Jenny Syquia: Ready for a comeback?

Guess who sneaked back into town Sunday last week while you and I were not looking – yes, Jenny Syquia, that’s who! Now married to Swedish businessman Philip Skarne and residing in Stockholm, Jenny was gone for six years. The image of her that lingers in our memory is her tear-drenched lovely face, choking with emotion as she revealed her "suffering" during her media announcement of the break-up of her marriage to Gabby Concepcion (now based in San Francisco) by whom she has a daughter, Chloe, now eight years old.

When Funfare met with Jenny last Saturday, she was wearing a wide, wide happy smile, refusing to look back and focusing herself only on the future, blithely moving on. Jenny looked as lovely as ever, her figure as trim as it was before she met Gabby.

Did she come back to iron out some legal kinks (some cases between her and Gabby are pending in court)? Is she back for a showbiz comeback? Or is she here only for a brief vacation?

"I’m here for business," said Jenny. "I was in Hong Kong for an important business meeting and from there, I decided to fly to Manila for another meeting with my business partners. I’m also taking advantage of the opportunity to see my friends, one of them Ina (Raymundo, her co-star in a Viva romance-comedy). I also had lunch with Tita Lolit (Solis)."

The business Jenny was talking about is Knapp Knapp (pronounced kay-napp kay-napp, a Swedish term which means, among others, "Hurry up, hurry up!") which makes dresses for kids and has outlets in California and some parts of Europe. Jenny is here to finalize plans to put up a factory here and maybe, in the future, outlets in department stores.

After her marriage to Gabby was annulled, Jenny met and fell in love with Philip who has been her friend. For a while, they lived in Boston at the time when Sharon Cuneta, also Gabby’s ex-wife, was there during Sharon’s husband Sen. Kiko Pangilinan’s scholarship grant in Harvard. Jenny and Sharon are in good terms and Jenny even appeared as a guest in Sharon’s Araneta Coliseum concert before she left the country.

In Boston, however, she and Sharon never had a chance to renew their friendship or to discuss matters of common interest, such as the adoption of KC, Sharon’s daughter by Gabby, by Kiko and for KC to legally use Pangilinan as surname.

You see, Jenny’s daughter Chloe has been legally adopted by Philip and now carries the surname Skarne. Jenny could give Sharon a pointer or two on the matter but she’d rather not. "She has a good lawyer and he knows what to do," said Jenny who has no child yet with Philip. "We really want to have one, but we’ve been unsuccessful so far."

"Philip loves Chloe like his own daughter," said Jenny. "He treats her like his own daughter. The two of them love to go fishing. Chloe is now in grade school."

Jenny added that Chloe often wonders why she doesn’t have a brother or a sister, so she tells Chloe that she does have a sister (KC) whom Chloe has yet to meet.

"Had I brought Chloe with me," said Jenny, "this would have been a good chance for them to finally see each other. Chloe hasn’t seen KC, not even in pictures."

No, Jenny hasn’t been communicating with Gabby, not even for some "legal" matters. Asked if she’s seeing Gabby’s relatives while she’s here, Jenny only gave a sad, enigmatic smile. She didn’t even know if she had the time to see all the friends she’s been wanting to see because on Wednesday, she’s flying back to Stockholm.

If and when her garment factory would be set up here, Jenny would have to stay three weeks every two months. She might go back to television, if a good offer comes along (as a talk show host, perhaps?). Philip told her that it’s okay for her to "moonlight" as TV host (but not to do movies) because managing the planned garment factory wouldn’t take much of her time.

During her short-lived career, Jenny briefly hosted a TV show aside from doing one or two movies.

"Do I miss showbiz?" she asked. "I do, of course! I do miss my showbiz friends more than the job."