TV visibility for a cause

At this point of her life – after receiving numerous awards both in entertainment and in public service (including the very prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award) – Rosa Rosal can afford to be very choosy (and she is) when it comes to accepting TV and movie offers.

But she was thrilled when she was offered last summer by GMA 7 to lead the cast of the nightly soap opera Narito ang Puso Ko. She immediately sent me a text message about it and I was among the many people who watched its premiere telecast last June.

But I did tell her that I was watching only the first episode since I already made a firm resolve that I wasn’t going to be a slave anymore to any soap opera. I wasn’t true to my word, however. The day after the pilot telecast, I was still glued to Narito. I promised myself, I would only watch until the first week. But after the first week, I found myself still watching it. And now, I am a Narito ang Puso Ko addict.

In Narito ang Puso Ko, Rosa Rosal plays Doña Dolores Sanvictores, an extremely wealthy woman who owns various businesses – airlines, shipping lines… everything, perhaps even a factory of pakong bakya. She should be happy with her life, except that so many people are out to kill her – including her wicked brother-in law, Felipe (played by Eddie Garcia). For many years, she gets separated from her granddaughter (Jolina Magdangal), but eventually they get reunited – except that the people around them still wanted them dead. But they’re the lead stars and they can’t die.

In one episode that was shown about two months ago, however, I got the shock of my life when Rosa Rosal was killed and was shown inside a coffin. I immediately called her up to ask why the writers’ pool allowed that to happen. She told me not to worry. She’s not yet dead in the story. But she was in a coffin – dead as a nail. I argued. She gave a hearty laugh at the other end of the line. "That’s not me," she said. "That’s only a wax figure of me."

I really have to give it to the one who made that wax figure. I swear the corpse looked every inch like Rosa Rosal.

"That’s the one thing I won’t do anymore – lie inside a coffin," she told me. "I did that in one show a long time ago and my grandchildren, John and James, almost got traumatized by that scene.

But why did they have to "kill" her – even just temporarily? "To make the story more exciting," she shot back. Also, she needed more time for her work in Red Cross.

Last month, there were three big Red Cross events that culminated in the grand Red Cross Ball that raised funds for charity. She therefore used the time she was "dead" in the soap opera to work on these projects. Unfortunately, she worked so hard to the point that she got sick and missed the grand ball, which – to her relief – received very favorable reviews in the lifestyle sections of the major dailies.

When she was "dead" in Narito, even kids she’d meet in the malls would ask her, "Doña Dolores, bakit kayo namatay?"

Last week, these questions were answered. She had to "die" so that she could find out who her real enemies are – and now she knows and she’s back and out to get them. Under the direction of Eric Quizon and Gina Alajar, this has made the story of Narito ang Puso Ko even more exciting.

Of course, when she was "dead" in the series, I couldn’t go around telling the soap’s regular viewers the inside story – otherwise, the show’s staff would have killed me and you can bet your sweet life that the corpse that would be stuffed in my coffin is not just going to be a wax figure of me.

From her end, Rosa Rosal is just too glad to be back in the series – not necessarily just for her personal artistic fulfillment, but because her visibility on TV makes it easier for her to get donations for Red Cross.

She remembers one particular incident with a Chinese businessman after she appeared in Charo Santos’ Maalaala Mo Kaya. "Rosa!" the Chinese businessman called out to her when they bumped into each other, "I just saw you on TV. Now I remember, I have to send you P300,000 for your Red Cross." And he did. The P300,000 went straight to the Red Cross coffers. (A few years ago, Ms. Rosal was able to build the very modern Red Cross laboratory to the tune of P60-M – not a centavo of which came from the government, but from donations coursed through her).

Rosa Rosal surely has done other TV programs in the past. There were those Balintataw series (one of which gave her the CAT Best Actress trophy), ‘Yan ang Misis Ko, Maalaala Mo Kaya, Lovingly Yours, Coney Reyes on Camera and Esperanza on ABS-CBN.

While she enjoyed working on those programs, Narito ang Puso Ko, she says, is different. Narito, to begin with, has a spectacular cast composed of the best in the entertainment firmament: Eddie Garcia (it’s the first time for her to work with him), LVN colleague Lilia Dizon, Jolina Magdangal, Raymond Bagatsing, Dina Bonnevie, Amy Austria, Carmina Villaroel, Raymart Santiago, James Blanco, Ariel Rivera, Malu de Guzman, Benjie Paras (he’s very effective in providing the comic relief), Karen de los Reyes, Allan Paule, Melissa de Leon and Jim Pebanco, a fine character actor on TV and in the movies

She likes everything about the show – her character and especially the flow of the story. Narito ang Puso Ko is truly where her heart is.