WHY we lost contact with Tim Yap ang magsisilbing pagtatapos sa column na ito.
But first, nais naming batiin ng mainit at malugod na “Congratulations!” at “Best wishes!” si Tim ngayong ikinasal na siya sa kanyang boyfriend, si Javi Martinez Pardo.
Tim and Javi exchanged I-do’s nitong Dec. 25 sa Amerika after they got engaged in January last year. Surely, it was more than a white Christmas for the newlyweds (kulay bahaghari pa which are the colors of the LGBT community).
Back in January, walang masyado, if not walang pumatol sa balita ng pagiging engaged nina Tim at Javi. Only reported on social media, ewan if the local media wasn’t ready yet for such an event. Or puwede ring there were much bigger events that drowned the Tim-Javi engagement.
Kung uso pa siguro ang now-extinct showbiz-oriented talk shows, for sure, the Tim-Javi union would have earned editorial prominence kung paanong —noong nasa ere pa ang Startalk sa GMA—the respective weddings of Aiza Seguerra-Liza Dino and Perci Intalan-Jun Lana (both in the US) were given ample airtime.
Pero masaya kami para kay Tim na nakatrabaho namin dati sa Tweetbiz (on QTV 11) which was later retitled Tweetbiz Insiders on GMA News TV.
Already famous, Tim was easiest to get along with. Halatang may breeding (La Sallista ba naman), but Tim was very unassuming. Very particular at conscious lang siya with how he looked on camera, mapasuot niya o anggulo ng kanyang yayamaning kutis.
He spoke the language na panalo kahit sa mga jologs, yet he didn’t reveal much of himself as far as gender orientation was concerned. Hindi naman kasing beking-beki si Tim compared to Mr. Fu, his co-host (mga lesser minions lang kami, kumbaga sa pelikula, angat lang nang konti sa mga bit players).
Palibhasa richie-richie, Tim was the giver-type. In short, galante (no comparison this time) lalo pa’t kung itataon mong Chinese New Year, he had gifts for everyone.
Our closeness to Tim transcended work. We were frequent text mates na kung anik-anik lang naman ang mga itine-text namin sa isa’t isa. But Tim’s most admirable quality, para sa amin, was (and probably still is) his being a sensible talker.
Magkaiba nga lang ang mundo namin, poles apart; our personae, like apples and oranges kundi man mansanas at dalandan.
Natsugi na sa ere ang Tweetbiz Insiders. But behind all of us who composed the production was a myriad of fond memories worth-savoring to this day.
Eto na ang “punchline” (related to our intro above). Back then, Tim—who’d be perennially late in coming to the studio—ay nanggagaling pa sa isang five-star hotel sa Makati. Dinig namin, his suite was courtesy of his afam dyowa (and why not?).
Once, nagawi kami sa hotel na ‘yon to visit a female college friend who was vacationing from the US. Since we had kept Tim’s number on our phonebook, nag-text kami sa kanya saying we were right at the lobby of the hotel.
Kung nandu’n nga naman siya, his excited feet would make him hop in the elevator in a huff para katagpuin kami since we hadn’t been in constant communication.
In fairness, mabilis naman ang naging sagot ni Tim.
Pero sa halip na “How do u do?,” his text reply read: “Hu u?”
Sa isip-isip namin, “Hu u pala, ha?” Puwes, our best option was to press “delete.”
Pero sa phonebook lang, not in our book of heart (puwede ba ‘yon?).