Sen. Bong is now Sultan Bong

You can start calling him Sultan Bong.

Last June 25, Sen. Bong Revilla was officially adopted as a son of the Province of Sultan Kudarat and enthroned as Sultan Aadil (Prince of Justice) at a ceremony held at the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Capitol.

According to the Funfare Update informer, the same occasion, in which 16 Malaysian nationals were also enthroned as datus, was attested to by former Congressman Sultan Pakung “Pax” Mangudadatu in his capacity as Rajah Buayan Sultanate IV in Mindanao and Dato Dr. Haji Yassin Noor, honorary chairman of the Royal Mindanao-Malaysia Friendship Society; and witnessed by, among others, Sen./Sultan Bong’s wife, Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado, Sultan Kudarat Gov. Suharto “Teng” Mangudadatu and former Tarlac Gov. Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco.

The honor was granted to Bong in recognition of his efforts “to alleviate the plight of Muslim Filipinos and uphold the progress of Mindanao.”

In his acceptance speech, Bong promised to push for the immediate passage of Senate Bill No. 1990 that he had filed, “that would prohibit the use of the words ‘Muslim’ and ‘Islamic’ in all forms of media, to refer to any person suspected or convicted of criminal acts.”

“Outlawing this culturally and religiously biased practice would definitely contribute to increased social space and understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims,” said Bong, adding, “rest assured that I will not disgrace this title. I will continue to fight for your rights, particularly for the rights of our Muslim brothers and sisters.”

Willie donates P150,000 to kids’ baseball tourney

Here’s another feel-good report:

Willie Revillame surprised everyone at the opening of the 1^st Dominador Pangilinan Youth Baseball Invitational at the San Lazaro Leisure & Business Park in Cavite when he announced that he is donating P150,000 to the tournament.

Revillame was the guest pitcher during the opening ceremony of the tournament that pits four champion Philippine baseball teams in a single round robin format. 

Willie Revillame (leftmost) makes the ceremonial pitch at the First Dominador Pangilinan Youth Baseball Invitational at the San Lazaro Leisure & Business Park in Cavite

When a tournament official told him that only trophies and medals will be given to the winners, Revillame quickly announced his cash gift on the spot.

Revillame said that he has a soft spot for children and wants those participating in the baseball tournament to excel.

The four-day baseball tournament is being headlined by the Little Razcals who will represent the Philippines this year at the Protect Our Nation’s Youth (PONY) World Series in the US.

The other three champion teams are the 2010 Metro Schools League champion Marikina Broncos, PONY Asian Championship bound Habagat, and South Asia Nankyu Championship bound Bagwis.

All of the players on the teams are children 12 years old and below.

Karylle and Christian start taping for The Kitchen Musical

Although they’ve been in Singapore for a while, Karylle and Christian Bautista started taping for the international series The Kitchen Musical only last June 27.

This report came from Carlo Orosa, Christian’s manager, who quoted Karylle as saying,

“We’ve been waiting for this day to come. We are so excited. Some of us, because of sheer excitement, lost sleep,” Karylle plays Chef Madeline in the series. “After a whole month’s work of recording the music, dance choreography and blocking rehearsals we are finally here on the set.”

Christian told Carlo that working in Singapore for three months for the 13-week-series is a different, liberating and exciting experience because it allows actors to really focus on the task of breathing life to this groundbreaking TV concept.

Produced by The Group Entertainment, The Kitchen Musical will premiere in October on ABS-CBN, Studio 23, RCTI Indonesia, Prima TV Malaysia and 19 other countries in

the Pan Pacific region via AXN cable network. Set in the kitchen, the musical-drama is about the lives of the people in the food industry.

Karylle and Christian are joined by fellow Filipinos Ikey Canoy, Thou Reyes, and Art Acuna, and UK TV/film/stage actor Stephen Raman Hughes and Hong Kong Supermodel actress Rosemary Vanderbroucke.

“The cast reports on the set daily to shoot a maximum of 12 hours a day,” said Carlo. “Catered lunch is served with snacks and sometimes

dinner if shoots are extended.”

Aside from visiting The Kitchen Musical set, Carlo also attended the Asia On The Edge Convention (where one of the guest speakers was world-renowned and award-winning Filipino designer and entrepreneur Kenneth Cobonpue), and Maestro Ryan Cayabyab’s highly-successful, jam-packed concert with the RCS at the Esplanade in Singapore.

Readers’ reactions

When I mentioned in my Andrew Lloyd Webber story last Tuesday that I was surprised that the No Matter What (popularized by the late Boyzone member Stephen Gately) was included in the repertoire of the show now attracting enthusiastic crowds at the CCP (until Sunday, July 3), I honestly thought that it was just an “added attraction,” a breather. It turned out that No Matter What is, indeed, an Andrew Lloyd Webber composition, thanks to reader Bing Miranda who called my attention.

Dear Ricky,

My family and I watched The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber last Saturday evening (June 25).  My husband and I are long-time Andrew Lloyd Webber fans (since the 70’s) and are looking forward to the re-teaming of Webber with Tim Rice (his lyricist partner on Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita) on the new Wizard of Oz musical.

 Just a clarification: No Matter What is one of the featured songs in the 1996 musical Whistle Down the Wind. The music was written by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics were by Jim Steinman.

The song was popularized by Boyzone and it reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Charts.

 If you can grab a hold of a CD of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebration Concert at the Albert Hall, you can watch Boyzone actually perform the song. So it’s not a “breather” in the CCP concert.  It’s actually one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s songs that ended up as a pop hit.

 Similar to this in history is the song Till There Was You by The Beatles. Most people don’t know that this was the love song in the musical The Music Man.

We thoroughly enjoyed the show, especially the very powerful rendition of The Phantom of the Opera and Music of the Night. Having seen The Phantom of the Opera when it was performed in Singapore in 1997, songs from the musical performed live (and performed very, very well, like it was by the beautiful Trisha Crowe) still brings goose bumps.  -- BING A. MIRANDA

(Note: Thank you, too, to STAR contributor Jonathan Chua and reader Dexter Santiago for making the same clarification. And to reader Jun Sabilona who reminded me that it was Jonathan Pryce who played Juan Peron in the movie version of Evita and not Antonio Banderas who was the narrator and Evita Peron’s conscience Che. “Incidentally,” added Jun, “Evita will be staged again on Broadway in 2012, with Ricky Martin playing Che.”)

(E-mail reactions at [email protected] or at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit http://www.philstar.com/funfare.)