True Colors shines in Showtime

On The Buzz, I got a few minutes with True Colors, Showtime Season 3 grand winner. It was a congratulatory interview (promo if you may), with the group that won P1M for them and P1M for their barangay. They came to The Buzz in full regalia — screaming red outfits and red gelled hairdos. Jittery, understandably tired, genuinely happy, strong, gritty and unabashedly real in their proud rubber slippers. An avalanche of childhood memories came rushing back to my mind — the times when I would go to baybay shortly after the break of dawn with my friends to meet the fishermen who just came from the sea. We would buy and sell fish around town. They were wonderful, happy times.

Watching True Colors, I could not imagine our local fishermen, Mano Tonyo, Serging, Kardo and company in red shimmering outfits dancing in Showtime. True Colors is phenomenal having victoriously broken the border between the sea of General Santos and the sea of lights in Showtime.

And they make me proud. Armed with gaseras and torches, they must be dancing with the waves as they catch fish in the seas of General Santos. It must be the waves that make them graceful. It must be the breeze that makes them ethereal when they dance. It must be spirits of the sea that make them create magic. Just after the break of dawn, they go back to the shore, sell their catch to the vendors, then sleep during the day and as soon as the sun sets, they troop to the beach and they start to practice their dance steps in the sand, where they’re most at home with. Barefoot, they dance to the rhythm of music, the wind and the sea.

Bravo, True Colors!

Sitti hopes to meet her dad again

I recently had a heartwarming one-on-one interview with Sitti on The Buzz where she talked for the first time about her father.

She was only nine months old when her parents separated and since then she has been totally clueless about her father. According to Sitti, whenever she asked her mom about her dad, mom would just keep quiet but her grandparents said he was already dead. She was in Grade Six when her family finally told the truth that her father was still alive.

She never asked anyone about the real identity of her dad. “Maybe it wasn’t a good parting between him and my mom. Every time anyone brought up the topic, you could really feel animosity. Maybe subconsciously, since that’s what I saw, I didn’t want to bring it up anymore. For me, wala naman pong patutunguhan,” Sitti explained.

Sitti was in Grade Six when she had her first contact with her father’s family. Her aunt came to their house and said Sitti looked like her dad. The young Sitti didn’t know how to react that time. “When my aunt left she said she’ll be in contact. The next contact was when Friendster came about. My eldest brother on my father’s side added me to his Friendster.” She knew it was her brother because his name had a junior and he introduced himself. However, Sitti did not reply to him.

Sitti was teary eyed while telling her story. “Maybe I felt bad because they were trying to communicate with me but I was too young. I didn’t know how to deal with it. I just ignored it.”

Other circumstances followed like when she had a mall show and during the autograph signing, she was surprised when her brother asked her to sign a CD.

Her cousin from her father’s side and her aunt from her mother’s side remained in contact with each other and that paved the way for Sitti to talk to her father. “I don’t know what to say. It was like talking to a stranger. I was just being polite,” Sitti admitted. Her father apologized for whatever happened in the past.

There were several times when she would meet her relatives from her father’s side. Sitti then decided to give her contact number to her father. “Since last year, he’s been texting me. Sometimes I replied, sometimes I didn’t text back. I just didn’t know how to handle it.”  

Sitti and her father finally reunited after 27 years last April 25 when she flew all the way to Tawi-Tawi. She thought this was the right time for her to meet him. She had no idea what would happen when she reached Tawi-Tawi. She grew up without seeing a single picture of her dad.

It was an emotional meeting. “That’s when I realized that I think I’ve always loved my dad even if I’d never seen him. His last message to me was he’ll always say sorry to the people he has hurt. I told him, ‘Stop saying sorry.’ I understand him. I grew up thinking that I don’t need a father, that I don’t need him in my life, but when I saw him, I realized that I have someone whom I could call Papa. Now, I realize that I’ve been missing on something.”

Sitti thanks the Lord, God and Allah and she hopes that she could see her father again. And Sitti will.