A friend named Dayanara

Like a Pinoy who had been based abroad for quite a while, she craved for sinigang na baboy and fried lumpiang gulay the minute she arrived at NAIA on Jan. 24. Only, Dayanara Torres, Miss Universe 1993, is an LA-based Puerto Rican whose taste buds remembered the savory yumminess of Filipino food the minute she stepped on Philippine soil.

“How I have missed the Philippines — its food, its people!” she said when she arrived Thursday night at the exclusive Manila House in BGC for the dinner tendered in her honor by Dr. Vicki Belo. “I am happy to be reunited with my old friends. Am happy also to meet new friends.”

Vicki is a “new friend” Dayanara is happy to meet. “I only met her two days ago and I can sense her sincerity,” Vicki said of the beauty queen. The Puerto Rican beauty is now the latest addition to the roster of celebrities endorsing Belo clinic. She is represented in the Philippines by Genesis, an agency helmed by the kind soul of Angeli Pangilinan Valenciano.

Vicki’s olfactory membrane is far-reaching that she “smelled” the arrival of Dayanara in Manila long before the press broke the news that she would be a judge in this year’s Miss Universe tilt. By early December, Dayanara said, she already got word that she would endorse Belo. “Already I feel prettier,” she smiled at the thought of being the skin clinic’s endorser.

At noontime today, Dayanara will warm the dance floor of ASAP, the ABS-CBN show where she was a pioneer host when she settled in Manila from 1995 to 2000. She came back to Manila to be a judge at the recent 65th staging of Miss Universe.

“I really cannot hide my excitement about my ASAP guesting. I also cannot hide my excitement about being a Belo girl,” said Dayanara, mother of two boys Cristian Marcus, who is celebrating his 16th birthday today; and Ryan Adrian, 13.

In 2009, she wrote a book titled Married To Me: How Committing To Myself Led To Triumph After Divorce. In the book, she shared her secrets to a happy, gratifying life after her divorce from superstar singer Marc Anthony.

Dayanara said she’s “always thankful about life.” She’s thankful, too, that for the third time, she became a judge at the recent Miss Universe competition. “It was not an easy job to choose this year’s Miss Universe. As a judge, I needed to talk to the contestants (there were 86 of them) one by one to get to know them better,” confided Dayanara.

What can she say about the Philippine bet Maxine Medina? “Miss Philippines is beautiful and intelligent. She is a wonderful lady.”

What does she think of Miss France Iris Mittenaere, crowned as this year’s Miss Universe? “Miss France is warm, beautiful and intelligent. I can relate with her because she is studying to become a dentist. Before Miss Universe, I also wanted to become a dentist. She has so much heart. When I talked to her, she connected to me very well. I am happy she won.”

* * *

In the sphere of happiness, no one can be happier than Dr. Joan Albito that Dayanara is in town. Joan is Dayanara’s best friend in the Philippines. Theirs is a unique story of friendship.

In May 1994, Joan made sure she would not miss her flight from her hometown Cebu to be at the PICC to watch the Coronation Night of Miss Universe that year. Her eyes were not on any of the contestants. She was waiting for Dayanara Torres to do her farewell walk. She was a fan, an adoring, loving fan. She even wrote her a letter and snail-mailed it to Manila Hotel where Dayanara was staying during the extent of her participation in the beauty tilt. But she never got to meet the Puerto Rican doll in person.

When Dayanara came back to Manila in July 1995 to ink a deal with ABS-CBN, Joan got to witness the contract signing up close. Thanks to Christine Bersola, her friend, who scored for Joan a seat at Mario’s restaurant in Quezon City where the contract signing was being held.

“I was seated in the last row happily looking at Yari who was in chocolate brown knee-length dress,” she recalled. Then, out of the blue, when the signing was over, Dayanara, shy and self-effacing at times, according to Joan, went to the last row, found a seat beside her and asked: “Is this seat taken? May I sit with you?”

Joan was floored. She introduced herself to Dayanara. Upon hearing her name, Dayanara asked: “I know you, right? Your name sounds familiar.” Then she realized Joan was the Nursing student from Cebu who wrote her a letter.

Right there and then, where they were seated, Dayanara got a piece of paper, and wrote Joan a long letter that ended, “I am sorry I was not able to answer your letter right away.”

That moment sealed their friendship. From a fan to a friend.

“Joan is my best friend. She knows me very well. I know her very well. I love her,” Dayanara told me at the dinner.

“That day when we met in 1995, there was already a connection. I just knew that we would click, that we could trust each other, that we would be best friends,” Dayanara added.

True enough, they have been each other’s Energizer Bunny. They are each other’s auxiliary wheel when either one of them experiences a flat tire in the bump of life. 

“We feel each other,” Joan said. 

“Because we are connected,” Dayanara added.

They are so close that Dayanara sends Joan, now a dermatologist with her own clinic in Makati, a Christmas card every year from the time they met. When it would be inconvenient for Joan to fly back to Cebu after their rendezvous in Manila in those days, Dayanara always opened her home in Pasig (first in Renaissance Tower, then in Valle Verde) for her best friend. Even when Dayanara left the Philippines in 2000, they remained connected; in fact, Joan would visit her in LA many times in a year.

At Nobu hotel where Dayanara stayed for the recent Miss Universe, guess who was her roommate? “She talked to me long before her arrival in Manila that I would stay with her,” said Joan, who has her own unit in a tony high rise in Makati.

On Tuesday morning, via PAL, Dayanara is flying back to LA. Her Pinoy fans, let alone her best friend Joan, should not worry for the “queen of the dance floor” will be back soon. If plans don’t miscarry, she will have a movie with Piolo Pascual and a telecine on ABS. I heard the whole ABS top executives including Gabby Lopez, Carlo Katigbak, Cory Vidanes and Charo Santos-Concio are excited to have Dayanara on board again.

Meanwhile, before she leaves, Dayanara needs to have a serving of mango jubilee, her favorite dessert that she only finds in the Philippines. She and Joan are trooping to Chef Jessie’s to savor the dessert soon.

And to savor more of their best friendship. *

(E-mail me at bumbaki@yahoo.com. I’m also on Twitter @bum_tenorio and Instagram @bumtenorio. Have a blessed Sunday!)