Kim Chiu’s pa defends her from critics

CEBUANA actress Kim Chiu’s father defended her from allegations raised by a blog site after it published a letter accusing her of neglecting her late mother.

Kim’s father William Chiu Jr. said she would have wanted to be at her mother’s wake but she had to go to Thailand to do a commercial shoot that had been signed two years ago.

The elder Chiu had been receiving visitors, relatives and fans of Kim Chiu at the wake of his 50-year-old wife Louella Yap Chiu who passed away last week.

He said Kim will try to convince the product owner and advertisers to let her come home to Cebu sooner so she can be at her mother’s wake. The burial is on June 29, Saturday at Cempark.

Chiu said the burial can’t be moved since they already consulted a Feng Shui expert who said the next best day for burial will fall on July 5. He said Kim left the country with a heavy heart.

Kim and her father had just reconciled after a five-year misunderstanding.

Chiu said Kim and the rest of the family only knew about the whereabouts of their mother when she was already comatose.

He said his wife’s legs and knees deteriorated to the point where she can no longer walk. She was due for an operation to correct that condition.

Chiu said Louella was cared for by some people whom she asked not to communicate with her family.

But when the mother was already in coma, her caretaker called up Kim, who went home to Cebu immediately and visited her in the hospital.

“Kim would arrive every dawn and return to Manila later in the morning for work and be back again here in Cebu,” the elder Chiu said.

He said Kim would talk to her mother in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) as if she was listening.

“Kim was her mother’s favorite. It was painful for Kim,” he said.

Chiu said Kim even begged her mother to stay alive and get well soon.

“When you will feel better Mom, you will come with me to Manila, and you will stay at my house. You will take care of me. Please be okay soon,” he quoted Kim as telling her mother.

For now, Chiu said Kim is trying to stay strong for the family and the people who supported her throughout her ordeal. /Carine M. Asutilla, Correspondent