The Truth Behind All Scandals, Accusations, and Scams of Beverly Hills
You've seen the media and how the truth has been manipulated, turning one ideal couple into one of the most talk about person in the Philippines.
Here's a view of what you have to know behind the names - David Bunevacz, Jessica Rodriguez, and Beverly Hills 6750. All secrets unfold.
Breana Zofia Bunevacz Here with her mother, talent manager Jessica Rodriguez turned one year old om June 18. However, her fit-for-a-princess party, which we gathered cost some P160,000, was held the next day at Rockwell’s The Loft in Makati. “Kagabi, naiyak ako,” says Jesica. “Kasi naalala ko lahat ng nangyari… na muntik n kong mamatay noong ipinag-bubuntis ko siya.” Jessica’s last trimester of pregnancy was a difficult one. She had to stay for three months at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital in San Juan. But beautiful Breanna is certainly worth all the trouble that Jessica had to go through.
Breanna’s proud dad is former athlete and TV host David Bunevacz, who now works as a contractor for a construction company
Sexy star Patrica Javier, one of Jessica’s talents, brought her pamangkins Jewel and Boboy to the party.
Joanne Quintas-Primero with her one-month-old baby boy, Mulawin. Joanne was the event coordinator that day. “Solo venture ko ito.” She tell us. “First time ko ginawa itong magpa-children’s party.”
Every bride glows with the beauty at her weeding, but Jessica Rodriguez was simply radiant as she exchanged vows with the handsome David Bunevacz at their romantic outdoor wedding at The Fort. There were sighs and cheers as Jessica and David exchanged their first kisses as a married couple, then walked down the petal-covered aisle.
The romance continued inside the huge air-conditioned tent at The Fort, where the lavish reception was held. All guests—from politicians to showbiz people to the couple’s family and friends—also enjoyed the fireworks that were set up to celebrate the joyous occasion. It was truly a beautiful celebration for a beautiful couple so obviously inlove.
Very little explanation is needed to understand that former decathlete for the Philippine team, David Bunevacz, is a victim of a smear campaign that’s been perpetuated against him recently involving his business of selling 2010 Winter Olympics tickets.
Indeed, it’s simply a case of a business deal gone wrong – but not of Bunevacz’s doing as shown by facts.
In January 2009, Gene Hammett, who owns ticket dealership Action Seating in Alpharetta, Georgia, struck an agreement with Bunevacz for the former’s company to buy from the latter several tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada which, in turn, will be sold to consumers.
Like any legitimate business transaction, the two signed a contract that contains provisions on how the sale would be conducted and consummated, as well as ones that would safeguard their respective interest should the deal collapse at any point and regardless which party caused it. Ultimately, the agreement subscribes to this basic and universally accepted business participle: Pay for a product and it’s yours. In that order, there’s even a Filipino slang term for it – “kaliwaan.”
According to the Purchase Agreement, the tickets were to be paid for in four installment but Hammett reneged on this.
Hammett failed to pay in full; hence, no tickets were delivered.
The official press statement of Bunevacz’s lawyer, Michael M. Amir, uses an analogy that upholds Bunevacz’s prudent and valid business decisions: “Just as a department store won’t let a customer walk out of the store clutching a half-paid for designer suit, the tickets provider… declined to deliver the packages of Winter Olympic tickets… without being paid in full.”
There was no reason for Hammett to doubt Bunevacz’s capability to deliver on his part of the deal. In 2008, Hammett bought – and got – from Bunevacz and his father, Joseph, “a couple thousand tickets” to the Beijing Olympics that year. The Bunevacz’s had a proven track record. They earned it.
Early this year, after their transaction for the purchased of the 2010 Winter Olympics tickets fell through due to non-payment, Hammett had himself interviewed by a reporter of US broadsheet publication, The Seattle Times. In the interview, Hammett, as Atty. Amir puts it in his official press statement, spun “a tale of mystery and greed” about the manner while “portraying himself as a victim and creating an attractive scapegoat, hoping to disguise that his problems were of his own doing.”
More, Hammett provided The Seattle Times with “copies of the confidential agreement, cherry-picked business e-mails… and recordings that may have been illegally made.” Several of these key, confidential documents were posted by The Seattle Times which, by now, could have been accessed by millions through the Internet.
Bunevacz has sued Hammett, of course, for breach of contract, fraud, defamation and declaratory relief. And though the justice system says that either of the two must be presumed innocent until proven guilty, Hammett has already wrought immeasurable damage on Bunevacz’s professional and personal reputa tion.
Despite this, Bunevacz is “willing to repay Hammett” as soon as they settle on the amount even if the money the latter had paid to strike a blow against Bunevacz?
The press statement from Atty. Amir offers this theory: “To save face among his disgruntled customers, some of whom have already filed suits against him…”
His voice thunders, his eyes are hot coal, his fist hits an open palm.
Your heart rate jumps up from 130 to 200 in two seconds. It goes BaaamBaaamBaaamm! So intense, you think you’re going to pass out. It takes the breath out of you. Unbelievable. and horrifying in the first three seconds. Then it turns into something really indescribable. A rush. Adrenaline.
Manong Manoling can relax. Decathlete David Bunevacz is merely describing the perils and pleasure of … bungee-jumping.
The strapping Filipino-Hungarian athlete insists there’s not one game in the whole wide world of sports that he hasn’t yet tried.
“Ive done ‘em all” he beams, “bungee-jumping, free falling …” Now he makes a chocking sound that, we imagine, could only come from a man plunging 15,000 feet at 200 mph. He continues, “… with a parachute. Sky-diving.”
Danger, it seems, fuels every sinew and fiber in this body – 220 pounds of pure verve in a 6’4” frame.
Formidable is the figure he cuts on the race track, but just as intimidating is David Bunevacz, the interviewee, seated across a candle-lit dinner table.
He is often “misunderstood,” he is saying, perceived as brusque and brazen. He sighs: “They say, ‘David is sooo cocky when he talks about himself.’ But you know, when you’re going for the Olympic gold, you can’t say, Oh, I’ll give it my best shot. I might take it. I don’t know.’ If you have any doubts whatsoever, forget it, you’ll get nowhere.”
Confidence is vital, he stresses. ‘You have to be in tune with your body. You need confidence, unshakeable and immovable, sustaining your mind. Day in and day out, it has to be that way, even in practice. The moment you let up is the moment you lose, the moment you get hurt.”
David, racing just as feverishly on the highway of life, refuses to lose sleep over(mis-) perception about him.
“In time, people will understand,” he waxes philosophical. But he wants one thing clear. There is a world of difference between confidence and arrogance. “My kind of confidence is belief in what I can do. You’ll never hear me say: “this athlete or that is not half as good as I am.”
Confidence, consistency and, above all, compelling modesty are precisely the traits he admires in his sports idols: track-and-field Olympic medalist Carl Lewis, and basketball legend Michael Jordan.
Says David of the Chicago Bulls point guard: “it is not only because he is a great player, but also because he’s so consistent. You have to understand, to be a good athlete is hard enough. But to be consistently great, that’s phenomenal. That takes so much discipline and confidence.”
On both counts, self-control and chutzpah, David is himself phenomenal. His Spartan schedule would undoubtedly push you average Pinoy sportswriter to the edge of apoplexy.
“Decathletes follow a standard routine,” David relates. “work out five days a week, eight hours a day, 10 a.m to six p.m. just like a regular job.”
But, unlike most nine-to-fivers, decathletes don’t stop for lunch, “We drink lunch – liquid protein.”
Sounds awful.
“It’s okay,” he assumes us. “It takes like chocolate.”
In Los Angeles where he spends a good part of the year, he jogs 400 meters up a steep hill, followed by high-impact aerobics and intense stretching. Bench presses, sit-ups, leg curls, pull-ups, three sets of 150 push-ups, weight-lifting 150 kilograms.
Only after such strenuous aperitif could he then embark on the nitty-gritty training for the decathlon events. For the uninitiated, decathlon dubbed by the politically incorrect as “the sport for real men,” consist of 10(!) events.
The first day starts with the 100m, long jump, shot put, high jump and ends with the 400m. The second day kicks off with the 110m hurdles, discus, pole vault, javelin and culminates with the 1,500m.
“Because there are 10 events, there are so many things to work on,” David clarifies. “on top of that, you have to train for endurance.”
A normal day for the decathlete begins at 8:30. “I drink my breakfast, same protein drink. By 9:30, I’m on the track.”
Asked what he does outside of training, he quips: “nothing. The three times a week that I have weight-training and physical therapy (massage), my day ends 8:30 p.m. On the days I don’t have physical therapy and weight-training, I can go to the movies. By 9:30, I’m home eating dinner, watching TV- David Letterman, Melrose Place, Friends.”
Lights out is 10 p.m. “I make it a point to get eight to 10 hours of sleep. Lack of sleep can cause cramps.”
To conquer cramps, the athlete’s curse, he counsels, “Drink lots of water.”
“Every single day it’s the same routine,” he affirms. In David’s very orderly world, everything is on sked, everything is perfect, there is no time for the inconsequential, like cramps.
Really. The couch potato would be quick to dismiss an athlete’s rigid regimen and exacting existence as boring.
“No.” David is just as fast on the draw. “ I love to be out on the track!” He brims with pride when talk quite inevitably turns to his team-mates in UCLA.
“How can it be boring when you are training with Quincy Watts, an Olympic gold medalist? I am hurdling side by side with Greg Foster, four-time World Champion. We’re five in the group: Quincy Watts, double gold medalist for the 400m in Barcelona (’92); he’s a superstar. Robert Redding, 110m hurdler ranked number one in the United States. Greg Foster, four-time world champ in the 100m. And Keddrick James, 400m hurdle specialist, the same event Edward Moses specialized in. There are the men who are going to Atlanta for the United States.”
More than great athletes, his teammates are “lots of fun to hang out with.” And of course, training with the world’s best punches him to the limit.
For Manila games, dood friend and athlete Chris Warner flew over from States. “When you work with other people,” David elaborates, “when you run with someone on the track and you get into the rhythm of his stride, it carries you along. It’s almost how far can you go.”
To watch him train is to behold a man who genuinely loves to sweat. He relishes each bead forming on his brow, as if each salty drop were a gold medal.
Under the glare of the midday summer sun, David, accompanied by Chris, burns the Rizal Memorial Coliseum tracks.
The scorching heat is the least of his worries, though. “Pollution is so bad, It’s almost like you’re eating smog.
“In LA, we train in absolutely beautiful weather. 70 degrees, 20 percent humidity. Just last week, my teammates and I were seating on the tracks, shooting the breeze: My God everything’s just perfect”.
David the optimist see in challenges a chance to develop further as a sportsman. Despite the sun and the smog, he still declares, “Manila is better.”
Relentless he is in courting his mother’s countrymen.
David Joseph Ismael Bunevacz, bold and beautiful, has been a favorite target of the local press for the past year.
Summer ’95, controversy erupted over the P1.1 million allowance given to him by the Philippine Sports Commision.
As my plane landed in the Philippines ten years ago, my objective has always been there the same, and that is to make a difference in the birthplace of my mother. A change that would be for the better of my Filipino brothers. Before that day, I had never stepped foot on Philippine soil. This would be the beginning of a turn of events, controversial, yet remarkably astonishing, that only my parents could fathom. I brought a glory to the Philippines, taking home with me its 1st ever Gold Medal in the Decathlon at SEA Games. After some time, I realized that through sports. I could only affect the winning senses and short-lived joys of triumph through competition. I needed, and searched for a more prolonged, concrete satisfaction that would somehow affect my country’s development, something extensive, substantial that could be seen and felt for generation to come.
And so my journey begins as a Financial Consultant and harnessing the education I acquired at one of the top universities in the United States. After gaining my degree in Economics and Sociology from the University of California Los Angles (UCLA). I went back to school to sharpen my skills by taking up a course in Finance and investment Management that enabled me to work with the banking community. I wanted to break the media stereotype that I was only a athlete. My competitive spirits and relentless will to become number one is the only thing that still dominates. It’s an attribute that you cannot beat out of any athlete, you are born with it. I pass this on to all associates, and instill in them the motivation to always do their very best in every project, in every endeavor they are given, SSCI is the end result of a winning team that has been developed through motivation, coordination and highly educated and skilled individuals.
Working closely with senior executives and presidents of the largest banks in our country has enabled us to build a pool of funders whom we can count on for our various projects. We have built a reputation that we are extremely proud of, and shall keep pressing on for, to the advantage and prestige of our clients. At present, the market for LGU Bonds is growing steadily, and it is imperative that we give our clients precedence in order to maintain that accelerated growth without losing momentum. Capitalizing on low interest rates is a major factor in assuring the very best cash flow in every project we complete.
We will continue to develop and built relationships with the international banking community to prove that LGU Bonds are solid investments.
Most People are astounded by the magnitude of what we have accomplished in such a short period of time. Within just thirteen months, we have been blessed to have floated the two largest single series LGU bonds in the history of LGU Bond Floatation. And with the rise in the education of the LGUs to the advantages of Bond Floatation, we are confident that many more LGUs will be following suit, marching on towards financial independence.
I have been blessed by all means, and continue to move ahead of the competition, maintaining a strict sense of business ethics, aggressive pricing, unbeatable packaging, and above all, a sense humility towards everyone I come in contract with.
Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (PATAFA). UCLA faxed David’s credentials to Mr. Go and by the time he got back to LA in February, everything was settled.
In April, Go visited him in UCLA, and he only found out about his allowance being “adjusted” when he arrived in Manila last May. Incidentally, his trips on Economy Class are also paid by the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), and then upgraded by Philippine Air Lines, David’s “Official Carrier”.
Shortly after he arrived, he met with PSC Chairman Philip Juico, whom he found to be “a very sincere man, who really wants to help.” The new deal is that he will be given a monthly allowance of 8,000 pesos, same as all the other Filipino athletes, and the PCS and PATAFA will take it upon themselves to look for the balance from private sector. Apart from that, anything else that David makes from personal endorsements is between him and his business managers. That’s right, David’s got two of them, Marie Gutierrez and Aligada, who schedule his commitments, represent him in all negotiations and tell him when it’s time for bed (I’m not kidding).
The alliance came about because a certain product wanted him to be their image model and was offering a huge sum. Marie looked high and low for David and offered to manage his career.
“how did you find me again – you called, like, 50 million people, right?” David still seems surprised about all the trouble they went through to hunt him down.
Unfortunately, at that time, he was getting a lot of negative publicity, and the company withdrew their offer. But there will be more, we can be sure of that. He’s definitely not lacking in all the accouterments of a future personality.
Aside from the gorgeous Najera brothers and the boyish good looks of Paeng Nepomuceno, David is one of the most winning-looking athletes of this decade.
And he’s taken it a step further. He makes time for the interviews, the photo sessions, the charity events and the clinics.
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well with people in the sports world. Many are beginning to think of David as publicity hound. But that might just be a perception of people – probably because other athletes don’t get the same treatment. And he doesn’t seem to go looking for exposure. The media looks for him. Undoubtedly, even adverse publicity has served him well. At the same time, it also pushed the sport into the public eye.
It comes down to an individuality issue. Is David Bunecacz more concerned with himself than with his sport? When you hear him say, with utter conviction, “You have to go beyond you means to achieve something because there are always better athletes out there, “you begin to concerned, it might not to be too far-fetched to say that he’s just what the country needs.
Besides, will we care about possible “ulterior motives” when the medals start coming in? And if there’s anything we can say for sure about David, it’s that he’s got what it takes to be a champion.
And he knows it. “I’ve always loved competitions, and I’ve always had to win, no matter what.”
No matter what. Fighting words. To go with a fighting spirit. Exactly what David will need to weather it through detractors, disappointments, and difficult training—all the things you can expect when you’re not yet a champion, but rather, a champion in
From 1988 to 1993, he worked on his degree in Business Management majoring in Sociology at UCLA, where he set the University record for the Javeling throw and was chosen captain of the All-American Team. But as far as his athletic career goes, Bunevacz didn’t have a carpeted path to success. There were many frustrations. At one point, despite advice to the contrary from his coach, he was lifting weights that were to heavy and severely ruptured part of his spine. He had to undergo surgery, but luckily, he says, the injury has not recurred.
In 1992, David became a senior in college, and it was “a really bad year” for him. As a decathlete, he ranked number two in the US, but made the costly mistake of switching over to a
European coach who worked his o hard that he injured in Finland, during the qualifying meet that would have sent him to compete in the Barcelona Olympics.
Needless to say, he dumped that coach and a couple of years later, seems to be back on the track—literally. He trains eight hours a day and stays on a rigid diet when in LA. His coaches now are Jim Bush (“he’s in the track and field Hall of Fame”), John Smith, Anthony Curran, and Art Vanegas, guys who are “second to none in the States.” The relatively huge training allowance awarded to him, later withdrawn, by the PSC was to have paid for these coaches subsequently.
And this guy takes his sport seriously. In his opinion, the decathlete who wins in the Olympics is the greatest athlete in the world. David
explains that the decathlon is “the most grueling, most demanding” of all competitions. In the two days of a decathlon, there are 10 events to compete in, five per day. His fortes are the Shot put, Discus and especially the Javelin Throw(during a workshop he was giving at the Rizal Coliseum, David threw a javelin from a standing position and it landed just a couple of meters short of the existing Philippine record, which was thrown after the usual running start). The other events are the 110-metre hurdles, 1500-metre run, and the Pole Vault, which he has difficulty with because of his height.
A world-class decathlete should have a total of 7,700 points. At 21, David had already achieved 7,350. This, specifically, is where a big “why” come in. Why, if he is as good as he’s touted, would he prefer to be on the RP team rather than the US squad? Why the sudden interest in a country that he’s never ever been to? It could be that he’s the type of person who prefers the “big fish, small pond” situation. Despite speculations and rumors, it’s difficult to really be sure. At least, David fills us in on “how” it all came about.
Ben Caesar, another Fil-American athlete, asked him if he wanted to compete for the Philippines. David decided that it was an opportune time to check things out. He came over on his very first visit to the country in January of this year. While here, he met with Go Teng Kok, who heads the
