MANILA, Philippines — This Mother’s Month and National Heritage Month, Philstar.com is doing a series of mini-stories featuring the talented mother-daughter thespians Angel Aquino and Iana Bernardez.
They sat down for an interview before they were photographed for a fashion editorial showcasing sustainable clothing and accessories.
At the some time that she was building up her impressive acting portfolio, Angel was also perfecting her hosting skills. She was one of the pretty trio who presented the chic lifestyle show “F!,” which ran from 1999 to 2006, with interior designer and model Daphne Oseña-Paez and journalist Cher Calvin.
Angel was also in “Us Girls,” a weekly lifestyle magazine show, with Iya Villania and Cheska Garcia (and later on Megan Young), which aired from 2006 to 2012.
In 2007, she was also in “Tablescape: Life On A Plate,” a food and cooking show she co-hosted with the London Le Cordon Bleu-educated Bruce Lim.
Angel is a journalism graduate from the University of the Philippines Baguio. Besides these TV shows, did she get to practice her degree at any point?
“Mostly, I think ‘yun na ‘yun. Sometimes, I would write! Mga ganu’n, content. Or, hindi actually not content. But just like sa ano, sa mga Instagram, gano’n. Yeah, but that was the only time I got to use my journalism skills, I think,” she admitted.
Is there a point when she wanted to be a broadcaster?
“Yeah.”
Or a journalist?
“That was my dream. To become a broadcast journalist. Of course, I was an idealist back then. So, I was thinking, I’ll be sent to war-stricken places. Stuff like that,” said Angel wistfully.
“But now, I realize, I don’t have the stomach for it. But that’s what I wanted back then.”
Angel’s reel and real life collided in “Serafin Geronimo: Ang Kriminal ng Baryo Concepcion,” the 1998 action crime film that was the directorial debut of Lav Diaz. It starred Raymond Bagatsing, Tonton Gutierrez, Ana Capri and Dindi Gallardo. Angel played Elvira Camandero.
“Yeah, I did a movie, my very first movie with Lav Diaz. I was a journalist. Tapos, so, chinannel ko sila [seasoned broadcast journalists Korina Sanchez and Jessica Soho]. They’re the ones I pegged for.” — Photo by EC Toledo; video by Anjilica Andaya
