The father of Bea Rose Santiago has lashed back at the reigning Miss International after she claimed in a television interview that he had abandoned her and her mother when she was 10 years old.
Last January 5, Bea confessed on the ABS-CBN talk show “Buzz ng Bayan” that she was adversely affected when her father abandoned their family when she was only 10 years old.
“I grew up as daddy’s girl, then when he decided to leave my family it was to the point that I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was 20,” Bea, now 23, was quoted as saying on the show.
She added that although there were times when she hated her father and constantly confessed about it in church, she said she has already forgiven him after he said “I’m sorry” prior to her joining the Binibining Pilipinas beauty pageant last year.
Three days after that controversial interview, Bea’s father, Paul Valencia Santiago wrote a lengthy post on his Facebook account and belied Bea’s statements said on national television. Now a Masbate councilor, he even went as far as calling his daughter “a Frankenstein who does not take qualm in killing any person, not even the person whom she has known as [her] father”.
Insisting that he never abandoned his children, Santiago said it was the infidelity of Bea’s mother that eventually led to their separation.
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| Bea Rose Santiago and her father, Paul Valencia Santiago. (Photo from his Facebook account) |
“After my former wife was forced to resign from her post in the Provincial Hospital of Masbate due to some anomalies. I, with the help of one of my siblings sent her to school to take up a caregiver course. After that my father contributed part of his retirement money in paying for my ex-wife’s plane fare to Canada in 2000. I was left with our children to stay with my parents in law while I was then waiting to be hired for job overseas,” Santiago recalled.
Santiago further narrated that as early as 2004, he already heard rumors about his wife’s infidelity and initially declined her request to let him allow their children to join her in Canada. He eventually relented when she assured him that she would take care of the kids there and even paid for their airfare.
“As a father, it was very painful for me to allow them to go to Canada but I took that pain thinking that it would be for their better future and for their best interest. Moreover, I made that decision to maintain my self-respect and honor as well as to avoid any untoward confrontation with my ex wife and her paramour,” he explained.
“True enough, when my children got there in March 2006 they found out that their mother was living in with someone else and my heart bled to learn that my children were constrained to live in one roof with their mother’s common law partner,” he claimed.
Despite feeling hurt and betrayed, Santiago said he consoled himself with the thought that his kids now have a better future in Canada as he lived “a quiet and peaceful” in the 10 years that he was separated from his children.
“During those years, that I could hardly communicate with my children she managed to brainwash my children into thinking that I left them for another woman when the truth is, that it is their mother who is living in with another man. How she managed to remain immaculate in the eyes of my children is something I cannot fathom,” he wondered.
When his wife returned in 2010 with their youngest and only son, Santiago was convinced by the former that she will help him go to Canada so they can rebuild their family.
“After she left, I started working on getting a new passport but to my surprise I never heard from her,” he lamented.
In 2011, Santiago was very happy to be finally reunited when her first-born daughter came home to join the Mutya ng Pilipinas pageant.
“I would visit her and drive her daily to events that she needed to attend. I provided transportation for her townmates who came to Manila just to watch the coronation night. My siblings and their spouses were present during the coronation night together with the relatives of my ex-wife,” he further recalled.
“Not only me but even my siblings provided her monetary support like plane fare, her tools in talent portion for the Mutya pageant, not to mention beauty products she needs for her beauty regimen. Thus, it is quite astounding that she would claim that she never received support from me or my family when we have pictures to show for it.”
Santiago said he went on to take care of Bea’s needs when she joined the Binibining Pilipinas, including paying for the condominium unit in Cubao where she lived to comply with the pageant’s six-month residency requirement.
“Whenever she needs money she just asks her cousin who works for me to inform me about it and I immediately send her what she needs. There was a time when she came back from Palawan and was hospitalized for alleged dengue or skin allergy, I had to travel immediately to Manila to check on her and I was the one who paid for all the hospital bills.”
But when Bea said she needed P300,000 to pay for “facial enhancements” last year, Santiago could not produce said amount as he was also running for public office that time. That’s when Bea “turned cold and even colder when her mother arrived and she won the title,” he alleged.
“So her statement that she has forgiven me is utterly false. Moreover, I never asked for her forgiveness as I have not sinned against her or her siblings,” he insisted.
In explaining his detailed post, Santiago said he never wanted to wash the family’s dirty linens in public but Bea “pushed me to the wall”.
“I am a public official in our town and it affects my credibility that you paint a picture of an irresponsible father on me when I have not done anything to take advantage of you or your perceived popularity. Also I am concerned about how the web of lies you spread on the media will affect my family members”.
Bottom line, Santiago wants his daughter to retract her public statements and issue a public apology even as he reserves his right to avail of legal action.
“I do not dismiss the fact that the termination of my relationship with her mother may have had psychological effect on her especially the years she was exposed to her mother’s bitterness but it cannot justify her immature behavior,” he further argued.
As news of Santiago’s post went viral, several netizens wasted no time posting their reactions, most of which are initially unfavorable to the current Miss International titlist.
