As a devotee of the Señor Santo Niño, He answered my prayers when HomeMaker Furniture chose me to be their celebrity on their float. 

To become a celebrity in the grand Sinulog parade is not easy. Corporate sponsors hold polls and surveys about who the Cebuanos’ favorite celebrities are, and the winners were Coco Martin, Kim Chiu, Ian Veneracion, Sofronio Vasquez (The Voice USA 2024 grand champion), Derek Ramsey, and myself, who were all in our respective floats.

Cebuanos are pretty territorial, and knowing that Kim, Derek, and I played with our own Cebuano friends in the streets of Cebu while growing up had a lot of bearing. I am 50 percent Visayan and 50 percent Ilongga. I was born in Manila but spent my summer vacations in Cebu, so I learned to speak Cebuano fluently. So, talking to Bisaya in the float on a microphone was second nature to me. It’s just so fascinating that every year, one million people get added to the parade due to the popularity of the experience. People dance in the streets with their respective Sto. Niños. They paint each other’s faces blue and share drinks and food in the sun's heat until it sets, and more partying happens at night in the streets.  

 The celebrity experience

If you were watching the parade, you would think that the celebrity-in-a-float is the grandest experience of all time. I'm going to tell you how we celebrities work. We wake up at 4 a.m. to take a bath, have our hair and make-up done, and get picked up at 5 a.m. because the parade grounds will be closed to vehicles between 530 and 6 a.m. We hurriedly eat breakfast in the car and pee as much as possible in nearby toilets before we step on our floats at 730 a.m. since the grand parade starts at 8 a.m. This grand parade will tour you to the entire Cebu City with thousands of people watching you and taking your pictures in a 360 view of people. So when you step on the float at  730 a.m., it is non-stop waving and smiling for photos for you in the sun's heat (floats have no roofs ). Finding a toilet will be nearly impossible because of the sea of people watching you.  By noon, in the scorching heat, you are in the grand stadium to be presented to thousands of people, so you talk in your microphone in your float and wave your Sto. Niño shouting Pit Senyor! (As a devotee, proclaiming my faith was the best part of my job despite the blistering sun). Your job does not end there after the grand parade (And so I thought); you will now be paraded to other parts of Cebu City, where thousands of people await your entry. I was in the float from 730 a.m. to 730 p.m. Some celebrities even stayed till 1 a.m. I was blessed that the HomeMaker management felt happy and satisfied with me promoting their brand for 12 hours, and I did not have to stay on the float till 1 a.m. There were moments I wanted to stop because of the heat, fatigue, hunger, and the need to relieve myself in the toilet. But everywhere the float went, I could hear screams of people calling my name, taking pictures on their camera phones, and waving at me. How can you stop when the love is so evident? And so I didn’t. I kept raising Señor Sto Niño and shouting Pit Senyor, to which all the devotees would shout back Pit Senyor! My dad asked me if I wanted to repeat such an experience, and I told my dad, “Dad, since 1995, I have been doing this. Dancing with my Santo Niño on floats whenever God gave me a chance. Do you think a little sun, fatigue, hunger, and bladder problems will stop me? Every year, I will pray that a corporate float gets me again. And I know Señor Santo Niño will grant the desires of my heart."