inside the church 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!