The Unmaking of Jojo Veloso

[Clyde Adkins]

From: ©1996 The Manila Times
http://www.portalinc.com/manilatimes/news1.html
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Copyright Reprinted by permission

The Unmaking of Jojo
Veloso

By Ike Arevalo

SIX SUNDAYS ago, GMA-7's StarTalk ran a blurry video of a
middle-aged man romping with five men, one after the other.
Fondling, masturbation, and oral sex were among the highlights of the
tape.
Two weeks later, ABS-CBN also aired footages from the same
video. In the feeding frenzy that followed, Jojo Veloso, a longtime
purveyor of talent with a checkered past, quickly replaced Lolit Solis
in the public's pantheon of monsters. Face-of-the-moment Hans
Montenegro, one of the models caught in the video, was forced to
watch the offending tape on a talk show, despite his protestations of
innocence. A few days later, he fled the country in disgrace.
When the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided Veloso's
offices at 920 Luna Mencias Street in Mandaluyong, they retrieved
209 more tapes. "All of them were erased except for one," says
Mamerto Espartero, head of the NBI section tasked with
investigating Veloso. This tape, never released for public airing,
according to NBI, contains a reel where a well-known and handsome
athlete was being masturbated by a man who looked like Veloso.
Veloso's passion for videotaping himself is such an open secret in
the industry that showbiz stalwarts find the timing of the exposŽ
suspicious. "This looks like a witchhunt, something is fishy,"
observes columnist Isah Red.
"I see an unseen hand in this," avers lawyer Billy Balbastro, who
writes 10 showbiz columns weekly. "This is fishing. Who are the real
complainants here?"
They point out that the public airing of the video could be nothing
more than a personal vendetta of another talent manager against his
rival: Whistle-blower Jobert Sucaldito, who supplied the TV stations
with the tapes, is a columnist-cum-PR-cum-talent manager. He had
long been engaged in a petty tiff with Veloso's media factotums.
Sucaldito was also once an employee of Boy Abunda, a respected
talent manager whose BackRoom occasionally competes with
Veloso's firm Philmoda, which is also a talent and casting agency.
"They clashed lately in a Viva project which pitted Philmoda's
Matthew Mendoza and BackRoom's Ariel Rivera," says Times
Entertainment editor Eric Ramos. Mendoza, a fresh face, went home
with the contract.
"Veloso is not the first and the last of his kind in the business," says
Red.
Times columnist Mario Bautista concurs. "Exploitation will always
be the rule, rather than the exception. In the Studio Days, they were
more discreet."
The existence of Veloso's tapes has also long been an open secret in
the industry.
One senior columnist reveals that he first saw the tape in 1994.
Balbastro claims he knew about the tapes as early as 1993, when a
Southern Tagalog designer promised him a peep. The tapes were
rumored to have been filched from Philmoda.
Some gay men like to videotape their intimate acts with handsome
and up-and-coming studs because the tapes are proof of one's
gravitas in the gay community. Tales of Veloso's gravitas have
circulated for the last 10 years at least. Famous names, like that of an
athlete, a male toothpaste model, and two very visible young actors,
have been bandied around as conquests of Jojo Veloso.
As early as 1993, blind items alluding to these stud trophies have
been written. They failed to catch fire until Jobert Sucaldito lit the
fuse of the scandal.

WHEN HE decamped to Manila from Tacloban, Leyte, the first
thing the plucky Waray did was to drop his real name, Guido Raagas,
and adopt an alias: Jojo Veloso.
Jojo, however, failed to shed his provincial airs. But his sleepy
mien, heavy Waray accent, and frothing at the mouth mid-way in
speech, somehow produced a comfortable, appealing picture.
Armed with just his ambitions, Jojo worked as a TV production
assistant. But he is best remembered for his stint under Rudy
Fuentes, a fashion designer.
"He was Rudy's gofer," recalls a friend who knew him during those
days. "You know, go for this, go for that."
"Veloso was a criada, sweeping floors and playing nursery maid to
his amo's coterie of beautiful women," he adds.
"It became clear to him [Jojo] that earning money wasn't going to
be hard when you're dealing with beautiful women," the friend
reveals.
Jojo would not be anybody's gofer for long. Through his contacts in
the industry, he slowly penetrated the finicky circle of the most
important casting figures in town.
As early as 1979, says a former advertising PA, Veloso was already
seen with the likes of Tetchie Agbayani and other beauty queens who
wanted to crash into show business.
As his clout increased, his prima donna colors started to show.
"Super mataray siya, and incredibly rude. He got banned so many
times by casting directors," reveals the PA.
But nobody could keep him out for long. "Banned? Well, they tried,
but they can't really dispense with him. Jojo, whatever you say, has
an eye for beauty," observes Isah Red.
"Marunong siyang tumingin," pipes another observer. "Not only do
they have perfect physical attributes, many of them are de buena
familias pa."
Over the last 10 years, some of the most striking beauties the
country has seen were actually his discoveries: Sabrina Artadi, Janelle
Barretto, and Ina Raymundo, to name some.
The Face of The Year contest, where a male-female pair is chosen
and which practically became a gene pool for movie studios and
modeling agencies, was Veloso's brainchild. In 1990, Fuentes' former
aide entered showbiz via Anna Atienza, who was paired with
Raymart Santiago in an action picture.
His early wards like Chuck Perez, Rustom Padilla, and Lander Vera
Perez would pave the way for today's Matthew Mendoza and
Anthony Cortez.
By most accounts, Veloso was a shrewd businessman. One of
Veloso's early coups was persuading Vic Del Rosario of Viva Films,
the second-biggest production house around, to accept his contest
winners for a screen test and a film appearance. Aside from Viva, he
also has an option with Four Aces Films, another film outfit.
Philmoda and the contest supply talents to advertising houses, but
the canny Veloso also supplied film extras to producers and lent his
glamor girls to events, parties and dates with politicians for a fee,
according to a source.
The talent manager was a control freak when it came to his wards,
according to sources in the advertising industry who had used his
talents. Most of the contracts were tied to his company, Philmoda,
and gave no specific figures on the talents' professional fees.
Up until six weeks ago, when the scandal erupted, the former Guido
Raagas had almost completed his re-creation of himself. An
employee at McCann-Erickson always knew that Philmoda's
headman was on the line when she heard the chant: "This is Jojo
Veloso, now a name, soon a legend." And he wasn't joking, either,
she stresses.
As his multi-sectoral web grew, his affectations also increased. His
favorite line was: "I'll make you my signature model," remembers a
former model who says his smitten discoverer often called him in the
evening to tell him "I love you."
When his romantic advances were getting nowhere, says the model,
the boss tried a new tack: "He was always telling me that R., my
friend and batchmate who became famous for a toothpaste ad, has
new magwheels, new clothes, etcetera. He was always trying to
make the models clash. When I got a girlfriend, the assigments
ceased suddenly. I just waited for my one-year contract to end and I
transferred.'
R., the male model reveals, became a great favorite of Veloso. "But
I can't really complain," he adds. "He was a good manager. In the
first three months, I was everywhere, in a beer commercial,
pictorials, etc. The reason that he didn't pursue me harder was
because he was afraid of my dad [a bona fide multi-millionaire].
Really, I'm surprised at how intense his activities have become since
1986."
From that time onwards, Jojo Veloso's patron age was any
wannabe's passport.

ONE OF the infrequent times when the star-builder failed to make
good on his promise triggered the chain of events that would lead to
the disappearance of his private tapes and his eventual unmaking.
"Two years ago, lumapit sa amin si Eugene Christiansen, from
Cebu, batch ni Dale Villar. Sabi niya, pinangakuan siya ni Jojo
Veloso na mananalo as titleholder sa Face of the Year. At akala niya,
siya nga ang magiging winner. Then, may nagdala kay Dale Villar.
Nanalo si Dale. Medyo na-irita siya, pero dinala din si Eugene sa
Viva, but then, hindi nag-flourish ang kanyang career. Ang ginawa ni
Eugene, kumuha siya ng tapes."
The aggrieved young man then went over to Boy Abunda's
Backroom, presumably taking the incriminating tapes with him.
Sometime this year, Sucaldito hinted in his column at FilMag, a
showbiz magazine, about Hans Montenegro's presence in the tape.
Veloso's allies dared Sucaldito to produce the material. Goaded,
Sucaldito delivered copies to both Channels 7 and 2, bitter rivals in
the ratings game. Amazingly, ABS-CBN, mother of all revelations,
decided to sit on the tapes. Meanwhile, stodgy GMA-7 borrowed
from its rival's tactics and aired the tapes.
Abunda, the Backroom honcho, denies having masterminded
Veloso's downfall. "I hardly know Jojo. I have no reason to hurt him.
I was in New York for a recording session last September when this
happened. The decision to air the tape was arrived at by StarTalk's
production and artistic staff with the GMA management. And I have
no control over Jobert Sucaldito. He's not my employee anymore
and I do not know what his motives are." Abunda says that he has
received numerous death threats since the incident. Meanwhile,
Sucaldito's former protege, a certain Brian now with Philmoda, also
went on air to accuse Sucaldito of bedding him regularly while
nothing was happening to his career.

IS JOJO Veloso, fairy godmother to every starry-eyed wannabe, a
pimp?
"No, not directly," says one insider who has known him since 1979.
"Part of his business is to provide glamor girls to parties and events.
And let's say a client needs 20, he sends 20 girls. Di ba trabaho ang
hanap nila? At bahala na sila duon."
This is normal practice among top corporations, according to
lawyer-businessman Charlie Farrales. "Let's say a visiting industrialist
arrives and he will need a suitable dinner companion. They call the
ad agencies. And whom do they call, they call somebody like Jojo
Veloso. Then the girl gets P5,000 to dine at Prince Albert and to
provide adornment to the atmosphere."
In the circle whereVeloso moves, rumors of Veloso's alleged
pimping have been around long enough.
"I've heard of it before," says a talent caster for a large ad agency.
"That's why we're very careful with him."
The rumors have been going around for as long as he can
remember, says another talent caster, that to this day he wouldn't
touch a Veloso talent for fear of being tainted.
One source tells stm that he has seen Veloso hanging out in a hotel
lobby as if waiting for someone. "Mamaya-maya dumating si
Governor [name of governor from Bicol] at sumama na iyung mga
babae."
He named a number of important names he believed are Veloso's
clients. But he wouldn't go on the record.
Veloso's discreet "escort services," according to an insider, can go
as high as P50,000 a week or a whopping P200,000 a month for
Jojo's top talents.
"That's just for escorting the client," the insider insists. "What
happens afterwards is already the woman's choice." The rumor mill
is abuzz with tales of how one food magnate has availed of this
"escort service." One politician reportedly paid in seven figures.
A gay entertainment figure admits that one time, when he saw a
really scintillating new talent of Veloso, he tried to do something
about his passion. After endearingly addressing Veloso as "kapatid,"
he recalls, he asked if the young man was available. He asked if an
"ex-deal" was okay, the barter being sexual favors for more publicity.
Veloso was reported to have been slightly chilled by the idea, telling
him "Hindi puede iyan. Humiling ka na lang ng iba. Pero kung gusto
mo, subukan mo."
As the pimping question makes the rounds, Ana Capri and Ina
Raymundo, among Veloso's other talents have denied that their
star-maker has offerred them on the market.

EVEN IF Jojo Veloso survives charges of sexual abuse without going
to jail, he may find his talent-supplying business vastly diminished.
While he may escape more serious charges, the dragnet against him
will most likely pin him down on his employment of minors without
valid contracts. The penalty for this is up to three years.
The Makati ad agencies, horrified at the fallout of the scandal, have
since stopped using Veloso's talents.
"Actually, we're not going to get talents from him after what
happened. Mahirap na. DOLE [the Department of Labor and
Employment] might look around," says Edgar Dizon, junior caster at
Lintas.
MacCann-Erickson is also inclined to think the same way.
"Although there's no formal memo yet from management, it's not
what you'd call business as usual."
At Viva Films, public relations officer Baby Gil says that there will
be some rethinking of the studio's professional relationship with
Veloso if he's found guilty. "But all old contracts will be honored,"
Gil adds. She says that they have had no problems with Veloso's
talents at Viva like Ina Raymundo, Matthew Mendoza, and Cara
Marzan in the past.
As everybody awaits a formal trial, what could top the scandal of
the tapes? Another tape, of course. The third tape, says several
people who have claimed to have watched it, features a former Face
of the Year winner and three current actors.
Naturally, Jojo Veloso was there.