20 NOVEMBER 2018

20
LIFESTYLE
Dinah S. Ventura, Editor
Tuesday, 20 November 2018
Daily Tribune
Charisse’s transfer to Mandarin Hotel in Makati, where she would meet
more friends and level up to newer heights, came about because, Our
sales director in Century Park, who moved to Mandarin, asked me to
move to Mandarin
ESQUIRE food editor Tom Parker Bowles and Charisse Chuidian at The Tivoli.
Before there was City of
Dreams (COD), there was
Charisse Chuidian. I put two
together not only because
Charisse has been working
at the COD since 2014. More
importantly, Charisse is the
perennial Dream Girl of every fledgling and
mid-career public relations person in the
tourism industry -- someone they admire,
respect and try to emulate.
With so many top-of-the-line hotels and
urban resorts sprouting, there is now a
continuous demand for in-house public
relations people, and Charisse comes to
mind because anyone who wants to succeed
and survive in this industry, and be loved as
well, had better possess assets and virtues
that come close to her expertise and charm.
What has Charisse to do with a column
that purports to give its point of view on
social climbing, or making it in a world
that’s higher than the social environment
where one lives and moves around now?
Well, many things. But just to give you one,
Charisse made it to the social top merely
and clearly by not seriously, deliberately and
obsessively wanting to make it there. She
just worked hard and people recognized her
professionalism and a lot more.
Sweetheart of the PR world
A veteran public relations lady told me,
“All it takes to succeed in this field is to
be like Charisse. You don’t need a bible,
a handbook, or a mentor. Just be like
Charisse.” The PR lady, however, prefers
not to be identified “lest the other hotel PR
ladies get jealous.”
Well, I told her, Tita Mila is number one
in my list, but then, we agreed the Guy’s
daughter is Doyen Emeritus of Hotel PR
while Charisse is the Sweetheart. That
explains the difference, although Tita Mila
can be just as sweet, but with the common
touch that, being her father’s daughter,
comes naturally to her.
When wanting to become Charisse,
one just needs to think of what class and
propriety is all about. The sweet voice, the
graciousness, they all come together in one
person.
Look, Charisse’s image is not of one
to the manor born, if you know what
I mean. But she was born to a feisty
father, a hero in his own right, a
champion of press freedom.
“Yes, I have a journalist’s blood,”
said Charisse, when I visited her
at the City of Dreams. “We had
a community newspaper called
Sunday Punch.
“What happened then
was the newspaper had an
expose on payroll padding.
It was about a councilor
who wanted to stop the
presses, but the printing
press people told him
to talk to my dad. So,
he went to my dad to
tell him to stop the
story. My dad said
no. The guy smelled of
liquor. And then he shot my
father. He was convicted
but instead of murder, it
was homicide.”
To honor his memory, a street
was named after Ermin Garcia Sr. in
Cubao, Quezon City. Interestingly, it is the
same street where Charisse has lived for a
long time.
that I had to undergo physical examination,
he didn’t like it. So, he said let’s go to
Maryknoll. He was very impressed with a
lady from Dagupan who was a graduate of
Maryknoll. Her name was Edna Torio. She
ran a school in Dagupan.”
Charisse made it to the social top
merely and clearly by not seriously,
deliberately and obsessively wanting
to make it there.
“Our first year college was general AB
course. In our second year, we had to choose
our specific course. We were shown the
curriculum and I saw that Communication
Arts, a new degree, did not have Math. So
I chose it. And the subjects were English,
Communication, and everything in line
with communication. So, I said, ‘Ay, this
is for me.’”
Communication Arts was the closest
to her high school dream. Or her father’s
dream for her. “My dad would ask me
questions about what I wanted to become.
And he would encourage me to become a
journalist. When I was in high school, I
joined this Voice of Democracy Contest. So,
when I was filling out the application form
for college admission, he said you can say
you want to become a journalist.”
Sub promo girl at ABS-CBN
After graduation, she worked at the ABS
CBN, which was only a few minutes away
from their family home.
“I was a copy writer for program
promotions. There were promo girls before,
remember? So, we would write the copy for
A DREAM GIRL NAMED
CHARISSE
A Mass Communications wannabe
Charisse had originally aimed for a
career in mass communications.
Charisse grew up in Dagupan
where she finished high school at
the Blessed Imelda Academy. (Yes,
you read it right, and heard it right
if you’re the kind who mumbles
what they are reading.)
“Our school was eventually
renamed Dominican
School. It was founded by
the Congregation of the
Religious Missionaries of
St. Dominic,” recalled
Charisse. “Then, I went
to Maryknoll. Most of
my schoolmates and
family friends went
to UST or UP, so I
intended to go to
UP, but when my
father found out CHARISSE in the mid 1970s as PR officer of Century Park Sheraton.
them, the spiels,” she shared.
Being a promo girl was glamorous. “So,
when someone was late or someone couldn’t
make it, they would pull me from the office.
What? Do not worry, they said, you know
what to say, ikaw naman ang sumusulat
eh (You’re the one writing it, anyway). So,
I would pinch-hit if somebody was sick.”
I asked Charisse if she enjoyed her job.
She replied, “It was showbiz, so it was fun.
Our office was near a production room so we
would see people running around. And then
you would see all these actors and actresses
walking into the lobby. Showbiz people like
Pilar Pilapil, Maya Valdez. It was a different
world. I left ABS-CBN in 1970.”
A boss named EZ
A different kind of ambience awaited
her at Ayala Avenue. “I told myself I had
a real office. We were at the Insular Life
Building first. Then we moved to the Makati
Stock Exchange.”
It was her first job in public relations and
her boss was Buddy Gomez. Yes, that Buddy
Gomez of the Malacañang press office.
“What happened was when I was in
ABS-CBN, our Dean of Communications
in Maryknoll, whose name was Wolfgang,
called me up. He said there was an opening
in Ayala for PR, ‘So why don’t you go? He
prodded me to go and give it a try, so I did.
So, I met Buddy Gomez. I think there were
three who interviewed me. They gave me
an entrance test and an essay test right
there and then. And so, I was taken in. I
lasted for four years.”
The big boss of Ayala Corporation then
was Enrique Zobel or EZ, although she
reported directly to Buddy Gomez. Among
her duties was to arrange parties and
conferences.
When wanting to become Charisse,
one just needs to think of what class
and propriety is all about.
Of EZ, Charisse recalled, “Oh, we all loved
him. He was one person that I adored. I really
looked up to him. He was in the office early
at 7:30 in the morning and he would leave
the office at 4:30 in the afternoon.
“I remember he had his own
helicopter, so once he
said we were
PROUST IS BACK!
Jojo Gumpal Silvestre
going to Calatagan to see this project of the
Ayala Foundation. So, he brought me and
his secretary and we were on the chopper.
So, we were waiting for the pilot and then,
he sat on the pilot’s seat. And then he
said, ‘Huwag kayong matakot, marunong
akong magpalipad.’ (‘Don’t worry, I
know how to fly a plane.’) Malutong ang
kaniyang Tagalog. (Roughly translated:
‘His Tagalog was crisp, spoken like a native
speaker would.’) So, he flew the helicopter
up to Calatagan. Punta Baluarte was just
starting. He housed us there, and every
morning, someone would pick us up to
have breakfast in his house. And when we
drove around the buggy in his hacienda.
He knew everyone. Like he would ask them,
‘Kumusta na, Ka Tibo? (if that was the
name - How are you, Ka Tibo?), ‘Magaling
na ang anak mo?’ (Is your child well?) The
people loved and respected him. He was
so down-to-earth.”
Book seller
Then, Charisse moved to a foundation.
“My brother used to hold a position in
the office of Father Lagerway. I was going
to be the head of a department at the
Communication Foundation of Asia (CFA).
It was a small company but it was a move
up. It happened that when I left, EZ was
out of the country,” shared Charisse.
She was Special Services Director at
the Communication Foundation of Asia. “I
was looking after the sales of the books
that they published. Parang PR, but it was
more sales and I thought it wasn’t for me
because we sold books published by CFA.
We would talk to companies or institutions
so we could publish books for them. I
stayed less than six months because,
then, the hotels came.”
“The president of
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