JERICHO Aguilar was 8 when he first tried to cash in on his father’s name. Left in a mall playpen while his Mom went about her errands, Jericho recalls how he would try to sweet talk his way into getting a toy he especially desired. “Sige ibigay na po ninyo sa akin ito,” he would plead with the babysitter on duty. “Mayaman yung tatay ko, si Freddie Aguilar po.”

Now 18, Jericho is still at it. He named his hard rock band Anak, after his dad’s gazillion-selling song that’s been covered in 27 languages by 100 artists in 50 countries. He gigs with his Dad at the indestructible Hobbit House (33 years and counting) and will come out with the band’s first album sometime in August or September under Freddie’s FAME. Yes, both in the aspirational sense and for the business called Freddie Aguilar Music Enterprises.

And why shouldn’t he get a leg up? He risked his high school education for this (quit high school on his third year at Angelicum) with, it should be emphasized, his father’s blessing. “Medyo nahirapan akong i-convince pero sa huli nalaman din niyang yun talaga ang gusto kong gawin.”

Plus his dad is his children’s worst critic, mincing no words when it comes to assessing the musical talents of his five children. Freddie told his eldest child Cheyenne, 29, born to his first wife Marilyn: “You’re not a very outstanding musician…. Kawawa ka anak. Mas maraming magagaling kesa sa ‘yo. Sa mga kapatid mo na lang, talo ka na.”

And of Jericho, his youngest? Freddie is succinct: “Magaling talaga.”

The faun-faced Jericho has a different take. It’s his Ate Meagan who is the star of the brood. “I’m more of a rocker and a performer. While she, she’s a total performer. She sings very good, she performs very good, she looks very good. Nasa kanya na lahat. Sa aming tatlo na nakapasok sa music business (the other being Jonan, 23), siya yung pinaka-peak. Siya yung pinagbabasehan ng talent kung nasaan ka na ngayon kasi kailangan maabot muna si Maegan.”

Jonan has reason to gush. When Maegan first emerged in 1995 at age 16, she was astonishing. She sang the blues when it wasn’t uso. She parlayed thrift store chic before the fasyon crowd discovered ukay-ukay. She had a Janis Joplin vibe that was at odds with her age. Think Joss Stone. Then, double the talent.

Meagan, now 28, is married and is mother to Zane, a six-month old baby boy. A third album is on ice, her father says, until “bumalik ang figure niya.”

Freddie mulls Meagan’s stalled career. “Ang problema kay Maegan, her music is so ‘nice,’ hindi siya ma-accommodate ng masa. Lampas siya.”

In fact, when Maegan was starting out, she had a stint in Kuya Germs’ That’s Entertainment – a weird move considering she was rocker chick compared to the permanent perkiness of the That’s crowd. But it was meant to mainstream her appeal.

Did it work? Well, seeing how Meagan tried hard to hide her fidget as she went about the TV variety show circuit, going mainstream was clearly an upstream push for the bluesy young girl.

Mainstream is as much on Jonan Aguilar’s mind, loathe as he is to tag it to his group Los Indios Bravos “the Brave Filipinos, Ang Magigiting na Pinoy,” he explains. “We fuse Filipino instruments with hip-hop bounce…. So we have that tuguchhk, tuguchhk but then it’s kulintang and banduria.”

Hip-hop? Can the folkie-rocker Ka Freddie relate to his third child’s urban sound?

“Of course. At first he thought I was just an avid fan, a hip entoosiast,” he says, lapsing into the cadence and patois of the beat. “When he heard the song that I wuz writin’ and the music that I was makin’, he kinda understood…. It’s a new ting for him but when he listened to it, he knew it was something that I loved so it’s okay even though it’s not on the side of his music.”

Besides, the subject of Jonan’s music is pure Freddie.

Life, “pavahty,” the perception that the Philippines is the most corrupt country in the world, a “latta things,” says Jonan. “Basically we tackle all the issues that’s go’hn on in the Philippines.”

As he polishes the tracks for a forthcoming album which will contain just such musings, he’s released what he calls “an independent mixed tape.” It’s a sampler CD that’s “kinda like a marketing strategy,” he says, because it’s meant to expose the group and its music.

But Jonan knows when not to fire his big political thought balloons. The “mix tape is commercial because we want to relate with some of our guest artists,” he says.

While Meagan and the boys bravely do their poppa proud in the field he’s cast a long shadow on (and even the less stellar Cheyenne continues to gig while she earns her main bucks off a call center gig), the fourth Aguilar child, Isabella, 20, fries a different fish.

Says Freddie: “Sabi ko sa kanya, ‘Anak masyado na tayo marami sa music. Napakagaling mong designer, maging designer ka na lang. Ang ginagawa niya ngayon, she’s finishing dressmaking and cutting.”

Like Jericho, will Isabella trade on her last time to get a few doors open? And does it matter? Because a leg up won’t mean a thing if the talent’s got no swing. And the Aguilars swing, singly or in unison, to a rhythm that’s theirs alone.

You can listen to Jonan’s music at www.soundclick.com or check out Los Indios Bravos in myspace.

Freddie on his children

ON why his children stay with him instead of his second ex-wife Josephine Quiepo who bore him four children (Freddie has been married and divorced thrice).

“Mas komportable sila sa ‘kin kasi ang treatment ko sa kanila parang barkada although ako din ang disciplinarian sa bahay maski na nadiyan pa yung nanay nila. Rebelde? Wala pa naman. Maegan is the closest of all. Kasi si Meagan nung teenager nagsarili ng bahay yan na sabi ko naman, ‘Anak, hindi mo naman kailangang bumukod ng bahay kasi hindi naman kita pinagbabawalang tumugtog at gawin ang gusto mo. Ang bawal lang naman sa akin hanggang ngayon, drugs. Sobrang paglalasing. At kung babae, huwag kang magpapabuntis kung ayaw mo pang mag-asawa. Kung lalaki naman, huwag kang magbubuntis kung hindi ka pa handing mag-asawa. Simple lang, Ganun lang ang patakaran ko. Parang tatay ko rin: Kung ayaw mong sumunod sa patakaran ko, huwag ka na dito sa bahay. At yung pagiging mahigpit ko up to the time na hindi ka pa 18. Pagdating mo ng 18, I’ll give you freedom pero may kasamang responsibilidad yon. Hindi naman na pababayaan kita.

What he taught his children
“To be who they are. Don’t let other people tell you who you are. Sundin niyo yung conviction niyo as a person, as a human – alam mo yan, kako, nararamdaman mo yan; not even me as your father knows that, ikaw lang. Maging magalang sa matanda, sa mayaman, sa mahirap, sa bata – walang pinipili. Basta kagalang-galang, igalang mo. Kahit wala siyang pera. Pero kung hindi naman siya kagalang-galang, kahit na matanda siya sa yo, kako it’s your duty to tell her or him, ‘Hindi po maganda yung ginagawa ninyo. Mali po.’”

What he learned from them.
“Oh wow. I learned to be a better person from them. Kasi kung may ginagawa akong hindi maganda, katulad ng masyado akong mahigpit sa kanila, later on pag nag-uusap kami, sinasabi nila. ‘Alam mo, ‘Tay dapat ganito. Ikaw nga nirereklamo mo si Lolo dati tapos ngayon, ginagawa mo sa amin.’ So I learned to be their friend. I learned to be young dahil sa kanila. Kasi barkada ko sila e. So sinasabi nila sa akin, ‘Tay ito uso.’ And I learned to diet because of them. Sabi nila, ‘Tay ano yang kinakain mo? Hindi healthy yan. Hindi na ganyan. Dapat ganito kinakain mo.’ So they’re even teaching me how to eat right.”