Actress Kylie Padilla unwittingly confirmed rumors regarding the separation of her old friend Max Collins from her husband, GMA artist Pancho Magno not too long ago.
The unintended revelation happened during the live broadcast of Kylie’s virtual interview for an online entertainment site recently. Kylie was promoting her new GMA primetime show “Bolera” when asked about her first friend in show business.
She said candidly and innocently after a long pause, “First friend talaga in show biz na friend ko pa rin hanggang ngayon -- si Max Collins. We were together in ‘The Good Daughter,’ dun pa lang naging friends na kami, hanggang ngayon. Parehas kaming ikinasal, parehas naghiwalay, parehas kaming nanganak,” she said laughing.
The host then realized that this bit of information has never been confirmed yet by the parties involved.
Anyway, Kylie appears to be in a much better place now after the tumultuous period of her relationship with the father of her son, Aljur Abrenica. And so we trust that Max will be, too, if she is not there yet.
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ARNELL IGNACIO AS THE NEXT OWWA ADMINISTRATOR?
News from the grapevine has it that singer-host Arnell Ignacio, who is also the hardworking deputy administrator of Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration (OWWA), will be taking over the OWWA administrator post under the Marcos administration.
This bit of news doesn’t come as a surprise because we have been following Arnell’s exploits in office and we see how hard he has been working to help and assist thousands of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) around the globe, with the help of other government agencies like the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).
Take for example this situation in war-torn Ukraine and the plight of our displaced kababayans there. Arnell had been spending energy, time and resources to protect them and bring them home safely to their families. To date, he was able to repatriate 401 out of the 484 OFWs in Ukraine. The rest opted to stay there and take their chances.
In China, Morocco, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other parts of the Middle East, Arnell was also able to repatriate OFWs with outstanding legal impediments, and on the other hand negotiate with employers in behalf of their OFW employees which yielded outstanding results, most of whom continued working for their bosses up to now and some even had increase in their salaries and were granted privileges like owning mobile phones.
Arnell told us in one conversation that diplomacy is still the key factor behind the victories charted by OWWA in his dealings overseas. He believes that his background in show business has a lot to do with his uncanny ability to understand the culture and tradition of other countries and show them respect, kindness and sincerity. “In turn, they give back more of the kindness we show them when we negotiate,” he said.
In all of these, the OWWA deputy administrator was working closely with PCG who, like him, go out of their way to help in the repatriation of OFWs as well as transporting them from the airport to quarantine areas during the height of the pandemic and then to the airports and provinces after they finish their quarantine period.
Inevitably and largely due to these selfless acts of charity and concern for the Filipino migrant workers, the Philippine Coast Guard recently conferred to Arnell the Auxiliary Commodore rank, which is equivalent to a one-star general in the military.
Arnell told us that he feels really humbled and thankful by the citation because he got the highest rank given by PCG to a civilian.
I’d say, well-deserved Arnell. Keep up the good work and cheers to many more victories you can etch in the next chapter of your public service.
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WILLIE REVILLAME TO RETURN TO NOONTIME TV WITH A BANG
Willie Revillame will soon be coming back to noontime television with a big bang as the Villar group recently acquired the Luzon transmitter of ABS-CBN.
We were told that the position Willie will be holding in the new Villar-owned All Broadcasting System (ABS) will not be confined to being a host alone. Apparently, Willie was given the go signal to conceptualize programs and hire talents he deems fit for the show(s) he will pitch.
This is a good comeback for the host-comedian. It will be recalled that his resignation from ABS-CBN in July, 2010 created such a hoopla after he was allegedly removed from the noontime slot and given the option to go on air on Studio 23 instead, which he refused.
Anyway, this early, we heard that Willie’s phone “couldn’t stop ringing” already from calls made by some of his colleagues from the defunct ABS-CBN network exploring the possibility of collaborating with him once again in a show for the soon-to-open network.
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FOR FRIENDSHIP’S SAKE
We really cannot fault Singer A from trying to pacify Singer B from making public corrections about his other friend, Singer C, regarding the issue involving the franchise or frequency of a television network.
Singer A was just being a friend to Singer C, probably thinking he could bridge the “gap” between Singers B and C, who are both his friends.
The only problem is that Singer B doesn’t really see it as a kind gesture, especially because he thinks that Singer C was not exactly kind when he unwittingly initiated this public discourse by “correcting” the people he felt were in the wrong on this issue.