Wille Revillame is back on television

Actor, composer, singer, comedian, businessman, television host, philantropist.
These all about sums up Willie Revillame.
No, not all that. Willie is also one of the country’s top taxpayers and one of the top overall.
In fact, in 2009 and 2012, Willie was the top celebrity taxpayer in the Philippines.
Records of the Bureau of Internal Revenue showed that Willie, whose real name is Wilfredo Buendia Revillame, was the top celebrity taxpayer and the third highest overall taxpayer in the top 500 taxpayers of the country.

That year, Willie paid a total of P57.2 million in taxes while the country’s taxpayer, Elaine B. Gardiola, treasurer of A.E. Gardiola Construction, Inc, paid a total tax due of P59.54 million.
A year before that, Willie was the second highest taxpayer in the country. Other top celebrity taxpayers then were
Sharon Cuneta #18 with P19.55 Million; Kris Aquino Yap #39 – P12.79 Million; Piolo Pascual #50 – P11.51 Million and Marian Rivera #62 – P10.12 Million.
In 2012, the TV host was again the highest celebrity taxpayer and second overall in the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) list of the top 500 individual taxpayers for taxable year 2012. Mercury drugstore magnate Vivian Que Azcona was top taxpayer that year..
Revillame, who bid farewell to his TV5 noontime show “Wowowillie” on Saturday, paid almost P64 million in income taxes.
He “outpaid” actress-TV host Kris Aquino, who was the highest paid celebrity and top celebrity taxpayer in 2010; and who earned a total taxable income of P101 million, and paid taxes of P32.3 million that year. The Queen of All Media ranked sixth this time around, after paying nearly P45 million in income taxes.
Actor John Lloyd Cruz is on eighth spot with payment of P42.8 M, followed closely by the Megastar, Sharon Cuneta, who paid P42 million, at ninth place.
Former love team Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual ranked 32nd (P24 M) and 34th (P23 M), respectively. Not far behind at 36th place is boxing icon and Sarangani representative Manny Pacquiao, who paid a total income tax of P22 million.
Willie is back again as television host after a hiatus of two years and with this, he may soon be back as top taxpayer again.
Willie Revillame returned to TV via the game show “Wowowin!” last week.
The first episode of the new show, which will air every Sunday on GMA-7, had a dance segment shot on the helipad of the host’s own Wil Tower Mall. The rest of the show was held in the new studio along Kalayaan Avenue in Quezon City.
According to a report on GMA News, almost 300 dancers performed on the show, with actresses Lovi Poe, Kylie Padilla and Wynwin Marquez adding glitz to the proceedings.
Kylie, garbed in a red number, danced the flamenco to the tune of Jessie J’s “Bang Bang.” Lovi, on the other hand, was wearing a butterfly-inspired costume adorned with colorful wings for her performance of Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda.” Wynwin showcased her great dancing form to Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.”
. The non-stop, 10-minute opening with no commercial breaks reportedly cost P2 million to stage.
This was followed by Willie introducing, “Wowowin Tumalon-Talon,” Wowowin’s new theme song as composed by Lito Camo with the fully loaded studio audience rock and rolling with him. He introduced the “Bigyan ng Jacket” game portion offering the top prize of P200,000. While giving away Wowowin jackets and Happy mobile phones in between, this GMA 7 show exceeded all the pilot episodes of his ex-game shows. Then he closed with a song by Vehnee Saturno.
Willie did all this in a record one hour, the shortest show opening the charismatic show host ever did all by himself!
Known to popularize upbeat songs, Willie’s opening song was “Sumayaw, Gumalaw, Tumalon.” He performed the song with “Wowowin Girls,” a group composed of dancers from past incarnations of the show.
“Wowowin” is Willie’s eighth game show since he launched his career. Aside from “Lunch Date,” his other shows were “Pabuenas Sa Siyete” (1989, GMA), “Magandang Tanghali Bayan” (1998-2001, ABS-CBN), “Masayang Tanghali Bayan” (2003-2004, ABS-CBN), “Puso O Pera” (2004, ABC), “Wowowee” (2005-2010, ABS-CBN), “Willing Willie/Will Time Big Time” (2010-2013, TV5) and “Wowowillie” (2013, TV5).
The game featured on “Wowowin” are not different from the ones in previous shows. The “Bigyan Ng Jacket ’Yan” segment led to “Jacket Jackpot,” where the winner takes home a brand new car.
The second game, “Willie of Fortune,” has become “Wil To Win” wherein a contestant can take home R1 million, a house and lot and a brand new car.
The show is not opening its studios to live audiences for now.
“Hindi po kailangan pumila kasi po hindi po kami nagpapapila sa ngayon,” ran the announcement onscreen on first airing day.