Manila Bulletin Online – Walden Sadiri
Fourteen-year-old actor Jiro Manio, who has proven his acting prowess through the many awards he has received from just one movie “Magnifico,” is not ready to push himself any further than crossdressing in Regal Films? “Manay Po.”
Jiro said no in no uncertain terms to boy-to-boy kissing in the film. Jiro also said he knows it was an impossibility because of his age and it would not be allowed by the Department of Labor.
“I know I have to be a good actor but it wouldn?t be nice to see me kiss another boy at this stage. It would be an ugly scene to watch especially that I?m just 14,” he explained in Tagalog.
He added that even if his director would tell him that scene was needed, he would simply have declined to do it and would have tried to find a way around it. Rumors saying that Jiro would be kissing his co-actor in the film surfaced during a press visit on the set of “Manay Po” wherein reporters sought his reaction if there would be such a scene.
In “Manay Po,” Jiro is the youngest son of Cherry Pie Picache. In his pubescent stage, he is discovering that he is a homosexual. Coming to terms with his predicament in the film triggers the comic situation in his character.