Some people dream of meeting stars. Others dream of being stars. Jojie Dingcong makes both dreams come true, having spent the past few decades making stars out of people and bringing them closer to their adoring fans.
By JOSE PAOLO S. DELA CRUZ
Who am I? This is a question that Jojie Dingcong always asks himself whenever he tries to keep track of his dreams and aspirations. But even at an early age, this successful “star maker” has always known what he has wanted to become. “When I was in high school, I became a big fan of Mike Ovitz, one of Hollywood’s most legendary managers in the ’80s.” starts of Jojie, now an A-list talent manager himself. “He [Mike] created an ecosystem of his own. Aside from his pool of artists, he had access to the best directors and the biggest producers. More importantly, he was able to bring them together to make things happen.”
Among the stars Ovitz represented back in the day were Tom Cruise, Dustin Hofman, Kevin Costner, Barbra Streisand and even directors like Steven Spielberg and Barry Levinson.
As a young boy growing up in Bacolod, Jojie would follow his “idol’s” career along with the goings on of Hollywood by poring through the pages of Variety, Tiger Beat and other glossies, which he would receive in balikbayan boxes from his cousins and friends. He would also watch snippets and news features about movies and celebrities on television.
So, when the time came for Jojie to enter college, he naturally entered La Salle Bacolod (now University of St. La Salle), whose Mass Communications program was designed by no other than filmmaker extraordinaire Peque Gallaga.
During his senior year, he got his first taste of working for an actual film production, when he became part of Gallaga’s crew for Oro Plata Mata, which was filmed in Bacolod. “We were part of the backend. We would clean up after the production crew, wash the props and the like,” says Jojie.
The tasks at hand may have sounded menial at best, but for this starstruck college student, they marked the beginning of the rest of his life.
Forty years later
These days, one could say that Jojie has come a long way from being an intern for Gallaga’s award-winning film. He has also worn many hats since.
Having started his career in the film archives division of the Manila Film Center sometime in the late ’80s, Jojie also worked as production head of the Music Museum (which he set up with musical legend Kuh Ledesma) and even produced movies through a production outfit (which he established alongside actor and director Eric Quizon), among others.
Yet in the end, he always circled back to being the talent manager that he has always dreamt of becoming.
And one by one, over the course of 40 years, he filled the universe with his fair share of long and lasting stars. Among them are top actor and leading man Derek Ramsay, Pops Fernandez, Martin Nievera, Matteo Guidicelli and even “stars” outside of the showbiz firmament, such as, say, doctors Vicki Belo and Hayden Kho, and more recently, even executives such as the MVP Group’s Chaye Cabal-Revilla.
Jojie also playfully reveals that he, at some point, convinced one of the country’s most iconic heartthrobs to come back to the Philippines and give acting another shot sometime in the late ’90s. “While I was already happy with my stars, I realized that I wanted to build my own stable of leading men,” Jojie tells us.
In a stroke of good luck, Jojie found himself in West Hollywood for one of his work trips. There, in an Irish pub, a handsome blonde Filipino man kept on physically bumping into him, in a bid to catch his attention. Annoyed, Jojie turned around and asked what his problem was.
“It’s me!” said the mystery guy. “Don’t you remember?”
It took a few good seconds until Jojie realized that the guy in the bar was a good friend.
“PJ!” Jojie screamed. “Bumalik ka na ng Pilipinas! [Come back to the Philippines]!”
One night of partying and a deep conversation into the wee hours of the morning later, the possibility of, indeed, coming back to the Philippines to reignite his career came up. Piolo Pascual, who according to Jojie was quite content with his life in the US, signed him up to be his co-manager. The stage was set for him to re-enter a galaxy that, back then, was being dominated by the likes of Marvin Agustin and Diether Ocampo.
Eventually, Jojie found work for Piolo in the indie film Lagarista, where his risqué scenes and challenging role eventually helped him break out of his former teenybopper mold. He became, in Jojie’s words, “so desirable,” that he piqued the interest of industry bigwigs such as Mother Lily Monteverde, even before Lagarista was released.
Soon after, the soaps followed, and the rest, as they say, is history.
In some ways, the bar has had a magical way of making Jojie’s stars align. For one, it brought him Derek Ramsay.
“Hey, Close-Up boy,” Jojie recalls greeting Derek more than a few moons ago at the now defunct Club Orange in Makati City, when he chanced upon the then-rising model who had just graduated from Boston University. A short conversation later, Derek, while initially hesitant, gave Jojie his number.
When morning came, Jojie rang up Derek and his mother Remedios, who was managing her son’s career back then. So convinced were Derek and his parents of Jojie’s plans that Remedios immediately decided to let Jojie take the reins. Soon after, Jojie booked for Derek a plum deal with a local clothing brand, which effectively made him the highest paid male model at that time.
“Derek’s rise was phenomenal to say the least. He became the highest paid matinee idol on television and film at one point,” Jojie says of his star.
Star maker
Not much has changed. Piolo and Derek are still two of the Philippines’ hottest leading men. Jojie is still one of local showbiz’s biggest star makers. And it’s all because the stars aligned for these gentlemen.
“I just have the passion for it. And then it’s like everything just falls into place because I just keep on doing good work, good work, good work. Eventually, you build a reputation and the stars approach you. That’s how Monsour [del Rosario] and Ian Veneracion came to me. Same with Paolo Ballesteros and Cogie Domingo, who both knocked blindly on my door,” he shares.
Spotting diamonds in the rough has always been easy for Jojie, who has an eye for finding people “who have what it takes.” Turning them into stars, he admits, is a little more difficult.
But the real challenge, according to him, lies in ensuring that his talents are no mere shooting stars in the fckle world of show business — vibrant and alluring for a moment, gone in a blink of an eye. And in his time in showbiz, Jojie has met quite a few stars who have suffered such a fate. “When people experience success, they tend to forget their failures. My job is to bring you to the door, perhaps, help you knock on it until it is opened for you, but if you don’t show up and do your part, the door will eventually close,” he warns.
Making things that last
As head of his namesake talent management agency, JLD Entertainment, there is no denying that Jojie’s dream of being a star maker has come true. But the dream keeps evolving for this creative giant.
“Where am I right now? I think I’m in a very good place. I’ve evolved. Before, I used to sell my stars so that I can make a living. Now, people also hire me for me, for consultancy work. For instance, I’m now spearheading a major festival upon the invitation of Bacolod City Mayor Albee Benitez,” says Jojie, who is currently chairman of the Bacolod MassKara Festival, which he runs alongside the topnotch talents of the Bacolod Yuhum Foundation.
Unknown to many, Jojie also has a rather spiritual side.
This Marian devotee reveals that he dreams of some day building a chapel in the hills of Cabatangan, Negros as a way of honoring his faith and inspiring the local community. “It’s an orchard overlooking Guimaras Island. I want to build a chapel there, perhaps until it grows into a bigger church,” says Jojie.
It is a bittersweet project for the effervescent Jojie, who pauses to manage a sudden tide of emotions. “Not many people know this, but I grew up without a mother,” he reveals as tears well in his eyes. “All my life, the Blessed Mother has been the only mother I’ve known.”
And while he had quite a happy childhood with his siblings and his hardworking father — a dealmaker to the sugar barons from whom Jojie somehow inherited his gift of gab — this “Men Who Matter” awardee says that such a void could only be filled with Divine Intervention. “I really have no understanding of what mother-and-son relationships are like. When people say, ‘Hey, I’m close to my mom,’ I have no idea what they’re talking about. Fortunately, I found my relationship with the Virgin Mary,” he says.
Family, also plays a crucial role in Jojie’s life. Whether it’s his strict “Uncle Lee,” whom he lived with upon landing in Manila to chase his dreams fresh out of college, or his cousins who welcomed him into their home, or his three “pamangkins” whom he dotes upon, Jojie holds them close to his heart. When we told him how lucky his nephews and nieces were to have a Tito Jojie who pampers them, he quickly responds: “Lucky me that I have them.”
And in that moment, we see that in Jojie’s universe, they, too, are stars.
Photography by DIX PEREZ
Art direction by DEXTER FRANCIS DE VERA
Grooming by KLENG TOTANES
