Warm US welcome for Regine; PAMI protest letters to GMA - FUNFARE by Ricardo F. Lo

Thinking she would never be able to set foot again on American soil because of the lifetime ban on her which has been lifted with the help of lawyer (and STAR columnist) Michael Gurfinkel, Regine Velasquez held back tears when she and company –Michael and wife Millie, Regine’s sister Cacai and manager Patty Mayoralgo – landed at the Los Angeles airport two weeks ago (she’s coming back this weekend to catch up with the promo for her and Aga Muhlach’s new Viva movie, Pangako, Ikaw Lang).

But contrary to her original plan, a US DPA told Funfare that Regine wasn’t able to "touch base" with the producers (both on the East and West Coasts) of her concerts that were aborted middle of last year by that unfortunate incident at the US Embassy in Manila concerning, you know, "human/alien smuggling" which led to the revocation of Regine’s US visa. How come?

For a brief report, here’s Millie Gurfinkel, direct from the USA:

Hi! This is Millie from Los Angeles. We are finally back in L.A. after a gruelling (but exciting) few days stay in New York City with Michael, Regine, Cacai and Patty. Regine is enjoying every minute of her stay in the US. She is excited about everything – meeting the press, watching Broadway shows and, like what every woman does best, going shopping.

From the L.A. airport (we arrived Sunday, June 10), Regine, Cacai, Patty, Michael and I took a stretch limo home, making her feel like a Hollywood star doing a big comeback to the US scene.

On Tuesday, June 12, Regine held a press conference at the plush offices of Michael in Glendale, California, in one of the best-organized and most-attended Filipino press conferences ever in L.A. Dinner, which was served buffet style before the presscon, was a delightful variety of Filipino dishes. The presscon was attended by no less than the publishers and representatives of the major Filipino newspapers in L.A., and lasted more than four hours.

The next day, Wednesday, June 13, Regine, Cacai, Patty, Michael and I flew to New York to meet with Bert Pelayo, publisher-editor of The Filipino Reporter, the oldest and biggest Filipino newspaper in the East Coast, with offices at the Empire State Building in Manhattan.

Regine’s story was on the front pages of almost all Filipino publications in L.A., New York and San Francisco.

While in the US, Regine helped prepare plans for possible concerts in the West Coast.

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The powerful Professional Artist Managers Inc. (PAMI) has sent two protest letters to GMA, both addressed to Rommel Gacho, executive producer of Startalk and D’Day (hosted by Dina Bonnevie). The first letter is calling Gacho’s attention to a Startalk interview (done by Butch Francisco) with Cheng Muhlach, Aga’s father; and the second, to a D’Day interview by Dina with Amalia Fuentes, Aga’s aunt.

Here’s one of the two similar letters:

Dear Mr. Gacho,

We would like to bring to your attention your feature on Mr. Cheng Muhlach last May 26, 2001 and the aspersions he cast on the character of one of our esteemed members, Ms. Ethel Ramos. We believe said feature was unfair. It is certainly every talk show’s prerogative to cover any important issue or event particularly in show business. We respect this. We take issue only with unfair coverage. As we all belong to an industry that has suffered many setbacks that has led to its steady decline in recent years, we are all the more vigilant in safeguarding our right to unbiased coverage. You interviewed Mr. Cheng Muhlach and allowed him to publicly malign Ms. Ramos without giving her or her representatives the same opportunity to reply to these statements within the same program. The fact that the interview was taped and not a live interview all the more presents to us and our members your lack of concern with providing Ms. Ramos the opportunity to clarify the issues discussed by Mr. Muhlach.

We have endeavored for many years to work for our talents and among our colleagues in the industry in a professional manner. This has resulted in achieving some amount of respect for talent management as a legitimate profession. Although we believe in nurturing harmonious relationships and in creating only positive energies, we also believe in standing for our right to protect our good name as professional managers.

We call your attention to this in the spirit of community. We are part of a community where we all work together and need one another at various times. No talk shows and no manager can stand apart. We will always need each other. You need events and artists to feature, we need your shows to feature our events and artists.

However even if we may need talk shows to cover our artists and events, we may learn to live without some shows should we believe any show is consistent in its unfair coverage of artists and events.

The members of PAMI are (in alphabetical order) Boy Abunda, Aster Amoyo, Cornelia Lee, Bibsy Carballo, Leo Dominguez, Veanna Fores, Dolor Guevarra, Ed Instrella, Vera Isberto, Norma Japitana, Shirley Kuan, William Leary, Alfie Lorenzo, Gina Martinez, Jun Nardo, Douglas Quijano, Chit Ramos, Ethel Ramos, Girlie Rodis, June Rufino, Ramon Salvador, Lolit Solis, Angelie Valenciano and Manny Valera.