On Thursday, 1 February, at 12:37 noontime, singer-actor JK Labajo posted on Viber’s chatroom Backgate Pass: “Hiii musta po kau ito aku nagpapa check up hahaha okay pa naman kaya pa ang life walang bibitaw.”
Fans’ reactions began pouring in immediately. By a little past midnight, about 400 fans have blurted out their concern for Labajo. But this time there was no response from the singer-actor.
Labajo has been touring the Philippine archipelago since October to promote his album, which carries “Ere” and its now very famous cuss line.
Having watched many of his videos singing cuts from the album, we know he always sings as if it were his last performance: excruciatingly, though he occasionally grins. It’s an exhausting — though engrossing — way to sing. We’re not surprised that Labajo suddenly needed a health check-up.
But on 24 January, the ex-boyfriend of beauty queen-top model Maureen Wroblewitz posted on his Instagram a captivating love duet with Kyle Echarri, his co-star in the recently concluded ABS-CBN series Senior High, headlined by the inscrutable Andrea “Blythe” Brillantes.
The song is “Kasing-kasing Ko,” Cebuano for “My sweetheart.” Nope, Labajo and Echarri were not hugging at all while singing. If anything, they are just in a bromance, not serious BL.
Both speak Cebuano. Labajo was born there but grew up in Metro Manila, making him very eloquent in Manila street Tagalog. Echarri was born in Orange Country, California 20 years ago, but grew up in Cebu.
Kathryn + Jericho?
Kathryn Bernardo was recently photographed jogging at the Marikina Sports Center with Jericho Rosales and his nephew John Manalo, a former ABS-CBN child star. A fan took the photo and proudly posted it on her Instagram. She also had a selfie with the two showbiz idols, both supposedly heartbroken due to separation from their respective longtime real-life partners.
Rosales has been a long-time Marikina resident, though he once built a house at the neighboring Loyola Heights in QC when his sweetheart was Heart Evangelista (who has since become Mrs. Chiz Escudero (the senator).
As far as we know, Bernardo lives in nearby QC. So happy was the fan to have a selfie with them that she didn’t bother to ask the two if their jogging in one place was unplanned.
Happily, netizens did not find any reason to bash either Bernardo or Rosales for getting together in the name of physical fitness. Rosales was recently outed by a close friend as having been separated from his ramp model wife since 2019.
Meanwhile, in the same week that Bernardo was seen with Rosales, ex-boyfriend Daniel Padilla was espied enjoying life crooning and drinking in a sing-along bar in faraway Siargao. He was with one of his sisters, teen Migui.
The ex-es can still easily do a movie or TV series together. They’re both staying on as ABS-CBN stars. it’s not true that Bernardo was looking to sign up with the talent management company of the couple Maja Salvador and Rambo Nuñez. Bernardo renewed her contract with Star Magic last night (Friday). Star Magic has asserted that even Padilla is signing anew with them.
Quickie query
Why is Enrique Gil suddenly asserting that Liza Soberano is still very much his girlfriend? Is it because the supposed ex-GF has just been proclaimed by a Hollywood director as “a superstar”?
Soberano, according to an entertainment website, declared in an unreleased interview that she had broken up with the actor in October 2022. Since she left the Philippines, Soberano has never said a word about missing Gil. In one interview, she blurted noncommittally that they occasionally still see each other.
According to American filmmaker Joe Russo, Lisa Frankenstein director Zelda Williams and screenwriter Diablo Cody “found a superstar in Soberano, who steals every scene she’s in as Lisa’s stepsister, Taffy.”
Soberano’s first Hollywood film opens on 7 February. It is locally distributed by Universal Pictures, which has managed to do impressive publicity for the film without sending Soberano back to the Philippines. If she were here these days, she would be swarmed with questions about her relationship with Gil — drowning her grandly hyped Hollywood film debut.
Gil is making a showbiz comeback via the comic film I Am Not Big Bird, which opens in theaters on 14 February. He needs all the good vibes to attract hordes of viewers, and linking himself to Soberano on Valentine’s Day may do wonders for him at the box office.