The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
This isn’t a throwback story.
This is an on-going narrative.
Or a back story for any season, for any reason.
It is about the relationships that have been forged among Robin Padilla, Kiko Pangilinan, two of the twenty-four senators of the land and Megastar Sharon Cuneta.
This formation has the flavor of a teleserye and a colorful tableau very attractive to fans and ordinary Filipinos alike who savor the juicy and palatable stories of and about celebs.
The Robin-Sharon-Kiko configuration isn’t strictly a love story but historical fragments of the past, present and future creating sub-history or if you may, sub-culture.
It is a “love story” by virtue of the care and affection showered to each of them by them as human beings, the intuitive and instinctive rational behavior of members of a community for common cause of good, reciprocal intentions and benefits.
Let’s start with the landscape of show business where the Cunetas, Padillas and Pangilinans thrive.
Their populating showbiz has its roots, initially, with Sharon stemming from her association with Viva Films when her first film project, “Dear Heart” she starred with Gabby Concepcion and produced by Sining Silangan that made money at the tills.
Eventually, the Cunetas, specifically spearheaded by the late Pasay mayor Pablo Cuneta and Viva Entertainment honcho Vic del Rosario agreed to adopt Sharon as a contract star of the struggling company in the early 80s who would pump in more money to make and sustain the productions paving its way as one the of the leading entertainment entities in the country.
From there on, the Cuneta scion would be the outfit’s prized possession starring with varied box-office actors like Robin Padilla, a descendant of the famous Padillas like matinee idols of their time Jose Padilla, Jr., Carlos Padilla, Sr., writer-director Consuelo P. Osorio, among others.
Meanwhile, too, from a big showbiz clan, Kiko is the brother of former Music and Magic quartet Angeli Pangilinan-Valenciano, wife of singer Gary Valenciano.
Kiko is brother to Anthony Pangilinan, husband of Maricel Laxa and dad of Donny Pangilinan and other blood relations of the Pangilinans, Gamboas, Sottos, Cuneta etc. in the biz.
These genealogies seem simple yet complex inter- and intra-relationships that also matter in the clannish Filipino tradition that breeds feudal attitude of “iba ang kapamilya (kinship is unique).”
The filial piety goes beyond kinship to building business enterprises, capital and profit and other economic like moneymaking ventures on TV, movies and multimedia, if not, complications.
Shawie and Robin were first paired off in “Maging Sino Ka Man,” a hit project.
During the stint of their screen partnership, a love, however ephemeral, blossomed between the two at the time the Megastar had split with Gabby and in between had an on and off romance with Richard Gomez.
After the tumultuous married and romantic life, Sharon finally found a husband in Kiko for twenty eight long years and counting.
Every now and then, people find themselves at the crossroads that test their moral fiber to survive relationships of all kinds.
As showbiz fixtures, each celeb would refer to each other as friends in all shapes and sizes.
Binoe and Shawie aren’t spared from the cycle and symbiosis of human relationships especially to last in the competitive biz although they are already established players but still need consistency and right moves to survive not only in media but the polity of life.
Meanwhile, Cuneta is a political animal as well as Padilla from the DNA of their forebears and Pangilinan on his own public service journey.
Obviously, Sharon has come to terms with realities of all sorts and the civility, prudence and composure she has to exercise in facing up with adversities like the recent hullabaloo in her public and private life.
To wit, Robinhood and Francis have a political animosity that stems from their opposing views on the arrest of Bato de la Rosa served by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity as chief architect of EJK on dictator Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.
There is supposedly imminent “threats” between the two guys.
Because of this, Sharon’s “bittersweet” or “love-hate” relationship with Robin has resurfaced, it seems, when it is reported that the actress is sad and disappointed about the altercation between her husband and her ex.
We are just a small world.
What is in store for her and Robin fans as Filipinos after the dramatic turns on the Senate fiasco?
How can the alliance of Sharon and Kiko still do for the liberation of the Filipino masses?
What must Sharon do to help the majority of Filipinos advance their lives, specifically economic?
What can Robin, Sharon and Kiko do as political forces to change our lives as Filipinos for the better?