By Clay Moreno
As soon as GMA Network announced the local adaptation of the global hit Descendants of the Sun would have a local adaptation, fans started to rave on speculation that Marian Rivera would be cast alongside her husband Dingdong Dances who is playing the male lead.
Although Kapuso’s primetime queen entertains the idea of sharing the screen again with Dingdong, there are a few things she wants to consider even before saying “yes” to any project.
“They are on location shoot for two straight days. That means, if I would join Dingdong, I’d be gone for that long as well. I’m nursing a six-month-old baby, and my eldest is going to school,” Marian explained during a recent press conference.
“Today, when I left the house, Ziggy and Zia were sleeping. I’d be gone for four hours. I guess when I come back home, they’d still be sleeping. You see, the situation is that, I can’t be away from my children for a long time. What more if I did a television series that would require me to travel,” she added.
Since giving birth to her second child, Marian wanted to take it easy. She prefers a gradual comeback due to the fact that her main priority is here children. She’s a hands-on mom.
During the media conference for Tadhana, Marian announced that apart from the weekly anthology, she’s going to rejoin the cast of Sunday PinaSaya. And if there will be other projects on her plate, she’d like to take it one at a time.
“I don’t want to push the idea of joining Descendants of the Sun because I know GMA has other plans for me,” she said.
Meanwhile, after another fruitful year of featuring the many stories of struggle, failure, hope, and triumphs of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), GMA Public Affairs’ award-winning weekly drama anthology Tadhana proudly presents a twin-bill of two-part special episodes in celebration of its second anniversary this September.
Hosted by Marian herself, the special episodes air in two installments each (the first story aired on Sept. 7).
Entitled “Serial Killer,” first special episode tells the harrowing tale of Ilocano OFW friends Jasmine, Daisy, and Hana who find themselves trapped in the gruesome web of murders involving foreign domestic helpers. This is the first-ever case of serial killing in Cyprus. The episode star Benjamin Alves, Juancho Trivino, Diva Montelaba, Analyn Barro, Lara Morena, and Rhian Ramos.
Meanwhile, Lovi Poe banners Tadhana’s second story, “CEO Maid,” The two-part episode features the inspiring story of Myrna, a former seaweed diver from Bohol who gets recruited abroad as an entertainer.
However, she ends up being a victim of human trafficking. She survives the ordeal and finds herself in Hong Kong working as a domestic helper and her kind employers teach her how to use the computer. Through sheer hard work, she returns to the Philippines and becomes the CEO of her very own BPO company.
In the past two years, Tadhana has continued to build a loyal audience, even hitting more than 1 million followers on Facebook. It has also been honored with various awards, including the TV Journalism Award for “Best TV Series on Migration” at the 2017 Migration Advocacy and Media (MAM) Awards by the Commission on Filipinos Overseas. At the 8th OFW Gawad Parangal, Tadhana took home the “Best OFW True-to-Life Stories” prize while Marian won the “Best Actress” award for the episode “Sugat ni Inay”.
Watch Tadhana: Second Anniversary Specials this whole month of September, every Saturday, 3:15 p.m., after Hanggang Sa Dulo Ng Buhay Ko, on GMA-7.
