Christian Bautista denies jumping to TV5 but not 'too happy' with ABSCBN

Asian singing sensation Christian Bautista was with his girlfriend, Carla Dunareanu when he met with the press in the launch of his latest album titled First Class: Outbound Expanded Edition held the other day at 55 Events Place in Quezon City.

While Christian talked about Carla, the Singaporean co-star of Christian in The Kitchen Musical was in a room somewhere in the venue. She even watched the mini-show that marked the album launch, which also marks the tenth year anniversary of Christian in the business. But right after the mini-show ended, we saw Carla rose from her seat and headed to the front door to leave. But she waved goodbye to Christian, who waved back at her. We learned that Carla left to fetch her parents (who will be watching the post-Valentine show of Christian and Karylle at the Newport Performance Theater located at Resorts World Hotel held last night).

Christian and Carla met while doing The Kitchen Musicals. They hit it off well and they would communicate through the internet. It was through Skype on Valentine's day when Carla said yes to Christian. Even if theirs is a long-distance relationship, the singer says they are going to make it work. Christian is proud to say he has a girlfriend. He waited for the right time to find the right girl. Now he's determined to make the relationship work despite the distance.

The singer is likewise proud of First Class: Outbound Expanded Edition album which has a limited edition coffee table book. It includes nine new tracks, five hits from the original Outbound, and new recording of his earlier hits Hands to Heaven and The Way You Look At Me.

Christian hopes that the fans will support his new songs from the album. The carrier single from the album titled Beautiful To Me is currently the top downloaded song in www.mymusicstore.com.ph.

He also expressed excitement to work with some of the most promising artists of this generation namely Angeline Quinto for In Love With You, originally recorded by Regine Velasquez and Asian superstar Jacky Cheung, and KC Concepcion for We Could Be In Love, first interpreted by Lea Salonga and Brad Kane.

As part of his celebration of his tenth year in the business, Christian goes full circle by having a duet with Sam Concepcion for Rescue You, composed by Singapore-based Tat Tong. Christian and Sam were launched into showbiz via The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe almost a decade ago.

Christian also answered the issue regarding his alleged transfer to TV5. He said he isn't aware of any negotiations happening between TV5 and his management outfit Stages, Inc. "As far as I know, I still have a contract with ABS-CBN until August and I intend to honor that commitment," he said. But he did not hide the fact that he's not too happy with the way ABS-CBN has handled his career of late. Some of the things promised him did not materialize.

"I still want to host a show, probably do a soap opera and give acting another try but I understand that the network has a lot of contract stars and it is not possible for them to give us all the ample exposure. You'd really have to wait for your turn," says Christian who's only doing ASAP 2012 every Sunday for ABS-CBN.

After ten years in the business, Christian hopes to try his hand in other things. With regards to the TV5 offer, he says he will wait for August when his contract expires and decide based on the outcome of the negotiations.

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Ongoing in various venues in Quezon City is the Palarong Panrehiyon 2012, a sports competition among students whose aim is to discover young athletes who could represent Quezon City in different sports competitions both here and abroad.

This is a project of Mayor Herbert Bautista who was the guest speaker during the opening ceremonies of Palarong Panrehiyon held at the Araneta Coliseum the other day.

"Our aim is to discover young athletes whom we could train and develop as world-class athletes that we could send to competitions abroad," said the soft-spoken Mayor of QC who is fondly called Bistek by his showbiz friends.

Helping the good mayor mount the event are the different school heads. Mayor Bautista said he wants to tap the youth and make them involved in sports so that they would not resort to vices like smoking, drugs and other illegal activities.