By ANTONETTE R. VALDEZ
Even mainstream newspapers in the US carried the story of the arrest made by airport authorities against RP’s one and only superstar, Nora Aunor. This we learned Saturday afternoon from a reliable source, who is based in Los Angeles, California.
The source, who knows the superstar personally and has requested the Bulletin not to identify her, further said Nora Aunor (who is Nora Villamayor in real life) was accompanied by her longtime boyfriend John Rendez, who himself had been arrested by virtue of drug charges in the Philippines many years back, at the time of her arrest.
"Almost all newspapers in Los Angeles and San Francisco carried the story of Nora’s arrest and her posting bail of $10,000. There were some American reporters who were even calling me for information about her because they are not familiar with her status in the Philippines," the source added.
The source said it was Nora’s manager Nori Sayo who raised and posted the $10,000 bail for Nora’s temporary release. "They share an apartment in San Francisco since coming here in the US," she told us.
News on Nora’s arrest and detention at the Los Angeles Airport hit the Philippines late Friday night and early Saturday morning. The story said, she arrived at the LA Airport Wednesday from Oakland but was detained immediately after an immigration officer suspected that she was carrying illegal drugs. A thorough search, according to the story, showed the presence of metamphetamine hydrochloride inside an empty film cannister and a suspected shabu toother in her belongings.
Nora was held at the Van Nuys Jail for one day and was released Thursday morning after her manager, Nori Sayo, bailed her out for $10,000 which is equivalent to more than half a million pesos.
She is set to appear before a court hearing on April 21 in a Los Angeles trial court.
Nora is the third Filipina actress to be arrested and detained for drug charges in the US territories. Anjanette Abayari and Alma Concepcion have been earlier arrested and tried in the US courts for possession of illegal substance at the Guam International Airport.
Here in the country, some Nora Aunor fans vehemently refuse to believe that their idol is into drugs. One of them even stressed that the drugs found in his idol’s belongings were not hers, but the singer’s alalay. Unfortunately, reports revealed that Nora was not accompanied by anybody else other than her boyfriend at the time of her arrest.
