It’s OK to love again, Ai Ai

Would it have been heartless of GMA 7 Fast Talk host Boy Abunda to ask comedian-actor Ai Ai de las Alas if she would consider falling in love again at her age (she has just turned 60) once she has recovered from having been left by her husband of 10 years who happens to be 30 years younger?

We honestly believe she can recover because she does not wish her ex-husband Gerald Sibayan any ill and, in fact, wishes him the fulfillment of his dreams (including having a biological child and securing a “green card” in the US).

Recovery from a heartbreak is harder for the bitter ones, because they will always feel wounded and may never heal.

If we were Abunda, we would have asked Delas Alas in so many words. Age is really just a number, so she could fall in love between 60 and 80. She could fall in love, but not necessarily with someone 30 or 20 years younger. 

We don’t know if any honest-to-goodness journo had ever sat down with Sibayan for an interview or had observed him for hours to size him up, but we could go with Delas Alas that he managed to be a good husband to her for some years. The rest of the 10 years, she may have been in-denial that she was about to lose him to his own dreams and schemes. 

But, Martina Eileen Hernandez delas Alas, you can be in love again. With a better man. Someone you don’t have to sacrifice your career for and all other persons and things you care for. Life has so many facets. It’s silly to be stuck on just a few.

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We probably should say the same to Sue Ramirez, 28, and Dominic Roque, 34. She is the ex-girlfriend of actor-politician Javi Benitez, 30. Roque, on the other hand, is the ex-fiance of actor Bea Alonzo, 37.

Ramirez and Roque were espied kissing at a bar in Siargao recently in the presence of some friends. 

Well, Ramirez and Roque could become like Ruffa Gutierrez and Herbert Bautista, or Barbie Imperial and Richard Gutierrez. 

The first time Ruffa and the actor-politician were spotted together in an event and were asked if they were already an item, they simply replied they were just beginning to become close friends but it was nothing romantic. Ruffa also began posting on social media some praises about Bautista, including inspiring her to go back to school to earn herself a college diploma. 

And then there was a Gutierrez Christmas Noche Buena that had Bautista as the lone guest. The Gutierrez family recently treated their matriarch Annabelle Rama Gutierrez to a birthday dinner in an upscale restaurant. Bautista was again invited to the dinner. But there was another guest invited by Richard: actor Barbie lmperial, who has been photo-snapped by netizens with Richard in supposedly very private occasions, including a dinner in a restaurant in Italy where Richard was taping a series for ABS-CBN.

So now, it is useless for showbiz scribes to ask Ruffa and Herbert, Richard and Barbie if they are lovey-dovey. As useless as the admission of cager Kobe Paras, in a magazine feature, that he and actor Kyline Alcantara are dating. The world has known that since months ago. They have not been just dining out. Kyline has even sat on Kobe’s lap in a videoke sing-along! Could it be possible that nosey, pesky netizens just missed snapping a shot of Kobe sweetly spooning food into Kyline’s mouth but that such a sweet scene exists?

So, Sue and Dominic, keep getting caught kissing somewhere or another, and you’d get to a point it would be silly for media folks to ask if you’ve become lovers. Never mind that every time you get caught locking lips, Roque’s ex-fiancee, you-know-who, has to post a photo of her with some hardly known guy being sweetly attentive to her. Bea Alonzo has just done it. 

Dear Ai Ai, you still have the appeal of a showbiz star at 60, so don’t be blue, and don’t panic, some guys will come along for you. Some guys who don’t require having a child with a woman they are in love with.

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Formerly US-based nurse-turned-painter Rommel Rico has re-settled in the Philippines because he does not want to become like the woman migrant worker depicted individually by Lea Salonga and Dolly de Leon in the critically acclaimed play Request sa Radio: Earning but forlorn.

Rico (his surname, not a second moniker) became known in the Philippines for painting vibrant images of the Filipina in sturdy, huge woven handbags. All profits from the sale of the bags went into an organization funding surgeries for children with cleft palates. He worked in the US for almost 20 years. He knows that there are many migrant workers in the US alone who are as forlorn as the woman portrayed in Request sa Radio. They are people who have sacrificed their wellbeing to be able to support their needy or undisciplined dependents back home.

The unapologetic gay man Rico is now into sustainable fashion designing, having become aware of how humankind has been depleting natural resources of the world and polluting the planet with waste products that are actually recyclable or upcycled. 

“Do you know that there are millions of tons of denims junked in landfills and dumpsites elsewhere all over the world?” the youthful-looking Rico rhetorically asked.

He has been buying denims and other hardly sold textiles in the malls and elsewhere and turning them into affordable gowns and other outfits for men and women who are not afraid to look different on joyful occasions. And he’s ready to show them off in a fashion show at Eton Centris billed as “Bagong Luma” on 27 November at 4 pm. Eton Centris is at the corner of EDSA and Quezon Avenue in QC.

Rico will now do fashion shows regularly and he will show them on a digital platform as specials. He has even put up a fashion modeling group whose members he is willing to farm out to other designers. He also put up reels of modeling samples of his designs.

What a gay balikbayan who has seen to it that his family and relatives eventually learned to be on their own and not depend on him to live and work abroad to support them forever.