“Of course I would love for my kids to choose to live in Cebu when they’ve finished school, but who knows what the future will bring? It’s their moment to discover the world”

but do. It’s so funny because they say things like, ‘Oh, Peace Corps?’ Um, no. ‘Are you a stewardess?’ No. Can’t I just be born here?”

Her ties to Cebu are strengthened by her advocacies. She was actively involved in rehabilitation efforts after Yolanda. “My whole perspective on charities radically changed after Yolanda. I can say that for most people who lived here or very near the areas that were affected and had to respond first. It was amazing how everybody here was so selfless and gave whatever they could, joining us at the Aboitiz Foundation, packing relief goods.”

She recalls a homeless woman with her baby who came in to help pack. “She told me, ‘I have nothing to give but my time, and even though I am so poor, there are even worse off than me because they lost their family.’ I was so touched. Many friends also from Hong Kong organised drives to collect money and goods for the victims, which they entrusted to me because I was on the ground and they didn’t want to give to government agencies. So they really got a lot of donations. From those donations, it was really a huge responsibility for me because I wanted to make sure that hundred percent of that went to the right people for the right thing. We did food baskets first, then we did building materials, so that the victims could rebuild and repair their own houses. With that we were able to help two thousand families.”

Her current advocacy is focused on education and nutrition. “The former tutor of my son has a pre-school in the squatter area here. Right now she has 40 kids, and 80 percent of her students who end up going to public school become honour students. That’s how important pre-school is! And we feed these kids, we give them good nutrition because most of the time for these kids, this is the only meal they get. We feed them before they arrive, after they arrive and they bring a snack home, and that has made a huge difference in their lives, as well as their future prospects. She’s done this for 10 years already, so she has a record of how they do in school. The results are measurable.”

She talks about being raised in Cebu by parents who did everything to boost her selfconfidence, her mother, particularly.

“From the time I was two, I was wearing these really thick glasses. My mum didn’t want me to develop a complex about being ugly and nerdy, so she made all the maids tell me that I would be Miss Universe and that I looked like Nora Aunor.

“They went a bit overboard, though, because every time there was a Miss Universe contest, they would say, ‘Anne, that’s you, that’s you!’

“So I grew up thinking I was the bee’s knees! Of course my sister, Melissa, who was adorable and gorgeous, got the complex. Every Christmas she kept asking for thick glasses, too! She was, like, ‘I want glasses like Mary Anne’s!’

Mary Anne did get her fair share of ribbing from her brother Miguel. “I had thick glasses and braces in a class picture, and all of a sudden I saw the photo in his room, stuck in a corner. Why is that there, I asked him. You know what he said? ‘To kill all the cockroaches.’ He was so mean! But of course I never thought so. I had confidence spilling out of me!”

The prospect of an empty nest is something Mary Anne and Derek dread. But seeing how their daughter is flourishing in boarding school, and their sons really wanting to go and join their sister, somehow makes the inevitable separation bearable. Having themselves both gone to boarding school, they know it’s an opportunity they can’t deny their kids.

“Believe me, I tried to, well, sabotage their departure in many subtle ways, but they really wanted to go. And as parents, we have to let them go. They may not like it after their first year and want to come back, and they would be very welcome to do so.

“Of course I would love for my kids to choose to live in Cebu when they’ve finished school, but who knows what the future will bring? It’s their moment to discover the world.”