MANILA -- Juliana Gomez, lovely daughter of celebrity couple Richard Gomez and Lucy Torres, is all woman now -- and that makes her father tense these days.

“Lucy just turned 23 when I married her, and now Juliana is 20," Gomez told ABS-CBN News in a virtual interview Monday. “Ang bilis ng panahon!”

Torres could not help but break into laughter hearing that. Even the word “woman” is anathema to them, especially Gomez.

“When we attend weddings, 'pag father and daughter dance na, I whisper to him: Can you imagine si Juliana 'yan? Hala, tulo na ang luha n’yan! And then he will look up to heaven and say, ‘God, no not yet!’” Torres said.

Juliana virtually grew up in the public eye, with Gomez documenting all her milestones from the time she was born in September 2000 to her children’s parties to her 18th disco-themed debut, until now in their fencing practice and her participation in his online cooking shows. She’s being squired now by Ateneo de Manila University student and fencer Miggy Bautista who has posted several images of them together on social media.

The Ormoc City mayor has one word of advise for Juliana, who’s
now on her third-year in Public Administration at the University of the Philippines.

“I told her to take care of herself. Ingat ka kasi ang daming mambobola sa ‘yo. You must learn to differentiate!” he mused as he drew parallels with his younger days before his marriage.

Asked if he thought Bautista is “bolero,” Gomez just exploded into laughter.

Meantime, Torres is not gung-ho about supposed plans to draft her as a senatorial candidate in the 2022 polls. “We just honor the work that we do now for our people. Whatever we do now has nothing to do with the elections," she said, recalling the time she was an ingenue in the madcap world of showbiz-politics. “Hindi siya plano or grand dream. Nothing that I have now was pre-planned, kusa lang nangyari. I just flow wherever the waters take you; and just be open to possibilities but not be driven purely by ambition.”

Gomez said, however, that Torres, who’s now on her last term as Leyte 4th district representative, may have difficulty responding if Malacanan asks her to join the senate slate next year.

Earlier this year, at the launch of the Ormoc City COVID-19 vaccination plan and development, Gomez told media he will attempt to swap posts with his wife.

Wherever the road leads them or whatever cliff they may fall, Torres holds on to her husband’s grit. “Richard is really my warrior, whatever courage I have now I learned from him. He is the type na puedeng lumaban kahit mag-isa lang and walang army!”

That’s quite a tribute from the wife to a man whose only seeming weakness is their daughter Juliana!