MANILA, Philippines?In droves they came. For the Manila leg of the ?Pinoy Idol? tryouts, the GMA 7 staff was again pleasantly ?surprised? by the turnout.

?It?s more than double the Cebu crowd,? program manager Hazel Abonita said. Cebu had peaked at 1,500; the three-day Manila audition, held at the SMX Convention Center in the Mall of Asia compound, attracted 10,000 on the first day, Thursday.

?SM made that crowd estimate,? Abonita said. ?We expect double that figure on the second day.?

While chatting with judge Ogie Alcasid, Fotini Paraskakis, senior executive producer of franchise holder FremantleMedia, quipped: ?The Philippines has a lot of wonderful singers.?

Segment producer David Baki recalled that long queues stretched from the hall to the Manila Bay on day one.

?People started lining up at 6 a.m.,? Baki recounted. ?We had to end registration at 9 p.m. But most of the staff finished work at 10 to 11:30 p.m.?

Pandemonium

On Friday, it was pandemonium as usual. Aspirants were rehearsing in every nook and cranny of the convention center?including the comfort rooms.

?The father of one contestant got upset because he wanted to be in the audition room with his child,? Baki recounted. ?That?s not allowed.?

Angel Javier, head of the network?s ETV Publicity, said that while provincial aspirants had been more deferential, city contestants were more aggressive, bordering on the threatening.

?A male contestant kept asking if he could try again,? Javier related. ?Actually he can, in the next stops?Clark, Dagupan and Naga.?

Another persistent contestant was Peter John Gojas, a reflexologist and former FX taxi barker from Kalookan.

Unimpressive

Baki said Gojas was reluctant to go home after being given the boot by the judges. ?He said that he was still processing what happened.?

Gojas, who sang Akon?s ?Don?t Matter? and did impressions of newscaster Mike Enriquez and cartoon characters Zuneo, Damulag and Jeremiah of ?Ghost Fighter,? failed to impress the judges.

?Ogie said I should join a beatbox contest instead,? Gojas said. ?According to [judge] Wyngard Tracy, I just made a lot of noise.?

That?s because he also made firecracker sounds upon entering and exiting the audition room.

Although he didn?t make it, Gojas insisted that he enjoyed himself: ?My neighbors said they saw me in the news programs of GMA 7 and QTV. I was interviewed by Cesar Apolinario.?

At the time of the Inquirer visit on Friday, only four aspirants were brandishing Gold tickets?among them were Regine Go and Regin Varona. Regine said she made her own dress. Regin said he joined to help send a younger sibling to school.

Tough jury

At the end of that second day, out of 71 who got to sing for the judges, only 23 had made it to the next round.

The judges, including GMA Artist Center head Ida Henares (pinch-hitting for Jolina Magdangal, who was in the US), were extremely tough.

Tracy counted ?only seven promising talents from among the 23.? Alcasid said that only two stood out on his list?a rocker/architect and a Filipino-Australian girl. Henares said she was still waiting for someone ?who is immensely outstanding.?

The Manila round wrapped up on Saturday.