Archive for May, 2009
“Tony Manalo: Up Close and Personal with Father Miguel”
Among us character actors who are playing the roles of priests in “May Bukas Pa” it is Tony Manalo who almost became a priest in real life. Yes, Antonio “Tony” Manalo is an ex-seminarian in his youth who wanted to join the vacation of priesthood. Although he did not become a priest in real life, Tony who plays Father Miguel in “May Bukas Pa” is a practicing catholic in real life. In fact, he is an active member of the “Ex-Presidents Association of Young Catholic Social Circle” (YOCASOCI), an organization based in his parish church – the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Pasig City. Before joining the showbiz industry, Tony was an insurance agent. He was able to raise his family from his lucrative income from the commissions as such. He had also a stint as a high school teacher. After he retired as a high school teacher, he continued to play an active role in the school activities. He is the current President of the “Parent-Teacher Community Association of the Pasig City Science High School”. However, the call of the showbiz industry was able lure Tony into the colorful world of fame and glitters. In the mid to 1990’s, he found himself playing character roles for the telenobelas of ABS-CBN and GMA 7 stations. Up to the present, he is very active in playing various roles in both the local movies and the TV shows. He was also in the ABS-CBN’s top-rated show “Pangako Sa Yo” where Aloy Norona and myself were also part of. The showbiz industry just like any other industries has also its hazards. Last year, while Tony was taping for an episode of an afternoon show featuring the Sex Bomb Girls of GMA 7, he twisted his back the wrong way. For that accident, he had to stopped taping for almost six months. For the injury, he did not even get additional compensation from the producers of the show. This is because as character actors, we are paid on daily basis, that is, if we are called to tape for a particular day, we are paid for our services for that particular day. This is where the importance for character actors like us to become self-employed Social Security System (SSS) members. This way, we can avail ..work-related sickness benefits. That is why, as an SSS employee myself, I have been encouraging my co-workers to be active SSS members. As Miguel in “May Bukas Pa”, Tony is in the company of what we call as the Senior Priests in the monastery. Yes, after four months of working together, the priests have learned to put tags among ourselves. The Senior Priests are Tony, Aloy and myself. We have the young priests: Ruben, Badji, Victor, David, Robin and Andre and finally we have the Lead Priests: Jaime, Lito and Dominic. Tony oftentimes joins me in my car after tapings. Going home after the tapings is not actually a problem for Tony since aside from me, there are other co-actors that he could join. After all, we are co-priests of a catholic monastery!
“Pinoy Bingo Night: Father Jose (Dominic Ochoa) Plays Bingo with May Bukas Pa Priests Cheering!”
The perks of being in the cast of the monster hit “May Bukas Pa” continue to flow in the lives of the priests in the monastery of Bagong Pag-Asa! I was so excited to receive a text message from the Talent Coordinator of Pinoy Bingo Night last Monday night asking if I could join the show as one of the cheerers of my co-priest Father Jose (Dominic Ochoa) who would be taping as the celebrity guest. I wasted no time to grab this once in a lifetime chance to join Ms. Kris Aquino’s get-rich quick show!
So I found myself joining Father Anthony (Jaime Fabregas), Father Thomas (Aloy Norona), Father Patrick (Ruben Gonzaga), Father Paul (Badji Mortiz), and Father Chi (David Chua) cheering for Father Jose.
And here is the bonus: aside from the generous exposure that we would get in this top-rated game show, we also received honorarium!
Read More..>>“Aloy Norona: Up CLose and Personal with Father Thomas”
Among my eleven co-priests in the monastery, Aloy Norona is the actor whom I had worked with the longest time. He is my contemporary when I first joined the tv and movie industry as a bit player in 1999. We had worked together on several projects. We were together in the ABS-CBN’s top-rated show “Pangako Sa Yo”, had worked on several projects with GMA Channel 7, appeared together in the TV shows of the government-owned TV channels and even for Japanese movies that were filmed here. Before 2008 ended, we appeared together with Ruben Gonzaga in ABS-CBN’s Komiks presents “Dragonna”. As an optimistic person, I always pray for new projects and expect that it will be granted. While working for Dragonna, I had a strange feeling that my prayer for a new project that would cast me for regular role would soon be granted by God. I sensed that it was very imminent that Aloy, Ruben and myself will soon be working together in a big project. I don’t know, but I had that feeling during the taping of Dragonna in a fire station in Binondo where Aloy played the Chief Fire Officer, Ruben played as a police and I played as the chief of Police. And indeed a few weeks later, we were casted as priests in “May Bukas Pa”. Sometimes, I want to believe that I could foresee future events!
Read More..>>