More than a month after Martin Nievera issued a "no reaction" comment to the strong words hurled at him by his former wife's ex-boyfriend, Jomari Yllana (click here to read related article), the Concert King gave a more lengthy statement during the beach clean-up drive of the 14th Goma Cup: A Reunion, held last April 22 in Boracay.
He said, "I have not started any word war with Jomari. He's the one talking not me. He's reacting to the articles and interviews that I've had. But I didn't ask for the interview, I didn't ask to guest on The Buzz and talk about it. I didn't ask to come out, to make a statement about Jomari. That's different.
"He went on his brother's [Anjo Yllana, Cool Center] to hit me back, but I wasn't hitting him. People were asking me questions because kasama din ako sa show na Missing You, sa first production ni Jomari."
After his explanation, Martin veered away from the topic. He went on to clarify something he said in one of his previous interviews, when he mentioned his discomfort about working again with Fearless Production, the producer of his reunion concert with Pops Fernandez.
"I want to make something clear publicly," he started. "I said before, 'I don't ever wanna work again with Fearless [Promotions].' But I don't know who Fearless is. I thought Fearless was Jomari, but I found out only recently the Fearless group is another group of politicians, right? So, to the people of Fearless, 'Please forgive me if you think that I don't wanna work with you ever again because that's the farthest from my thoughts, the farthest thing that I mean.'
"What I meant was I don't wanna work again with Jomari if he's going to be in a relationship with Pops because it's so hard. Kunwari mag-aaway sila, may konting tampuhan sila, I mean, mahirap talaga for the male singer, which is me. That's what I meant. Nothing against Jomari and definitely nothing against the true producers who own and run Fearless. I wish them luck. If they need me for a show again, I would gladly work with them."
But Martin didn't retract his statement about working with the actor-turned-producer.
"Definitely not with Jomari, I can't," said the singer-composer. "I have a feeling that our relationship ruined their relationship as boyfriend and girlfriend, di ba? They were happy until that stupid Missing You concert, di ba? That's what I meant.
"I cannot work with my ex-wife and her boyfriend if it means ruining their relationship. I don't want to help ruin their relationship. I want my ex-wife to live happily ever after. Maybe this could be it, right? They made one decision to make one production together and look at us now."
Martin reiterated that he has no ill feelings towards Jomari.
"I'm not fighting with Jomari. I have no fighting words for him. I have nothing bad to say about him at all," he ended.