Confirmed: Mayor Joey and Alma break up!

Curtain-raisers:

• Best wishes to F co-host Daphne Oseña and TV-producer-reporter Patrick Paez who are getting married very soon. By Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, the two should be legally husband and wife.

• You, too, must have been missing Mareng Winnie Monsod both on her DZMM early-morning program and her GMA show (with Pareng Oca Orbos) Debate, haven’t you? Mareng Winnie has been advised by her doctor to get a complete rest after some of her arteries were found to be clogged (same illness that forced Frontpage’s Mel Tiangco to go on leave two years ago). By now, Mareng Winnie must have (hopefully) given up smoking and learned how to relax.

• Ricky Lee will conduct his 14th Basic Scriptwriting Workshop for Film and TV. The sessions will be held for three consecutive Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. starting Feb. 17. Like all his previous workshops since 1982, this will be free of charge and will be open to everybody regardless of age, educational attainment and writing experience. The workshop will be limited to only 40 participants. Registration is on Feb. 10, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at PEPE/Press office No. 3 Road 1, Pagasa, Quezon City. For inquiries, call 928-9557 or 4264961.

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Yes, totoo ang tsismis: Parañaque City Mayor Joey Marquez and wife Alma Moreno have broken up – "Irrevocably," according to the Funfare DPA who’s close to the un-couple.

Yesterday, Alma has already packed her things and moved from their conjugal home in Parañaque to her own house in a plush suburb. She’ll be by her lonesome, according to the DPA. But for how long? Hmmmmm.

Mayor Joey and Alma have three children (Yeoj, 11, Win-Win, 9; and Vittorio Joe, 5), all of whom have opted to stay with their Papa, along with Alma’s love child Vandolph (still into his recuperation period). As per the agreement of the un-couple, Alma can invite the kids over to her own place if she wants to. Alma’s other love child, Mark Anthony (by Rudy Fernandez), is currently staying with his Papa and stepmom Lorna Tolentino in White Plains, Quezon City.

The break-up came in the wake of the persistent rumor, which started circulating last year, amidst the un-couple’s other pressing problems, such as Alma’s bout with the untreatable multiple sclerosis and Mayor Joey’s problems in his bailiwick. Only last week, Mayor Joey suffered a mild stroke (his blood pressure went up to 160/120) while attending the Sinulog festival in Cebu where Alma mounted a fund-raising concert. Mayor Joey was confined for barely 20 hours at the ICU (only because no other room was available) of a Cebu hospital.

"He might have to undergo angioplasty," said still another Funfare DPA.

When Alma left for Cebu, she reportedly told Mayor Joey that when she came back to Manila, she wouldn’t be going back to their Parañaque residence but to her own house "in the suburbs." No, it wasn’t a threat; it was a "simple reminder," according to DPA No. 1. So finally yesterday, Alma left the home she has shared with Mayor Joey and their children these past 13 years.

The un-couple were married in Las Vegas sometime in 1988, several months after Alma broke up with Dolphy (father of Vandolph) who fell in love with Zsa Zsa Padilla who, in turn, separated from her dentist-husband (father of Zsa Zsa’s daughter Karylle).

Only last year, Mayor Joey went to Harvard to take up a special course in Public Administration. Alma followed him there both to keep him company and for further medical consultation after she was diagnosed by local doctors to be suffering from multiple sclerosis.

Now, what could have finally broken the camel’s back, so to speak, and made the couple split up?

The real reason would have to remain "a guessing game" as of now.

Meanwhile, a third DPA told Funfare that there’s a "circular" at the Parañaque City Hall that anybody claiming to be close to Alma and transacting business "on behalf of the city government" will be "banned" from the premises. It could mean that those claiming to be Alma’s "relatives" are deemed off-limits at the City Hall where Alma was said to have wielded her own power as First Lady.

With Alma out of the scene, who would take over as Parañaque City’s First Lady?

"None," said the DPA.

But Mayor Joey’s sister, Via Marquez (one-time movie producer), is conducting socio-medical missions/projects with funding collected from donors abroad (specifically Australia where Via and her foreigner husband and their children are staying).

Despite her ailment, Alma is said to be deadset on returning full-time to showbiz (television, the concert scene and the movies).

Late last year, even if she was suffering from debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis (splitting headaches, muscle cramps and general weakness, among others), Alma pushed through with a US concert tour which she had signed up for before her ailment was diagnosed.

Mayor Joey has been acting like a real father to Vandolph who was seriously injured in a car accident in Pangasinan late last year.

It was Mayor Joey who hired a helicopter that transferred Vandolph and his girlfriend, Desiree Raquiza (who died before Christmas last year without having woken up from a coma), from a Pangasinan hospital to the Makati Med.

The intriguing question: Is there any "third party" in the break-up? Who of the two has "it"?

Thus far, the only thing certain, added the DPA, "is that the separation (the first in the un-couple’s marriage) is final."