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Cry no tears for Rich

I wanted to win for them,” says the Dawn Zulueta look-alike, who lost out on the four major titles at stake in GMA-7’s popular artista search.

Instead, the statuesque and dusky Bohol native—who will soon start appearing on select GMA-7 shows—ended up as First Princess. The four major titles of Ultimate Hunk, Ultimate Sweetheart and Ultimate Loveteam went to Aljur Abrenica, Jewel Mische and the pair of Kris Bernal and Mart Escudero.

Ironically, Rich was the one tagged most likely to win, because of her strong performance in the weekly challenges. The only problem was that she and her supporters didn’t have enough resources to marshal the text votes needed to put her on top. She couldn’t spend for her own text votes because they didn’t have money. “I couldn’t invest because we didn’t have anything to invest,” she says.

At one point, she suggested to her mother that maybe they could borrow money, but her mother turned it down and said she should just do her best and let her performance carry her through. In the judges’ tallies, performance was given a weight of 50 percent. The rest, Rich told herself, she would leave to fate.

Unfortunately, the text votes were not enough to carry her all the way to the top four spots. Rich was so despondent over what happened that on the night the winners were proclaimed, she left the venue hurriedly. “I didn’t even say goodbye,” she says. She also didn’t cry. When she got back to the privacy of her hotel room, that’s when the tears started to fall.

But now, Rich isn’t crying anymore, because GMA-7 has grand plans for its First Princess. “It’s not just the top four that they’re going to take care of—it’s all six of us,” says Rich, whose family plans to relocate from Bohol to Manila just to keep her company as she embarks on her showbiz career.

For the shy Rich, the first thing she has to learn is how to adjust to her new world. “I’m not so used to it yet,” she smiles. “I’m really a shy person by nature, and I guess that’s the hardest part of being in showbiz. But I’m a fast learner. When I was in Starstruck, I did a lot of things that I never did before, like singing. The only singing I used to do was with a videoke machine at home in the province. Starstruck was a whole new experience for me. So if I have to learn things, I can—and I will.”

She dreams of being cast in a variety show, because she loves dancing. But she wouldn’t rule out a horror movie either. “I love watching horror movies,” she giggles. “So why not star in one?”