Cesca Litton is in Risky Business

UPDATE: After one year, we decided to upload the other photos we didn’t use in the shoot. Enjoy.

On the verge of hitting the mainstream, Cesca Litton talks about getting mugged by rabid fans, lusting over a CheyTac M200, doing around a hundred things at the same time, and basically just being “one of the boys”.

Article by B. Canapi
Photos by J.A. Tadena
Styled by Sidney Yap
Hair by Marie Tan
Special thanks to Quark Henares and Nena Belo

You’d think reading up about Cesca Litton would be the easiest thing. You’d think there’d be a ton of info on someone who’s made the NCAA, the PBA and just sports casting in general just so much easier on the eyes. For once, Google disappoints.

What do we know then? Aside from her sports-casting duties, she was also an MTV VJ, co-hosted a season of “Philippines Scariest Challenges” with Jomari Yllana and has an equally stunning sibling, Issa (who was also an UNO girl herself). Apparently she can also bust a move on the dance floor. But you already knew that.

What Google fails to tell us is that she’s just started out as a correspondent in ABS-CBN’s Showbiz News Ngayon, the latest show featuring the tandem of Kris Aquino and Boy Abunda. Surely after a month’s worth of daily primetime exposure, we can expect those web pages to start piling up. But other than that, we really don’t have a clue on who Cesca really is. But we’re about to find out.

Sniper Rifles and Spare Tires

After chatting with her for over an hour, here’s what we know so far (and in no particular order):

She’s a frustrated sniper. If you were trying to figure out what a CheyTac M200 was, there’s your answer.

She will go nuts if she had too much free time. Obviously, she’s not going to go nuts anytime soon

If your name is Pat, and you’re in a Paintball Field with Cesca, you’re so dead.

She has removed the spare tire off a Starex. In SLEX. While everybody was taking her picture.

Everything that appears above is true. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at her. At one point, she’s telling me about the time she fired a shotgun (a Benelli M3) for the first time. Something may be wrong with this picture. Or perhaps totally right.

“I was always one of the boys’,” she says, “I guess it comes with the territory.”

“My mom passed away when I was 10, so it was my dad who raised me,” says Cesca, “My dad was the one who got me interested in the outdoors, in sports, in everything I guess.”

By everything, she means going to firing ranges to shoot guns, joining the girl scouts, the gymnastics team, the soccer/futsal team, the cheerleading squad in Colegio San Agustin, as well as other stuff like wall climbing (“don’t get me in an overhang…”), surfing (“we hit the waves in La Union. Damn!”), wakeboarding (“if I can only learn to turn…”), and trekking (“we’re going to Mt Pulag over the weekend…”). Clearly, this woman’s learned much, so much so she can’t keep still.

“The world is so big, there’s so many things to do, you know. If you stay indoors the entire time, then you’re missing out.”

It’s Primetime, Baby!

In a way, it was this need to keep active that led her to sports casting.

“Way back in college (the University of Asia and the Pacific), I really thought I would end up in news,” she says, “Instead, one thing led to another, and I found myself doing sport casting for the NCAA. And I loved it! Things worked out, in a way.”

“I guess I was lucky enough to find out what I really wanted to do, instead of studying a certain thing then ending up doing another thing,” says Cesca. “It just happened a lot earlier for me!”

Her NCAA stint led to a stint at MTV, as well as gig with Solar Sports. She hosted a couple of shows like Sports Desk and Hoop Nation (the latter with basketball star Alex Compton). Currently she’s a correspondent for the PBA. (For basketball addicts, it just doesn’t get any better than that.) “I think I’m really lucky I’m working in an industry that lets me go out and experience all these things,” she says, “Like, working with Solar, I got to go to the NBA Weekend in 2007. I got sent all around the Philippines to do events.”

After all that TV experience, it was about time for her to up the ante. Funnily enough, all of this led back to ABS-CBN.

“Last year, a friend of mine (Cheska Garcia) introduced me to her manager,” says Cesca, “Early Feb, he told me to go to ABS-CBN because they’re auditioning for correspondents for SNN. I got short listed, then I got in!”

Her first assignment was to cover the “You Changed My Life” Premiere. “They wanted me to interview the stars, John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah Geronimo while they were on their way to the cinemas,” she says, “They wanted me to do like an ambush interview. I was going to start at the ground floor, then follow them all the way to the venue.

“As soon as I started, the fans surged towards us!” she says, “All hell broke loose. They were pushing, they were screaming, it was nuts! We had bouncers all around us, pushing them away! CRAZY! And it was live!”

“By the time it was done, I felt like I was in a gang fight.”

She says the transition has been easier than it may sound like. “It’s just a different arena,” says Cesca, “Considering that I’ve been covering sports my entire career, moving into the mainstream, show business, it’s just a whole new experience for me, I have to update myself on what’s going around.”

On independence and deadbeats
“I’m definitely looking someone who’s also active. Someone witty. Someone who makes me laugh, someone with a sense of humor,” says Cesca. “That for me is the most important thing.”

She adds: “I’ve seen some guys who go out with their girlfriends, sit in one corner and not talk to anyone. Why bother going out?”

But she also says that, “No matter how used I am to taking care of things on my own, I would still appreciate a guy who would look after me.”

Yeah, you could do that, couldn’t you?

As we wind down the interview, we had to ask the usual questions. Like, where do you think you’ll be five years from now?

“A lot can happen in 5 years. There are still so many things I want to do with my life and I’m grateful for all the opportunities that have come my way. Not everyone has the chance to do what I do and I know it can all go in a flash. Longevity means you’re doing something right.”

“There will always be someone younger, someone prettier, someone better coming along,” she says, “I have to keep getting better, I have to stay ahead of the game. It’s a continuous learning process. And I like to stick around for as long as I can because, as I said, this is a job that I love.”

“I’m very passionate about certain things in my life, that I’m passionate about my career, my family, my friends. You always have to have something to be passionate about.

“Life is too short.”