Sharon Cuneta leaving ABS-CBN

By: Allan Policarpio
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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CUNETA: Goodbye after 23 years photo by ARNOLD ALMACEN

Sharon Cuneta is leaving her longtime home studio, ABS-CBN, after 23 years to transfer to the aggressive and revitalized TV5.

The singer/actress/TV host, known as the Megastar, whose contract as a Kapamilya talent expires this year, will officially move to the Kapatid network in January 2012, according to highly placed sources.

On November 5, she taped the final episode of her show, “Sharon at Home,” which airs on the Lifestyle Network on SkyCable, an ABS-CBN subsidiary.

Last October, Star Cinema announced that Cuneta was in the cast of the movie “Call Center” which stars Gerald Anderson and Maja Salvador, but the project was allegedly shelved.

Cuneta is not in ABS-CBN’s Christmas season station ID this year.

No confirmation is immediately forthcoming from executives of either ABS-CBN or TV5. ABS-CBN corporate communications head Bong Osorio explained that the network bosses have yet to give him the go-signal to talk about Cuneta’s exit.

GABBY Concepcion

TV5 creative and entertainment production head Perci Intalan was tentative at best: “We can’t say anything yet. We’d gladly announce it, if ever it happens … There were a lot of questions and comments [from the public], especially on Twitter, after we launched the TV adaptation of one of Sharon’s most popular films, ‘P.S. I love You.’ We would love to work with Sharon, but … we all have to wait and see.”

In an earlier interview, Intalan admitted that there had been exploratory talks between TV5 and Cuneta, adding that Viva Entertainment’s boss Vic del Rosario was helping broker a deal. “Sharon is managed by Vic and is related to MVP (TV5 honcho Manny V. Pangilinan is a cousin of Senator Francis Pangilinan, Cuneta’s husband),” said Intalan. “We’re not surprised when we heard they were talking.”

Actress Judy Ann Santos, another ABS-CBN talent and Cuneta’s close friend, said she had yet to talk to the Megastar about the issue. “Whatever she decides to do, I’ll support her fully. I want my ate to be happy,” Santos said during a press conference for her reality show “Junior Master Chef” on ABS-CBN. “She should go where she thinks she will be taken better care of. She deserves it. She worked hard to be where she is.”

PERCI Intalan

Supporting ‘ate’

Santos added: “I think more people are now open to the idea of artists transferring to other networks to get the projects they want. Even I thought of leaving my home network in the past. If that were the case for Ate, let’s all respect her decision.”

At the recent 22nd Philippine Advertising Congress in Camarines Sur, TV5 news head Luchi Cruz-Valdes asked ABS-CBN chair and CEO Eugenio Lopez III if Cuneta was indeed set to leave her mother network. “I don’t know,” said Lopez. “Maybe we should ask the other network.”

At the press launch of TV5 and Viva Entertainment’s series adaptation of “P.S. I Love You,” Cuneta’s ex-husband Gabby Concepcion let slip what he knew about the issue. Asked if daughter KC had told him anything about her mother’s career moves, Concepcion said: “Meron akong nababalitaan, pero wala naman ako doon nang magpirmahan. I cannot confirm or deny anything.”

Concepcion added that Sharon’s transfer, once it becomes official, would be “a good thing … everybody likes change.”

According to a source, Sharon will do a talk show on TV5.

Also in the works are two movies under Viva Films – first with Concepcion, then with Santos, said Vic del Rosario, Cuneta’s manager.

With a report from Marinel R. Cruz

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1,000 angelic voices drown political noise

By: Pocholo Concepcion
Philippine Daily Inquirer

November 21, 2011 | 3:02 am

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HEAVEN ON EARTH Some 1,000 choir members from top choral groups conducted by maestro Ryan Cayabyab give Filipinos a glimpse of heaven in their weekend concert. ARNOLD ALMACEN

In a week of high political drama generated by the arrest of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a welcome respite came on Saturday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum—a thousand voices singing like angels to usher in the Christmas season.

And what better way to mark the night than for the thousand choir members to sing Filipino Yuletide carols, to the accompaniment of the 60-piece Manila Symphony Orchestra.

Conducting the music was maestro Ryan Cayabyab, who only a few months ago, when asked about the one thing he had never done before, had intimitated  he was “dreaming” of such a  fantasy.

The highly respected composer, arranger and conductor got the surprise of his life when Judy Araneta-Roxas, vice chair of the Araneta Group, offered to make his wish a reality by mounting the Big Dome production as a free concert for Araneta employees.

Cayabyab said that ABS-CBN came in as a partner by providing technical assistance and lending several of its performing talents.

41 groups

The choir members—some belonging to award-winning groups like the Philippine Madrigal Singers,University of the Philippines (UP) Concert Chorus, UP Singing Ambassadors and Ateneo Chamber Singers—came from 41 of the country’s chorales under the Philippine Choral Directors Association.

Cayabyab told the Inquirer that all of the choral groups, especially those from the provinces, had spent for their trip to Manila, including their board and lodging, just to be part of the event.

Cayabyab told the audience that one group, the Silliman University Gratitude & Goodwill Ambassadors, initially missed their flight to Manila and had to divert to Cebu to make it to the concert.

The show, dubbed “Maestro Ryan Cayabyab at ’Sang Libo’t Isang Tinig ng Pasko,”  was hosted by two beauty queens, Venus Raj and Shamcey Supsup—2010 Miss Universe fourth runner-up and 2011 Miss Universe third runner-up, respectively.

It also featured topnotch singers led by Rachel Gerodias, Lea Salonga, Jed Madela and Ariel Rivera, as well as young talent search winners Angeline Quinto and Marcelito Pomoy.

Heartthrob Piolo Pascual and actress-singer KC Concepcion had separate  numbers.

For his repertoire, Cayabyab dug into his own collection of Christmas tunes, plus several classics and new songs by young composers.

“Being happy is a choice,” Concepcion said after singing “Heto Na Naman ang Pasko,” by Jose Javier Reyes.

One of the things that makes Filipinos happy during Christmas, she said, is the peculiar smell of food cooked only for the holidays, as what the song’s lyrics implied: “May ibang amoy mula sa kusina/Iba’t-ibang bango ng mga hinahanda…”

Blue Christmas

But Christmas is also about feeling blue in the absence of a loved one—an experience recounted by three performers.

Pomoy was wildly cheered as he sang the 1970s hit by Susan Fuentes, “Miss Kita Kung Christmas,” in his patented dual male-and-female voice. Quinto was warmly applauded for her rendition of Francis Dandan’s “Pasko Na Sinta Ko.” Loud clapping greeted Rivera  when he sang his own “Sana Ngayong Pasko.”

The cheers intensified when another batch of singers—known for their remarkable vocal range—went onstage one after the other: Gerodias interpreting Felipe de Leon’s “Payapang Daigdig”; Madela doing Cayabyab’s “Munting Sanggol”; and Salonga singing the Cayabyab-Reyes collaboration, “Paskong Walang Hanggan.”

Hysterics greeted Pascual with his rendition of another Cayabyab-Reyes team-up, “Isang Taong Lumipas.”

In between those numbers were the classic pieces—“Kampana ng Simbahan,” “Namamasko,” “Noche Buena,” “Sa Paskong Darating,” “Mano Po Ninong,” “Pasko Na Naman” and “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit.”

The sound of 1,000 voices gave everyone a glimpse of heaven on earth.

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