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
One week he’s being interviewed for two different publication at the same time that he’s being groomed for pictorials to promote the M.R collection and the Manila Peninsula Hotel.
A couple of days later, he’s on late night TV, where they arrange a date for him with a popular actress right on the air.
The week after, he’s walking the ramp with some of the best professional male models in the country, the centre of attention at the end of the fashion show and sent launch as he lofts overhead a foot-high bottle of Wings by Giorgio, with the same reverence as ahard-earned trophy (a portrent pf thins to come?).
It might be easy to dismiss David Bunevacz, 26, as one big promotional package, but those who know him well (or think that they do) say that there is a side that truly cares about the progress of athletics in the Philippines,
The entire point of my interview with him was to write the definitive article on the man behind the much talked-about muscle. And I did my darndest.
Oh sure, I listened closely and wrote down everything he said, word for word. I went out of my way to notice expressions and nuances in the conversation and wondered if I should interpret them as meaningful and telling of the character within. I became suspicious about topics that were emphasized and issues that remained vague and unanswered.
Instead of going through.
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two together and come up with generalizations and conclusions that could have been racked up to “journalistic license”, and intriguing as that would have been to readers, it probably would have been complete fiction
First things that came to mind when I first heard about the Bunevacz brouhaha were whole lot of questions on who he was, where he came from and mainly, what was he doing before the momentous decisions to renounce his US citizenship to represent the Philippines in international competition.
As I piece together the data I’ve gathered on David’s history, bear with me a bit because though I tried very
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focusing on who David is now, right this minute, today. For me, though, the entire issue is: who he was and why he’s here. Let’s start with the who.
In a nutshell: David’s birthplace was Torrance, California. His parents are Joseph Bunevacz, a Hungarian-American and Filomena Ismaela, a Filipina from La Union.
Born on December 20, 1968, he is a Sagittarian, right on the cusp before Capricorn. He thinks pretty typical of his sign independence optimism, and love for travel being among the main attributes of Centaur.
He describes himself as always being a leader, even as a kid while he “never tolerated bullies pushing around smaller kids.” He probably picked up this habit from when he used to play practical jokes on his kid sister and she would “tell grandma, and grandma would beat me up.”
His father is a track and field coach under whom David trained when he was younger. But he says that though his Dad was a strict coach, he was not as strict as the couches he had when he trained at UCLA.
David says that it’s not difficult for him to transplant his loyalties and think of the Philippines as his new home because he never stay long enough in any one place in the US to become attached.
At one time he was living in Hawaii, where he gained six inches in height; another time he was in Reno, Nevada, where he learned to love snow-skiing and wanted to become a professional skier; in 1987, he was
David’s a Goliath “Hey How come nobody asks me what I love talking about, they always ask me what’s David like or what does he do, but nobody’s ever asked me what I love to talk about?” So what do you love to talk about? “Fashion and family! Fashion is so interesting. It’s always been a major part of my life. I’ve always admired people who design clothes like Giorgio Armani, Gianfranco Ferre, Calvin Klein, Gianni Versace … their lines, their creations, their world fascinates me, it’s a never ending process.” David was able to indulge in his love for fashion when he joined the Airborne men’s fashion show of Monsieur Rustans and launched Wings for Men by Giorgio Beverly Hills. His other passion is family. “I love kids. I wan to have two. More than that is too many. (David has one sister, Desiree.) My family life when I was growing up was kinda abnormal. My dad’s Hungarian my mom’s Ilocana, can you imagine the combination of food on the table? All my friends would for dinner and would wonder what we are eating. My farther would always make them try something weird but they’d love it. Next thing you’ll know, they’re back for dinner the next week. David’s been a controversial figure but despite all the flak he’s getting, he feels more at home in the Philippines than in L.A. “in L.A, nobody will talk to you if you’re not a superstar or something like that. I just found it so ridiculous.” It doesn’t look as if he’ll have the same problem back here. -LBP
JESSICA’S TESTIMONY
When you become a believer of God, you also become God messenger. That is why I want to share with you today the struggles I had in my life and how I miraculously found myself in this place, enjoying a fruitful relationship with my very personal God, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.
All along I thought my being here on earth was a mistake. A costly mistake committed by my parents. I believed then that they had been cursed by God. And that cursed had been passed on to me. I thought I was born to suffer.
I was born out of wedlock. My parents didn’t marry because my grandparent did not approve of their relationship. My dad came from a wealthy family while my mom was a typical probinsyana who fell head over heels with my good-looking dad, who was then is show business. But my father, being too much of a womanizer, eventually left my mother brokenhearted. My parents separated when I was to years old and from there, I grew up in a most confusing environment being rotated from one house to another, to live temporarily with either my dad, or my mom, and most of the time with my grandparents.
I had to settle for this kind of life because I had no choice. My mother during that time already had four kids by other men, while my dad also had a new family. I always felt like the odd one out.
Living with my grandparents had allowed me to go to a good, private Catholic school, something that my mother couldn’t afford. But the most discouraging part in it is that I was treated well by my aunts and uncles. If you have watched soap operas during my time like “Flordeluna” or “Annaliza” that was me, exactly, only, it was for real.
I would come and visit my mom and dad during weekends. While I find myself getting closer to my mom seeing how much she is suffering in her life. I found myself resenting my father. I never got the chance to bond with him. When I would come to visit him, I would end up fighting with his new live-in partner. She was so mean to me. She would shout me and hit me, sometimes bite me even. She concocts all those hurtful accusations against me which were all untrue. But the worst part is that my dad would side with her all the time, I was convinced that I hated my dad. That is why when they decided to migrate to US and gave me the choice to join them, I declined, I couldn’t even begin to imagine life with him and his live-in partner somewhere so far away.
Instead, I chose to be with my mother. I have come to appreciate her more, and love her deeply because despite her sufferings, she opted to do her best to raise all her kids. She had numerous failed relationships with other men, but what stood out in my consciousness was that she was a victim of circumstances.
That’s why when she died, and in a most painful and most violent way possible. I knew something in me died too. My mother was murdered and to this day, we have yet to find justice for her death. That was the lowest of all lowest points in my life. It took me a very long time to come to grips with the reality of my loss. For a long time, I numbed my feelings. I didn’t allow to myself to hurt by the loss of anybody anymore. Boyfriends, friends, talents, best friends, Namanhid na ko.
Looking back, I know now why God took away my mom from me. I have put my mother above everything else in my life, even him. For God said, “I will take away from you, whom you love more than God the Father Almighty…..” He wanted me back in His arms. Only I took a long time realizing it.
I took over my mom’s responsibility and took care of my siblings, who were also abandoned by their fathers. I started working at 15 and sent them all to school. My first job was as a mannequin in Plaza Fair. I would stand there all day and get paid P180.00. We survived with that kind of job.
A year after I joined Binibining Pilipinas, not hoping to win anything because we just falsified my documents being underage and all. All I was after was to find connections so I can land into modeling. And I did. I got lucky and found myself one of the girls under Wanda Louwallier to tour Asia. It was in Malaysia where I met the father of my first child, Hayca. I was 18 then I had her. Even though that relationship allowed me financial freedom because he was reach, still was not happy. I was too much of a free spirit to settle for a life with that man. One day I just decided to leave him and enter a show business in the Philippines.
In this new world, I found myself going through the motions but not specifically liking the environment. You see people who are only good to you when you can be of use to them everyday. There is hypocrisy everywhere. And it’s in this world where I met the father of my second child Grant. He was married ---we had relationship. I got pregnant in the process. Being the kind of sinful woman that I used to be, I even felt triumphant when Grant’s father chose to be with me and leave his family.
But through it all, I know in my heart that God will punish us because of this sin, and He did. The whole time that I conceiving this child, we were financially distraught. I spent every single penny I had saved, even sold the car, sold the town house. I was left with nothing.
But somehow things started to happen for me after I gave birth. Boss Vic del Rosario helped me when I started to dabble in talent management and slowly, I was able to get back on the track. But then again, when I regained my strength, money, power and fame (or so I thought) I started living in more and more. Eventually, I left the father of my second child. I had relationships with other men, but still I would find my self very unhappy. I never realized how lost I was.
We took our spirituality seriously and immediately organized a bible study group, invited most of my friends to meet religiously every Tuesday night here in Alabang. We started with only five persons, but now we have grown to be an 18-member group.
I am proud to tell you that I have never been this happy in all my life. I have never been in so much peace. The happiness within me is just unexplainable. I know that is has a lot to do with the fact that God loves me very much. Despite all my wrongdoings in the past, he honored my sincere heart in wanting to change. He forgave my sins but he didn’t stop there. He literally showered me with his favors and blessings.
Looking back, I am just so full of conviction that I am not a mistake. My life is not a mistake. “For all my days are written in His book.”
