Family asks Heart to come home for her ailing father

The Ongpaucos are 'Heart-broken.'

 

In an attempt to convince actress Heart Evangelista to return to them, the Ongpaucos released a statement on Friday saying her 70-year-old father Rey is in really bad shape.  

 

“If she [Heart] wants to discard us, we accept her decision. But she knows about her dad’s precarious medical condition,” her mother Cecile said in a statement sent to GMA News.

 

She explained that since their family feud broke out supposedly because of re-electionist Senator Francis Escudero, who is currently in a relationship with Heart, Rey has been suffering from chest pains.

 

Mrs. Ongpauco said her husband suffers from “heart pains, prostate ailment, diabetes, and hypertension.”

 

“He is a walking time bomb. For many years, our family has protected him from stress. He just arrived from an American holiday with our other daughter. But he was met with this scandal. His heart could not take it,” she said.

 

Despite such condition, however, Cecile said her husband refuses to be hospitalized as advised by their close relative, former Health secretary Alberto “Quasi” Romualdez.

 

She said he has "taken refuge" in their summer house in Nasugbu, Batangas.

 

“If my husband suddenly dies from the stress, I know whom to blame and I will be very bitter against those responsible,” she said. Chiz's PR team

 

Cecile then singled out to Escudero’s PR team, whom she said "has been working overtime to destroy the Ongpauco family’s name."

 

“First, Chiz’s PR team said that the Ongpaucos are destitute, and that he is doing Heart a favor. Now Chiz himself is saying that we are rich. He has different sides, depending on his political convenience. Our family is face-to-face with a dangerous politician,” she said.

 

GMA News Online is still trying to get a comment from Escudero's camp as of posting time.

 

Mrs. Ongpauco said they will no longer be granting any request for media interviews after Friday's statement, saying that they only want to let Heart know about her father's condition.

 

On Tuesday, Evangelista's parents publicly appealed to their daughter to end her relationship with Escudero, whom they accused of being rude and showing up in their house drunk.

 

On Thursday, the Ongpaucos said they plan to file criminal and civil charges against Escudero for allegedly driving a wedge between them and their daughter.

 

Escudero, for his part, belied the allegations and said that Heart's family has no right to hurt him and his family. — Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News