Kay Susan pa rin tayo!

Curtain-raiser:

• During their recent concert at the SM North EDSA Skydome, APO Jim, Buboy and Danny (below) announced that they were retiring. That was the ‘sad’ news. The good news is that the trio might have to postpone their ‘retirement’ indefinitely because of the offers pouring in, one of which is a concert on April 29 (starting at 8 p.m.) at the Verdant Pavilion of the Panglao Island Nature Resort & Spa in Bohol, with Bituin Escalante as special guest. Tickets priced at P1,500, P1,000, P800 and P500 are available at BQ Mall marketing office in Tagbilaran City. Call 038-4123964 or 0920-9505258.

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What some people suspected happened to Susan Enriquez when she and former ABS-CBN reporter Doris Bigornia were “detained” for two nights by the Abu Sayyaf a few years ago didn’t really happen. That was when they were covering Robin Padilla’s negotiation with the rebel group for the release of a hostage.

“We were held against our will,” said Susan over lunch yesterday at The Chocolate Kiss (Roces Avenue, Quezon City) for her new show, Sus Naman, which premieres at 10 o’clock tomorrow night, April 8, on Q11. “Hindi na kami pinababa from their mountain lair. They were asking Doris and me to sleep separately pero hindi kami pumayag.”

So, contrary to the rumor, “nothing untoward” happened.

“The Abu Sayyaf were kidding us. Sabi nila, paiwanan ako but I told them, ‘May anak ako.’ Sabi nila, ‘Magkaka-anak ka pa ng marami dito,” meaning many children by different fathers. “You know what could happen kapag naiwan ka doon.”

That was one of Susan’s unforgettable experiences as field reporter of GMA for more than two decades now, starting from being a news writer (initially with D’Wan radio for one year) until she rose to become a radio/TV host, for Kay Susan Tayo (which recently ended after more than six years on TV) and for the dzBB late morning program Si Susan Na, Si Arnell Pa (co-host Arnell Ignacio is on leave because he’s running for councilor in Quezon City, with Rowena Salvacion pitching in for him).

Probably one of the, if not the most, daring woman in Philippine media, the 4’11 “tall” Susan — aptly described as “small but terrible” — one time found herself and her crew stuck in a flash flood in Nueva Ecija and, in another coverage, caught in a shootout between the police and CAFGU members in Camp Abubakar.

In Sus Naman, Susan doesn’t have to put her life on the line.

While Kay Susan Tayo featured human-interest stories, Sus Naman, a 30-minute public-service program, aims “to hear out and eventually help solve the problems of the everyday Pinoys, and to give credit to concerned agencies when complaints are addressed and solved as well as to individuals who do what is right.”

The show’s format is right along Susan’s alley. As dramatized in Mel Tiangco’s defunct TV show Magpakailanman, Susan rose from the masa. Born and raised both in Laguna and Cavite, Susan Sedillo helped her family make ends meet by selling fish in the market. After supporting herself through college, graduating with a Masscom degree from Lyceum, she worked as news writer at D’Wan radio for one year before she moved to GMA, her “one and only home” since then (1989). TV5 dangled a juicy offer before her but Susan politely said no.

Because she has the same surname as Mike Enriquez, SVP for Radio Operations (GMA Network), people think that Susan is the wife of Mike or maybe the sister?

“I just happen to be married to an Enriquez,” said Susan (who has an 18-year-old daughter, her only child), “but Mike and I are not related.” But how she wished!

And, by the way, did you know that Susan has been invited several times by different political parties to run? No way, said Susan. If she ever would, she’d have a very catchy “battlecry” — yes, Kay Susan Tayo!

What’s up?

• Congratulations to Naealla Rose Mercado Bainto for placing 10th in the last bar exams. An Ateneo graduate, Naealla is the niece of Regal line producer and director Pong Mercado who is running for vice mayor in Taal, Batangas. Pong said that her niece fulfilled the dream of his mother to have a lawyer in the family. Pong himself took up Law at Adamson University but he dropped out in his third year as he was sidelined by showbiz. Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos, who is running for reelection, is very proud and happy that a Batangueña is one of this year’s bar topnotchers.

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