Faces of the News

Josie Trinidad

Last year, it was Ronnie del Carmen, the Fil-Am codirector of Pixar’s “Inside Out.” This year it’s Fil-Am animator Josie Trinidad’s turn to seize the awards-season spotlight, this time for “Zootopia.” Trinidad didn’t really bring home her animated film’s trophy, but winning the Golden Globe for best animated feature of 2016 would not have been possible without her. The film’s codirector Rich Moore described Trinidad as “incredibly talented.” After joining Disney as a story apprentice in 2004, the CalArts alumna worked on “Wreck-It-Ralph,” “Tangled” and other animated films and quickly rose from the ranks. Trinidad, whose parents are from San Juan City and Laguna, was cohead of Disney’s computer-animated screen adventure “Zootopia,” 2016’s third highest grossing film.

Miss New Zealand

Tania Pauline Dawson

She’s in town for the Miss Universe pageant on Jan. 30, and naturally, wants to visit Sta. Maria, Pangasinan, her Filipino mother’s birthplace. After all, the last time she visited this eastern Pangasinan town, together with her mother, Margarita Garcia Palabay, and her three brothers, was in 2012. Sadly, the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) handling the pageant had other things in mind. Dawson had e-mailed the town’s tourism officer, Doris Ramos, expressing her desire to visit the public school and to call on local officials there from Tuesday to Thursday last week. She probably wanted to swing by to see the countryside and touch base with her kin. But the MUO nixed her request as it imposed certain conditions that were impossible for the local tourism officers to comply with.

Jee Ick-joo

The South Korean businessman was dragged from his home in Angeles City, Pampanga, into his SUV by two men on Oct. 18. The men, allegedly led by a police officer, announced it was a drug raid. Jee’s wife, Choi Kyung-jin, was at a loss as to why he was targeted. Jee has not been seen since then. His wife paid a P5 million ransom to the abductors, and rejected an additional demand for P4.5 million. Kidnapping charges have been filed against the police officer, who has reportedly gone absent without leave. In the meantime, Jee’s wife has pleaded with President Duterte and PNP Director General Ronald dela Rosa to help her find him. “… I’m writing to you personally, Mr. President, because only through your strong sense of justice and will that I find relief and confidence,” she said.

Julito Vitriolo

The executive director of the Commission on Higher Education may have gotten a dose of his own medicine. He was ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman for failing to stop a diploma mill operation in a city college. He vowed to appeal the order. Only recently, he figured in a power struggle with CHEd Chair Patricia Licuanan, whom he had asked to be replaced in a manifesto to President Duterte. Licuanan had been barred by Mr. Duterte from attending Cabinet meetings but vowed to finish her fixed term until 2018. After the Ombudsman ruled on Vitriolo’s case, Licuanan vowed to strictly enforce it. “Noting that, consistent with the law, rules and jurisprudence on the matter, such an order is immediately executory and ought to be implemented upon receipt,” she said.

Reynaldo Berroya

Nothing was heard from him for years after he left government. Now, the retired police general is back in the limelight and in the bureaucracy. His new job, however, has nothing to do with sleuthing, or cracking cases as he had done when he was a police officer. He is now the administrator of the Light Railway Transit Authority which oversees the operations of the mass transit system. He was among a group of retired police and military generals who rooted for then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte when he ran for President in May 2016. Working with the transport sector is nothing new to him. After retiring from the national police, where he figured in controversies including kidnapping, he was named Land Transportation Office chief by then President Arroyo.

Manny Pacquiao

Coming off a bout that almost went by unnoticed—at least by the spotlight standard he had set for himself—Manny Pacquiao is back in the headlines after agreeing to fight undefeated—but unheralded—Australian Jeff Horn. The fight is being packaged as the first of a series of four bouts that will lead the world’s only eight-division champion into retirement for good. So many details have yet to be ironed out. For one, there is no official venue still. Also, Pacquiao’s management team is balking at the $5-million guaranteed purse for the fighting senator. But the bout is most likely to push through, whether it is in Horn’s home country or in the Middle East, where several investors have voiced willingness to host Pacquiao’s defense of the WBO welterweight title.