Ang panata ng Tanging Ina n'yo

What does Ai-Ai de las Alas, local screen’s well-loved Tanging Ina, have in common with the Pacquiao couple Manny and Jinkee?

Three weeks before a fight, Manny said that he and Jinkee (who confirmed it) refrain from being intimate so as to preserve energy. “So when Manny wins,” Pacquiao’s promoter was quoted as saying, “the wife is happy the night after the fight.”

Ai-Ai also has her own panata.

“I observe celibacy when I shoot a movie,” Ai-Ai told Funfare in a no-holds-barred interview. “I start to abstain two weeks before the shoot. Two weeks after the movie’s showing, saka ako nagri-resume, pero depende kung may boyfriend. Pag wala, sanay na ako.”

That’s the little problem: she hasn’t had one after she cut short her affair with a basketball player almost half her age (she’s 47). She met the guy by chance at a bar earlier this year. They clicked. It was magic at first meeting. The guy has gone back home to the south.

“I’m not really looking for a man,” Ai-Ai said. “Kung may dumating, okey lang. Kung wala, okey na rin. I have a feeling that I will end up single all my life.”

Asked if she preferred somebody older or younger or the same age as she is, Ai-Ai joked, “Basta may pera. Kasi nakakahiya naman kung ako pa ang magbabayad kapag kumain kami sa restoran. Di ba it’s so degrading?”

Does Vic Sotto, her leading man in Enteng ng Ina Mo, joint venture between Vic’s M-Zet Productions, AGT Productions and Star Cinema (with Ai-Ai as industrial partner) for the 2011 Metro Filmfest, fit the bill?

“Puwede. He’s daks — you know, dakilang magmahal. But I don’t think that I’m his type.”

It’s actually the second time Ai-Ai is working with Vic. The first was years ago in the sitcom 1-4-3 when she was just a starlet, with Rosanna Roces (Ai-Ai’s ex-BFF) as co-star.

Like Vic, Ai-Ai has survived one failed marriage, he to Dina Bonnevie and she to Miguel Vera (now based in the States with his wife and children; too late when Ai-Ai learned that Miguel was previously married, thus making her and Miguel’s marriage null and void).

“I think pareho kami ni Vic na ayaw na sa marriage,” she guessed.

Vic has four children (two with Dina and one each with Coney Reyes and Angela Luz) and so has Ai-Ai (Sancho, 21, by her secret lover whose identity is known to very, very few people, your columnist included; Shaun Nicolo, 18, and Sofia Andrea, 15, by Miguel; and eight-month-old adopted son Seth Andrea).

Incidentally, Ai-Ai’s family won’t be together this Christmas. Nicolo, accompanied by his Kuya Sancho, is spending Christmas in London with his girlfriend. “Accepted siya ng pamilya ng kanyang girlfriend,” said Ai-Ai. “The trip to London is my gift to them, kasi mababait naman sila.”

Enteng ng Ina Mo is Ai-Ai’s fifth outing as an ulirang ina who raises her children by different men all by herself. The first was Tanging Ina, followed by Tanging Ina N’yong Lahat and then Tanging Ina N’yo (Last Na ‘To) which won her a Best Actress plum in last year’s Metro Filmfest. In-between came Tanging Pamilya (with Pres. Erap and Mommy Dionisia) and now Enteng ng Ina Mo which brings Ai-Ai’s now iconic alter-ego together with Vic’s own Enteng Kabisote. She described the movies with Erap and Vic as only “half-half” of the Tanging Ina franchise.

How much of her is like Ina Montecillo, her Tanging Ina character?

“Twenty percent, I think. Ina Montecillo’s kids have many different fathers; ako, dalawang fathers lang. But I’m like Ina in her mothering style, hands-on at parang friends ko lang ang mga anak ko.”

When she and Miguel had a terrible fight, it was Sofia who acted as referee, advising her mom to move on already.

“I listened to my daughter,” said Ai-Ai. “Now Miguel and I are okey na okey na.”

She said that she decided to adopt a child because her children are fast growing up and, before she knew it, they’d be starting their own families away from her.

“Para mayroon akong baby na mapaglibangan,” she said, “kaya ako nag-adopt.”

Ai-Ai is sure what she’ll pursue if ever she quits showbiz.

“I will join politics,” she revealed. “I will run in 2016, maybe for mayor or for congressman, who knows?”

In the meantime, she’s focused on the promo for Enteng Ng Ina Mo which is predicted to be among the top grossers.

“I don’t aspire to be a Best Actress anymore,” she admitted. “I just want our movie to be No. 1 in the box office.”

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