• Funfare just got a "flash" report from Las Vegas that Martin Nievera and Katrina Ojeda have kissed and made up after a brief separation reported to have been caused, maybe unwittingly, by Martin’s closeness to former TV Weather Girl Cutie del Mar. Love triumphs.
• Alpha Records’ Alvin de Vera is hurting because he wasn’t even acknowledged nor mentioned in passing, in the story about the Aegis sisters in last week’s edition of GMA 7’s Magpakailanman. Aegis is under contract with Alpha and it was Alvin who gave the group that name. Doesn’t the Aegis know how to look back where they came from? Or are the girls simply suffering from, ouch, stiff neck?
• Reader Bert Rondario clarified that Vina Morales is not, as Funfare reported last Saturday (July 19), the first Filipino artist to perform at the New York International Music Festival slated tomorrow (July 23) at the Brendan Theater in Las Vegas. The first, according to Bert, was Carol Banawa (last year) as Vina herself mentioned when she guested in Tintin Bersola’s Sing.Song show on The Filipino Channel (TFC).
You see, these past several days, Snooky has been hopping from one talk show to another, merrily (that’s how she appeared to me) telling the world that 1) her 11-year marriage (blessed with beautiful children) to Ricardo is heading for – or has it already hit? – the rocks?, 2) they’re sleeping on separate beds and 3) she and Ricardo hardly see or talk to each other.
Instead of winning public sympathy, Snooky is making a lot of people (this one included) somewhat "suspicious" – you know, what is she up to ... anong kadramahan ang gusto niyang palabasin? Is she perhaps throwing a little tantrum (tampo) against Ricardo (who, bless him, isn’t "cooperating" with Snooky’s TV guestings) and letting what she probably thinks is a gullible public in on it? Can’t they solve whatever little kink there is between them in the privacy of their bedroom instead of doing so in the glare of publicity?
Really now, while other (feuding? separating? breaking up?) couples would rather keep things under wraps, Snooky is the one proudly – merrily – spreading the "sad" news about their "break-up" (take note: in quotation marks).
Last Sunday, Snooky surfaced on The Buzz and, with a sweet smile, retold what she had already told TV Patrol, Frontpage and Startalk. At the end of her interview with host Kris Aquino and guest host Ai Ai delas Alas, Snooky made an "appeal" to Ricardo for both of them to work things out, blah-blah-blah.
Here’s the catch: Snooky didn’t have to make that "appeal", she should have simply told it personally to Ricardo, who was in the dressing room, waiting for her. See? That’s why many people (again this one included) are asking kung anong kadramahan ang gustong mangyari ni Snooky.
Guess where the "separated" couple went after Snooky’s Buzz guesting – to Greenbelt where they probably had dinner with their children, and later watched a movie, with the "un-couple" holding hands!
When somebody asked Ricardo (who was chaperoning Snooky) at the ABS-CBN dressing room what the trouble was, Ricardo scratched his head. "I don’t know what she is up to!"
Here’s a reaction from Lorenzo Mahinay, chief of the Help Catubig Agricultural Advancement Project (HCAAP):
Thank you for limelighting Northern Samar and for raising concerns regarding your hometown (Las Navas) and its road condition in your column Funfare on July 7, 2003.
The provincial government under the leadership of Gov. Raul A. Daza has undertaken bold steps in trying to improve the conditions in Las Navas and the rest of Catubig Valley.
The implementation of a seven-year (2002-2009), P2.4 billion project of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) called Help for Catubig Agricultural Advancement Project (HCAAP) in Catubig and Las Navas has been on-going since July last year. Its components are: irrigation and drainage (4550 hectares), national road (27 kilometers from Rawis to Las Navas) and bridge (Las Navas bridge), farm-to-market roads (41.5 kilometers), schistosomiasis control (58 barangays), agricultural support services, institution building, water supply (58 barangays), equipment support and capability building.
In so far as Las Navas is concerned, the HCAAP project will implement the following sub-projects:
a) A national road that will connect Las Navas and Catubig via two-way bridge near Las Navas Agro-Industrial School. The design has already been completed and the geotechnical and soil exploration is being undertaken in the project site;
b) A ferry rack/landing will be constructed on the Catubig river;
c) A demonstration farm in Bgy. Rebong will be developed;
d) Water and toilet facilities will be installed in about 32 barangays;
e) Irrigation and drainage facilities will be constructed within Las Navas area benefiting a significant number of rice owners, tillers and others;
f) Farm-to-market roads will also be constructed connecting remote barangays in Hagbay and Bulao areas and other nearby Las Navas barangays.
To date, the Province has already spent P1.08 million for the surveys alone and the Province will continue to share its resources in support of all these projects. The provincial total expenditure to date for Las Navas alone is P2.185 million.
Gov. Daza chairs the Project Steering Committee for HCAAP. Without his dynamic and dedicated leadership, the whole project would not have taken off this soon and this fast.
Hope these information are useful. (E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)