Angel Locsin earns her first 'Star'

While it can be argued that Angel Locsin may not currently enjoy the immense popularity she once had as television’s “Darna” when she was GMA 7’s top female talent, her controversial transfer to ABS-CBN, at least, now made her an award-winning actress. The Philippine Movie Press Club Star Awards for Television held last Sunday at the SMX Convention Center recognized Angel as having given the Best Single Performance by an Actress for the “Maala-ala Mo Kaya” episode “Pilat.” This is Angel’s first acting award. In addition, her first primetime drama in ABS-CBN, “Lobo” was awarded the Best Primetime TV series and her co-star Piolo Pascual, the Best Drama Actor. GMA 7 was voted Best Station, apart from 21 other awards, which included the Best Drama Actress for Sunshine Dizon in “Impostora,” Best Male TV Host for Vic Sotto in “Eat Bulaga,” Best Comedy Actor for Ogie Alcasid in “Bubble Gang,” Best Comedy Actress for Rufa Mae Quinto in “Bubble Gang” Best Female Newscaster for Vicky Morales in “Saksi,” Best Daytime Drama Series for “Kaputol ang Isang Awit,” Best Comedy Show for “Ful Haus,” Best Musical Variety Show for “SOP,” Best Morning Show for “Unang Hirit,” Best Documentary for “Signos: Ang Banta ng Nagbabagong Klima,” Best Documentary Program for “I-Witness,” and Best Children’s Show for “Art Angel,” among others. ABS-CBN, on the other hand, achieved the most individual awards with 26. Apart from Angel and Piolo’s victories, the Kapamilya network also bagged Best Single Performance by an Actor for Joshua Dionisio in the “Maala-ala Mo Kaya” episode “Sako,” Best Female Host for Valerie Concepcion in “Wowowee,” Best Male Newscaster for Julius Babao in “TV Patrol World,” Best Drama Anthology for “Maala-ala Mo Kaya,” Best Newscast for “TV Patrol World,” Best Showbiz-Oriented Talk Show for “The Buzz,” Best Showbiz-Oriented Talk Show Hosts for Boy Abunda, Ruffa Gutierrez and Cristy Fermin in “The Buzz,” Best Game Show for “Pilipinas Game KNB?,” and Best Gag Show for “Goin Bulilit,” among others. TV5 (formerly ABC-5) won Best Talent Search Program for “Shall We Dance” and Best Talent Search Program Host for Lucy Torres-Gomez, Arnell Ignacio and Dominic Ochoa in the same program. UNTV 37 also took home two plums—Best Public Service Program for “Bitag” and Best Public Service Program Host for its presenter, Ben Tulfo.