Onemig goes back to school

Onemig Bondoc has had his fair share of controversies–growing up controversies, he calls them. Products of adolescent angst and all the crises it is heir to, like one that pitted him against Bobby Andrews, Onemig’s co-star in the now-defunct TGIS (something like Click to you GenXers).

That’s not all. Onemig’s tumultuous love life with China Cojuangco also hit the gossip columns, giving both of them–used to celebrity as they are–reason to resort to all sorts of dodging skills.

But age–okay, maturity–has a way of catching up on everybody. And Onemig is no exception.

"I’ve learned my lesson," he says. "A hot head will not get me anywhere. Diplomacy is a lot better."

Now under the management of Manny Valera’s DMV Entertainment (together with Alessandra de Rossi, Angelu de Leon, Jay Manalo, Jean Garcia, Zoren Legaspi, etc.), Onemig is more focused on his personal and professional life.

For starters, he’s doing what many celebrities seem to have forgotten: go back to school. Onemig will be a Business Management freshman at Easton College.

The idea came from his businessman-father, who had a heart-to-heart talk with his eldest son one day. The 60-year-old patriarch made no bones about it. He needed someone to take over the family business someday. And that someone happens to be Onemig.

"My father’s not getting any younger," Onemig admits.

So off he went to Pasig to enroll in 12 units at Easton 10 years after staying out of the campus (that was when he graduated from high school in Canada, which he visited recently) because of showbiz.

The fact that most of his classmates will be younger than him doesn’t bother Onemig at all. It’s enough that he’s following his father’s will and improving himself in the process.

Besides, Onemig himself lives and breathes academe The family owns the elite Benedictine International School of Quezon City, which offers kinder to high school education. Tuition, Onemig admits, is higher than most, but it’s because the school limits the number of students per class for maximum results.

And because tuition dictates the students’ social class, school security is tight. Most of the 300 students, reports Onemig, are Koreans (Asia’s new elite, of course).

"I act as the troubleshooter," Onemig describes his job in the school. "I’m the one students and parents approach for their problems. So I also serve as a go-between.

Even in his showbiz career, Onemig has vowed to be more serious, more concentrated. More work, less play, as he himself puts it.

After going offbeat, swinging from playing gay in Buttercup ("I’m confident about my masculinity!") and a toughie in Jologs, Onemig wants less of light roles and more of those he can sink his teeth into.

"Daring roles are okay, as long as respected director handles it, and the story and cast are good," says Onemig. And he wants to forge his own identity: "I don’t want to follow in anyone’s footsteps. I want to make it on my own," he declares.

So far, the prospects are good. Onemig is currently shooting the fantasy-comedy Volta, Star Cinema’s entry to this year’s Manila Filmfest starring Ai Ai de las Alas and Jean Garcia.

He may have cut ties with the Talent Center, which used to manage his career for five long years. But don’t get him wrong. Getting another manager (Manny, happens to be well-recommended, being a friend of Onemig’s mom) doesn’t mean he has an axe to grind against ABS. On the contrary, Onemig acknowledges his debt of gratitude to Talent Center bigwigs like Johnny Manahan, Mariolle Alberto and Cris Navarro.

"It was a great experience," Onemig relates. "I won’t be around up to now (10 years in the business) if not for ABS. It’s just that I have to move on."

Looking further down the road, will moving on also mean joining politics (it’s in the blood–Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye is the cousin of Onemig’s mother)?

Onemig’s smug, self-assured stance suddenly changes. "I don’t know..." his voice trails off. Politics may still be no-man’s land for the 20 something Onemig. But he’s not junking the idea either. Whatever happens, it’s nice to know that Onemig is sensible enough to go back to school, never mind if his age differs from his classmates’. And it doesn’t matter whether he’s already tasted the material gains of celebrityhood.

What matters is Onemig has his priorities straight. And some of today’s young stars, too dazzled by the glare of the biz they end up junking their studies, can take a cue from him.