JUDY ANN, MOVING UP MOVING HOUSE
by Blaise Glacoscos
YES! Mag April 2000

This is the house that “Ula,” “Mara Clara,” and “Esperanza” bought. This is the house that Judy Ann Santos proudly calls home. This is also the sixth house that she and her family have moved to. And Judy Ann is only 21.

The only thing to beat The Young Superstar’s record is The Superstar Nora Aunor’s own. Nora has moved not less than 12 times. But she is 48 years old today, which gives Judy Ann time to catch up.

Juday—the fan name that has stuck—thinks moving is no big deal. The need to move just comes, the finances allow it, the chance is taken.

The Santoses, Judy Ann says, first lived in a house in Las Piñas. From that southern suburb, she and her father Manuel (now 51), her mother Carole (52), brother Jeffrey (28), and sister Jacqueline (25) moved to Tanay, Rizal. After leaving the rented bungalow in Tanay, the Santoses settled in neighboring Antipolo where young Jeffrey, Jacqueline, and Judy Ann were already studying.

Judy Ann was five years old when her parents parted ways. At about the same time, her showbusiness career began, with her biggest break coming as Ula in the Tarzan-inspired TV show “Ula: Ang Batang Gubat.”

During Judy Ann’s years as a TV neophyte, she lived in at least four different addresses in Cubao, Quezon City. Two of these were a tight duplex on Batay (monthly rent: P7,500) and a more spacious townhouse on P. Tuazon (monthly rent: P8,500).

When she hit her teens, she hit the jackpot as the long-suffering soap princess of “Mara Clara.” This career success eventually led to more house transfers.

After a year on P. Tuazon, Judy Ann and family moved to Goldland Mansions. “Madalas kasing bumaha sa lugar namin noon,” she says. But when fans practically held sun-up to sun-down vigils there to get a glimpse of her, she moved again. But this time she did not abandon the Goldland place.

Instead, she rented another townhouse in Woodland, which was not far from Goldland but provided more privacy. With older brother Jeffrey, she shouldered the P10,000 monthly rent.

But now the hills were piling up. Maintaining two townhouses was proving too costly. Rent, electricity,
telephones, groceries were reaching P50,000 a month. “Sayang, kasi kung umuupa ka lang ng apartment parang nagtatapon ka lang ng pera,” she says of that time. So when the chance came, she borrowed money from the bank and took a cash advance on her salary from Star Cinema. Then she went and bought a house worth P6M in a Quezon City neighborhood. The neighborhood seems to he used to having a star in its midst. Vina Morales, Ai-Ai de las Alas, and Herbert Bautista also live there.

Judy Ann’s new three-story house covers a 180-square meter area. There, all of 10 people live: herself, Mommy Carole, Kuya Jeffrey, four-year-old nephew Jazmer, Yaya Binay, laundry-woman Macan, househelp Jessica, personal assistant Jelli, bodyguard Rodel, and driver Joe. And Rafa, a Chihuahua who was so calm it didn't even get up when six more people from YES! descended on the place.

The soap princess is the family breadwinner. These days she allocates around P7O,OO0 for the home's monthly upkeep. One—third of that amount, she points out, goes to the households huge grocery needs.

And although she spends more hours inside her van, which comes complete with a toilet, a bed and a closet, she is personally involved in decorating the house. Mommy Carole says it took them 12 months to put in furniture because Judy Ann wanted to choose the sofa and tables and chairs herself. But she could never find the time. Being a box—office draw—a Judy—Ann—Santos film is expected to make P3M on opening day has its drawbacks. Time is one of them. Which also probably explains why she hasn’t found time to get herself a boyfriend, much less make plans for something as serious as marriage. When that happens, one thing is almost sure. The Young Superstar will be moving house again.

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