AS YOU begin another year and another decade in the 21st century, let MOD be the first to give you a first look at the 2010 headliners.
Senator Loren Legarda: Just Serving Senator Loren Legarda, the vice-presidential candidate of the National People’s Coalition, is actively involved in social development, humanitarian concerns, and peace advocacy.
Drawing from her vast experience as a journalist for 20 years and a public servant for a decade, Senator Legarda has authored vital pieces of legislations geared toward environmental protection, promotion of entrepreneurship, protection of women and children’s rights, and attainment of social justice and national unity.
The only female senator to top the senate race twice, she made sure that the votes did not go to shame, devoting her work to guarantee that the Filipinos will live in an enabling environment where our natural resources are used in ways that are sustainable and equitable. This coming presidential elections, she is running in tandem with Senator Manny Villar.
Senator Legarda recently reunited with her friends in the Broadcast industry at Annabel’s restaurant in Quezon City. It was an informal gathering where her media colleagues had a chance to ask questions they’d been wanting to ask the senator.
How are you working out your campaign to get ahead of your competitiors? I am not really campaigning. What I’m doing is I’m going to those who need my help. People are saying, “Loren, you are always in a hurry.” I am always in a hurry because many are hungry and they need food, they need health care. We have to hurry to save lives. We have to hurry to address the problems caused by the climate change, to save our environment. You know, I’ve changed. I tell myself win—or win—my priority now is just to continue my advocacies.
Why and how have you changed? I’ve been through a lot since 2004 (the last time she ran for public office). But I’ve been at peace with myself, I’ve been reading the Bible. By the way, I’ve been talking with Fr. (Fernando) Suarez (the healing priest).
Is there truth to the rumor that you have three ardent suitors? No. I don’t have any suitor. Now, you’ve made me think why I don’t have suitors. I’ve not thought about it because I am just busy with the things I want to accomplish for our people. Actually, I have no date on Valentine’s Day.
Camille Villar: The New Entrepreneur The youngest daughter of Presidentiable Senator Manny Villar is one busy lady. The twenty-five-year-old not only helps out on her father’s campaign and serves as the face of her parents in events, like in the recently held Toblerone National Thank You Day, she also manages the family’s real estate firm. As she told a local newspaper, it’s a tough job. “I am trying to acquaint myself and learn about the other aspects of the housing business,” she said. Maybe this is why she prefers to handle the corporate communications of the company.
But apart from the corporate grooming, she has not forgotten her socio-civic duties as she helps with the Villar Foundation in Las Piñas. She said fondly of the charity work, “One of our thrusts is to protect the environment by converting waste into livelihood for our constituents who need jobs. One program in particular that has succeeded and we have shared with other cities involves water lilies. In Las Piñas, we have a lot of water lilies along the river, which prevents the free flow of water and causes floods in the neighboring communities. What our foundation does is teach women in these communities to convert these water lilies into baskets that they can sell.”
Despite all her good deeds, Camille has no plans of joining politics. She would rather leave governing the country to her parents while helping others. In public office or not, we bet Camille would be visible this coming year.
Dawn Zulueta: Glowing like a Jewel Actress Dawn Zulueta seems to be glowing these days. And she has every reason to be.
In June last year, Dawn and her husband, Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Lagdameo Jr., welcomed their second child—a healthy baby girl named Ayisha Madlen. This year, she’s back in the showbiz scene, with Just Jewels recently signing her up as its first celebrity endorser.
As a mother, wife, award-winning actress, and a supporter of advocacies concerning women, Dawn represents the Just Jewels woman who truly knows her worth: beautiful, intellectual, independent, and multifaceted.
Love-Love Tioseco: Superbiker on Heels Motorsports is in Love-Love Tioseco’s blood—her parents, also motorcycle enthusiasts, eloped in a motorcycle not just once but three times.
Love-Love, the assistant for government relations and road safety of the Motorcycle Philippines Federations, has been the only female superbike racer in the Philippines since 2001. In 2003, she competed in the national races in Sepang, Malaysia, and finished third in the National Grand Prix 3 hour superbike race in 2002. But winning races isn’t what Love-love considers her greatest achievement. “It is in meeting world champion motorsport racers, racing, or even just trying out in racing circuits abroad, and promoting road safety, courtesy, discipline, and respect to other fellow motorcyclists,” she says.
She shares that there are a lot to prepare before a race, including maintaining a healthy lifestyle, practicing for the games, and looking for sponsors. She has actually encountered a problem on the financial side. She has not been completing the race seasons since 2005, because she lacks sponsors. Still, she tries her best to race twice or thrice in every race season.
Also, she knows only too well the risks. She shares, “Anything can happen during practice or track days. I have already accepted the risks. I just pray that I’ll be safe from accidents.”
She serves as the corporate secretary of the Luzon Motorcyclists Federation, the vice president of Road Runners Riding Club of Pampanga, and the public relations officer of Task Force Lawin Flying Squad Motorcyclists Club.
Erika Basilio: Ballet Scholar One of the promising ballerinas in the country today, Jan Erika Basilio says that she didn’t really want to get into ballet school. “When I auditioned for a scholarship in Ballet Manila, it was my dad who forced me to. He told me, ‘Wala namang mawawala sa ‘yo.’”
Her dad was right. At 15, Erika received a scholarship for Ballet Manila, the prestigious ballet company founded by Lisa Macuja-Elizalde and Osias Barroso and which is known for its Russian Vaganova method of classical ballet training.
“It didn’t really occur to me that I would get in, or even get a full scholarship,” Erika says. “When I found out I did get the spot, I cried. Both Lisa Macuja and Osias Barroso saw me crying and they told me that this was actually the next step for me—that I shouldn’t confine myself in a small space forever, and that I should move forward.”
The BS Biology major from the University of the Philippines Diliman shares that from then on, she started taking ballet seriously. Today, it has grown into her passion. She says, “Ballet is something that not everyone can do. It’s something you have to work extremely hard for before you get the results. And I only get this particular sense of fulfillment when I dance. It’s like my calling.”
Danica Calapatan: Gymnastics Darling At first, gymnastics for sixteen-year-old Danica ‘Nica’ Calapatan was just play. “I saw the apparatus and I thought it was all just going to be fun,” says Nica.
Years after that initial encounter, Nica is now a Milo sports ambassador and a much celebrated rhythmic gymnastics champion. Like most top-level athletes, Nica had to make sacrifices to achieve success. When she was just starting out, her daily routine consisted of trips between school and the gym. “I felt I was missing out on what kids my age should be doing back then. The daily commute from home to school and gym was also tiring and I thought about quitting. But I decided to go on and I’m glad I made that decision,” says Nica.
So what strengthened her resolve? “If you really love what you’re doing, you will do everything to excel in it, even if it means going through so many difficulties. Besides, I love representing the Philippines in international competitions. I feel a great sense of pride knowing that I’m carrying our country’s colors,” says Nica, who has already won multiple medals in international gymnastics events like the South East Asian Games, the ASEAN School Games, and the South East Asian Gymnastics Convention.
