Jinkee after the Belo touch

As the country’s No. 1 beauty clinic — with nothing coming even as close second — Belo Medical Center is endorsed only by the most luminous of personalities.

At the moment, there is no denying that Manny Pacquiao is the hottest celebrity in town. However, maybe it’s not exactly a good idea to make him a Belo endorser (at least, not yet) due to the nature of his profession, which, of course, is boxing. His face could get bashed during fights — although as the greatest fighter today he is the one who always puts the opponent to sleep... in a not so gentle way. If — heaven forbid — his face gets smashed in a fight, there goes all the efforts of Dr. Vicki Belo.

In lieu of Manny, Belo got his better half, Jinkee Pacquiao. Good choice. Jinkee, to begin with, is no stranger to the Belo clinic because she had been a paying client for three years now. She would go to Belo for facials, body scrub and thermage to lift the face without being cut up (it’s dubbed as the lunchtime surgery — you have it done at the Belo Medical Clinic for about an hour or even less and you can go your usual way: Go back to work, shop, etc.).

Already very pretty — with her mestizilla looks — some people may wonder why Jinkee still has to embrace Belo procedures. She has her reasons: For one, since she is constantly in the public eye as the wife of the Manny Pacquiao, she always has to look good. And then, after giving birth to two daughters in rather close succession (they have two older boys: Jimuel and Michael), she admits that she did gain weight during the two pregnancies. She needed help — especially since in this judgmental society of ours, public remarks can be cruel toward celebrities (and even with ordinary people as a matter of fact). And Jinkee, as Mrs. Manny Pacquiao, is herself already a celebrity being chased around by media.

Proof of her being a celebrity is the fact that there was talk that there was trouble in the Pacquiao home when she was missing during the victory celebration thrown for Manny by GMA 7 on S.O.P. the other Sunday. The truth was Jinkee was with Dr. Belo that day for consultations and to tape Belo Beauty 101. (They couldn’t agree on any other date because Dr. Belo is always out of the country.)

The following day, Manny was given a reception in Malacañang and Jinkee was missing again. Her absence at the Palace further strengthened the rumors that she and her husband were quarreling. Of course, again, those were just stupid rumors.

Jinkee couldn’t be with Manny that time either because she was at the Belo clinic doing platelet rich plasma (PRP) to boost the collagen of her skin (to make her face even more fresh-looking), meso scalp (to make her hair thicker and healthier), multi-polar of the arms (to sculpt them and make them slimmer) and botox on the forehead.

Prior to that she had the new Belo diet injections, which were administered to her at one shot daily for 24 days. Jinkee’s goal was for her to lose 10 lbs. with that procedure. She overshot it by losing 13 lbs. instead. Now, she is the Belo poster girl for the Belo diet injections.

In the beginning, Jinkee was hiding from Manny her trips to Belo because she didn’t think he would approve of the procedures. Jinkee just didn’t know how her husband would react. But having gained a lot of weight while pregnant with Princess, she knew she had to seek the help of Dr. Belo six months after giving birth.

Jinkee scheduled her smart lipo while Manny was in the US training. Little did she know that her bodyguard (who is Manny’s cousin) already told the champion boxer about the procedure, “Manny calls the bodyguard when I don’t answer the phone,” reveals Jinkee. Manny, however, didn’t tell Jinkee that he knew.

Weeks later, Jinkee flew to America to keep her husband company. Manny’s first reaction upon seeing his wife the first time after the smart lipo: “Ang sexy mo, ah.” Sure, he knew she underwent a procedure, but he didn’t expect his wife’s body to be that shapely. The result: Jinkee got pregnant not long after with Queenie, their youngest child so far. But we hear that Manny wants two more kids. “Four is enough! I don’t want anymore,” protests Jinkee.

But what does she have to worry about? Dr. Belo will always be there to assist her with her weight loss anyway, I tell her half jestingly. “I know she will always be there for me and on my part I am Belo forever,” she answers smilingly, but later turns serious: “The problem is that we want to raise all our kids properly and if we had any more, I doubt if we’d be able to give them the attention they need.”

I’ve always known that Jinkee is a sensible woman — way back five, six years ago during Manny’s early triumphs and she would tag along with him during Startalk interviews. Manny is indeed lucky to have her. But did you know that not everything was rosy during the early part of their marriage? That and Jinkee’s relationship with her in-laws, especially Mommy Dionisia, is up next in the concluding portion of this column on Thursday.