DAVAO CITY, Philippines??The show must go on,? actor Derek Ramsay told Inquirer Entertainment after an ABS-CBN event in this Southern Philippine city.

Derek had just checked out of the hospital after a bout with dengue and had to plunge back to work?taping for the TV series ?Magkaribal,? shooting for Richard Somes? film ?Corazon? (with Erich Gonzales) and hosting the Kapamilya Karavan at Gaisano Atrium.

?I am still recovering,? he confessed after the road show. ?I got dengue two weeks ago. I felt weak. My body hurt. I was like a vegetable.?

Through it all, girlfriend Angelica Panganiban was by his side.

She said Derek was characteristically cool throughout the ordeal.

?I don?t worry about stuff,? Derek said. ?I had to fight it.?

Right before being downed by dengue, Derek had reason to worry last month, when his mom?s Volvo SUV was reportedly stolen by a gang led by Ivan Padilla who later perished in an encounter with cops.

?That was scary,? he admitted. ?I am just thankful that my parents were not hurt.?

During the Kapamilya Karavan at Gaisano mall, Derek was quite forthright about his feelings for Angelica. ?We?re committed to each other,? he said.

Quite tellingly, Derek and Angelica were wearing T-shirts with special significance at the show?s cast party.

?This shirt was given by Angel,? Derek volunteered.

?I got it in New York,? Angelica said.

She, on the other hand, wore a shirt from London Underground. (Derek?s dad is British.)

?I always buy shirts from the places we?ve visited,? she explained.

Their most recent trip together was in South Africa where they spent 23 days in Cape Town and another four days in Johannesburg and Pretoria last June.

?I didn?t want to go home,? Angel admitted.

?We will go back. I?m trying to convince my family to spend Christmas there with us,? Derek noted.

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