Mention his name and what immediately comes to mind are the numerous international crowns he has produced for the Philippines. Under his tutelage and leadership, Filipinas have won for the country at least one Miss Universe crown, several runner up and semifinal placements; one Miss World crown; one Miss International crown, so on and so forth. In fact, it is expertise in pageantry that has landed him the plum job of being Miss Universe Philippines’ Creative Director and the international recognition as a premiere pageant mentor. That, however, is just one side to his story. On top of what he is to pageantry, he also is an ace talent manager whose wards have landed lucrative contracts in the country’s biggest networks and whose models are among the most preferred faces of the country’s top brands.
Now wanting to somehow hang his gloves as a talent manager, Job Gaffud recently embarked on a new journey which now sees him playing in the field of media.
“Empire.Ph is a digital magazine that has a TV content. Everything is online but it is like TV and magazine in one,” he explains of his new brand. Venturing into a new business interest, Jonas admits, is a departure from what people have grown accustomed to seeing him doing in the past: “Talent management is something that I did for the longest time. That is something that I am no longer a part of. I’m not part of talent management anymore, I gave it to Mau de Leon and Ana Gonzales, sila na yun. And then I was busy with Miss Universe Philippines. After Miss Universe Philippines, I’m the type of person who doesn’t want to rest. So my mind has been wondering the whole time, what are you doing? You don’t have any time to rest. So I created this.”
Empire.Ph is actually not a new creation. There have been several attempts in the past that saw Jonas trying to get the project taking off.
“I created this in 2005. I wanted to create a magazine. An online magazine. It didn’t push through because I didn’t have money or financial support. 2010, when Venus Raj made it, I created naman parang a TV online. It didn’t happen either,” he narrates. Not the type who easily gets discouraged, Jonas just kept on trying to make his idea fly, for he has big ideas for it.
“In 2018 I launched this again, pero it was just puro shows on the website. And that’s it. And then the pandemic happened. Today, I’m launching this again. I hope it will do well na, and continuous na yung plans namin to go internationally. Empire.Ph for me is not just local. Aside from promoting our base, which is the Philippines, we want to promote the Philippines, promote our talents. I really want to go international. For content, we will have travel, food, it will all be different from what we watch already. Everything will be different,” he reveals with excitement.
So far, Empire.Ph will be home to four new shows, including “The Beautiful Kitchen,” hosted by Miss Universe Philippines queens Shamcey Supsup, Rabiya Mateo, Beatrice Luigi Gomez and Celeste Cortesi. It will likewise have a musical content.
“We plan to produce more shows around the world. Eventually go into movies and TV series also,” Jonas shares.
Of course, a chat with the queen maker will never be complete without asking him about the country’s chances in the forthcoming Miss Universe Pageant, especially under a new owner. To which he says: “I don’t think that the new owners should affect the way we think about beauty pageants, and who will win and who shall not win. What I love about Ann, the new owner of Miss Universe, is that she’s very hands on. She knows what’s happening, she tries to get to know everyone, which never happened before. So I think it is a very good way for us to really promote our brand, which is Miss Universe.”