While world boxing champ Manny Pacquiao has been winning fights left and right, his wife Jinkee has been on a losing streak. Her weight has dropped from 55 kilos to 49 kilos, with several inches gone, too.
She is as disciplined as her husband when it comes to her diet, barely touching the chicken salad (which was delicious, by the way) during a lunch we had recently at the Shangri-La Makati.
She is also quite candid about how she lost all that excess baggage on her body and gained all that glow on her face.
“I’ve had liposuction on my arms, abs, back, legs, lahat na,” the Belo endorser smiles sweetly. “For my face I’ve had Ulthera (a skin-tightening procedure), facials and fillers.” She also takes Belo Nutraceuticals, a whitening and anti-aging pill with 250 mg of compacted gluthathione and collagen that reportedly lifts skin from within as it provides strength, elasticity and resilience.
She says looking good is her weapon as much as Manny’s left hook on the ring is his.
“Ayoko nang magalit, magpapaganda na lang ako,” she told celebrity dermatologist Vicki Belo.
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Of all her material possessions, which is her most cherished?
“Siguro yung bahay sa Forbes,” Jinkee answers without batting an eyelash. “It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s really my dream house!”
Of 1,200 square meters in floor area, the Anton Mendoza-designed house in North Forbes Park looks straight out of a Banyan Tree resort — sans the ocean (there is an infinity pool, however, and several ponds whose running water drowns the noises from nearby EDSA). The three-story house is predominantly of glass and wood even as its façade is of solid stone.
Construction on the house, which nestles on a 1,600-square-meter lot that sits back-to-back with a house-and-lot reportedly owned by Richard Gomez, began three years ago for a prominent banker.
Neighbors saw Jinkee drop by the property at least thrice — she reportedly fell in love with the banker’s house at first sight, and especially loved the entertainment area by the pool. The Pacquiaos then reportedly offered the banker a price he couldn’t resist — P388 million.
“Malaki, lahat malaki, may theater pa. Kahit sa bahay na lang kami mamalagi ng mga bata,” she gushes of her dream house, which makes her neighbors with Sen. Loren Legarda and the Indonesian ambassador as well. Jinkee originally wanted to buy a house in nearby Dasmariñas Village, but found the Forbes house a real knockout.
Asked if it were true that Manny’s application for membership to the Manila Polo Club was really rejected, Jinkee simply says, “I’ve heard rumors of that. Pero di naman type ni Manny na mag-member sa mga (country) club.”
With her dream house about to be turned over to her on Sept. 30, all the Hermes and Chanel bags her heart desires, and enough blings in her vault to ransom a prince, what else is there for Jinkee to dream about?
“A trip to Europe?” she answers. “Hindi pa kami nakakabiyahe ni Manny sa Europe. Every time somebody talks about all the sights to see in Europe, I always wish I knew what they were talking about…”
But when she and Manny go, she wants their four kids — Jimuel, Michael, Princess and Queen Elizabeth — to go with them. “Pag nag-eenjoy ako, lagi kong iniisip ang mga bata. Kaya dapat sama-sama kami when we go to Europe for the first time.”
She isn’t even picky when it comes to hotels, she claims. Even when people tell her some of her favorite hotels are no longer of their stature. “Basta gusto namin, doon kami.”
Despite her husband’s fame and fortune, and her own knockout of a makeover, Jinkee remains reserved. When STAR columnist Mons Romulo asks her if she will be going to a gathering of congressional spouses (Mons acts as her brother Pasig Rep. Roman Romulo’s ‘first lady’ in Congress while he and Shalani Soledad have yet to tie the knot), Jinkee says she is not sure.
She tells me later that sometimes, she is still ill at ease among politicians’ wives.
“Medyo mahiyain kasi ako. Iniisip ko kasi, ‘Sino kaya ang aking makakusap, baka sa tabi lang ako, although pinapansin din nila ako,” says Jinkee.
When I marvel at her humility and ask her how she keeps grounded, she says, “Dapat, lumingon ka sa pinanggalingan mo. Stay the way you are. Pati ang pakikitungo mo sa tao, kung ano ka noon, dapat ganoon ka pa rin. Bakit ko naman babaguhin?”
Jinkee believes that aside from material wealth, a good education is what she and Manny are determined to leave their children. All four, including the three-year-old, study at Brent, where they are said to be without celebrity status.
“A good education — hindi mawawala ‘yon sa kanila.”
She thinks the two girls may aspire to join showbusiness, for they are extroverts like their father and their Lola Dionesia.
The boys, according to Jinkee, are shy like her.
This proud mother says she will support her sons’ choices for a career — but with a BIG exception. Boxing.
“I won’t allow any of my sons to take up boxing. Hindi ko kaya. Even at home, even as a game, they cannot indulge in boxing. They have no toys related to boxing. One boxer in the family is enough. Tama na ‘yon,” she stresses. Their father is willing to take all the blows for his children’s future, points out Jinkee.
Jinkee thinks Manny will have two more fights before he throws in the towel. After that, will he then throw his hat into the political ring?
“Wala talaga ‘yon sa plano ni Manny,” believes the supportive wife, “pero hindi mo rin matitiyak ang kinabukasan.”
She knows whereof she speaks. From a simple saleslady in General Santos City to a billionaire’s wife, from a 55-kilo frumpy young matron to a 49-kilo knockout in Hermes, she’s gone a long way… and there’s no stopping her yet.
(You may e-mail me at joanneraeramirez@yahoo.com)