – living off of leftovers, staying in your pajamas, confusing Christmas-themed movie plotlines for another, and going about what’s left of December not knowing what time or even day it is. This lull between holidays also allows us to reflect on the year that was.

I may not remember every moment between each sunrise and sunset that painted the 2018 sky. I’m sure there were plenty remarkable ones: from the success stories of our Cebuano dreamers, to stars turning over a new leaf. But there are just some words and the people who uttered them that linger for a little while longer.

It wouldn’t take a detective to know that I’ve had a very pageant-filled year. I’ve kept tabs on city, province, national, and even international tilts this year from launching to coronation. I may not be the most pageant-savvy person out there but I like to think I’ve been exposed enough to learn a thing or two. Like appreciating the showmanship, for starters.

Beauty pageants don’t prove that women can be beautiful and have substance at the same time. Being that captivating is called being a woman, and people do that on the daily even without crowns. No, pageants, like anything that requires star factor, prove what an audience is willing to do when they like and identify with what they see.

“I think it can be a good thing and a bad thing. Just like me, I’m really a passionate person so when I love, I really love but when I hate, I also really hate,” Miss Manila 2018 first runner-up Malka Shaver told us in July after her latest pageant stint about the ferocity of Pinoy pageant fans.

“When we choose our winners, these are women of substance, who have beautiful hearts. if people care about that so much, then these women have the ability to mobilize. That’s good if these fans are looking up to the right people who will channel all of that passion into something good,” the Dumaguete City native said of the relevance of beauty pageants and why these hold potential to be something more, that is, if organizers actually see beyond face value.

If a woman can strike her countrymen with a smile, a walk and a well-articulated thought within 30 seconds, imagine what she can do when she shares her purpose with the number of people who identify with her.

“I’ve also been that winner, but sometimes I also still feel like I don’t know what to do. These winners, they’re like the Mockingjay. The image, and even to fulfill that role is also a feat. These girls, they really do care, it’s just that we’re really more of the mouthpiece,” added Malka, a Miss Dumaguete 2014 and Miss Mandaue 2016 title-holder and Binibining Cebu 2017 Top 12 finisher.

After following the Binibining Cebu 2018 competition from start to finish, I got to sit and talk to the winners a few days after their coronation. The truth is, it’s so easy to get caught up in the clothes and the portraits that we dismiss hopefuls at the slightest misstep. While we can tell our story all we want, it’s still different when you have a willing audience at your disposal.

If not for their crowns, perhaps only a fraction of the people they’ve inspired would have learned about how Binibining Cebu 2018 Steffi Aberasturi struggled with fear and anxiety despite her winning streak, how Binibining Cebu Tourism 2018 Kimberly Covert’s search for her mother led her to purpose, how Binibining Cebu Charity 2018 Tracy Maureen Perez manages to hold on to silver linings despite the odds, how Binibining Cebu Heritage 2018 Lou Dominique Piczon has learned from others and herself, and how much Binibining Cebu Ecology 2018 Isabela Deustch has grown from her experiences.

When I asked them about life, they showed me tears no one in public had seen just yet. But these women are just getting started. Let’s take it from someone who was right in the middle of their reign. When Gabriella Ceniza Carballo won Miss Mandaue 2018, she swore to be of actual use to the city of Mandaue. Six months into her reign, Gabriella, alongside her court, did good on that promise. The ladies have been in and out of Mandaue City Central School for their advocacy project dubbed “Green Wave” which teaches children in public schools about proper waste disposal and environmental sanitation. Come 2019, the ladies will pick up where they left off and start a new wave in a new school.

“My reign has been life-changing – in the sense that I believe it has made me grow as a person. It has pushed me to achieve for change outside of my own self, like waste management for Mandaue, which also makes my reign unique, I suppose,” said Gabriella, a Nursing student at Cebu Doctors’ University.

“I have learned that no matter who you are, you are capable of so much more than you ever thought possible. And because I’ve learned that, I now have fuel to boost me on for the rest of my life,” the 49th Miss Mandaue title-holder said.

“I learned that everyone truly respects those who advocate for positive change, no matter who you are. So if you’re laying in bed for an entire day thinking about the things in your town, your city, or the world that need to change, step out of bed and refuse to be confined by the four walls of your bedroom.”

Still, no matter how good the intention, with the spotlight comes scrutiny. We came across a trio of celebrities who seem to handle these job descriptions well. This chat makes my list of memorable celebrity encounters this year because it wasn’t so much as an interview as it was like having a beer with friends by the beach when we caught up with Metro Channel hosts Maggie Wilson, Tricia Centenera and Joey Mead-King at the sidelines of the Summer Soul party in April.

“Not at all,” Maggie shrugged when asked if her straightforward personality gets in the way with her career. “That is the industry you chose to be in. You have to understand that you are judged how you move, how you look, how you talk. Yes it’s hard. But you have to roll with the punches. If you want to be successful, you have to work hard and you have to take all the criticism. Work on it, take it, don’t sit and cry about it. If you want to win you have to do whatever it takes within the boundaries of your respect for yourself.”

Maggie – a mom, wife, TV host, fitspiration, model, and interior designer – has met many lovely people and a bunch of nasty ones. Attacked for her frankness, she uses that trait to keep people who are all bark and no bite, at bay. She mused that perhaps, growing up in Saudi Arabia, a country where it’s tough to be a woman, she felt the importance of expressing herself even more as she got to see the world and be in more welcoming spaces.

“I am extremely expressive. You can ask any of my friends, I am the first to call them out when something’s going on. I respect other people’s opinions as well. For me, the nicest people are the ones who tell you like it is even if it hurts because you learn from it. You need to learn to separate the business from the personal. There’s constructive criticism and then there’s malice.”

For Tricia Centenera, it’s all about directing your energy to yourself. When faced with challenges, the fashion blogger and host relies on herself to take the high road.

“I need to concentrate on myself, I need to heal and better my own heart and have more healthier thoughts and so I did that [healing] and wasn’t doing it thinking that anyone was really paying attention. But some people were and I gained respect for it,” Tricia said on how she overcame the fallout with ex-husband Gab Valenciano.

With the news of Gab’s alleged cheating, Tricia was pivoted right in the middle of a public ordeal – the last thing anyone wants to deal with when you already have so much on your plate. So when she became confident speaking about the whole thing, Tricia then used this strength to allow other women to share their stories through the show “Driven.”

“It doesn’t always have to be a story of darkness. It’s not always from a tragedy. From triumph comes greater triumphs as well,” Tricia said of “Driven,” which is basically women sitting on a couch sharing their stories. “You probably don’t think that it’s [your story] something, or you think your story is nothing but it can be the world to somebody else going through it.”

Another Metro host, Joey mused that the world would be better if people were simply less judgmental. While they do look like they’ve just stepped out of a magazine cover, Joey said it wouldn’t hurt to hold them to standards like the rest of the population.

“We do get down and dirty in a very good, honest, giggly way. We’re not a bunch of morons. We cuss so healthily and it’s a great safe zone to be our honest and raw selves. We’re not judgey,” Joey quipped.

She added that building genuine and secure friendships is important. And the relationship she has with other Metro hosts, and her other friends, would also seep onto other friendship circles.

“The barkada in itself, a lot of us like to promote the quality of a good female comradery which is a little lacking [in the industry]. All of us are very supportive of each other, I’m proud to advertise what they do, it’s very encouraging and I am also confident with their support and appreciation of what I do. No holds barred. This is what I feel we can hopefully inspire and infect with other tribes and squads: honest, non-judgey but equally supportive because everybody is an individual. No competition,” Joey said.

Speaking of no competition, I know of at least one person who doesn’t think that life is a race. There is no man who can fill up a ballroom without fail like Jose Mari Chan. While I’ve been to a good number of shows the past year, I’d have to say, Jose Mari Chan at a mall show made a lasting memory.

Before performing at the Disney-themed Festival of Lights last month, the singer sat in a tent beside the Ayala Center Cebu Terraces stage. While we were being ushered for an interview with the icon inside a tent at the backstage of Ayala Center Cebu’s The Terraces. We were told we’d have to limit our questions because he had to rest. But once we were inside, it was Jose Mari Chan who talked up a storm.

“No, no…,” he waved off when asked about how he feels being dubbed a Christmas icon. “I’m not the king of Christmas. I consider myself one of the Filipino composers who has contributed to Christmas songs for our people to sing. I’m just one of the many composers.”

Among the most popular OPM icons, Jose Mari Chan remains a social media presence thanks to memes, many of which he’s seen and laughed along to. He told us though that his career is not immortal. No one is ever able to maintain such career, he said, keeping pride away from his life.

For his Christmas wish, the 73-year-old crooner said that it wouldn’t be so bad to see the gap between the rich and the poor narrow in his lifetime.

“The responsibility of narrowing that gap belongs to the private sector. The one percent. The richest Filipinos,” he said. “The responsibility is up to them to narrow that gap and make the seeds of prosperity filter down to the grassroots.”

That night, it would have to take more than rain to drive his audience away. The last time I saw him in 2017, he was still signing CDs and entertaining fans well into the early hours of the morning following a concert that lasted all night. The songwriter is also known for sending fans letters and signed CDs. He does that as a way of saying thanks, he said, before promising to send us a copy of his album. Indeed, a few days later, a signed copy of his album “Coming Home to Christmas” was on my desk.

When this man speaks to you, you have to be prepared for a whole conversation. While other meet-and-greets last in a blink of an eye, Jose Mari Chan indulges you, accommodating everyone who stood patiently in line as he talks about how Christmas will always be special, his remarkable friends and many other jokes. Which is why, when I came out of the mall after dinner, I wasn’t surprised to see him still talking to fans and signing CDs in the middle of a now, much-darker stage.

“When you’re doing something that you love, something from your passion, strangely, you don’t get tired. I love what I’m doing. I enjoy it. Not so much the applause, it’s not that. What I appreciate more is when you tell me ‘Oh! Your song was our theme song!’ or ‘I grew up listening to your music!’ That’s fulfillment for me,” he told us with a smile before dashing off to his wife.

While we talked about the immortal, this time we talk about the infinite. Let me tell you about the time I met a woman who is an actress, producer, host, executive, leader and more all in one.

As I watched Charo Santos-Concio enter the room, I thought: So this is what it takes to be an entertainment executive. While many know her as the woman who reads letters every Saturday night, more than that, she is the woman behind the brightest stars in the entertainment industry.

Throughout lunch, I often found myself fixing my hair, hiding the midi rings that lined my fingers, as well as mentally thanking myself for making sure my white sneakers were spotless before I left the house. In short, I did not want to mess up in front of this strikingly calm woman who made lunch feel like a bomb disposal (well at least to me). After all, this was the woman who got surprised by celebrities on her birthday, the woman who kept unruly stars in line.

“Bihira naman. But I do. Pero bihirang-bihira akong magalit,” she replied when asked if she ever breaks away from her seemingly unfailing poised demeanor.

“I look for authenticity. I can live with imperfection. I look for transparency, yun lang. Sana totoo lang tayo diba? In any relationship, I think it’s very, very important, whether it’s personal of professional. Transparency is key to keeping a relationship.”

For a woman of her credentials, Charo Santos sounded like any other person when she spoke: she laughed and got sarcastic like many of us. Last month she was in Cebu to celebrate the anniversary of jewelry brand DiaGold, the “Maalaala Mo Kaya” host shared how she puts herself together, if she’d like to design her own jewelry, her latest film, and the secret to maintaining a youthful glow.

“A positive mindset,” revealed the 63-year-old. “You have to look forward to every single day that you wake up. Learn to take things in stride. When you get to a point in life where you learn to choose your battles, yung hindi lahat pinapansin…Yung iba, maliliit naman, tayo lang ang nagpapalaki. When you’re more in control of who you are, and you know yourself more, and you’re more mindful of the triggers that will make you lose your temper, make you lose your poise…”

Hosting “MMK” and hearing these riveting stories allows her to look at life from a less privileged perspective.

“Kasi tinuro ng ‘MMK’ sa akin yung humility and compassion. ‘MMK’ put into context the way I see my own pain, trials and suffering. Magko-complain na ako, pero pag may nabasa akong mas malungkot, nakakahiya naman. I have no reason to complain,” she said.

Indeed, the ways we act are often based on how we perceive things. When director Ditsi Carolino and camerawoman Nana Buxani made their documentary “Bunso,” they wanted legislators to see things they could not glimpse from their offices.

Part of the UP Cebu Centennial Film Showcase in April, the “Bunso” screening was attended by a bunch of UP High School Cebu students. You could tell by the way these students gasped at the ending, that “Bunso” is a moving documentary that explores injustice, neglect and perpetual helplessness through the lives of three boys namely Tony, 13, Diosel and Bunso, 11 – all struggling to survive in the crowded Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center alongside adult rapists and murderers.

Even as the end credits rolled, no one dared to make a sound. Until a small woman, with a mic in hand walked up front and introduced herself.

“Was it hard? When you’re shooting, you get so engrossed in the technical things. I have to make sure the exposure and audio levels are right, that the mic is on. I need to make sure that my shots will edit well. It becomes kind of a wall, or a filter from feeling much,” Ditsi Carolino, a UP High School Cebu alumna, said of the making of “Bunso,” which won for her Best Director in the One World Film Festival in Prague, the Grand Prix in the EBS International Documentary Festival in Seoul, the Youth Jury Prize at the Perspektive - Filmfestival der Menschenrechte in Nuremberg, and was Best Short Film at the Gawad Urian.

“When you edit and sit with 30 hours of material in front of you, when you freeze the frame and see this close-up of the kids staring right at you, that’s the time when you break down. This is the thing that makes you want to do the best you can. To try your very best,” Carolino said.

From a shocked silence, students became emotional, floored by the visuals of seeing children in conflict with the law wait for their parents to visit, counting days in jail the same way couples count monthsaries, wondering if their case (such as theft and begging) has made any progress at all, in a place where each day they become more susceptible to physical, sexual and substance abuse.

While she aims to be hopeful in her films, Carolino also understands that there are hard pills to swallow. She knows that too much happily-ever-afters lull people back to sleep. Through “Bunso,” she wanted to show people who have never been to jail that it is no place for a child. That people inside prison cells are not cardboard personas, but real, feeling, thinking human beings who laugh and cry and pray to whichever god.

The children in the film, their experiences in a system that has so obviously failed them, were what it took to somehow put the Republic Act No. 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act in place in 2006,  establishing a comprehensive juvenile justice and welfare system.

“I pray to God that you will never be desensitized,” the filmmaker immediately replied when asked about how she keeps herself from becoming detached and cynical after being exposed to the bitterness and plight of others. In this time of conflict, and a time where, despite their cause, recent discussions of amending the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act threaten what “Bunso” and its subjects stood for, the world would have to be flat before Carolino becomes a pessimist.

“I pray that you will always be affected by what you see, hear, and experience. You need to put on breaks sometimes. You can’t be crying while you’re shooting. Please pray that you don’t get desensitized. It’s caring about issues that makes you do good things. I totally encourage you to go out and experience worlds that you have not seen, outside of the privilege,” said Carolino, a sociology graduate.

You see, while working as an entertainment reporter around the same time it takes the Earth to complete its orbit around the sun, I’ve realized that people like talking about things. They want names, places, they look forward to spilled beans, and served tea. But whether they know it or not, there is one other thing that people want to know: What are we really doing with our lives?

It’s all everyone’s been talking about all year round. At least that’s what my sources seem to obsess about. I hear it in the way they narrate to me why they do what they do and say what they say, when they reply each time I ask how they want to be remembered as. Some still wonder about what their purpose could be, others are right in the middle of it, and there are those who seemingly have it all figured out.

Tomorrow, Living Coral will be the new Ultra Violet (or so Pantone says). As we ring in the new year, I wonder if “purpose” will still be all the rage or if we’ll be hearing new things from now on.