CHARICE Pempengco has no idea what her dad looks like. She was only 3 when her parents split up, and hasn’t heard from him since. This makes her ambivalent about Father’s Day.

“Do I miss him? I don’t know,” she tells the Inquirer after spending time with a happy bunch of children early this week at the Center for Excellence in Public Education (Centex) campus in Tondo. “Parang nag-iisip ako ng dahilan kung paano ko siya mami-miss, kasi wala siya sa buhay namin ng maraming taon. Seventeen na ako … Masaya po ako sa buhay namin ngayon ng mommy ko.”

The Filipino singing sensation, who started working at an early age to help her mother, explains why she feels this way: “Hindi siya nagpaparamdam kahit na noong mga nakaraang Father’s Day. Simula nang mawala siya, wala na talagang communication. Yung mga kapatid niya minsan nagte-text kay mommy. Pero siya, wala talaga. Hindi ko na nga alam kung ano itsura niya, o kung naiisip niya pa ba ako.”

The school, a project of the Ayala Foundation and the Department of Education, subsidizes the education of 516 students from kindergarten to grade six. The scholars also get free uniforms.

In one of the classrooms, Charice reminisces about her own school days in Cabuyao, Laguna. Her favorite subjects, she says, were English, Science and History.  “Very shy ako as a student. “Hindi po ako mahilig mag-recite sa klase, kahit alam ko ang sagot, natatakot ako.”

She says the problem developed from a deep-seated fear: Kasi yung mga classmates ko ‘pag may mali, nagtatawanan sila ... Sumasagot naman ako ‘pag galit na yung teacher at wala ng ibang matawag.”

When she started joining singing contests at age 7, Charice says there were days when she had to skip school, although she made up by studying hard for the exams, which gave her good grades.