Susan Roces – She may be bad news for the administration camp, but The Face That Refreshes was still a refreshing sight in the sickening political scene of 2005 – when most everyone had a vested interest, except for Ms. Roces, whose only interest was ferreting out the truth in the 2004 presidential race.
Vilma Santos – She won Best Actress in the PMPC Star Awards for Movies for Mano Po 3: My Love after getting the same award for that film in the Metro Manila Film Festival around this time last year. But that is not the good Lipa City Mayor’s big achievement last year because she already has a roomful of acting trophies in her house. What got her followers excited was her having been named winner of the Gawad Plaridel, which was given by the University of the Philippines to her last July. After that, she was also given a Gawad Suri by a prestigious university in Mindanao. Mayor Vilma Santos-Recto had always made show business proud of her – especially since she has remained one of the few showbiz people who have joined politics and yet managed to maintain a clean name and a smear-free reputation. Ask anybody from Lipa (and even outside of its boundaries) and they’ll tell you how much they love her there.
Sharon Cuneta – It was her very absence from the big screen that made me admire her all the more because she gave up (at least temporarily – but that’s a big risk in this business) a lot of opportunities in the movies to be able to prioritize motherhood and concentrate on family matters. Thank heavens for all those commercials – at least, we still see her on TV. In her absence, she bankrolled (along with Tony Gloria) one of the finest pictures produced in 2005 – La Visa Loca, starring Robin Padilla, who is a strong contender for Best Actor in the coming awards races this summer.
Judy Ann Santos – She won two Best Actress trophies last year (for Sabel) – at the Gawad Urian and Golden Screen Awards (her co-winner here was Maricel Soriano, who won Best Comedy Actress for I Will Survive) – proving to everyone that she is on her way to joining the league of Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos as a major actress. On the lighter side, everyone is just so thrilled that she has found romance in the person of Ryan Agoncillo, a good man who is taking good care of her and making her happy. After working so hard all her life, Judy Ann deserves all the happiness in the world and I wish her the best in 2006 and even in the years to follow.
Claudine Barretto – The other big acting winner – having won Best Actress for Milan in the Film Academy Awards and in the FAMAS. 2005 was bittersweet for Claudine. She may have won critical acclaim in the year that’s about to end, but at the same time her personal life was not all that peaceful – her quarrel with sister Gretchen Barretto having been magnified in the papers and in all the talk shows. And then there’s her legal battle with Yes! Magazine. On the bright side, she is now foster mother to Sabina, who seems to be the joy of her life now. And then there’s her marriage to Raymart Santiago that is supposed to happen anytime soon. Here’s wishing the two of them all the best in 2006.
Kris Aquino – I guess any year is better than 2003 for her – the year of that big scandal with Joey Marquez. But leave it to Kris – who is truly blessed – to be able to bounce back. She may not have had a movie like Feng Shui, which crowned her Box-Office Queen of 2004, but at least she was (still is) happy with her personal life after having found a man without legal impediment in basketball star James Yap. I hope she continues to be happy in 2006 and in the years to come and my wish for her at this point is for her to be included again in my list of positive showbiz newsmakers next year.
(To be concluded)