Jake Cuenca relieved to clear name on bar incident, reveals Azkals dream

MANILA, Philippines – Jake Cuenca was glad to have the chance to clear his name after he was dragged into the slapping incident that involved his friends Anne Curtis and John Lloyd Cruz.

“I don’t want to say too much, kasi everyone’s reacting too much about it,” the Kapamilya actor said in an interview Thursday afternoon, December 12.

“In all honesty, nabababawan ako kasi naayos nga nila, e. They fixed it in a matter of hours and I don’t understand why everyone is so affected by it. In reality, mahalaga naman doon okay lahat ng parties.”

He again clarified that he isn’t even there when the whole incident happened since he was with a different group of friends.

“Kasi people say it’s a small place, but it was a big place,” he commented. “It just so happened na, nagkataon na John Lloyd was there, Anne was there, I was there. But it didn’t mean na magkakabarkada kami na magkakasama dun.”

“I have common friends with JL, [and] I have common friends with Anne,” he added. “So I say hello to them, but yun na nga, I was not able… I didn’t even see Anne, di ko nga alam, e. So nang umakyat na lang ako nagulat na lang ako na, oh, saan pumunta lahat ng tao? Apparently that happened, kung paano nalaman ng tao, doon ko lang din nalaman — kwento lang. So I’m not entitled to have an opinion on this, I didn’t see anything.”

After his name was dragged in the issue and aired his side though his Twitter account, Jake said that Anne immediately sent him a text message.

“In all fairness to Anne, I really appreciate the text,” he said. “The thing is okay kami ni Anne, okay kami ni JL. My conscience is really clean.”

He also adds that in his ten years in the industry, he has been involved in “so many issues, scandals and controversies in the ten years that I’ve been doing this. I never denied anything. I always own up to my mistakes. I’m not gonna own up to something I’m not part of.”

Big plans

Meanwhile, Jake enthusiastically looks forward to the coming year because of his “big plan.”

“I’m looking forward of trying out for the Azkals,” he reveals. “Plano ko naman when it comes to football, it’s like my career in showbiz, start from the bottom-up. I’m not gonna take any freebies when it comes to football. So if I have to start at the second division of UFL, I’ll do that.”

With this plan, Jake will take less acting jobs for next year.

“Next year, I will be more controlled in my part and in my management’s part. I won’t be doing mass amount of projects like I did this year. So I’m going to pick quality over quantity this coming year.”

Nevertheless, trying his luck in football doesn’t mean he’ll be leaving showbiz.

“This [showbiz] is my bread and butter,” Jake said.

Then, however, Jake’s dream of joining Azkals may have to wait until his current show “Maria Mercedes” ends. But that seem to take some more months since the scenes are getting intense every night.

“Marami pang aabangan,” Jake hinted.  “People are dying, people are missing, syempre mas may tension pagdating kay Luis at kay Mercedes kasi it’s not just them living in their own realm, but their families are involved in the problem.”

“So at the same time, nandun pa rin yung tension dahil pinakasalan ni Mercedes yung tito ko, si Santiago, si Ariel Rivera.”