NEWSFLASH

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YOUNG ACTRESS PROUD OF GAY FATHER

Manila, Oct. 30, 1997 - Angelika dela Cruz, who turned 16 yesterday, showed the movie press a lot of class and dignity beyond her years at her birthday party-cum-presscon. Present were her proud dad Ernesto dela Cruz, a dance instructor, and mother Angelika Egger, an Austrian language teacher now based in Japan.

Asked about her father, she told one and all: "I've known my father's true identity since I was a kid. He never made any pretensions. It was not something that my brothers and I had to discover, but something we grew up with naturally."

She was talking about her father's being gay, a fact that he never tried to hide from his wife, who knew about it before they got married. They are now divorced and living in different countries; Angelika the mother flew in just for actress-daughter's birthday.

"I love my father dearly . He has been a food father to us, a good provider, a good friend. Many writers ask me is I do not want to change my father. Why should I change him? He conducts himself with respectability and dignity . He is somebody I am very proud of."

Ernesto is also his daughter's personal manager.

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