MANILA, Philippines—Reality bites for Madonna Decena, the Filipina singer who made thousands of viewers, and at least one judge, cry on the UK talent search "Britain's Got Talent."

After failing to make it to the final round of the reality contest, Decena has found herself jobless and without a working permit in the UK.

Early on Wednesday morning, the Inquirer received a text message from talent manager Steve Jones, who introduced himself as “the employer of Madonna.”

He claimed that Decena’s “serious misconduct . . . has resulted in her being fired.” He added in his SMS message that “her work permit is being revoked so she will no longer have a visa [needed] to perform in the UK.”

In a phone interview on Wednesday morning, Madonna’s father, Rey Decena, disputed Jones’ allegations.

He countered that after BGT, his daughter met with Jones and they decided to continue with their plans for the 32-year-old Filipina to pursue a singing career in the UK.

“Every time she would receive an inquiry for a show, she would turn it over to Jones,” he recalled. “But she later learned that Jones sat on all those opportunities. He would tell people that Madonna was unavailable or missing in action.”

Making matters worse for Madonna, Rey Decena learned from his daughter that Jones withheld her salary for five weeks. “That’s in violation of her contract, which stated that, show or no show, she should get compensated,” he noted.

He said that most of the offers Jones had turned down were from the Filipino community.

Rey Decena said that “even before BGT, I had been sensing problems with Jones because of his [negative] attitude toward clients . . . even the show’s staff.”

He said that Madonna had already reported her grievances to the Philippine Embassy and the Labor Attaché.

“In a way, she’s happy that she has already cut ties with Jones. I hope she will find a new manager and get more job offers there,” he said.

In her last e-mail to the Inquirer in June, Madonna said that she was raring to go back to work after her BGT stint. “You win some; you lose some. But life goes on. With the exposure I got on BGT, I’m sure doors would open for me. I hope the right break would come . . . not for me, but for my daughters.”

Madonna made BGT judge, stage actress Amanda Holden, weep buckets after recounting her tale of woe as a single mother who had to leave her two daughters in Manila to work in the UK.

The video of Madonna’s audition performance of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” received at least 350,000 hits since it was posted on YouTube in April.

In her June e-mail to the Inquirer, Madonna asserted: “My journey doesn’t end here. This is only the beginning.”