It looks like actress Bela Padilla may have unwittingly been pulled into the recent Bea Alonzo-Gerald Anderson-Julia Barretto issue. In the midst of all this talk on ghosting and cheating, people have been making assumptions about what certain actions could mean or where some celebrities’ loyalties lay. One such assumption was that Bela Padilla’s presence at a dinner with Bea, as well as her unfollowing Julia on Instagram, was a declaration of sorts.
Source: @juliabarretto (left); @bela (right)
Appearing on Tonight With Boy Abunda, Bela was able to clarify the truth behind those two issues. As it turns out, neither actions were particularly intended to mean anything and speculation simply got the better of people.
(Did Gerald Anderson Ghost Bea Alonzo?)
The first thing that Bela wanted to clear up was the “#ParaKayB” photo which fueled rumors that she was ‘siding’ with Bea on the issue. This pertains to the photo she took with Bea, Angelica Panganiban, Angel Locsin, and Paulo Avelino among others. It was later posted on Angel Locson’s Instagram story with the captions “#AboutLastNight” and “#ParaKayB.”
Many took the latter to mean “#ParaKayBea” as a sign of support over her then-cryptic message on Instagram. During her interview with TV show host Boy Abunda, Bela threw light on that particular dinner. She explained, “Galing po akong trade launch, mandatory na pumunta dito sa after-party/dinner. [I just came from a trade launch, it was mandatory to attend the after-party/dinner.] So I was actually here with Ketchup (Eusebio) and Ivana (Alawi) from ‘Sino Ang Maysala?,’ I was pleasantly surprised that Bea arrived…”
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“Obviously, I didn’t know it was going to be posted with that ‘#ParaKayB’. But at the same time, it doesn’t matter if that dinner is for Bea or anything else because they are all people I’ve worked in ABS-CBN,” she continues.
Bela points out that all the celebrities in attendance are part of different Dreamscape projects, so that really should have been a sign to everyone that there was no conspiracy behind the dinner. She said: “They are people from different shows of Dreamscape, I was with the staff of ‘Sino Ang Maysala?,’ so that was I was there for.”
For her, the dinner was not a big deal. “Again, it doesn’t matter, these are people I’ve worked with and I hope to work with also in the future. I don’t hide the fact that I’m very close to Angelica, so I was comfortable in this situation,” she declared.
(Here’s What Gerald Anderson Had To Say About ‘Ghosting’ Bea Alonzo)
To make this clearer, she emphasizes that no one present at dinner had intended for it to signify anything that the public took it to mean. “I wanna speak for everyone in that table, nobody said anything,” she says. “It wasn’t an attack toward someone, it was literally dinner. So sana let’s not think badly of people. I just hate that culture of always you feel you’re two-steps ahead kasi you speculated on behalf of someone else.”
However, the second issue of her unfollowing Julia on Instagram was one she did not take lightly. People began to notice Bela no longer followed Julia on the social media platform and assumed it was done so after the dinner took place. But according to Bela, it had actually happened a while back.
She sorts out that the unfollowing took place about a year ago and it was nothing personal. “I unfollowed several people, it wasn’t just Julia,” she said. “Even my classmates from high school.”
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Bela shares that even other friends, like PJ Endrinal, reached out to her because she had unfollowed them but it was all part of an Instagram detox: “I was doing Instagram detox, from following 4000 people I’m down to 2000 plus kasi I’m really trying to stay as much as I can away from social media. So my plan was to go down to zero and then follow my close friends but then I never got around to do it kasi I got busy.”
She finishes up by stating, “So I just wanna clarify that I didn’t unfollow Julia because I’m taking sides because I honestly didn’t even know the story of what’s happening to them.”
In fact, because of the sensationalized speculation online she had felt obligated to clarify things with Julia and the rest of the Barretto family. After receiving “hateful” messages from accounts claiming to be fans of Julia she contacted Julia right away “because it became such a big deal.”
(Gerald Anderson Clears Julia Barretto of Blame in Breakup)
There was also a need to set things straight with the Barretto family as Bela’s best friend, Dani Barretto, had also forwarded the photo taken of the dinner to her. Understanding the implications of the message, Bela reassured her friend: “I said, ‘Dani before you react or before you think negatively, it was literally dinner. Like I had to eat because I came from a shoot from Golden Dove and trade launch, literally hindi pa ako kumakain the whole day [literally, I had not eaten the whole day.]”
Rest assured, everything was cleared up and her friendship with Dani is “super okay.”
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If there is anything to take away in this whole mix-up, it would be not to jump to conclusions. For Bela, “Social Media is not everything. One picture of a dinner doesn’t define our future. So sometimes you really need to chill and go to school. I feel like masyado kayong maraming oras sa Instagram at libreng Facebook, guys. [I feel like you spend too much time on Instagram and free Facebook, guys.]
What do you think about this?
