Joyce Pring and the father she never knew
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In Manhattan, wearing her collection of enamel pins: Beatles, Van Gogh, and rock & roll. Instagram photo.
Joe Pring, the legendary police officer with a mercurial track record as law enforcer, was assassinated in 1994 while driving to work. While Pring was known to be tough on crime, his name was later linked to shady kidnap-for-ransom of wealthy Chinese families. A biographical movie, starring Philip Salvador, was made in 1989.
Joyce was only 2 years old when her father died. Today, the 25-year-old television host at GMA International’s “The Clash” is being forced by history — and by journalism — to remember the man she hardly knew.
“Honestly, I did not know him,” said Joyce in an interview with FilAm media in New York. “All I know is that he was a very valiant man, a man of honor and of great courage.” Some people thought she has a cute, cool last name, would always ask if it’s a real name.
Joyce grew up with his stepfather, a Filipino with Indian ethnicity, his mother married three years after the death of her father. “I grew up with my stepdad and my mom. He and my mom got together when I was 5. My stepdad is my hero.”
Joyce was in New York recently for a vacation following the season ending of “The Clash,” a reality show competition for singers, which she has hosted even before Regine Velasquez departed to join a rival station. Joyce and co-host Andre Paras are joined on the show by judges Lani Misalucha, Christian Bautista, and Ai-Ai delas Alas.
In front of the Philippine Consulate building after a courtesy meeting with consular officials. Photo by Grace Labaguis
The girl is a natural, and has the gift of keeping conversations light and flowing. She can move from topic to topic – from family to dating to her Cristian faith — with ease, and weave in the right key words. She has a delightful personality and can be funny if the mood calls for it.
“’The Clash’ is the new TV competition of GMA. It’s isa laban sa lahat. You choose the person you want to fight, from a field of thousands, until one person is left,” she said. The network, she added, plans to bring the show to the U.S.
While in NYC, she watched the marathon and went to museums “where I lost much of my money” buying art prints to add to her collection.
“I’m not a shopping kind of gal,” she said, but made an exception to Sephora where she got makeup to replenish her old stash. Coming from a family of OFWs, she said travel usually meant people go abroad to work to earn money and not so much to have fun. In fact, she just got her passport in 2014, but has so far visited Mexico, London, Scotland, and the U.S.
Joyce and her younger brother Victor, a businessman, grew up in Sta. Mesa and Tondo. They were raised by their mother Catherine Enaje, a registered nurse, and their stepfather, Chandro Uttamchandani, a graphic artist. She went to Quezon City High School where she was a consistent scholar, and took up Fine Arts at U.P.
When she was a little girl, she fell down the stairs and her right eyebrow got snagged in a nail. “That nail went in,” she said. Today, a small scar reminds her of a time she was a precocious kid who was always exploring, always curious about things around her.
“My brother and I were quite a handful,” she said. “That’s why my stepdad said OK na yung dalawa, huwag na natin dagdagan, makulit.”
© The FilAm 2018
The Joe Pring movie
