ANNA SOBREPENA’S SURPRISE BIRTHDAY BASH RAISES
FUNDS FOR TYPHOON SENDONG
This was a big night for Lifestyle Asia’s famously chic editor-in-chief Anna-with a capital A, as loving husband Chito, with children, Gab, Raf and Mira planned a surprise birthday party. As early as November, Metrobank Foundation President Chito Sobrepena invited family and friends to mark Anna’s milestone at the Peninsula Manila’s Salon de Ning. They began to send out ‘save-the-date’ messages by text and email. But keeping this under wraps from someone as visible as Anna was quite an impossible feat. The gracious lady said: “I knew something was brewing, and people would accidentally ask me about it, and so the ultimate surprise was finding out who were coming.”
Their plan almost didn’t happen due to the devastation caused by typhoon Sendong just a few days before the birthday celebration. While everyone understood Anna’s sentiments, they decided to use the occasion to contribute to the survivors and yet be there to convey well wishes. A few hundred thousand pesos were raised that evening which was immediately dispatched through the network of the Metrobank Foundation.. The festive gathering at Salon de Ning was filled with bold-faced names in business, society and the diplomatic circle, who came to greet the “woman of the hour.” After introducing her family and thanking everyone, the unguardedly ecstatic Anna gave Chito a kiss for the magical evening.
