(The Philippine Star)

Any day now, Adel Tamano will be smiling down larger-than-life at motorists along EDSA from huge billboards of The Belo Medical Clinic as endorser for the facial treatments. It was Adel himself who thought of the blurb: Smart is the new sexy.

Very true. At the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila where he’s the president (the youngest to hold that position), the bedimpled Adel (ramrod straight at 5’9") never fails to make heads turn with his movie-starish looks. Had he passed a singing audition for Boy Abunda years ago, why not, he could have been a singing-lawyer (he’s the first Filipino Muslim to graduate from Harvard Law School where he was a scholar while taking up an M.A. in Islamic Legal Studies).

Said Dr. Vicki Belo who hired Adel as her lawyer before he became an endorser, “He’s the perfect model because he is flawless. He has smooth skin.”

Together with Vicki, Adel met the movie press a few days ago. He came a bit late because he had to fix the travel permit of Vicki who was leaving the next day for a speaking engagement in the US. Besides, said Adel, he also had to finalize PLM’s medical mission for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy around the Intramuros area. He was in a green shirt, matching Vicki’s green outfit.

Asked why, Adel joked, “Because we are both green-minded.”

Vicki rode on. “We think alike.”

Even if he graduated from Ateneo (Blue Eagles), Adel said that green (the color of La Salle’s Archers) is “my color.” Another color that means so much to him is orange which is the motif of the Nacionalista Party (led by Sen. Manny Villar) of which Adel is one of the dashing spokesmen informally known as “Villar’s Honor Guards.”

He let the movie press in on a “secret.”

“A feng shui expert told me that ‘orange’ can easily beat ‘yellow’ because it has a little bit of ‘green’.”

So green it is.

Did Adel try any other treatment aside from the facials, maybe something, hmmm, below the neck?

“I don’t think he needs one,” said Vicki, still joking.

“If I had the body of Piolo Pascual,” said Adel deadpan, “I would have done a more daring pose.”

Does being well-rounded and well-educated make a man even more sexy?

“With the advances in the medical industry,” added Adel, seriously now, “no one has to be unattractive anymore; everyone can be beautiful. So since everyone can be beautiful, what’s your edge in making yourself more attractive? It has to come from inside; hindi puedeng maganda ka lang tingnan. It could be intelligence, character and integrity. You have to be beautiful inside. The Belo Medical Clinic has made beauty available to everyone. When you go to the clinic, it’s because you want to manifest what’s beautiful inside.”

Well said. Smart is, indeed, the new sexy.

Turning 39 today, Adel is married to lawyer Rowena Kapunan. “My one and only wife,” he said in answer to a comment that, being a Muslim, he’s entitled to four. “No such plan,” he joked.

Doesn’t he need, say, a lipo?

“If I watch my diet and continue to exercise, perhaps I won’t need a lipo...yet. But if I come to a point where I need one, why not?”

And what does he find sexy in a woman? Is it the face, the boobs, the butt or something else? What turns him on?

“Sexy is beyond the physical. It has to come from within. She has to be, yes, smart. May mga babaing ang ganda-ganda physically pero hindi masyadong gaano ang dating. Then, there are some some girls na hindi naman masyadong maganda and yet malakas ang dating. They have the so-called ‘X factor.’ I’ve been around the world and I can say that the most beautiful women are found in the Philippines.”