Last Easter Monday, March 24, I made it a point to watch the premier telecast of “Babangon Ako’t Dudurugin Kita” of course primarily because my scenes were aired but secondarily and most importantly I wantto watch for myself how Direk Joel Lamangan would execute the opening scene. You see, I had the chance to read the opening scene while I was reviewing my scenes during our taping. While reading the script, I was building my own scenario of how it will be executed.I considered the opening scene of Babangon as one of the more spectacular scenes in recent Philippine television premier telecasts. Patently, a Lamangan first day scene. Watching Direk Joel’s opening scene of Babangon made me recall his opening scene of “Kung Mawawala Ka” which was taped in Subic with Eddie Garcia and his visitors having a party on a yacht. This time for Babangon, Direk Joel “exploited” a helicopter to add more excitement to a feverish, fast-phased party scene switching moods from a highly energized festive atmosphere to a tense and provocative encounter of gambling lords and culminating with a violent massacre using a sub-machine gun mounted on the chopper! Whew! I realized I only breathed normally after the last bullet was fired from the chopper! In fairness, I felt that the amazement I had when I watched the opening scene of the first day of “Lastikman” last year (ABS-CBN teleplay directed by Jerome Pobocan) was matched with the excitement I had while watching the first scene of Babangon.

That opening scene was so elaborate that some of my friends whom I asked to watch because I would appear on the first airing day as Dina Bonnevie’s dad (or was I really papa or Itay?) thought that the first day ended with the last scream of Dina. They already turned off their TV sets and slept. The next day, they asked me if my scenes were aired! I told them, “of course!” When I told that that the premier telecast lasted for almost an hour and that after the chopper scene there was a long commercial break, after which was my scene with my “daughter” Dina inside a hospital suite, they chorused “Sayang!”

The production staff tasked to monitor the continuity of the dialogue would have a lot of explaining to do with direk Joel! In one scene, Dina addressed me as “Itay” and after a few minutes she was already calling me “papa!”

Except for that minor lapse, the first day of Babangon had a very high production value. AGB Nielsen reported a 28% rating for it! Such rating for an opening day, though not as high as the rating for the first day of “Marimar”is a decent one. It ranked number 3 for the prime time last Monday (the first and second are both GMA 7 tv shows, Joaquin Bordado and Kamandag respectively)! On its second day, I presumed the news about its grand first day must have been passed around wildly such that it got 29%. Do we see another top rated show emerging? My guess is a big Yes!

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