Charice listens to nobody but her heart

Curtain-raisers:

• This text joke has been forwarded to me by more than 10 people, the latest being Ramon Salvador who requested me to share it (for a good laugh, you know) with Funfare readers:

Ngayong na-confirm na si Grace Poe na senador, marami ang magbabago:

• Pambansang isda — SugPOE

• Pambansang laro — TrumPOE

• Pambansang gulay — O-POE

• Pambansang ibon — POEgo

• Pambansang prutas — POEmelo

• Pambansang bayani — LaPOE-LaPOE

• Pambansang hayop — POEsa

• Pambansang pagkain — POEto

(at ang pinakamalupit)

• Pambansang awit — POEsong Bato.

Magandang umaga POE!

•  From Gerry Diaz, BDO executive and Funfare’s “beauty specialist,” this hehehehe(!) text message:

Kapag guwapo ang ngumiti, friendly; kapag pangit, “feeling.” Kapag guwapo ang sumusunod, secret admirer; kapag pangit, stalker. Kapag guwapo ang masungit, snob; kapag pangit, epal. Kapag guwapo ang umakbay, sweet; kapag pangit, manyak. ‘Yan ang malinaw na discrimination.

•  And from my friend Raoul Tidalgo, this feel-good message from an old magazine: The best way to live is to appreciate each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Work at your work and play at your play. Shed your tears. Enjoy your laughter. Don’t try to borrow from the future. Accept the fact that now is the best time of your life.

When friends ask me how I feel about my inaanak Charice, all I can say is, “Sayang!”

Why sayang, you might wonder.

Well, because she has self-destructed and she’s not even aware of it, laying to waste what she has achieved (in fame and fortune) since she was discovered by Ellen DeGeneres via the YouTube, generously helped with her documents (visa, etc.) by immigration lawyer and STAR columnist Michael Gurfinkel and his wife Millie (who even served as driver/escort of Charice and her mom Raquel during the first few months in the States) and “adopted” by Oprah Winfrey who was instrumental in Charice’s meeting with A-list music-maker David Foster (who included Charice in his concert tours and in an album).

If you’re social-media savvy, you should know what has happened to Charice, how she has changed from a cuddlesome probinsyana to a menacing clone of K-Pop actors and flaunting her suspiciously brazen closeness to some women (first with a certain Courtney Blooding, believed to be her Canadian “personal assistant” and now a minor singer who Charice tutored in a local-TV talent search),  making people believe that she has blatantly “outed” herself without her admitting it (does she need to when actions indeed speak louder than words?).

Unlike Aiza Seguerra whose “transition” was smooth and suwabe, that of Charice is mind-boggling because it’s much too radical and, some people say, outright “shameless,” too disturbing for comfort. Aiza’s personality change hasn’t at all affected her music, unlike in the case of Charice who is calling, maybe unwittingly, more attention to it than to her own music. She should have taken a tip or two from Ellen on how to do “it” without ruining her public image.

According to Funfare DPAs, Charice has turned into such a rebel (without a cause?) that she has alienated the grandmother who brought her up, her mom Raquel from whom she’s estranged and her former manager Grace Mendoza who is clueless what’s happening to her former ward and what she’s up to next. She listens to nobody, only to the dictates of her (foolish?) heart.

Grace is mum on what really happened in Singapore two years ago that made Charice back out of the David Foster concert…and it wasn’t at all her estranged father’s death at that time.

“That was the start of her downward spiral,” said a former Charice defender. “I dread to think what could have happened to her kung hindi siya na-agapan.”

Oh well, as I’ve been saying, “Go ahead, Charice, do whatever you think will make you happy,” but make sure that you are ready to face the consequences.

Incidentally, I sometimes check on Raquel’s social-media messages (addressed to Charice bashers and to Charice herself) using high-falutin’ language and philosophical words. I’m not trying to downgrade Raquel but I doubt if she’s capable of such an erudite discourse. Hmmmm, does she perhaps have a ghost uploader?

Somebody should knock some sense into Charice before it’s too late.

(E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo.com. You may also send your questions to askrickylo@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)