Chino Roque: The First Filipino Astronaut from Axe Apollo Space Academy

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Axe Apollo Space Academy (AASA) chose its first Filipino astronaut. The masculine fragrance company presented to the media community, Chino Roque as the pioneer of the Pinoys dream to step foot in the moon.

Last December 9th 2013, At the URBN Bar and Kitchen in The Fort strip, the press community met the top 3 contenders, from The Philippines, in the AXE’s campaign to bring aspirants to the outer space and had a chance to know Evan Ray Datuin, Ramil Santos and Chino. It’s a great privilege to have a face to face encounter with these guys who just got off the Axe Apollo space camp.

Datuin, Santos and Roque were surrounded by camera flashes and back to back interviews from different broadcasting stations and print media representatives. Gino and one of the ultimate heart throb and idol of the mass; Ramon Baustista hosted the gala.

I was lucky to be the only blogger (as far as I know) to be in the area. One of the question to the winner in the QnA part of the night was something like “when you go to the moon, what will you bring?” Chino answered; “ a rosary and a flag of The Philippines”. Need not to elaborate but for me, this 22 year old hottie winner (yeah, he’s very cute and he became one of my instacrush that day), is a humble, God fearing and patriotic man.

Roque also mentioned how he appreciated the support he got from Evan Ray and Ramil. As he said, he was happy that the “legendary Apollo 11 Astronaut” Buzz Aldrin announced his victor in their quest.

“At the awarding ceremonies, when they called my name, all I could think of is how fortunate I am. From the start, this has been the experience of a lifetime. I’m grateful to the team of admirable guys I went to space camp with – Ramil and Evan – as well as the support of family, friends, and my countrymen” said Roque from the release given to us after the event.

Patrick Carney (USA), Theo Abbaci-Nel (Canada), Marco Gorrasi (Brazil), Oliver Knight (UK), Felix Stach (DACH), Cyril Garnier (France), Jordi Ollebek (The Netherlands) Eduardo Luruena (Spain), Robert Vikal (Slovakia) Denis Efremov (Russia), Halil Kayikci (Turkey), Omar Samra (Egypt) Vinay Singh (India), Takanobu Yoneya (Japan), Rizman Adhi Nugraha (Indonesia), Pirada Techavijit (Thailand), Thanh Long Vu (Vietnam), Tim Gibson (Australia), Hamish Fagg (New Zealand), Tale Sundlisaeter (Norway), Mandlenkosi Maseko (South Africa), Qing Guo (China) will join our pride Daniel Angelo “Chino” Roque in 2015 as they all dreamed, aspired, worked hard and reached for space.


*Contributed by Shawn Andrei Summers

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