Mom Raquel to Charice: Anak, stop telling lies!

‘She left us. Not the other way around.’

Ang kailangan mo’y tibay ng loob

Kung mayroong pagsubok man

Ang liwanag ay di magtatagal

At muling mamamasdan

Ikot ng mundo ay hindi laging pighati’t kasawian

Ang pangarap mo ay makakamtan

Basta’t maghintay ka lamang

When Charice guested on The Buzz last Sunday, she capped her tell-all interview with host Boy Abunda by singing that Ted Ito song titled Maghintay Ka Lamang.

“It’s the song that my mom and I used to sing,” said Charice, her voice cracking a bit, smiling through held-back tears. “It’s our favorite song.”

Yes, it is. Correction: it was.

“That song used to be meaningful to us,” confirmed Raquel Pempengco when I chanced upon her last Thursday night at the lobby of Marriott Hotel while she was waiting for Grace Mendoza, Charice’s former manager and virtual second mother, on their way to the nearby Performing Arts Theater at Resorts World Manila to watch Lani Misalucha’s show. She added, almost in a pained whisper, “But that song has lost its meaning. Nawala na ng halaga sa akin.”

Raquel sang that song to a sulking Charice while they were in bed, depressed after she placed only third (to Sam Concepcion) in the ABS-CBN talent search Little Big Star a few years ago.

“I would sing that song to her every time she felt low,” added Raquel. “Now, I don’t even want to hear that song anymore.”

And why would she when that song now only reopen wounds (that would never heal?) that Raquel said Charice has inflicted not only on her but Charice’s brother Carl as well.

Asked if she watched Charice on The Buzz and her subsequent (too frequent for comfort) other TV guestings, as if flaunting her newly-revealed identity, Raquel protested, still speaking in the vernacular, “She doesn’t seem to be the daughter that I nurtured. She’s now like a stranger to me. I don’t recognize her anymore; hindi ko na siya makilala. Parang hindi na siya ‘yung anak ko.”

Nope, Raquel qualified, it isn’t the fact that Charice has “outed” herself after a long pregnant silence, an anti-climactic confession preceded by entries in social media showing Charice in varying stages of personality change (in hairstyle and wardrobe).

“It’s not true what Charice said that I could not accept her for what she has become,” clarified Raquel (who herself was described by her mother, Charice’s grandmother, as “tomboyish” when she was younger, until the concerned mom advised Raquel to get married…she did, only to end up a battered wife in a bad marriage that produced two kids). “Matagal na siyang ganoon. But it’s not true that I’ve known about it since she was five years old. Nalaman ko lang noong 2010.”

Why that late (when mothers are supposed to be the first and not the last to know)? Did she ask Charice? Did Charice confess to her?

“I was then staying in the US at nagkaroon ng gulo noon,” Raquel recalled, “and I was the casualty. Tinanggal niya ako sa team, na dati ako ang head. Hindi lang ako. She also turned her back on the people who helped her when she was just starting (an international career), including Atty. Michael Gurfinkel and his wife Millie na tumulong sa amin simula’t-simula pa and Grace. Iyak nang iyak si Grace, masama ang loob niya. I told Grace, ‘Kung ako na ina niya, ginanoon niya, ikaw pa kaya na manager ka lang?’ Kanino mas masakit, di ba sa isang ina? What people don’t know is that Charice is very controlling. Siya ang nagpapa-ikot sa team.”

A certain Courtney Blooding took over as Charice’s Personal Handler. Raquel packed her things and came home, but left Carl behind, only for the boy to come rushing home because, according to Raquel, “iniwanan siya ni Charice sa hotel ng dalawang araw at wala siyang makain. Carl was only 14 then. Kasama ni Charice palagi si Blooding.”

Was Charice, as per the rumors, having a “special relationship” with her PH?

“’Yon ang alam ko,” said Raquel who recalled that when Charice came home with her PH, they stayed together at their Cabuyao (Laguna) home. “(Blooding) didn’t want anybody in the house to speak in Tagalog. Sabi ko, why would she dictate how we should act or speak when it’s our home and she’s only a guest?”

At that time, according to Raquel, Charice and her PH were already planning to ease her out.

“Charice was saying that I was hurting her, na sinasaktan ko siya, but it was a lie. I never hurt her. Friends were telling me to let her be because she was already 18. But what’s painful is that initsa-puwera ako, hindi man lang ako kinausap ng maayos ng sarili kong anak. Hindi kami ni Carl ang lumayo sa kanya, siya mismo ang lumayo sa amin.”

So Raquel quietly packed her things and retreated to their Tagaytay home, while Charice (in her TV interview) said that she’s staying in a friend’s house in Cabuyao where she can be herself, walking around in casuals and watching basketball games, prompting townmates to joke that she’s a Moymoy Palaboy (the equivalent of the so-called Wandering Jew), which makes Charice only laugh.

Mother and daughter haven’t been in touch for almost three years now. Commented a showbiz-watcher, “Imagine, Charice is going on a non-stop tour of TV shows and she can’t even have time to even say ‘Hi!’ to her mom!”

“Marami siyang tutuluyan kung ayaw niya sa akin,” said Raquel, “puede sa condo, puede sa Tagaytay, puede sa Cabuyao. She really doesn’t want to be near us. One time, she even told me and Carl, ‘Sawa na ako sa pakikisama sa inyo!’ Ang sakit, di ba?”

Is Raquel against Charice’s rumored “special relationship” with Alyssa Kate Quijano, the Pempengcos’ kanayon whom Charice tutored when Alyssa competed in the ABS-CBN talent search The X-Factor? (As tweens, Alyssa and Charice used to compete with each other in singing contests.)

Asked if the “special relationship” is true, Raquel quipped, “Hindi pa ba obvious? Charice broke up with Blooding because of Alyssa.” (When asked on The Buzz about it, Charice said, “Open my heart and you will find the answer.”)

Once and for all, does she object to Charice’s decision to “come out?”

“No. When she told me about her and Blooding, I told Charice, ‘O, sige, itago mo muna kasi may pangalan ka, mayroon kang career, at baka masira ka.’ She said, ‘Sige po, I will try.’ But only after a few months, nagladlad na sila. Ngayon naman, si Alyssa, kaya huwag na sabihing hindi ko tanggap ang pagiging ganoon niya.”

Told about reports that Charice has stashed away some $750M in the bank so she can live in style for 10 years even if she didn’t work, Raquel shrugged, “Baka ma-BIR siya!”

What about Charice being helped by her Ninang Oprah Winfrey?

“’Yon ang sabi nila,” said Raquel.

And Ellen DeGeneres who’s reportedly guesting Charice on her show?

“’Yon ang sabi nila!”

And David Foster?

“’Yon ang sabi nila!”

And Barbra Streisand?

“’Yon ang sabi nila!” adding, “ganoon-ganoon lang ba kadali ma-contact sina Oprah , Ellen, Barbra at David?”

Asked if she trusts the people now surrounding Charice, forming a cordon sanitaire around her, Raquel broke into a wan smile.

“I’m disappointed. They are supposed to be my friends but instead of assuring me that Charice is in good hands, they don’t even talk or try to contact me. I don’t think they are a good influence on Charice.”

And what would make her get back Charice?

Choking with emotion, Raquel said, “She’s welcome anytime. Siya ang lumayo sa amin, kusa siyang bumalik…kung gugustuhin niya!”

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