"I am praying that I will know the identity of my real mom very soon and I will see her pictures and, hopefully, that of my father's."

This was the wish yesterday of Jella, a web designer working in California, who is searching for her birth mother in Bacolod City.

She said she was thankful for the information given by DAILY STAR reader Penuel Tanio of Barangay Tangub, Bacolod City, who had known her mother 29 years ago. "I believe Mr. Tanio's story since he gave some details that were quite similar to what my adoptive dad and my relatives told me," she said.

The search for Jella's mother, only known by the name Ging, is still on and any information that could lead to her whereabouts will be welcomed by the DAILY STAR. Jella, who has asked the DAILY STAR to identify her only by her first name, said she only recently found out that 29 years ago, on June 15, 1977, her birth mother from Bacolod gave her up for adoption.

She grew up as an only child and never questioned who she was even if people kept telling her she did not look like her adoptive parents at all, because she was mestiza-looking, Jella said.

She said her adoptive mother died when she was 10 and her adoptive father did not know much about her birth mother.

Jella said it would be nice to know who her real parents are, what they look like and maybe their medical history that might concern her children in the future. Jella is married to a Filipino, has a 1-year-old son and is now five months pregnant.

On Sunday, Tanio said he knew Jella's mother, Ging, who lived in the same boarding house he was staying in when he was in college.

"Ging, the mother of Jella and Nerissa, the wife of his stepbrother, were both pregnant when we were living in the boarding house of the Jalando-on family at corner Mabini-San Sebastian streets in Bacolod City," Tanio said.

He said Jella's mother had gotten pregnant while working in Spain but said she had a jobless husband and two children who were under the care of her parents in Negros.

Jella's mother was staying at the boarding house in Bacolod because she did not want to go home to her place in Central Hawaiian, Silay City, and put her family to shame. This was because when the child she was carrying was born, people would know that it was not her husband's, Tanio said.

Tanio said he saw a photo of Jella's father who was a Spaniard. He "was a very, very good-looking young man with blond hair."

According to Ging the Spaniard was married and a member of the family she worked for in Spain, and that she could not resist falling in love with him because he looked like a prince, Tanio said.

Tanio said Ging gave Jella up for adoption to a couple who owned Franne's Drug Store in front of the provincial hospital in Bacolod City, and he and his boardmates believe she may have gone back to Spain to work.

Tanio said he could only remember that Ging mentioned that she was from Central Hawaiian and that her surname is Cadiz or something similar to that.

Arnulfo Tibus, Jr. of Houston Texas yesterday sent an email to the DAILY STAR thanking the paper for "going the proverbial extra mile in informing my adoptive niece regarding the progress of her search for her real identity."

"After the birth of her first-born child - a son - she (Jella) was somewhat in a quandary because of the distinct Caucasian texture (blondish) of the baby's hair."

"My family was her closest kin on her adoptive mother's side in Bacolod and so I was kind of persuaded it was just natural for her to pose her questions of lineage to us before anyone else. We were never really briefed by Nang Frannie (owner of Frannie's Drug Store) on detailed accounts about Jella's biological parents except, of course, that her father is a Peninsular Spaniard and her mother is Filipina.

"So, our family was not really a tenable source of factual data. It was a blessing Jella wrote you about it and some kind soul volunteered to furnish her the much-needed info. I know this oral dossier from the said gentleman will assuage her thirst for sanguine knowledge," he said.

Jella, while in the Philippines, began her career as a singer at the age of 14, singing in hotels. An only child, she became a working student when her mom died when she was 10 years old. In high school, at age 15, she won as a Musicmate Girl, a nationwide star search sponsored by Yama Music Philippines.

At 24, Jella moved to Los Angeles.*CPG

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