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Biography |
Young actress Angelica David Panganiban says she is the only
daughter of Annabell Panganiban and a father she didn’t know
by name. “Maybe I knew his name when I was a child but I’ve
forgotten it now,” she says. She has no memories of her
father either. “Only a picture,” she says. And she doesn’t
miss him. “I never grew up with a father,” she adds. “Had I
felt his presence then, I could have missed him today.”
In her childhood, Angelica had thought that her grandfather,
Alfredo Panganiban, was her father, until her playmates set
her aright. “I was playing in a playmate’s house and told
the rest that my daddy was coming home soon with plenty of
pasalubong (gifts).’ But they told me, ‘He’s not your daddy,
he’s your lolo. You don’t have a daddy…’ I didn’t cry. It
wasn’t an issue for me; I was too young then.”
The only time she wished her father was around, Angelica
says, was two years ago, when she celebrated her debut. “He
could have been my first dance,” she says wistfully. Her
Lolo Alfredo graciously did the honor.
Amazingly, no one has yet come forward to claim paternity of
this young actress who starred in such movies as “Antipolo
Massacre,” her first film, “Separada” (where she won a Famas
for Best Child Actress), and “Santa Santita.”All she knows
about him, says Angelica, is that her parents had separated
when she was two. He was crazy (baliw), her mother had told
her.
It was no big deal, she recalls. In grade school, Angelica
remembers having a group of friends called “barkadahang
walang ama” (friends without fathers). “All my friends’
parents were separated. Their stories were worse than mine.
One’s father was said to have been ran over by a train.
Another said her mother chopped off her father’s head, and
so on.”
Only recently did her mother started telling her the truth,
but piecemeal. “My parents separated, he’s now settled in
Guam and has another family.” That’s all she knows and
that’s how far she’ll go answering any more queries about
her family.
Aida Araojo of the private, non-sectarian St. Vincent School
at West Avenue, Quezon City gave SIM access to the girl’s
records. Angelica was born on November 4, 1986 in Caloocan
City. Listed as her parents are Alfredo Panganiban, a taxi
operator in Guam, and Melania Panganiban, a housewife.
Angelica finished elementary school in 1999 at St. Vincent
in Teacher’s Village, Quezon City, and her high school in
2003 at St. Vincent, West Avenue. The pretty lass was the
Junior-Senior Prom Princess in 2002 and Miss Junior and
Senior Prom in 2003.
She was a good student, recalls Luzviminda Pastores,
Angelica’s teacher in Physical Education, Health Education,
and Music, in third and fourth year. “She was very
attentive, did her lessons, and participated actively in
class discussions. She even sang once, complete with action,
even when her voice was not that good. She was very
responsible. She was usually absent twice a week, but when
she came to class, she knew her lessons. Because she was
balancing her show biz and class schedules, she was only an
average student.”
Marite Modino, her third- and fourth-year Social Studies
teacher, says. “She was very low-profile. Hindi mayabang.
She came to class with her hair tied at the back, with no
makeup on. Hindi maarte. (She wasn’t fussy). One time during
their bivouac, I made her roll over the mud and she did.”
Angelica had plenty of suitors, even having an MU (mutual
understanding) with another student during her senior year,
but she didn’t make any trouble, her teachers recall. She
also didn’t talk about her father. Modino says, “She says
she never knew who her father was.”
Apparently, the girl is an exception to the usual profile of
children who come from dysfunctional families. Says Dr.
Laurie Ramiro, who teaches Behavioral Science and Psychology
in UP, Manila: “In general, those coming from broken
families find it hard to adjust to their own family life
because of lack of a model. But there are exceptions. If
there is a powerful male figure in the family, say,
Angelica’s grandfather, the void can be filled up. The big
factor is the surrogate parent. What’s important is not the
(biological) parent per se, but the caretaker of the child.”
But being fatherless can have a negative impact, continues
Ramiro. One manifestation of this, she says, is “the
preference for older men as intimate partners. It’s like
having a proxy (for the father).” In most cases, the
affected child would have difficulty choosing a partner and
would have a hard time maintaining a relationship. “There is
always that fear that the husband would leave her too.”
So far, Angelica seems to have a “normal psychosexual
development.” Her on and off sweetheart for the past five
years, Carlo Aquino, is only a year older than her. He’s 20,
she’s 19. Says Ramiro, “Naturally, Angelica would expect to
feel love, affection, and emotional security from Carlo.”
“Carlo is the man that Angelica will spend the rest of her
life with,” confidently declares Angelica’s classmate and
friend Kevin Samson. “Their relationship is so strong that
it can survive any storm.” That includes a painful split
from Carlo two years back which had tongues wagging that
when Angelica left for the US, her friend and showbiz
colleague Camille Prats and Carlo had gotten romantic.
Camille, some reports go, is now making peace with Angelica
with her frequent phone calls.
“I like that,” says this star of the defunct TV shows, “Ang
TV” and “Vietnam Rose.” “We will recover from that
situation. We’ll just take it slowly.” Carlo has been
forgiven and is back in her arms.
Angelica says that she’s drawn to Carlo’s expressive eyes
and unpredictable nature. “I don’t know what’s going on
inside his mind. He’s deep.” Emotionally, she’s attracted to
him because he is “caring.”
Angelica, admittedly, is emotionally frail. She recalls how
inconsolable she was when her relatives who used to live
with her and her mother in a Commonwealth compound, all left
for a better life in the United States. She was only 11, and
felt deserted by family.
“I felt like I lost my world and that my life had no meaning
and purpose. It was like somebody died in the family,” she
recalls. “I cried every night.” She would later tell
herself: “I will save a lot of money and get them all back
here. I will give them jobs, a house.”
She was just dreaming then, Angelica says, but that dream
may yet come true. Her uncle and his family, she reveals,
will be coming home for good in the next four or five years.
“They gave up on life in the US. I promised to give them
work here and send their children to school.”
Angelica says she enjoys the various roles she has played in
her show biz career: a ghost in “White Lady,” a superhero in
“Ronin,” and a bombshell on the cover of Maxim Philippines’
maiden issue. But the bigger satisfaction, she says, comes
from being “able to help my family,” a family that Angelica
Panganiban—a woman with a mysterious past—wants to protect
against the world. |
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