MANILA, Philippines?There?s life after Heart.

This, in a nutshell, was what singer-actor Jericho Rosales told Inquirer Entertainment in an hour-long chat last week.

Actress Heart Evangelista, in an interview with the TV gabfest ?Showbiz Central? in June, announced her decision to end her three-year relationship with Jericho. She claimed that a ?third party? had caused the break-up.

Heart added that things turned sour between herself and the actor when he began working on his indie movie ?I Love You Virus,? opposite American actress Brianna Evigan, and then on the drama series ?A Time For Us,? with Malaysian actress Carmen Soo.

In an interview on the rival show ?The Buzz,? Jericho, who was in Malaysia at the time, tearfully denied cheating on Heart.

Two months later, Jericho?Echo to his friends?insisted that ?the sadness and loneliness have all gone.?

Apart from his new film and TV show, both set for international release, Echo is busy working on his third album with EMI Music. For two Tuesdays last month, Echo and his band Jeans performed at the Spicy Fingers Bar in Greenbelt 2, Makati, where he sang originals as well as covers of James Taylor, Jason Mraz and John Mayer.

But while he claimed to have ?moved on,? Echo still occasionally referred to Heart in some of his spiels.

How are you now, after the break-up?

Somehow I?ve managed to move on. My focus now is my work, my band, and my songs. I?m set to record a new album soon. A movie is also coming up with Anne Curtis. A soap opera with (another ex-girlfriend) Kristine Hermosa is also in the offing.

Are you thankful that work is keeping you from thinking about Heart?

To be honest, work doesn?t help much. It?s not the way to heal, to forget about something. What helped were prayers and a lot of positive thinking.

Do you miss her?

Yes, I do. You have no idea.

Have you gotten back to surfing in La Union? It?s something that you used to do together.

I?ve not gone back to the North. I?ve not seen my friends there yet. But I?ve been surfing a lot lately, mostly just in Zambales. I also surfed when I was in Malaysia. Generally, I?m fine. There?s no more emptiness and sadness, although it?s really hard to take away the pain. Three years is not something anyone would easily forget.

Who do you run to when you?re down in the dumps?

I call my family and Budji Libarnes, my architect and surfer best friend. Budji knows a lot about how I suffered. In show biz, I?m close to Gary V and his family. They supported me a lot.

Didn?t you feel ill-at-ease working with Carmen after the controversy?

In the beginning, medyo dyahe. But we?re comfortable working together now. She?s a pro and she?s mature enough to understand the situation.

In an interview, Carmen said she felt victimized by what happened.

Whoever gets involved in a situation similar to this would also feel victimized. You come to the Philippines to work and then, boom, something like this happens to you. I apologized to her.

There?s talk that you never really broke up with Heart and that this is just a plan to further your careers.

I?m not the type who would go that low. I?m not a fake. I can?t do that.

Was the death of ?Manong? Gilbert Perez (?A Time For Us? TV series director) traumatic for you? You personally brought him to the hospital.

It was an awful experience. It was 5:30 a.m. and we were still working. I guess he got really tired. His condition improved when he got to the hospital. A few days later, he went through dialysis and had another heart attack. That one killed him.

You?re very popular in Malaysia. How was your stay there?

It was okay. I enjoyed it. Malaysia is like my second home. People there know me. They sometimes ask their pictures to be taken with me, just like here in Manila. But I had problems with the food, sobrang anghang kasi.

There was also this instance when we had to shoot in a place called Cameron Highlands. It was really cold, but we were all wearing summer outfits.

You also play lead in ?I Love You Virus.? When is the film coming out?

It?s showing in the last quarter of this year. The plan is to have it shown in Hollywood. I?m very proud of it. The production group keeps talking about what we?re going to do on premiere night. But we still have some stuff to shoot. The producers are just working on Brianna?s schedule.

What was it like working with a team of foreigners?

Director Francis de la Torre is a Filipino-American based in the US. His assistant director, the assistant cameraman and the audioman are Americans. The DOP is Austrian. The team is efficient and disciplined. Bilib ako sa kanila. The actors had their own trailers. We never ran out of food on the set. The only thing I had to worry about was my lines.

You mentioned a third album ?

My goal is to record an all-original album, although I also have a couple of revivals in mind. It will still be with EMI Records. My guitarist Dohn Cernado and I have a lot of new material, but we?re still testing the waters. We want to see if the local record industry will improve before releasing this new album. Right now, I?m recording ?Di Bale Na Lang? for Gary?s 25th anniversary album.

E-mail mcruz@inquirer.com.ph