A  STARRY  SINULOG

CEBU CITY, JANUARY 25, 2008 (STAR) FUNFARE By Ricardo F. Lo  — As expected this time of the year, this Queen City of the South was crawling — nay, groaning! — not only with thousands of devotees, both locals and those from neighboring places (and Balikbayans), and also with stars of varying magnitude from the warring networks ABS-CBN and GMA out to promote their shows onboard bare floats that drew shrieking attention from elaborately-decorated floats carrying gaily-dressed revellers.

It was Sinulog time once again.

On Sunday, Jan. 20, the sun mercifully came out after breakfast time, rudely interrupting days of sleep-inducing drizzle that had been drenching almost the whole Visayan region, according to my friend Raoul Tidalgo (the “overstaying” Balikbayan from Cebu, Tagbilaran and Butuan Cities), “since a few days before Christmas.”

The night before, beside lawyer Joji Alonso, Raoul and I sat at the front row of the full-packed 4,000-plus-capacity grand ballroom of the Waterfront Hotel & Casino for the Heartthrobs concert of Piolo Pascual and Sam Milby, with John Prats and Pokwang as special guest performers, and for two hours our eardrums were willingly “assaulted” by deafening screams of adulation from fans tickled to the bone by every number from Piolo, then Sam, and the two of them together.

Between the two, I would say that Piolo was the better singer. In fact, he was the singer; while Sam seemed to make up for his lack of singing talent by simply being his “cute” self onstage, which was more than enough. It’s the singer, folks, not so much the singing. But I loved the portion where Sam did a medley of theme songs from his movies and, in another portion, reacted to his screen sweetheart Anne Curtis shown speaking in a film clip, he gamely struggled through the lyrics of two Yoyoy Villame songs, Butse Kik and Si Felimon. It was a riot! Applause, applause, applause!!!

Piolo had his moment when he did a medley of songs from his own starrers and, later on the show, sang a song for Angel Locsin (who, I heard, produced the concert with her sister) who joined him to plug their new adventure-fantasy Lobo which premieres on Monday, Jan. 28, along with two others, Palos (with, among others, Cesar Montano and Jake Cuenca) and Kung Fu Kids.

But the scene-stealer of the night turned out to be, hold your breath, Pokwang who kept the audience in stitches with her one-liners and adlibs, and her own versions of One Moment in Time and Hero, punctuated by expressive “body language” and “sign language” for, she said, the sake of the “deaf” (there was none, I guess) in the audience. Pokwang was a one-woman show, an entire concert by herself, complete with outlandish costumes (with a replica of a chandelier, can you beat that!) and side-splitting cracks made even funnier by her hoarse voice. Aruray “re-incarnated.” More, more, more!!!

So on Sunday morning, with Pokwang’s hoarseness ringing in our ears, Raoul and I, together with ABS-CBN (Manila) PR Girl Lorelie Dionisio-Piravalasamy and Woodrew “RR” Maquiling (with the ABS-CBN Cebu sales department), trooped to the vicinity of the Sto. Niño Basilica to witness the kick-off of the parade (the procession was held the night before), getting off the ABS-CBN Cebu service car blocks away and inching our way on foot through the thick crowd that would later roar with even more ear-splitting shrieks and screams (than those at the concert the night before) at the sight of such Kapamilya stars as Cesar Montano; Jake Cuenca; Angelica Panganiban; Anne Curtis; Sam Milby; and Pinoy Big Brother Big Four Ruben Gonzaga (the winner), Riza Santos, Will Devaughn and Gaby dela Merced (with fellow PBB housemates Ethel Booba, Yayo Aguila, Baron and Donnie Geisler, and Mcoy Fundales). Angel Locsin rode on the JAG float. (Piolo flew back to Manila early that morning to be on ASAP 08.)

The concert and the Sinulog participation were part of Kapamilya’s way of saying thank you to its loyal followers. Saturday afternoon, a Kapamilya free show was mounted at SM Cebu featuring the PBB graduates and another free show at the Gaisano Mall with Super Inggo stars Makisig Morales, Angelu de Leon, Dennis Padilla, Kaye Abad and Kathryn Bernardo.

“ABS-CBN Cebu is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year,” said Veneranda “Tata” Cinco Sy, area manager of the Regional Network Group for Central Visayas, “and I’m proud to report that our vision is 20/20. We start counting from 1988 when ABS-CBN Cebu formally resumed full operation after it was taken back from government control. We now enjoy 80 percent of the viewing market. Central Visayas is Kapamilya territory.”

Aside from Tata, the people behind ABS-CBN Cebu are: Rolando P. Valdueza, VP Regional, who’s on top of all regional activities; and lawyer Abigail Querubin, Visayas Cluster head, on top of all Visayan projects.

Ninety percent of ABS-CBN Cebu’s programs are relayed from Manila although it has its own Cebuano shows aired exclusively in Central Visayas, including magtv (a talk show still airing, hosted by Charlene Go, Genesis Dacua and Blinky de Leon) and Saranghe (which lasted for one season), Cebu’s own original version of the Koreanovela which starred two local talents (Gryka Barrientos and Jay Justiniani of the band Cueshé) and Kerik Choy, a Korean student discovered at a local school where he was studying.

“It’s going to be a year-round celebration,” repeated Tata, “and we call it 20/20 because our vision is 20/20. Very clear!”