What do actor Jericho Rosales and model Kim Jones have to do with the local arts council?
They are artists who could be pivotal in the creation of a city arts organization of a Local Government Unit (LGU) because aside from being an actor on TV, film, and stage and art designer and mannequin on the ramp, respectively, they are citizens of the world or bona fide residents of a barangay in the country or simply, they are subjects in arts and culture qualified to be written or discussed.
For instance, Edward Perez, Head of the National Committee on Dramatic Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), said that there is a bill drafted in Congress by Representative Christopher de Venecia of the 4th District of Pangasinan about the creation of a council for the arts in the local level of government to facilitate effective delivery of arts and culture to the people in the area.
Arts and culture are also essential goods for the consumption of the constituents.
They might not be food for the stomach but they are nourishment as well for the brain.
Besides, Jericho and Kim could sit in the council in any capacity or they could be part of a show in the parochial or citified sense.
Anyway, even if Rosales and Jones have already called it quits, they are still around doing arts and culture.
After all these years, they are thespians in their own right.
As husband and wife, they have carried the torch for, more or less, fourteen years.
Echo and Kim met in 2011 in a dinner party tendered by fellow actor Dominic Ochoa, a colleague of the former at the Star Magic of ABS-CBN.
A few months aftet the occasion, the two started dating and later, Jones gave her precious "yes" to Rosales' woos and got engaged in the middle of a celebratory Christian fellowship.
In 2014, Echo, a Filipino and Kim, of a Filipina-Australian--English descent tied the knot in the poetic landscape of Boracay Island.
All throughout their married life, the couple was a picture perfect of an ideal setup where they were mostly independent of each other's artistic businesses--he as an active performer onstage (as a singer and actor), television, movies and multimedia and she as a busy designer of all sorts off-cam and a ramp and commercial model.
They travelled a lot together from east to west on personal capacities and official functions.
Until there was a rumor that the two were up to an annulment in 2019 which was broken to the public by vlogger and comic Ogie Diaz.
Officially, though, by the account of Ricco Ocampo, Echo's friend and the couple's godfather in their wedding, the two had decided to cool off as a family as early as 2019.
Still Kim and Jericho kept their mouths shut and their real marital situation was swept under the rug.
All the while, they were together in the public's eye when they were working as one.
They even lived together in New York in the US in 2022.
At the same time, they did a photoshoot for a franchised glossy mag in the same year.
When they came back to the country, they were partners at the ABS-CBN Ball in 2023.
Until Ocampo spilled the beans of their filial dissolution.
No third party involvement, though, only amicable breakup.
According to Ricco's official statement, Echo and Kim have remained “friends” but committed to a split in different directions.
Now, Perez as in Rosales and Jones' optimism of a civil co-existence, is hopeful a local arts council could be established and gain benefits from artists of all persuasions.
Edward said that the budget for the councils will also come from the LGUs because there are provisions the Local Government Code about the sustainability of the municipal or city gov't to support the councils.
Perez is one of the sub commissioners who is quite engaged in the 2024 National Arts Month (NAM) of the NCCA.
Shorts: Speaking of Jericho Rosales, his ex-gf Heart Evangelista has been in the news about the alleged Hold Departure Order (HDO) slapped on her former glam team members Justin Soriano and Jeck Aguilar who were held in an airport on their way to Dubai to meet 2015 Miss Universe Pia Wurtzbach (who they now serve with glitzy look) and fashion designer Mark Bamberger. The incident prompted speculation that Heart had a hand in it because she was the wife of a powerful person, Senator Chiz Escudero. The fallout among Evangelista and her glam assistant stemmed from the alleged max out of her credit card by the stylists, an accusation which is still unclear. Anyway, Heart hasn't concretely answered the issue but she has been sending cryptic messages online on distrust and destruction of her inner joy, things that insinuate a lot, personal and otherwise. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has issued a statement that said that there's no HDO against Justin and Jeck and that there are no derogatory records against them. The problem of Soriano and Aguilar lies in their travel situation in Dubai...What showbiz camaraderie could do when someone in the group's kinship suffers tragedy like the death of Yolanda Mejia, elder sister of Elizabeth Mejia, and actress Vida Verde. Beth's friends like Lovely Rivero, Melissa Mendez, Alma Concepcion, and Glenda Garcia were ready to embrace and console the Mejias. Every night, the stars had brightened up the mourning mood of the Mejia clan.
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