“The Miracle of My Gray Hair and Santino’s Front Teeth”

 Before I was informed that I was chosen to play the role of Father Jude (Father Ngot) in “May Bukas Pa”, we had a meeting with Director Jerome Pobocan. During that meeting, Direk Jerome’s only requirement for me was to grow my moustache and beard. I had it shaved clean during our meeting. I told him that I can easily grow my moustache and beard but it will be white as snow already. To my mind however, that meant goodbye to my dyed hair. Since more than ten years ago, I started to dye my then “salt and pepper” hair. I had been regularly dying my hair almost every two months with black brown color to cover my graying hair. Since I had to grow my white moustache and beard, I had to grow my gray hair too, sans the regular black brown hair dye. Otherwise, I would look funny with white moustache and beard but with black brown dyed hair! The color of my hair must be same as the color of my moustache and beard. So, what’s the fuss? What a small sacrifice to do, I got the role anyway! It then became my trademark: my patented look, the image of a grumpy old priest with white hair, white moustache and beard from the moment that we started to tape last January 18, 2009. Of course, vain as I am, I feel the look is a minus “pogi” point. I indeed feel that I look older than my biological age. As vain guys would move heaven and earth to make themselves looks younger than their real age, sporting my cranky old man look is a sacrifice! But, never mind, I am a regular cast of the show! I consoled myself then that anyway, aside from the fact that I got what I had been praying for the longest time, that of a regular role in a weekly soap opera, we were told by management that the show will only be till March 31, or for two months only. After that, I can have my hair dyed again! However, only a few days after we first aired on February 2, we were getting high ratings! We were consistently getting above 40% viewership! The advertisers went gaga and were making the beeline to buy commercial spots! Miracle of all miracles, the lightweight show intended to go only for two months, became the number show nationwide! One could simply make a mental mathematical calculation as to how much the show had been drawing in the revenues! Consequently, the management announced that the March 31 end of the show had been moved to hold your breath, January of 2010! It is understandable since with the commercials coming in, it is farfetched to terminate and pull out the show at its peak! If the consistently high ratings that we get is miracle, another miracle is happening to my gray hair! Late last year, a fraternity brother gave me an unsolicited proposal: for me to have youthful thick hair, apply Virgin Coconut Oil on my scalp. When I stopped dying my hair last January, I decided to apply Virgin Coconut Oil on my scalp every night before going to bed. My wife complained that I smell like a freshly prepared “biko”! Nevertheless, I religiously applied the VCO and had used Lauat Shampoo only three times a week. I scheduled my shampoo application on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, which are our taping days for “May Bukas Pa”. When I had my hair cut early this month, my barber was excited to tell me that aside from the fact that my hair has grown thicker, there are new growth of black hair making it look like the “salt and pepper” hair I had ten years ago! Salamat sa Dios! The six months of the show resulted into a miracle of my gray hair turning to salt and pepper! And as my officemate who is an avid fan of May Bukas Pa has observed, the show has been that long that Santino’s from teeth have already grown such that he is no longer wearing his false teeth! Who knows, if the show continues to get new extension, my hair will turn to pure black as Santino will likewise have all his milk teeth replaced with permanent teeth!