DIRT POOR: Jericho Rosales

Jericho Rosales shares how he pulled himself out of the dump

Don’t be a slave to poverty. Jericho Rosales lived by this mantra all his life. A product of humble beginnings, the actor – one of his generation’s finest – is now keen to reward himself. It is not to make up for everything he missed out on during his impoverished childhood; his past, after all, ultimately served him well. Rather, it is the reward of time, of choice – in his career and private life.

When Echo won the title of “Mr Pogi” (Mr Handsome) inEat Bulaga, we heard about how he was a service crew for a popular local pizza parlor before he snagged his job (at that time) as a personal driver. We thought, good-looking, charming (Who can resist this guy’s twin dimples?) and it appears, self-reliant. But his story was nothing out of the ordinary – a large percentage of Filipinos his age is in the F&B service industry, either on a part-time or full-time basis.

Nobody knew the full story of his less-than-charmed life prior to show business until this writer sat down to discuss with him just how legitimate his “sob story” was. It seemed that not even his girlfriend then, actress Heart Evangelista, had fully grasped Echo’s lowly existence pre-showbiz.

HUNGRY YEARS

After his parents split up, his mother had to take charge of Echo and his younger sibling by herself. They would move wherever she found work. Unable to cope, she suffered from temporary stress-induced blindness.

As a kid, Echo learned that he must work for the things he wanted. It started out innocently enough – the childish assumption that at 11 years of age, it’s fine to sell fish in the market for 20 pesos a day so he could buy GI Joe toy dolls. In hindsight, he realised how desperate their situation was at the time.

“Once, we couldn’t afford to buy ulam (viand), so we just ate rice with salt, toyo (soy sauce), andcalamansi,” he related in an interview I was doing for a teen title then. Whenever his mom found herself jobless, they would resort to borrowing from the store or at worst, ignore their hunger.

But there was even worse to come. “Nung second year high school ako, naging caretaker kami ng pamilya ko ng isang bakanteng lote. Doon sa lote, may sira-sirang pader na nilagyan namin ng yerong bubong. Doon kami tumira. Tubig ulan ang panligo namin.” (In my second year of high school, my family became caretakers of a vacant lot. In that lot, there was a dilapidated wall. We attached a tin roof above it. That’s where we lived. We had to use rainwater for bathing.) That period, he said, was the lowest point of his life.

Throughout the course of the interview, Echo would glance repeatedly at Heart, as if to gauge her reaction. The latter was pitying, prompting him to admit that he had never divulged the extent of his miserable past to the actress.

At 17, he left home to work as a service crew in Greenwich, a popular local pizza joint. “Bumukod ako kasi kailangan kong tulungang kumita nanay at kapatid ko. Naglalaba na nun nanay ko. Binibisita ko sila tuwing suweldo ko.” (I left home because I needed to help my mom and younger sibling earn money. My mom at that time had started doing laundry for other people. I would visit them every pay day.)

When he became a personal driver, his employer’s client suggested that he join Eat Bulaga’s “Mr Pogi” competition. Initially, he refused as he and his friends used to mock and laugh about the contest. But in dire straits, he eventually relented and auditioned without telling his friends. He won and the rest, as they say, is history.

“When I got shows in ABS-CBN, I hung a Raiders car plate on my cabinet to drive me to work hard. In less than six months, I got to buy a car! That really inspired me, so I said I’m going to buy my mom a house. After a year, naibili ko nga siya ng bahay.” (I was able to buy her a house.)

DEVELOPING SUBSTANCE

When Echo was still with Heart, hecklers called him a TH (“Trying Hard”) and a wannabe coño (rich kid), when all the guy did was try to improve his conversational skills in English. He tried his hand in recording music; this, too, earned him further taunting. But these didn’t stop Echo from striving to better himself, not just personality-wise, but character-wise as well. (Yes, he’s still working on his music career.)

Echo recently manned up and regained his dignity as he strove to keep details of his most recently ended relationship (with Cesca Litton) private. Instead of his usual heartbroken cries on national TV, he refocuses attention on the thing that catapulted him to stardom – his thespic talent. Back on top anew (with TFC primetime hit Green Rose) after the dip his career took at the height of his romance with Heart, Echo channels his renewed faith in himself and his job on developing substance.

In an interview with a Filipino broadsheet, he said: “I choose my projects very well. I don’t want to waste the rest of my life doing something that is not worthwhile.”

Right now, he is keen to venture into producing and other aspects of film-making, which can prove fruitful, considering his record as an award-winning actor. “I want to make movies that will matter.”

As a reward for all his hard work in the last 11 years, Jericho Rosales is giving himself time, giving himself a choice on who and what to become, regardless of naysayers.

For now, he only has one goal: “To reach out to many people, to inspire and to touch people’s lives.”

His story, the tale of his rise from the dumps, is a classic example. “Don’t let poverty ruin your dream, rob you of happiness or get the best of you. You’ll get a chance to buy a ticket out of poverty, but it’ll takesipag (hard work), tiyaga (perseverance) and a good attitude. God is the God of Possibility. Simply believe in Him.”

By: IRENE CURTIS

Source: http://www.pinoystaronline.com/dirt%E2%80%88poor-jericho-rosales/