Noong nag-aaral at naninirahan pa si Frankie Pangilinan sa Amerika, dalawang pangalan ang binabanggit niya bilang halimbawa sa tuwing may mga nagtatanong sa kanya tungkol sa mga popular niyang magulang na sina Sharon Cuneta at Senator Kiko Pangilinan.
Ito ay ang mga pangalan ng Queen of Pop na si Madonna at ni U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders.
Sa panayam sa kanya sa Fast Talk With Boy Abunda ngayong Biyernes, Agosto 1, 2025, isa sa mga tinanong kay Frankie ay ang pagkakaroon niya ng mga sikat na ina at ama.
Sa Pilipinas ay hindi na kailangan pang ipaliwanag ni Frankie sa iba kung sino ang kanyang mga magulang.
Pero noong nasa Amerika pa siya ay nakahanap siya ng kakaibang paraan upang ipaliwanag sa mga nagtatanong kung ano ang trabaho ng kanyang celebrity parents.
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Saad niya: “Ngayon ko lang po napo-process like fully, I think bilang adult na.
“When I talk about it to people, for example, like, if I meet someone in the States. I make friends with them and then it sort of gets to that thing of, like, what is it, of course, Instagram din.
“Easy naman to see that there’s certain content there on my thing that isn’t necessarily normal.
"Yung parang o Mommy’s movie, 'Please watch this,' or like sa halalan, yung mga campaign materials ni Dad.
“Of course, that will lead to certain acquaintances asking, like, ‘What do they do?’
“And I never realized because I grew up in the Philippines, I never had to explain it here."
Pagpapatuloy niya: “It’s this hard thing of… kasi pinalaki po kami na hindi puwedeng magyabang. It’s not cool to, like, throw your weight around.
“I am so proud of them for both being, like, such honest and good people.
"I didn’t realize also na hindi pala normal especially in the industries that they’re in.
“And I did not realize it was a strange thing for people to be different in private versus sa publiko.
"There’s a weird devastation also na nangyari dahil dun.”
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WHY MADONNA AND BERNIE SANDERS?
Natawa naman si Frankie nang sagutin nito ang tanong ni Boy Abunda na, "Kapag ipinapakilala mo ang magulang mo, ano ang sinasabi mo? What do you actually say?"
Lahad ni Frankie: “Honestly, I don’t do it outright a lot.
"I tend to do it when I feel, like, ‘Okay, we’re getting close now.’ Or if they ask then I’m able to explain that.
“I think nakakatulong po yung mga allegories, ginagamit ko na lang po yung mga sikat sa Hollywood or in America. Mas madali yon.
"Grabe, napakahaba naman po na, 'O, senador kasi daddy ko and that means kasi na here in the Republic… And then my mommy, you know, they call her because…' No... no… it’s too long.
“So, sorry, I don’t want to sound like I am being arrogant or anything but, basically, I would just... parang just to cut straight to the chase, right?
“I always say, 'Madonna. It’s like Madonna and Bernie Sanders had a baby.' That's what I say as concepts, not as like the way they are.
“Parang for some reason, they’re like, ‘Oh!'
"But then, it’s also, obviously, in saying that, bigla kong natanto na, 'Oh my God, weird pala yung combination na yon.'"
Si Frankie ang panganay sa tatlong anak nina Sharon at Kiko.
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FRANKIE ON DAD KIKO
May kuwento rin si Frankie tungkol sa pagiging mapagkumbaba umano ng kanyang ama na si Senator Kiko—ang pamamalengke at pagpunta nito sa supermarket, mga bagay na hindi alam ng publiko.
Lahad ni Frankie: “Dad made every effort possible to like always be present.
"Dad does the groceries, Dad would do the groceries, Dad would take us to the palengke, and Dad would be the one to take us to, like, doctor’s appointment.
“He took me to my dentist appointment three weeks ago in his barong.”
May isa ring hindi makalilimutang anekdota si Frankie tungkol sa tatay niya.
Lahad niya: “As a kid, when I told people pala that I was kinda embarrassed than shy ‘coz my dad would wear his barong to pick me up from school and he’s already 6-feet tall, which is not exactly super common.
“Nung nalaman po ni Daddy na nahihiya po ako... I had no idea about this until I was maybe 17 or 18.
"When he heard about that, he made the effort to keep a spare shirt in the car so that he could change whenever he would pick me up.
"And I think that that’s exactly how my parents love us all the time. That’s how Dad is, that’s how Mommy is.”
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