Taming Heart; exposing Chiz

IT'S about love or what the couple thinks it is: the affair between movie star Heart Evangelista and Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero.

Heart thanks Chiz for his love and continued support. Chiz says their love is going strong ("maayos at matatag").

Both know better than anyone about the state of affection for each other. But it's anything but "maayos," given the raging of Rey and Cecile Ongpauco, Heart's parents, over her running away with Chiz and the parents' wish to "expose" what the public doesn't know about the senator.

Leave out the 16-year age gap (Chiz, 44; Heart, 28) and "over-protectiveness" of parents, to whom Heart is still "a baby emotionally."

Those are issues better left to entertainment journalists--and a psychiatrist whom, her mom says, Heart needs, and love counselors, whom others say the lovers need.

Instead, focus on Chiz running for reelection as senator and wanting, as he wanted in 2010, to run for president in 2016.

How he'd behave as president should be of public concern. If it's true, as Heart's parents allege, there's "unsavory gossip" about Chiz, voters should know if it's more than idle talk. His alleged alcoholism surely isn't just celebrity trivia.

Churchill, Erap

The nation knew Erap Estrada drank liquor when he was senator and vice president but they didn't know he'd drink till daybreak with his "midnight" Cabinet and decide affairs of state in near-stupor.

Winston Churchill said he had taken "more out of alcohol than what alcohol had taken out" of him. But Erap is no Churchill and Chiz could be another Erap.

(paseares@sunstar.com.ph)