A July 4th Viva Las Vegas Extravanza!

CEBU, Philippines - You’ve gotta hand it to the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) to turn the Marriott Hotel into a gambling Casino, complete with a gambling table, card sharks and a deck of cards to play to set the tone and the theme for the July 4th or the 233rd celebration of American Independence, which we in this country celebrate as Fil-American Day. The theme for the July 4th festivities was “Viva Las Vegas” and what a presentation it was!

All the guests were welcomed by Amcham President Paul Fluty and the guests were aptly dressed like they were visitors in Las Vegas. Of course, Roy Abraham and his Marriott Staff outdid themselves giving us authentic American junk food like hamburgers, fries and hotdogs with all the fixin’s like coleslaw, ground meat with guacamole and lots of beer and desserts to die for, especially for us diabetics with an assorted array of American pies!

The program was a great show by Amcham members who dressed like the Pussycat Dolls and yes, no Las Vegas presentation would be complete without an Elvis Presley act and they had a good one! There was also an unexpected surprise when Mr. Wilson Ng played the piano dressed as Liberace! I thought that the DvD presentation of a Chippendales strip show that was digitized to bear the heads of the AmCham officers was done pretty well, despite the limitations in digital animation, and it earned a rousing applause from the audience. This was followed by a real Chippendales dance act by Marriott’s GM Roy Abraham and Greg Huttle that brought the house down!

The unexpected treat for the evening was the presence of two Filipino movie superstars, namely Christopher “Boyet” de Leon and Ricky Davao, who showed the Amcham members that they were game all the way. Ricky Davao then belted a song entitled “La Vie en Rose” but with the lyrics changed into Tagalog by Pete Lacaba. But the bigger surprise was when he sang “O Sole Mio” in Italian like a real tenor elicited thunderous applause. No doubt, Asia’s Queen of Songs, Pilita Corrales made sure that her son-in-law doesn’t only do action movies, but also sings like her.

Boyet de Leon also did his song and dance act together with the band and showed his audience that he hasn’t aged at all. The Pussycat Dolls also danced with him, which made the audience participate in the dance floor. Thanks to the Amcham July 4th celebration, Cebu hasn’t seen a rousing party as good as that one. When we got out, we all had our photo ops with Boyet de Leon and Ricky Davao and yes, another fellow named Barrack Obama, which our good friend Joselito “Jiji” Gullas just couldn’t resist to take a quick foto!