Media company ABS-CBN is harnessing about a dozen young stars to revive its afternoon programming, even as the company can do it only in collaboration with the government-franchised networks TV5 and A2Z and thru ABS-CBN-owned apps Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live, iWantTFC and TFC.
The Lopez-owned company recently launched two new drama series, Pira-pirasong Paraiso and Nag-aapoy na Damdamin, which will both begin airing on 25 July.
Pira-pirasong Paraiso airs Monday to Friday at 3 p.m., followed by Nag-aapoy na Damdamin at 3:50 p.m. Both drama series also air on Saturdays, though the time slot begins at 2:30 p.m.
Loisa Andalio, Charlie Dizon, Alexa Ilacad, Elisse Joson, Ronnie Alonte, KD Estrada and Joseph Marco topbill the drama about fragmented paradise. The supporting cast includes Sunshine Dizon, Markus Paterson, Epy Quizon, Art Acuña, Argel Saycon and Snooky Serna in a marked guest role. (Only Marco and Acuña were not at the media huddle.)
Pira-pirasong Paraiso is about a woman’s search for two younger sisters who were fostered by different families from their early childhood upon the death of the parents they never knew existed.
The show is directed by Raymund Ocampo and Roderick Lindayag.
Nag-aapoy na Damdamin, meanwhile, stars Jane Oineza, Ria Atayde, JC de Vera and Tony Labrusca, who plays a lawyer. The show is the first lead role of Oineza, who started her showbiz career in ABS-CBN as a child actor in the gag show Goin’ Bulilit.
The role of a journalist in the drama series is played by Aya Fernandez, a UP graduate of Broadcast Communication, cum laude, who is now managed by vlogger and showbiz scribe Ogie Diaz.
Fernandez has been with ABS-CBN for some years now, appearing in, among others, FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano which ran for six years.
Oineza is in a romance with Kapamilya actor RK Bagatsing, who had a memorable performance as a thug in the TV series FPJ’s Batang Quiapo. Bagatsing, though, is not in the cast of Nag-aapoy. Oineza is instead teamed up with De Vera, who has a non-showbiz wife with whom he already has children.
Nag-aapoy likewise has two directors: FM Reyes and Benedict Mique, who directed an impressive Labrusca in the award-winning 2018 Cinemalaya film ML. The movie was among Eddie Garcia’s last films before he passed away in 2019.
Reyes said Nag-aapoy is a drama told from the point of view of men. That’s despite the fact that the story’s most interesting character is a woman (Oineza) who becomes the wife of two men (De Vera and Labrusca) by having her face changed through surgery.
Oineza’s co-star Atayde, the 2023 White Castle Calendar Girl, disclosed that she had a bed scene with Labrusca where she had butt exposure — and that she, Labrusca and director Reyes had a good laugh after completing that bed scene.
Joko Diaz, well-known for gangster roles just like his late dad Paquito Diaz, portrays a doctor in Nag-aapoy na Damdamin. The series’ support cast also includes comebacking Maila Gumilla, Kim Rodriguez, Carla Martinez and Nico Antonio.
The two shows represent ABS-CBN’s first co-productions with TV 5. May we glean so much truth from these elaborate fictions.