Ara Mina denies P2.8M wedding ring
Though engaged to her boyfriend Dave Almarinez, Ara has also refuted another claim by tabloid columnist Lolit Solis that the food at the reception for their coming wedding costs P10,000 per plate.
Ara Mina is engaged to boyfriend Dave Almarinez, but she has denied that she’ll be wearing a P2.8 million wedding ring, as claimed by tabloid columnist Lolit Solis.
Dave is president and CEO of the Philippine International Trading Corporation with the rank of undersecretary.
Though the wedding’s date and venue have yet to be announced, Ara has also refuted Lolit’s story that reception guests will be served food worth P10,000 per plate.
At press time, Lolit, who’s also the manager of actors including Christopher de Leon and Lorna Tolentino, has not commented on the issue.
Ara can be contentious when she wants to, but not in these pandemic days when it’s best to keep calm. She is not inclined to challenge Lolit to a word war.
In fact, in her denial, Ara did not even bother to mention Lolit, who wrote about the wedding ring and food at the reception without quoting the source of her information.
Ara said her would-be husband is hardworking and is doing his best to give her a memorable wedding, but it won’t be extravagant.
Cash is good
But let’s imagine that Ara and Dave are, indeed, hosting a P10,000 per plate dinner at their wedding reception, and I am invited as a guest.
Can we convince the couple to instead send us cash so we can use it to avail of the Smart 5G plan that Korean celebrity lovers Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin are endorsing in the Philippines?
I was invited to the video conference for the K-Drama stars, but I wasn’t lucky enough to win in the raffle that gave away various brands of mobile phones that have 5G capacities.
The invite came by way of the publicist of the band Ben&Ben, whose song “Inevitable” is the theme of the TV commercial (TVC) of the Smart 5G campaign.
Ten thousand pesos may not be enough, but I can save a few thousands more to buy the least expensive mobile phone loaded with Smart 5G technology.
There must be at least a million Pinoys and foreigners in the Philippines ready to shell out more than P10,000 to buy a new mobile phone.
Why would Smart pay foreign stars millions in international currency, most likely twice or thrice more than the highest paid Pinoy celebrity endorsers get, if the telecom company would not benefit financially from the endorsement?
Following its first endorsement deal with Hyun Bin, Smart reportedly earned billions of pesos in sales in 2020.
The contract for Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin is for two TVCs. At the video conference, Jane Basas, Smart senior vice president and head of Consumer Wireless Business, announced that the second TVC is airing soon.
The casting of Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin in the K-Drama series Crash Landing On You brought luck to Smart. The two actors were not yet real-life sweethearts when they signed up to do the two TVCs. Or maybe they have not annouced at the time that they had officially become an item.
Hyun Bin signed up as Smart endorser in June 2020. Son Ye-jin followed in August 2020.
Basas said that the proposal for the joint TVC was made in mid-December 2020, and the deal finalized before 2020 ended. Hyun Bin and Son Ye-jin confirmed their relationship on 1 January 2021.
It felt like we won a lottery, said Jane.
But Smart executives admitted it wasn’t easy bringing the couple together and at the same time keep it a secret. The TVCs, shot during a snow storm in South Korea, meant nobody caught sight of Hyun Bin or Son Ye-jin while they were out and about to shoot the commercial.
Ara can be contentious when she wants to, but not in these pandemic days when it’s best to keep calm.
Anyway, let’s wish each other luck that we might earn P10,000 legally so we can give away our ancient 4G mobile phones to people who still them.
We can also pray fervently, which may be more potent than wishing for luck.
Despite suffering from the pandemic, everyone deserves a new communication tool. Smart’s 5G subscription deal offers locked-in fast connections to Netflix and other online video platforms.
And let’s hope that Ben&Ben’s “Inevitable” will soon do better than Moira de la Torre’s “Paubaya” music video featuring ex-sweethearts Julia Barretto and Joshua Garcia in a momentary reunion, with scenes of forgiving each other, to boot.
There must be at least a million Pinoys and foreigners in the Philippines ready to shell out more than P10,000 to buy a new mobile phone.